A Soup for the Qan: Chinese Dietary Medicine of the Mongol Era As Seen in Hu Sihui's Yinshan Zhengyao (Sir Henry Wellcome Asian Series)

Paul D. Buell, Ph.D. (1977) in History, University of Washington, Seattle, is Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at the Horst-Grtz-Stiftungs-Institut, Berlin. He has published extensively on the history of the Mongols including an Historical Dictionary of the Mongol World Empire (Scarecrow, 2003). E. N. Anderson, Ph.D. (1967) in Anthropology, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside. A specialist in ethnobiology and human ecology with extensive field work, he is the author of Floating World Lost (University Press of the South 2007).Charles Perry, B.A. (1964) in Middle East Languages, University of California, Berkeley, is a Los Angeles-based writer specializing in the food history of the Islamic world. His writings include Medieval Arab Cookery (Prospect, 2000), with A.J. Arberry and Maxime Rodinson. Contents 8 Acknowledgments 12 A Note on Transcription 16 Part A: Background And Analysis 20 Introduction 22 1. HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT 30 I. Yinshan zhengyao: Text and Author 30 II. The Rise of the Mongolian Empire 35 III. Mongols as Cultural Intermediaries 39 IV. The Successor States 41 V. Cultural Spheres of the Mongolian World Order 47 Steppes of Mongolia 47 The Mongolian Way of Life 47 Traditional Mongolian Society 50 Traditional Mongolian Foods 54 China 66 The Muslim World 79 2. Analysis of the Text 98 I. Introduction 98 II. Analysis 106 "Des Goûts Mongols:" the Persistence of the Steppe 106 Mongolian Words and Phrases of the YSZY 109 Mongolian materia dietica et medica 114 Mongolian Recipes 121 Turko-Islamic Influences 124 Terminology 125 Islamic World materia dietetica et medica 132 Turko-Middle Eastern Recipes 135 Bread, Noodle and Grain Foods 135 Sweets 138 Other Recipes from the Islamic World 140 Islamic World Influences on Other Material 140 Assimilation of Other People's Recipes 141 Influence of Arabic Medicine 142 The Chinese Framework 144 Song-Jin-Yuan Correspondence Medicine in the YSZY 147 Origins of Correspondence Medicine 147 The Correspondence System Structures 153 The Correspondence System Illness, Diagnosis and Treatment 155 Herbal and Dietary Traditions and Their Role in Correspondence Medicine 157 The Residue of Demons and Folklore 160 Chinese Culinary Traditions and the YSZY 165 The Social Context of YSZY Foodways 173 III. Conclusion 177 Part B: Text and Translation 182 Translator's Note 184 I. Translation 184 II. Weights and Measures 190 III. Cooking with the YSZY 190 Prefaces 196 Chinese Text 196 Translation 206 Juan One 216 Chinese Text 216 Translation 262 Juan Two 328 Chinese Text 328 Translation 382 Juan Three 444 Chinese Text 444 Translation 506 Part C: Appendices 572 Appendix One: The Materia Dietetica et Medica 574 Appendix Two: Grain Foods of the Early Turks (Charles Perry) 590 Bibliography 612 General Index 648 9789004180208 BRILL NV In the early 14th century, a court nutritionist called Hu Sihui wrote his "Yinshan Zhengyao," a dietary and nutritional manual for the Chinese Mongol Empire. Hu Sihui, a man apparently with a Turkic linguistic background, included recipes, descriptions of food items, and dietary medical lore including selections from ancient texts, and thus reveals to us the full extent of an amazing cross-cultural dietary; here recipes can be found from as far as Arabia, Iran, India and elsewhere, next to those of course from Mongolia and China. Although the medical theories are largely Chinese, they clearly show Near Eastern and Central Asian influence. This long-awaited expanded and revised edition of the much-acclaimed "A Soup for the Qan" sheds (yet) new light on our knowledge of west Asian influence on China during the medieval period, and on the Mongol Empire in general. Whether it is read as a work of history or anthropology, a translation, a culinary resource or a medical manual, this detailed study brings to light 14th century Chinese ideas on diet, culture, society and health By Paul D. Buell And Eugene N. Anderson ; With An Appendix By Charles Perry. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. English And Chinese Text With Introduction And Commentary In English.