The Food and Drink Category

Chen MengleiJul 2024

3.0

Word count: 33K words
Chapters: 3

Summary

Traditional Chinese thought has a long history and is highly original, inventive, and literary. Early intellectual forms are distinctive: religious theology, classical Chinese medical texts, ancient military strategy, Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist, and Hundred Schools thought, feng shui and metaphysics, the Twenty-Four Histories, and local customs and gazetteers are all profound and extensive. This "Essence of Classical Chinese Culture: Original Texts" series preserves the appearance of the original books and focuses on preserving and transmitting traditional Chinese thought and culture. By reading the literary essence left by ancient sages, readers cultivate character and subtly appreciate the classics of Chinese learning.

Editor's review

This book belongs to the "Essence of Classical Chinese Culture: Original Texts" series, preserving the appearance of the original books and focusing on preserving and transmitting traditional Chinese thought and culture. Its value to readers lies not in novelty or practical recipes, but in using "food and drink" as a daily entry point to observe how the ancients wove health cultivation, ritual custom, solar terms, and ways of living into one fabric. Reading it conveys the original texture of traditional texts; it suits slow reading, excerpting, and comparison with modern life. The highlight is the sense of documentation and context that the original appearance brings; readers can appreciate the ancients' cautious attitude toward food and drink and their plain wisdom. As a reading setting, it suits a desk reference for Chinese classics, used alongside annotated reference works, and also serves as background material for reading on food culture, folklore, or health cultivation. Note that it is not a modern nutrition guide and offers no specific cooking steps; readers should approach it as cultural reading rather than practical instruction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in traditional food culture and folklore
Beginners who want to enter Chinese classics through everyday topics
Desk readers who enjoy the original appearance of books and are willing to read slowly and take excerpts
Reference readers engaged in food culture or folklore writing

Not a good fit for

People looking for modern nutrition plans or fat-loss recipes
People who need detailed cooking steps and ingredient proportions
Beginners expecting a full vernacular translation and item-by-item annotation

Reading tips

First read through the table of contents, then select chapters related to solar terms and etiquette for close reading; there is no need to plow straight through from beginning to end.
Prepare a dictionary of common classical Chinese characters; when encountering unfamiliar words, look them up first, then read, preserving the original texture.
After each section, write two or three sentences comparing it with modern eating habits to help digest it.
It can be read alternately with popular works on food folklore to avoid interruption caused by the density of the original text.

版权信息
古今图书集成医部全录卷三百十四
古今图书集成医部全录卷三百十五

FAQ

Is this book about cooking?

No. It belongs to the series of original texts of Chinese classics, focusing on food concepts and the texture of related documents in traditional thought and culture; it does not provide recipes, ingredient proportions, or cooking steps. If you want to learn to cook, choose a cookbook instead.

Can I read it without a foundation in classical Chinese?

You can try, but you will need support. This book preserves the appearance of the original and does not provide a full vernacular translation. It is advisable to use a classical Chinese dictionary and an annotated edition, starting with short or familiar chapters and gradually getting used to the language; do not expect to understand everything at once.

Is it suitable for learning health cultivation?

It can be read as cultural background, but it should not be used as a health guide. The traditional food concepts in the book need to be judged in light of modern medicine; readers should stay discerning and not take classical statements directly as health advice.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Chen Menglei Author · China · 1651–1741

Chen Menglei (1651–1741), courtesy names Zizhen and Shengzhai, later styled the Old Man of Songhe, was a Qing dynasty scholar from Houguan, Fujian. He passed the imperial examination in the ninth year of the Kangxi reign and was appointed to the Hanlin Academy as a compiler. After 1698, by imperial order, he tutored the third prince, Yinzhii, and took the opportunity to compile a vast classified encyclopedia, the Hui Bian, using the collection of the Xieyi Hall; the Kangxi Emperor later bestowed on it the title Gujin Tushu Jicheng. The library holds more than 410 of his works, mostly sections of the officialdom chapters of that encyclopedia, covering institutions such as the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, the Imperial Observatory, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Rites, prefectural governors, the Transmission Office, and the Imperial Medical Academy. These works address ancient bureaucratic systems, ritual norms, and administrative practice. His compilations are distinguished by systematic classification and extensive citation, preserving a wealth of source materials for later generations; they are commonly categorized under culture and Eastern philosophy. As public information on his life is limited, this note confines itself to his known scholarly contributions.