An Analysis Of Two - Week Meat Culture

Since the ancient times, our Chinese people values the food. Mencius and Gaozi includes the opinion that loving food is people’s nature, and the Book of Rites also emphasizes the similar view that rites originates from food. Chinese traditional food culture was formed in the Zhou Dynasty, which both inherits the food culture of the Xia and Shang dynasties, and involves innovation and development of the Warring States Period.Meat is an extremely significant component in food culture. Through the research of cooking methods,tableware and rites concerning meat, we can find the deep fusion and influence between meat culture and all social respects such as politics, economics and cultures in that time.From the perspective of the integrity of meat culture during the Zhou Dynasty, this paper offers a description of cooking methods, tableware and rites, and of the features of meat culture and its influence on then and future. Generally speaking, this paper comprises following aspects:The first chapter provides a description of the food structure in the Zhou Dynasty and an analysis of meat’s source and sorts. On the basis of the Xia and Shang Dynasties, the Zhou Dynasty gradually established the grains-oriented and meat-supplemented food structure. Not leading in food culture, but meat, as the main source of calories, was consumed largely in noble diet, funerals and sacrifice. Restricted by productivity and means of production, the source of meat in the Zhou Dynasty can be generalized as poultry and livestock,wild animals and aquatic animals, among which, it attaches more importance to the development and situation of the six domestic animals, to the hunting habit and genres of wild animals, and to the catch of wild aquatic animal and the artificial breeding of aquatic animals.The second chapter introduces the cooking methods and tableware about meat. Flesh-keeping of meat mainly make a use of ice, wells and air drying. Cooking methods, except the traditional ways, contain kuai, zhi,hai, geng, fu, la, xiu and so on. Tableware concerning meat in the Zhou Dynasty has cooking vessels and food vessels, among which vessels mainly have ding, ge, zeng, yan, fu, mou, lupan and tanlu and the food vessels mainly have dou, zu, pu, bi and chopsticks.The third chapter describes the rites of meat in the Zhou Dynasty. During that time, meat is closely relevant to rites, and it’s strictly regulated that the usage amount of meat varied with people’s different classes. The reflection of these regulations was the transformation from unification to collapse.The fourth chapter indicates the feature and influence of meat culture in the Zhou Dynasty. Under the historical environment of that dynasty, its meat culture involved deep cultural connotation, integrated with rites and expressed a distinct hierarchical differences. That meat culture not only consolidated the govern to promote the long-standing of Chinese culture, but also laid a foundation of food system of later period.