The food culture and historical origins of Anhui cuisine among the eight major cuisines

Anhui cuisine is one of the eight famous cuisines in China. Anhui cuisine has an extremely wide influence. The formation and development of Anhui cuisine are closely related to the rise and prosperity of Huizhou merchants. Anhui cuisine is also known as Huibang and Anhui flavor. Anhui cuisine culture has an important influence on China's food culture. Let's understand the food culture and historical origins of Anhui cuisine, one of the eight major cuisines.

Hui cuisine refers to Huizhou cuisine, which originated from She County (ancient Huizhou) at the foot of Huangshan Mountain. Later, as the small town of Tunxi on the bank of the Xin'an River became a distribution center for famous teas such as "Qihong" and "Tunlu" and local products such as Hui ink and She inkstones, commerce flourished, the catering industry developed, and Hui cuisine also moved to Tunxi and has been further developed. Anhui cuisine is famous for cooking delicacies from the mountains and wild game.

The history of Huizhou merchants is called "Xin'an Dajia". It started in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and became increasingly developed during the Tang and Song Dynasties. The late Ming Dynasty to the late Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty was the golden age of Huizhou merchants. At that time, the number of businessmen in Huizhou was large and the activities With its wide scope and abundant capital, it ranked among the top business groups at that time. Zhu Que, the maternal grandfather of Zhu Xi, a famous mathematician in the Song Dynasty, was a typical representative of Huizhou merchants at that time. The business stores, residences (i.e. hotels) and wine shops he ran once accounted for half of Shezhou City, known as "Zhu Half City". From the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty to the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, there were about 80 famous merchants in Yangzhou, of which Hui merchants accounted for more than 60; among the top ten salt merchants, Hui merchants accounted for more than half. Huizhou merchants are the richest people in the world, live a luxurious life, and prefer the flavor of their hometown. Their sumptuous drinks and luxurious banquets have contributed to the development of Huizhou cuisine. Wherever there are Huizhou merchants, there are Huizhou cuisine restaurants. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Anhui merchants flourished in Yangzhou, Shanghai, and Wuhan. The number of Anhui cuisine restaurants in Shanghai once reached more than 500. By the time of the Anti-Japanese War, there were still more than 130 Anhui cuisine restaurants in Shanghai and more than 40 in Wuhan. Interestingly, according to the information in "Old Shanghai", around 1925, "at the beginning, there were only Huizhou and Suzhou restaurants in Shanghai, and later there were restaurants in Jinling, Yangzhou, and Zhenjiang." The so-called "Suzhou" also refers to the Huizhou restaurant originally in Suzhou. Shang Taizhiwang and Tai Jialie moved to Shanghai and opened Tianfuyuan, Jiuhuayuan, Dingbanyuan and other restaurants. It can be seen that the development of Anhui cuisine is also very rapid. According to Zeng Juesheng's article "Hui Merchants and Hui Gang in Wuhan before Liberation"; until after liberation, Wuhan's Anhui cuisine restaurants still occupied the leading position in the catering market: "It can be said that Wuhan's wine and vegetable industry is the largest A group of people...are welcomed and patronized by people."

Huizhou has always had a rich cultural heritage and a prosperous literary style. Under the guiding ideology of advancing into officialdom through learning and passing down literature to the world, "Three Halls of Lianke, Four Hanlins in Ten Miles", "Prime Ministers from Father and Son", "Brothers Hanlin" and "One Rank from Four Generations" all appeared in the ancient land of Huizhou on the land. There is a saying in Huizhou that "a spoiled child does not spoil books, but spoiling books is like raising pigs". To be an examiner, you have to go out of Huizhou, and Huizhou merchants are merchants, traveling through various waterways to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, North China and the southwest, and even across the ocean. Among the top ten business gangs, Huizhou merchants rank first. As a result, groups of people from other places, for three or four generations, have their “ancestral home in Huizhou”. Huizhou people, "Thirteen in the city" to protect their homeland, "Seventeen in the outside" to conquer the world. Under this situation, Anhui cuisine emerged as a cuisine across the country.

