Gego 345 - Chinese Medicinal Cuisine

GEGO345

Chinese Medicinal Cuisines

Yujia Song

ID890088354

Chinese Medicinal Cuisine

        Chinese food, rich and colorful, divided into several regions with distinct styles of cooking, aromatic flavor, excellent taste, and natural products of ingredients. China is considered to be among the most multicultural cuisines in the world where there are longest cuisines’ history, diversified and geographic cuisines’ features, and unique medicinal cuisine culture. With time going on, Chinese food shows a significant connection with medicinal cuisine, and even in the 21st century, the medicinal cuisines still are perceptible on the earth. Chinese medicinal cuisine is not the simple summation of food and herbal medicines; in depth, it has been a part of its ancient healing art according to traditional Chinese medical theory. Therefore, it qualifies all the standard of Chinese food in appearance, tasty and smelling, and the function of preventing illness and maintaining health. This essay seeks to explore the authentic medical history and cuisines’ culture that can track to as early as 2000BCE, the general principals of Chinese medicinal cuisines, and some sustainable seasonal recipes in daily Chinese cuisines that could help you solve some diseases and live longer.

        Authentic Chinese medicinal food dishes are prepared according to traditional recipes and techniques based on ancient ideas about the function of ingredients that were recorded by Chinese antecedents. Chinese medicinal cuisines came into being with the developing of Chinese herbal remedies that are the central ideas of Chinese medicinal therapy. Gradually, Chinese combined the herbs with daily cuisines. It also means medicines and food being from the same origin. The innovator of medicinal cuisine was Emperor Peng who lived in Xia dynasty and lived for eight hundred years in legend, and he created the basic medicinal dish--- chicken soup. During the period of Shang dynasty, Yinyi invented the method of cooking soup and porridges, improved the cooking technique and appliances. From West Zhou dynasty, there was a professional medicinal cuisines’ doctor to cook for emperor. At the same time, the earliest book about medicinal cuisines came from the The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine on the early Han Dynasty era. According to the article The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine from James Curran,  “The Huangdi Neijing is an ancient treatise on health and disease said to have been written by the famous Chinese emperor Huangdi around 2600 BC. The book has proved influential as a reference work for practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine well into the modern era”(2). It contains the basic ideas of Chinese food therapy about what to eat for different diseases and seasons. What’s more, this book also spans varies areas of basic Chinese medicine concepts from seasonal cycles of nature, yin and yang, Qi, pulses, five phases and meridians. During the dynasty of Qin, Zhang Zhongji cherished the method of medicinal cuisines, and his book Shang Han Lun recorded many famous medicinal dishes such as Huanglianejiao decoction, Lily dove soup, and Chinese angelica ginger mutton soup. Meanwhile, another famous Chinese medical book “Shen Nong’s Pharmacopoeia” contained lots of materials that can be used as medicine and food such as sesame, walnut, grape, and ginger. Tai Ping Sheng Hui Fang on the Song dynasty updated the information of medicinal dishes, and listed twenty-eight ways of medicinal cuisines to deal with illness. In the period of Yuan dynasty, Yin Shen Zheng Yao not only recorded the medicinal dishes, but also displayed the properties, functions, and structures of dishes in detail. On the latest period of Min and Qing dynasty, Sui Xi Ju Yin recipes combined the theoretical concepts with practice, and A Dream in Red Mansions also have some medicinal dishes’ recipes. Huang Di Nei Jing is the foundation of Chinese Medical Therapy, which set up the theoretic basis for the following medical books The Treatise on Cold Injuries and the Bencao Gangmu. The author of the Bencao Gangmu---Li Shizhen travelled the whole China in 27 years to write for the medical book in Ming Dynesty, and this book was written and republished over thousands of years. This book classified and explained hundreds of herbs and medicinal animals parts, and implied that Chinese medical cuisines not only use herbs or the natural ingredients, it also utilized the animals parts such as ants, snakes, and even the shit or pee of animals for medical purpose. The general idea that “everything on the earth has the value to be used as medical purpose” provided rich raw materials for Chinese medical cuisines and become a unique character of Chinese cuisines comparing with western cuisines.

The famous medical book the Huangdi Neijing contained some basic principals of Chinese Medicinal Cuisines such as Qi and Yinyang. However, as the developing of Chinese Medicinal Therapy, the principals of Chinese Medicinal Cuisines was becoming maturity and combining the practice with theories. Basically, the principals are the balance of Yin and Yang, the energy of Qi, and the system of five phases.

The perpetuation of the idea of Yin and Yang can constantly balance people’s energy through eating various foods that also keep the property or Yin and Yang. According to the video Food for Body and Spirit, produced by Li Sue Yung in 1984, “Every aspect of life, all growth, all change is governed by these two interacting forces. Yin and yang are complimentary like warm and cool, light and dark, male and female. One cannot exist without the other. Well-being is achieved by a constant balance of the two. Foods and cooking also are ruled by this principle.” Female is Yin, dark and formless, but Male is Yang, light, and form, thereby it is a perfect combination that Male and Female live together and attract each other. As a result, How to classify the property of Yin and Yang for a food without scientific machine? Generally, the food with pungent or bitter flavor, such as ginger and garlic, is Yang, while the food fish and seaweed with salt flavor is Yin. For instance, red peppers with strong Yang property should not blend well with other pungent vegetables like gingers, but they should combine with the vegetables that have cold diet. One famous Szechwan cuisine “Steamed Fish Head with Diced Hot Red Peppers” compounds red pepper with fish head so that achieving harmonious balance.  Secondly, we can determine the Yin and Yang by the appearance of roots, leaves, and stems. Comparing with leaves and stems, roots belong to Yang so that roots live in underground without sunshine. Moreover, the plants that live in a warm environment is Yin effected by the interwoven of Yin and Yang, but some plants like potatoes and yellow beans that live in cold areas qualify the property of Yang. Lastly, if the food such as eggplant and watermelon matures in summer, it belongs to Yin, and vice versa. Consequently, people should eat more food with Yang property in winter due to that Yang foods are believed to increase the body’s metabolism and dense the energy from fat, while Yin foods are treated to decrease the body’s heat and have high level of water. However, the more distressing aspect of eating too much Yang food may lead to suffer from acne, while a person may be anemic without Yang. Chinese believe that the illness is caused by an imbalance of Yin and Yang elements in the body. Thus, the basic idea of herbal medicine is to restore the lost elements. In order to treat a fever, drinking ginger water is one of common methods that Chinese like to use with the reason that Ginger can replenish the lost Yang and promote the release of Yin.