The Yuan Dynasty occupies a special position in the long history of China, and the Yuan Dynasty is one of the most significant and comprehensive dynasties in Chinese history, with its unique political system, economic life model and symbolic military and cultural characteristics, which have had a profound impact on later generations. In addition to these aspects, the Yuan Dynasty, due to its diversity and inclusiveness, allowed cultural elements from neighboring countries and nationalities to be integrated into its traditional Central Plains civilization, further enriching its connotation.
Food culture is an important part of human cultural activities, and it also reflects the social style and lifestyle of an era. The study of the culture of the Yuan Dynasty is inseparable from the study of food culture. This article will take food as a starting point to explore the social outlook and lifestyle of this special period of the Yuan Dynasty through this specific field.
In terms of diet,The people of the Yuan Kingdom pay attention to the variety of meals and balanced nutrition, based on this conceptThey pioneered new ingredients, cooking techniques and food preservation methods, leaving a rich culinary heritage for future generations. At the same time, civil society has emerged with some unforgettable representative cuisines.
Among them, mare's milk wine is one of the most representative drinks of the Yuan Dynasty, with its mellow and sweet aroma, smooth in the mouth, and the background of Mongolian nomadic culture. Among the many fermented foods, it is worth mentioning the traditional cake dough made with soybeans and corn as the main ingredients, which can be used as a staple food or a dessert after tea and dinner.
In addition, the Yuan people have a strong love for tea, and they are good at adding various herbs or spices to the water to create various flavors of tea soup, such as oolong tea, green tea, black tea, chrysanthemum tea, etc., which are colorful and amazing.
In terms of food and Xi habits, Yuan people pay special attention to the environment of tasting exquisite food. For the feast and the festival, they can be said to be carefully planned and cautious. There are strict regulations on the selection of meal time and place, the type of food, the proportion of food and the arrangement of seats. This attention to detail and ritual sense of dining Xi reflects the Yuan people's pursuit of quality of life and respect for pure ingredients.
By analyzing the food culture of the Yuan Dynasty people, we can see that they have a high aesthetic taste and collective wisdom in their daily life. These dietary Xi habits and eating behaviors were profoundly influenced by the moral norms, religious beliefs and social values of the time, and to a certain extent, reflected the life attitudes and values of the people of the Yuan Dynasty.
Meat products and artificial milk products are quite common types of food. If you're planning to travel to the capital city of Beijing, you can't miss the chance to try one of the region's unique dishes, mutton shabu.
Try propping up a huge copper pot on a scorching charcoal stoveThen pour in the carefully prepared clear soup base, then add the tender lamb slices, blanch slightly, and taste. During the tasting process, you must also set up a sauce bowl in your hand, and dip the shabu-shabu lamb thin slices into a special sauce, which can instantly transform into a rich taste layer, bringing you an incomparable taste experience.
According to A Taste of China, the highest quality ingredients are often best cooked in a simple and pure way, and shabu mutton reflects this truth. With just one serving, a gentle rinse and a final dip, it's all about a delicious meal.
This unique way of eating allows us to appreciate the original fresh taste of mutton. It is worth noting that the production process of shabu mutton is very popular in northern China. Its long history can be traced back to the early Yuan Dynasty.
As we all know, the Yuan Dynasty was a feudal dynastic system established by the Inner Mongolian people, which was clearly different from other dynasties. The feudal dynastic system of the past,The purity of the Central Plains culture has reached almost 100%, and every king of the new era, whether in the north or south, is confined to the scope of the Central Plains.
However, the Yuan Dynasty was an exception, as the Mongols fought fiercely during the Southern Song Dynasty and united with the Southern Song court army to destroy the Jin State, and then suddenly turned behind and attacked the Southern Song court army. Lu Xiufu, a famous general of the Southern Song Dynasty, jumped into the sea with the young emperor who was not yet sensible, and the solemn and tragic scene marked the end of the Southern Song Dynasty and opened a new chapter of the era. Since then, the world with the Mongolian nationality as the respect has begun to take shape.
