Oils And Fats Research In The Yuan Ming And Qing Dynasties

Oil is not only one of the main nutrients and main foods of human,but also important productive resources.Humans used fats and oils very early to meet various needs in life.Firstly animal fat was widely used in cooking,lighting,lubrication,ritual activities,art and so on.Since the Han Dynasty,the variety of vegetable oils had been increasing.Daily life oils were more diversified.But animal fat still played an important role in diet,handicraft industry and trade.There were three development stages of Chinese daily life oils.In the Qin and Han Dynasties Chinese people mainly used animal fat in their daily life;In the Wei and Jin Dynasties vegetable oil boarded the stage of history as an important supplement to animal fat;After the Yuan Dynasty vegetable oil gradually converted into the main using oil.The evolution of daily life oil was an important historical change.That went through a long period of history.There was crushing technology in the Han Dynasty.The western region oil crops such as sesame,flax and so on,were introduced to mainland successively in the Han Dynasty,and the oil extraction technology in China was constantly improved.The introduction of Buddhism had a great influence on Chinese oil extraction technology and people's living habits in the Wei-Jin period.In the Northern Wei Dynasty,there was specialized oil manufacture handicraft industry.And there was a large lever press tool in the Tang Dynasty.The water-driven stone grinder(??)and stone roller(??)had been used in the processing of oil crushing since Tang Dynasty.They greatly improved the efficiency.In the Song and Yuan period,the wooden wedge pressing tool was more mature.The northerners mainly used lever type press,wooden wedge press was widespread in the southern.Small oil tools such as mortar and pestle always existed,which were suitable for the household production.Due to China's own social system and natural economic conditions and the weaknesses of Chinese science and technology,oil extraction technology had been slow for a long time.Since the end of the Qing Dynasty,traditional oil extraction tools had gradually been replaced by modern oil-pressing machines.The Yuan Dynasty collected oil from the people.The government also participated in the oil trade.The local governments in the Ming and Qing began to levy taxes on the oil fields.Considering the noise,fire prevention,feng shui and so on,the official required that oil mills should be set up in the specified areas.Folk oil and grease market was admixture of good and evil,sale of adulterated goods often happened.Under the influence of various natural conditions,different areas of China were suitable for growing different kinds of oil crops.Oil crops had a certain regularity and stability in regional distribution.In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties,oilseed rape began to spread from the Northwest Plateau to the Yangtze river basin and showed its advantages in the Southern winter crops.In the Ming dynasty,peanut began to be widely cultivated in the Southeast coastal area,and then spread to the Yangtze river basin and the Northern region.Since the Yuan Dynasty,oilseed rape,peanuts,cotton and other crops had been introduced into the mainland and gradually became the main economic crops,they affected the planting structure and oil consumption in the most of China.In the Qing Dynasty,peanut oil and cottonseed oil became the main cooking oil from the south to central plains.In much of the south,camellia oil and rapeseed oil were the main oils in life.People in the mountainous area generally used woody plants oil as walnut oil,camellia oil,tung oil,Chinese tallow,Pistacia chinensis seed oil and so on.Fish oil was used in coastal areas and the areas along the river.Oil and grease used in each place was closely related to the local natural environment and living habits.Lipids were mostly used for making food and lighting in daily life.In the process of sugar production,oil was used as additive to improve the quality of white sugar.This technology was widely spread and had a great practical value.Stir-fry with oil and iron pan was the most popular cooking method in China.In food cooking,rice and flour processing,meat and vegetable cooking all need to use oil.In the Qing Dynasty,people really cared about cooking oil.Sesame oil,rapeseed oil,soybean oil were commonly used.During the Tang and Song Dynasties people usually used vegetable oil to light lamps,the designs of oil-saving lamps were more and more diversified.After the Yuan Dynasty,people invented many oil-saving formulas inorder to reduce the lamp-oil consumption.On top of that,there were a wide using of oils for skin care,poultry farming and pest control.Folks often used grease for local customs and idioms.Oil was also widely used in handicraft industry.The oil ash was a kind of good building adhesive,which was made of tung oil with lime and fibers,and it was also a necessary caulking material for shipbuilding.In the cocoon cooking and processing silks,grease could remove the glue,lubricate and had other functions.Using drying oil could make waterproof oil clothes,oilcloth,oil paper and so on.Oil had been used in the process of tanning leather since ancient times.From the Yuan Dynasty oil tanning process had been used less in the central plains but was still used in the western regions.Manufacture of lampblack ink and red stamp-pad ink reached the peak of development.Many kinds of oils were also used in the manufacture of oil paint.People often used the lost-wax process in the casting.It was mixing oil and wax to shape model.People also burnt grease smoke on the mold when casting money,it could separate casting from mold.Oil played a very important role in health care.Oil could be used alone or in combination with other drugs.Curing plaster with oil and grease was a popular folk medicine.The prescription with oil could cure paralysis,facial paralysis,trauma and skin diseases etc.In the department of gynaecology,paediatrics,facial features and veterinary,oily medicine also had curative effect.The toxicity of certain oils was also used for medical treatment by the ancients.The ancients also used oil in metal processing.Oil boiling method was widely used in refining sulphur.The sulphur refined with oil could be used to make gunpowder or to prepare Chinese medicine.In the Qing Dynasty Liu Yueyun and others began to use the western knowledge system to explain some natural phenomena about oil.They revealed the base physical and chemical properties of oil preliminarily.It reflected the ancient people's understanding of scientific knowledge on oil.The oil research was carried out in portrait and landscape orientation.We could have a comprehensive understanding of the lipids material culture and social life in ancient.By examining the clothes,food,shelter and travel in social life,we couldperceive the development course of Chinese sci-tech and material life during the Yuan Ming and Qing Dynasties.Material life is the first need for people to survive and develop.