The Dietary Culture Communication Between Hu And Han In North Area During Wei,Jin, Southern And Northern Dynasties

As a special period in history, Wei Jin Dynasties and Southern & Northern Dynasties were full of migration and chaos. During these periods, the minorities who used to live in the north of China flooded into the Central Plains while some people in the Central Plains moved away to the northeast, HeXi (part of GanSu province) and JiangNan areas. The process of migration promoted the communication of all nations. Take the minorities in the north of China for example, the communication between the Wuhu(five different minorities including the Huns, XianBei, Di , Jie, Qiang) and HanZu was especially remarkable. The dietaries and eating habits of each nationality hence took on a new look during the communication.This article consists of three parts, which includes a preface, an ending and the main body with three chapters.In the preface, it is mainly talking about the importance of studying the dietary habits on the research of every age' s politics, economy and culture. It also sketches out the special characters of dietary habits of HuZu and HanZu during Wei> Jin Dynasties and Southern 6 Northern Dynasties.The first chapter is to discuss the regional differences of diet and how social background has affected the dietary culture. Because of the different geographical features, people have to get their food and then cook it in different ways. For instance, the northern minorities ate meat and cheese while HanZu ate grain. This kind of difference just forms the foundation of dietary culture communication. The mass migration gives the different nations a chance to exchange their eatinghabits between the north minorities and the HanZu in Central Plains. During those periods, migration often happened and the whole society was not always in peace. That forced people to break the regional and traditional ideas of their own, while tended to seek after and enjoy the delicious food of other nations, which also promoted the communication.The second chapter is to discuss the three main aspects of the dietary & cultural communication between HuZu and HanZu. They are the raw dietary material and products communication, the way of cooking and the dietary style. In the beginning, when the HuZu came to live in the north and the Central Plains, they still lived on cattle breeding. As they began to live a relative stable life, they felt an urge to take up agricultural working and farming because of the lack of purveyance due to the rapidly growing of population. Then provisions became the main part of everyday life. Take the HanZu as an example, they didn' t use to eat too much meat. But when their homes were destroied by a series of wars and there gradually offered a possibility to cattle breeding, they began to learn to grow catties. They also learned to grow many vegetables and fruits such as cucumber, grape, guava and so on from the minorities. In drinking and the way of cooking, there were mainly the communication between wine and cheese, roasting and stewing. The HanZu also experienced a revolution in the way of eating. They began to prefer eating together to eating separately due to the emergence of high-footed furniture.With the help of the theories of sociology and anthropology, the third chapter is to discuss the communicative process from refusal in the beginning to mergence in the end. And it also will discuss the significance of this communication. Since the custom of a nation is more based on the social mentality of the mass, therefore, a kind of dislikeon the dietary habits of the other nation and a kind of unwillingness to give up his own made the two sides stand on different sides of a confrontation. But as the natural rule of cultural development itself and the communication went deeper, the understanding also went deeper.The communication thus promoted the dietary habits of both sides to a more abundant and scientific degree.The ending is about my own feelings about studying these theories and on writing this article as well.