In the past, the Mongol aristocracy lived in the northern steppes, but with the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, they moved to the Central Plains, where they established the capital and assisted the ruling class in controlling power. Although the living environment has changed, there has been no major change in the internal Xi of the Mongolian people. Their diet, housing characteristics, clothing and social customs still maintain a high level of tradition.
For example, the delicacy of mutton shabu once belonged to the cuisine only in the northern grasslands, and after the Yuan Dynasty established the capital of the Central Plains, shabu mutton also entered the Central Plains, and eventually developed into a representative classic food in the northern region.
From the evolution of this dish, we can see that the Mongolian people's love for mutton is very important. In fact, in their daily lives, lamb appears as the first choice among meat products, and the frequency of its appearance is enough to prove its popularity.
Living on the grasslands with fertile land and abundant forage in the north, mutton is extremely rich. At that time, the wealth of ordinary Mongolian families was not measured by external factors such as living environment or the quality of clothing, but by the number of sheep they usually had.
Sheep mainly play two uses in the life of the Mongolian people: one is as meat, and the other is as a dairy product. During the Yuan Dynasty, residents preferred only mutton to beef, horse, and pork.
The reason for this is that the ox shoulders the important mission of farming in the Central Plains, and it is the right-hand man that the majority of farmers rely on for their livelihood. Therefore, people cannot bear to hurt a creature that can create more lucrative work for them in order to satisfy a short-term desire for the tip of their tongue.
In addition, milk, as the most common dairy product in human daily life, has become the main consumer of low-income people because it is reasonable and easy to obtain. Although milk has a slightly fishy taste compared to goat's milk and camel milk, it can be given a unique and delicious taste by properly warming or sweetening, which has won the love of a wide range of people.
It is worth noting that due to the importance of cattle products and their wide range of uses, human beings have spared no effort in the protection of cattle.
Compared to horse meat, only when suffering from the difficulties of war for a long time will people have to feed themselves. However, in ordinary life, few people will take the initiative to eat horse meat. The reason for this is that strong horses can be tamed into war horses, and war horses often play a decisive role in fierce wars.
For example, Genghis Khan's Mongol cavalry fed on fresh mare's milk. The Mongols were adept at mastering cavalry tactics, and the war horse was an indispensable combat partner of the cavalry, whether it was the conquest of the Southern Song Dynasty or the expedition to the eastern part of Europe, the war horse brought great contributions to the Yuan Dynasty.
The powerful combat power brought by the war horse can always suppress the infantry armed with rifles, and as a cavalry mount, it has naturally become the object of people's awe and protection. In some aristocratic families of the Yuan Dynasty, in addition to grazing stallions, some mares were specially raised. No one will take food from the mare at all. Mares are bred primarily to breed good breeds, and secondly to collect mare's milk.
It can be seen that dairy products occupied a high position in the daily life of the people of the Yuan Dynasty. In addition to the traditional Mongolian cuisine, which has attracted worldwide attention, the Yuan Dynasty also incorporated rich and colorful food culture elements of other ethnic groups in the process of communicating and interacting with foreign countries.
For example, the unique cooking techniques such as steaming, stir-frying, and frying, which are closely related to the Central Plains culture, made the originally relatively simple meat rich in layers, bringing an unprecedented culinary experience to the people of the Yuan Dynasty. In addition, in the intervals between wars with the Persian Empire and other countries, the people of the Yuan Dynasty also learned Xi and introduced various methods of handling ingredients with unique flavors.
For example, people in Persia and surrounding areas often use pre-curling methods to remove fishy smells when cooking meat, and the people of the Yuan Dynasty found that after cured meat, not only its own peculiar smell dissipates without a trace, but the taste of various condiments can also penetrate deep into the meat. This discovery amazed them as if they had seen a new continent at first sight, and they actively promoted this new cooking technique after returning home. This has also made every corner of the folk set off a wave of learning Xi new table art.
Exquisite dishes such as shabu mutton, side stove, and cured meat have been handed down to this day, allowing future generations to get a glimpse of the life charm of the ancient Yuan Dynasty. Such lifestyle Xi s, habits, and traditions, which are closely related to food culture, also have a broad research space and far-reaching research significance. For example, even though the once famous social event of the Horse Banquet has gradually faded out of the stage of history in today's society, in the Yuan Dynasty, such Xi customs still had a profound impact and left many valuable memories to the world.
