Exploration Of Sea Cucumber Culture Since The Ming And Qing Dynasties

China is a maritime country with abundant sea cucumber resources.Sea cucumber has been deeply loved by the Chinese people since ancient times,and is known as one of the "eight kinds of treasures in the ocean".Throughout the long historical development of sea cucumbers,China is rich in relevant historical materials such as edible value,medicinal value,economic value and cultural value of sea cucumbers.However,from ancient times to modern times,there is no systematic elaboration of sea cucumber culture.According to the historical context,this paper searches for various literature related to sea cucumbers,and discusses and analyzes the three aspects of sea cucumber culture from the ocean fishing of sea cucumbers by Hainan fishermen,the development of sea cucumber diet in Guangdong,and the political metaphor of sea cucumber food at all levels in Beijing.The first part explores the origin of sea cucumbers.Tracing back to the Ming and Qing dynasties,the rich sea cucumber resources in the South China Sea attracted many Hainan fishermen to fish for sea cucumbers here.Relying on the loopholes in the fishing ban policy at that time,superb navigation technology and the guidance of Genglubu,fishermen expanded many sea cucumber fishing routes to Nansha and Xisha Islands for the development of the distant-water sea cucumber fishing industry.The South China Sea is full of coral reefs,and fishermen cannot choose traditional fishing methods,so sea cucumber fishing is carried out using three fishing methods:walking on reefs and picking up sea cucumbers;or diving to catch sea cucumbers;Or walk on the reef in combination with diving to catch sea cucumbers.There are many domestic and foreign documents on the life of Hainan fishermen,the fishing of sea cucumbers,and the trade of sea cucumbers with many countries in the South Pacific.The trajectory of fishermen’s fishing activities in the South China Sea has endowed the South China sea cucumber with many cultural attributes,including marine culture,diplomatic culture,food culture and folk culture related to sea cucumbers.The second part takes marine culture as the starting point,and learns that the sea cucumber diet was first prevalent in coastal areas.Taking the coastal areas of Guangdong as an example,this paper starts from the unique local regional culture and finds that sea cucumbers have a place in Lingnan diet.Guangdong sea cucumbers are mostly imported from overseas countries such as Nanyang and Japan,except from the local coastal areas and the South China Sea.Guangdong has frequent trade and developed economy,both luxury and elegance are popular in society,high-end consumption makes sea cucumber an essential ingredient for all banquets,it also created all kinds of exquisite and delicious sea cucumber dishes.Guangdong people pay attention to the original taste of food.There are many cooking methods for making sea cucumbers,both Chinese and western cooking methods.According to the concept of homology of medicine and food,sea cucumber was introduced into dishes in large quantities,and cooked out of the numerous sea cucumber nourishing dishes.The sea cucumber dish in Cantonese cuisine is not only popular in Guangdong,but also very popular in other regions of China,Hong Kong,Macao and overseas.In the diverse Cantonese culture,sea cucumber constantly collides,draws lessons from and blends with the food culture in Lingnan area and at home and abroad,and gradually improve their own food culture system.Sea cucumbers have multiple attributes such as natural,social,economic and cultural attributes in Guangdong food culture.The third part is that,on the basis of analyzing the regional sea cucumber food culture,combine sea cucumber with Beijing food culture.During the Ming and Qing dynasties,Beijing’s food style was divided into four types: imperial cuisine,aristocrat dishes,official cuisine and popular cuisine.Beijing has a number of seafood shops,and the sea cucumber in the seafood shop is mostly derived from the domestic coastal production and overseas imports.These sea cucumbers are cooked into various fine dishes,popular in the private meals of princes and aristocrats,official meals for official entertainment,and popular meals in folk restaurants.The edible value and medicinal value of sea cucumber were deeply favored by the rulers of the Ming and Qing dynasties,and became one of the seafood representatives in the royal diet.Zhu Youxiao,emperor of Ming Dynasty,accepted nutritious function and excellent taste of sea cucumber.The imperial food from the early Qing Dynasty Manchu and Mongolian cuisine;To the Kang and Qian period,Manchu feast and Han nationality feast parallel,later,the dietary style of the court gradually became Han;and finally,ushered in the amazing "Tian An" feast in the late Qing Dynasty.As one of the representatives of the "Seafood Eight Treasures" in the Han diet,sea cucumbers are naturally an indispensable role in the imperial cuisine of the Qing Dynasty.Since the middle of the Qing Dynasty,the Manchu rulers have become more fond of sea cucumbers,and the demand has also increased.In addition to paying tribute from all over the country and its affiliated countries,mainly from the Cabinet Office and Guanglu Temple of the court agency for the market procurement.The development of the sea cucumber food culture in Beijing in the Ming and Qing Dynasties,has witnessed the expansion of the scale of food inside and outside the palace and the accumulation of food culture.Through the two-way transmission of the court and the folk development,it has produced a wide demonstrations of social dietary fashion,and also has a profound influence on the development of Chinese food culture.To sum up,through the study of the sea cucumber culture since the Ming and Qing Dynasties,it is found that the sea cucumber culture is not a single cultural mode,but involves the Marine culture,folk culture,diplomatic culture,food culture and social culture.It is helpful for us to master the historical development of the whole sea cucumber culture since the Ming and Qing Dynasties,and to a certain extent,in order to promote the vertical development of Marine culture research,certain historical data.