Ancient Chinese Meal Flower Behavior And Its Literary Writing Research

Eating flowers is a special diet in ancient China. Flowers were originally known and accepted as vegetables. With the richness of food sources, flowers are seldom eaten as vegetables. However, due to the discovery of medicinal use and aesthetic values of flowers, eating flowers is still generally accepted and preserved.In the course of the evolution of the flower diet, the ancient literati recorded their own eating experience, forming a new literary theme. Initially this subject matter is mysterious, and religious related. After Tang Dynasty, Literati enrich the subject matter, refine the description, and put more personal feelings into this subject. Yuan Ming and Qing Dynasties, this subject matter appear in drama, novel and many other kinds of literary forms, both the refined and the common people can enjoy the beauty of this theme.In this process, Qu Yuan is the first to eat flowers. And for the first time, he use flower diet as a symbol of virtue and laid the foundation for the descendants to link flowers with morality. Tao Yuan-ming as a hermit, focus on chrysanthemum, given eating chrysanthemum the meaning of return to nature.Su Shi and Yang Wanli combining their unique experience with daily food, come to a conclusion that flower diet represents that someone is open-minded or proud. And the flower diet in "Golden Lotus" and "Dream of Red Mansions", shows the different preferences and tastes of different classesOverall, the writing of flower diet presents such features: more work appeared in the late stage rather than early stage; literati tend to use images instead of writing specifically about flower diet and their description tend to be abstract rather than delicate. The purpose of the work usually includes describing the banquet scene,shaping the characters and showing their ambitions. It also shows their view of healthy diet, aesthetics and values...