飲膳正要

Yǐnshàn zhèngyào 飲膳正要

Essentials of Diet and Drink (Imperial Dietary Compendium) by 忽思慧 (Hū Sīhuì, 撰)

About the work

The most important Yuán-period Chinese dietetic-medical work and one of the principal documents of pre-modern Eurasian food culture. Three juàn by the Imperial Dietary Physician (Yǐnshàn tàiyī 飲膳太醫) Hū Sīhuì 忽思慧 — a likely Uyghur or Inner-Asian by origin who served the Yuán court from c. 1314 onward. Composed during the Tiānlì era (1328–1330) and presented to Yuán Wénzōng in Tiānlì 3 (1330) via the Imperial Diary Attendant Cháng Pǔlánxī 常普蘭奚.

This entry follows the SBCK recension; the Sìkù did not catalogue this work, but the SBCK rests on a Míng Jǐngtài 7 (1456) imperial printing with an additional Ming imperial preface, plus the original Yuán-period preface by Yú Jí 虞集 (1272–1348). The KR3i division places it among the food-and-drink pǔlù per the SBCK editorial assignment.

The three juàn: juàn 1 Yǐnshàn yào jí 飲膳要集 — general dietary principles, including the 36-couplet ode-form zhūbān yǐnshí lì 諸般飲食例 (general rules of diet); pregnancy-and-postpartum nutrition; the zhūbān shípǐn 諸般食品 (recipes for nineteen zhūshí “principal foods” — soups, hot-pots, stews, and rice-dishes); the shíliáo zhūbìng 食療諸病 (therapeutic-foods for 56 specific medical conditions). Juàn 2 Zhūbān tāngjiān 諸般湯煎 — broth-decoctions and beverages; the famous shíèr xiāng 十二香 (twelve fragrances) section; rare-foods including qíqíshū 啟啟舒 (a Persian-style sherbet); fermented mare’s-milk (kumiss / mǎlái 馬奶酒). Juàn 3 Wǔwèi pǐn lèi 五味品類 — the systematic běncǎo (materia dietetica) of meats, fish, vegetables, fruits, grains, with quality-judgement and method-of-eating for each.

Tiyao

This work is not in the Sìkù; no tíyào exists. The Yuán-period preface by Yú Jí (translated in part): “The ancient gentleman who well-cultivated his person: his action-and-rest, regulating-and-distributing, in order to nourish life; his food-and-drink, clothing-and-attire, in order to nourish the body; his demeanor-and-rightful-conduct, in order to nourish virtue. Therefore the Duke of Zhōu’s establishment of ritual: the Son-of-Heaven’s rising-and-resting, clothing, food-and-drink each had its officer — all unified under the Zhǒngzǎi (Great Stew-Officer). The carefulness extended even to this. The present August Emperor, by Heavenly-decree of sage-brilliance, with literary-thought far-deep, attending the Yángé (Halls of Extension), perusing books-and-illustrations from morning to evening with constancy — esteeming-and-nourishing his virtuous-nature in order to deal-with the myriad concerns — has obtained the way of inward-sageliness and outward-kingship. Hence the Duke of Zhàojùn (i.e., Cháng Pǔlánxī) presented this book composed by his subordinate dietary-physician Hū Sīhuì. Its words say: ‘Of old, Shìzǔ huángdì (Khubilai) in his food-and-drink invariably consulted the běncǎo*; in his motion-and-stillness invariably followed the law-and-measure — therefore his body attained supreme longevity and bequeathed his descendants unbounded blessings. This book is what the imperial-court physicians of that time composed.‘”*

The Míng Jǐngtài 7 (1456) imperial-preface (translated in part): “I consider that man-and-thing both receive the qì of heaven-and-earth to live. Yet things are also that by which heaven-and-earth nourish man. If we use them improperly, in their nourishing capacity, we will reach as far as bodily-harm. Things like cloth-and-silk, beans-and-grain, chickens-and-pigs — daily-use cannot do without — their nourishment is great. Yet too much loses the mean, too little falls short — their harm is the same. If the thing-of-great-nourishment is so, how much more the things-that-do-not-nourish-but-harm? Truly we must give them attention. This is only for nourishing mouth-and-body. As for the gentleman’s motion-and-rest, demeanor-and-bearing, rising-and-sitting, exit-and-entry — all should have their nourishment — for this is the means of nourishing virtue.”