The Horse Banquet, as its name suggests, was a social event unique to the Yuan Dynasty, gathering all the nobles. We fully respect the dietary preferences of the Mongolian people, so the food of the Ranma Feast is mainly meat, accompanied by vegetables.
Beef and lamb are the main features of the feast, as they are only held once or twice, and people will enjoy a rare beef delicacy. Mutton, on the other hand, is presented in various ways, such as roasted whole lamb, shabu mutton, etc.
In addition, the Horse Banquet also provides you with a variety of high-end ingredients, with the unification of the Yuan Dynasty to the Central Plains, the ingredients have become more diversified. The sea cucumber and abalone on the eastern coast, the high-quality rice from the land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River, the delicacies and fruits of Liangguang and the suckling pigeon from North China are all refreshing to the guests.
It is worth mentioning that the Lai Ma Yan has gradually incorporated elements of Han culture, and you can eat exquisite side dishes and desserts here, such as cheese, steamed eggs and mochi cakes.
When participating in such celebrations, we emphasize the details of the outfit to match the atmosphere of the banquet. Most of the guests at the banquet were nobles, so the men wearing armor and holding large swords brought a strong visual impact;Ladies dressed in elaborate masked gowns and jewellery outfits show off their style.
Even if we ignore gender inequality, we need to recognize that women can grace the host of a banquet by wearing beautiful clothes. In order to pay homage to the Horse Banquet, the hosts and hosts will choose different clothes to attend each day. Back then, beautiful women dressed in gorgeous costumes could give their men a long face.
For the overall effect, each day of the banquet should wear different colors and rich details to match the overall atmosphere of the banquet. If the banquet environment is mainly orange, but the participants are wearing white clothes, it is inevitable that there will be a sense of disobedience.
In the vast northern steppe, there are Mongolian people with strong characteristics. Although Xi is accustomed to touching the world with a bold atmosphere, in their daily meals, they rarely use utensils, but directly hold the delicious food with both hands and enjoy the natural taste of the food.
This way of behaving reflects their rough and wild and informal attitude to life. However, after they established the dominant Yuan imperial power, the aristocratic class was keenly aware that in order to maintain their noble status and majestic image, they needed to change this direct way of touching food, so as not to appear less gentle and refined.
Therefore, under the advocacy of a group of intellectuals such as Yelu Chucai, the Mongolian aristocracy of the Yuan Dynasty gradually began to accept and integrate into the dietary etiquette of Western civilization, such as using tools such as knives and forks as auxiliary tools for eating.
During the meal, the Mongolian people gradually realized the advantages of knives and forks, such as cutting meat with knives, which can be easily eaten;The fork can be used to pick up the food and put it in the mouth, which is convenient and fast. The use of knives and forks has undoubtedly greatly improved their eating efficiency, allowing them to enjoy the pleasure of food faster.
However, after deep contact and integration with Han culture, the Mongolians discovered that chopsticks are also a very practical and unique tableware. As the menu on the table becomes more diverse, everything from precious meats to delicate desserts can be easily accessed with chopsticks.
As a result, their dependence on chopsticks has increased, and they have gradually shed their love for traditional tools - knives and forks.
By the late Yuan Dynasty, more than eighty percent of the Mongolian population had been fully integrated into Han culture. In terms of their food culture, the food Xi habits of the Han nationality have gradually taken a dominant position, which not only retains its original connotation but also injects more "flavors" belonging to the Han nationality. In this process, the dietary Xi habits of the Han people have gradually taken root in the hearts of the people, and at the same time, the dietary Xi habits of the Mongolian people have undergone great changes, enriching the multicultural form.
From the perspective of food culture, the food of the Yuan Dynasty was rich and diverse, reflecting the social and cultural changes at that time, and helping people deeply understand the complexity of cultural changes. It is through the accumulation of these cultural heritages that we have seen the unique beauty of the intersection of diverse cultures, and we have also deeply felt the profundity and longevity of Chinese culture.