Qing Dynasty Food Culture In Northern Exploration

Diet is playing a foundamental role in the development of human beings, and only with it can human's existence and growth move on. Although the research on diet and its culture enjoys a short history in China, it has made much achievements with many academic works published in terms of general introduction as well as customs concerned, etc. In recent years, local diet has emerged more important in studies on diet culture following the increasing research on regional culture. Quite a few achivements have been made in the research on well-known food of famous places, with less or even no studies invovled in that of those prominent ones. The subject in this paper is the diet culture of North Shaanxi in Qing Dyansty, which has been ignored for a long time. And the structure and key points involved are as follows:Discussing briefly in the aspects of significance, status analysis and main points and approaches concerned, the introduction of the paper pays particular attention to the significance of the study, absence of correlational researches, and the associated main parts and research approaches as well.The first Chapter is the natural geographical environment in the North of Shanxi Province. This part mainly starts with the angle of the natural geographical environment (ground form characteristic, climatic conditions, river and hydrology), probe into the natural environment impact on people's diet, explain different ecological environments and bring up different culture types. Through narrating the state of natural geographical environment, make people.understand the natural conditions of the area of North of Shanxi Province, point out on this barren land, its produce's abundance is not so good as the wild place far fertily. Analyzed the relation between the natural geographical environment and diet finally.The second part is concerned with the diet resources of North Shaanxi in the ancient Qing Dynasty. Illustrating in the aspects of population and settlement for land reclamation, grain crops and production together with diet sources and distribution, this part is aimed at throwing light on the fact that diet is initiated on the basis of joint collaboration between people and land. As grains serve as the essential guarantee for humans to survive, a brief introduction is made in this part to share the grain crop-related information. At the end of this part, analysis on diet sources is made by listing with a view to making people aware more visually of the distribution of diet sources in Qing Dynasty.The third part centers on the food processing. Starting from approaches for grain processing, it also involves tools, cooking styles and approaches as well.The fourth part refers to diet conditions. As the main body of the paper, it illustrates in the aspects of daily diet, season-related diet, diet for wedding and funeral, diet during the starving time and dietary taboos available. The information related to the first three aspects would make people learn further the diet conditions of North Shaanxi in Qing Dynasty. Since diet during the starving time is of particular importance, it is bound to impress people more about the diet during that period. Dietary taboos, the last point in this part, describes the diet conditions in another respect.The fifth part tells of the diet culture. By analyzing, it concludes five features concerned; in other words, it is a kind of diversified and social-and regional-oriented culture taking grains and cereals as the staple food and with drinking involved throughout the year.The last part concludes the paper by summarizing.