Abstract

The Yǐnshàn zhèngyào is the principal Yuán-period dietetic-medical work and a major source for the history of Eurasian food culture. The work integrates three distinct culinary traditions: (1) the classical Chinese běncǎo dietetic-medicine tradition (deriving from the Shí liáo běn cǎo of Mèng Shēn and the Yǐnshàn fúshí jiān of the early-Tang); (2) the Mongolian-Inner-Asian culinary tradition (the principal zhūshí recipes show heavy Mongolian influence: heavy meat consumption, especially mutton; the kumiss fermented mare’s-milk; the bǎoérshī dish of millet-and-mutton stew); (3) the Persian-Arabic culinary tradition introduced via the Yuán continental administrative network — the qíqíshū (Persian sharbat), the jìtóu (the Persian-Iranian style kabab), the héluó noodle-dish, and other recipes traceable to the Yuán-period contacts with the Ilkhanate.

The work is also the principal Yuán-period source on Mongolian dietary-luxury culture: the imperial cuisine of the high-Yuán court, with elaborate banquet-courses, the use of expensive imported ingredients (Persian saffron zànghónghuā, Indian Khurasan-pepper, the rare Persian yánjiāo / cardamom), and the integration of central-Asian cooking methods.

The compositional date is fixed by Yú Jí’s preface to 1330 (Tiānlì 3). The work was preserved through YuánMíng editions; the principal Míng recension is the 1456 imperial reprint commissioned by the Jǐngtài emperor — followed by the SBCK reproduction.

Jan Nattier-style research is not directly applicable here (this is not a Buddhist translation), but the parallel issue of authorship and dating: the work is firmly Hū Sīhuì’s, presented and ratified in 1330. The Mongol-language layer is significant — many of the recipe names are transliterations from Mongolian or Persian, and modern reading depends on multilingual reconstruction.

Translations and research

• Buell, Paul D. and Eugene N. Anderson. 2000. A Soup for the Qan: Chinese Dietary Medicine of the Mongol Era as seen in Hu Szu-Hui’s “Yin-shan cheng-yao”. London: Kegan Paul. The standard English-language scholarly study and translation — comprehensive treatment of Hū Sī-huì, with full English translation of the Yǐn-shàn zhèng-yào and substantial scholarly apparatus on the Mongolian / Persian / Chinese culinary integration.
• Buell, Paul D. 1990. “Pleasing the Palate of the Qan: Changing Foodways of the Imperial Mongols”. Mongolian Studies 13.
• Anderson, Eugene N. 1988. The Food of China. New Haven: Yale UP. Treats Yǐn-shàn zhèng-yào in broader context.
• Bray, Francesca. 1984. Agriculture. Volume VI part 2 of Joseph Needham’s Science and Civilisation in China. Cambridge UP.
• 馬繼興 Mǎ Jìxīng. 1989. Yǐn-shàn zhèng-yào 飲膳正要. Běijīng: Rénmín wèi-shēng chū-bǎn-shè. (Standard Chinese critical edition.)

Other points of interest

The work is one of the principal sources for the Yuán-period jiǔ shí (Nine Foods) — the supreme banquet-feast of the Mongol-Yuán court, served at imperial coronation and the new-year zhèngdàn ceremony. The zhūshí (Principal Foods) recipes include the famous Húyángtāng 胡羊湯 (Foreign-Mutton Soup), bùzǐ 不子 (a savory dumpling, perhaps related to Turkic boz), gǔzǐ jīnfǔ (the famous Mongolian millet-and-mutton stew). The work is also a major source for the high-Yuán pharmacopoeia: many drugs from the Persian Avicennian tradition appear here in Chinese transliteration.

Links

• Wikipedia (Yinshan Zhengyao)
• Wikipedia (Hu Sihui)
• Wikidata Q11055018