Ancient Huizhou was also the birthplace of Huizhou merchants. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Huizhou merchants dominated China's business community for more than 300 years. There is a saying that "there is no town without Huizhou" and "Huizhou merchants are everywhere". Huizhou Studies, which consists of cultural schools such as Huizhou merchants, Huizhou opera, Huizhou cuisine, Huizhou carvings, Xin'an Neo-Confucianism, Xin'an medicine, Xin'an painting school, Huizhou seal cutting, Huizhou architecture, Huizhou bonsai, etc., is even more extensive and profound. It has the same influence as Dunhuang studies and Tibetan studies.

Huizhou is endowed with unique tourism resources, with extremely high density and high quality. In addition to two world heritage sites, it also has a national historical and cultural city, three national scenic spots, and a national nature reserve. , one world geological park, two national geological parks, three national forest parks, 10 national-level historical relics protection units, and one national-level historical protection block. Mount Huangshan, the national treasure in the region, is famous for its "Five Wonders" of strange pines, strange rocks, sea of ??clouds, hot springs, and winter snow. It is the symbol and pride of the Chinese nation. Huangshan has "wonders on the mountain and wonders under the mountain." The all-round three-dimensional beauty. Xidi and Hongcun World Cultural Heritage are the historical relics of Huizhou’s material civilization. The standing archways represent the spiritual home of Huizhou people. More ancient villages and ancient buildings reflect the ancient prosperity and prosperity of Huizhou, and the primitive nature of Guniu descends. It conveys the ancient, simple and original ecological treasures of Huizhou. The Xin'an River and Taiping Lake that span the north and south of Huangshan Mountain add to the beauty of Huangshan Mountain.

According to Ming history records, at that time, "Among the big merchants, Hui merchants and Shanxi merchants were the most prominent", and "among the wealthy merchants, Xin'an was the first in Jiangnan." Since the Tang Dynasty, there has been a saying in all dynasties that "no town can be built without Huizhou". This shows that Huizhou in the south of the Yangtze River had developed commerce in ancient times and had many merchants. As Huizhou merchants went abroad to do business, Anhui cuisine became popular in various places. There are Anhui cuisine restaurants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Wuhan, Luoyang, Guangzhou, Shandong, Beijing, Shaanxi and other places. Shanghai has the most, and it is the first foreign flavor to enter Shanghai.

According to "Huizhou Prefecture Chronicles", as early as the Southern Song Dynasty, cooking with the specialties of the southern Anhui mountainous area "horseshoe turtle in sand and oxtail civet in snow" has become famous all over the country. The cuisine along the Yangtze River is represented by Wuhu and Anqing areas, and later spread to Hefei area. It is famous for cooking river fresh food and poultry, and its smoking technology is unique. Cuisine along the Huaihe River is mainly composed of local flavors from Bengbu, Suxian, Fuyang and other places.

Anhui cuisine originated in the Tang and Song Dynasties, flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, continued to develop during the Republic of China, and further developed after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Anhui cuisine has rich local characteristics and profound cultural heritage, and is a shining pearl in the treasure house of Chinese food culture.

Huizhou is located in a mountainous area and has experienced many wars. Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, a large number of immigrants from the Central Plains have moved south to the Huizhou area, where they live together in groups, build ancestral halls and cultivate genealogies, forming a strict clan system. Each ethnic group and sect has its own idols that they believe in and worship. In order to worship gods and Buddhas, the people have produced edible offerings with different characteristics. The most typical one is the "Sai Qiong Bowl" activity to worship Wang Hua, the leader of the peasant uprising in the late Sui Dynasty. This annual worship event not only displays hundreds of bowls of offerings carefully prepared by the Wang clan, but also cultivates generations of folk cooks.

The period from the late Ming Dynasty to the end of Qianlong’s reign in the Qing Dynasty was the heyday of Huizhou merchants. Their strength and influence ranked first among the top 10 merchant gangs in the country. Their footprints were spread all over the world, and Huizhou cuisine also accompanied the development of Huizhou merchants. , gradually became famous. Wherever there are Huizhou merchants, there are Huizhou cuisine restaurants. Huizhou people have opened thousands of Huizhou museums across the country, with more than 140 in Shanghai alone, which shows its wide scope and great influence.

In the long history, Anhui cuisine has been eclectic, constantly summarized and innovated through the hard work of successive generations of Anhui chefs. It is based on local materials, rigorous selection of materials, skillful use of fire, unique kung fu, good at stewing and stewing, suitable for thick and light, pays attention to food supplements, nourishes the body with food, pays attention to culture, and has profound cultural heritage. A unique and self-contained famous cuisine.