Tasting the Good and the Beautiful: The Aestheticization of Eating and Drinking in Traditional Chinese Culture

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1 TASTING THE GOOD AND THE BEAUTIFUL 67 Tasting the Good and the Beautiful: The Aestheticization of Eating and Drinking in Traditional Chinese Culture Da an Pan California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Exploring traditional Chinese gastronomic culture in terms of its interdisciplinary expression and values, this article argues that eating and drinking, as sources of creative imagination and aesthetic pleasure, are integral to the creative process in Chinese literature and art, and possess a double value integrating the good with the beautiful. Gastronomic and artistic creations are mutually enhancing and mutually inspiring in their common pursuit of beauty. While exemplifying the holistic values of Chinese culture, the aestheticization of eating and drinking contributes to finer, richer gastronomic experiences. An investigation into this phenomenon opens a window to understanding the development of Chinese gastronomy, thus shedding cross-cultural light on the study of contemporary gastronomy. Beauty and Taste Discussing the semiotics of contemporary food consumption, Barthes ( ) wrote, One could say that an entire world (social environment) is present in and signified by food... To eat is a behavior that develops beyond its own ends, replacing, summing up, and signalizing other behaviors, and it is precisely for these reasons that it is a sign (1997, pp. 23; 25). In traditional Chinese society the importance of eating and drinking as cultural and aesthetic signs goes beyond people s physical existence. For many Chinese individuals food and drink are themselves aesthetic objects, and cooking, eating, and drinking are aesthetic pursuits. The notion of mei-shi (lit., beautiful food; i.e., gourmet food) is almost a household word. In contrast to Plato ( BC), who deprecated cookery as no art but a routine and a form of flattery, and eating as merely serving human physical needs (Hamilton & Cairns, 1989, Gorgias, passim, pp ), Confucius ( BC) associated proper cooking and eating with a person s spiritual cultivation in the same moral and aesthetic contexts (1979, VII.14, p. 87). In The Analects Confucius prescribes the protocol of eating as a moral and aesthetic behavior, saying: [The gentleman]... did not eat his fill of polished rice, nor did he eat his fill of finely minced meat... He did not eat food that had gone off color or food that had a bad smell. He did not eat food that was not properly prepared... He did not eat food that had not been properly cut up, nor did he eat unless the proper sauce was available (Ibid., bk. 10, no. 8, p. 103). For a Confucian gentleman, fine dining has played a dual function by providing nourishment to both the body and the mind. Underlying this perception is the mind-body holism in traditional Chinese philosophy, including medical philosophy. As Chang points out, perhaps one of the most important qualifications of a Chinese gentleman was his knowledge and skill pertaining to food and drink (1977, p. 11). The moral and aesthetic value assigned to eating and drinking in traditional Chinese culture has led gastronomy to constant refinement and ultimate sophistication, in the process inspiring the representation of this subject in literature and art. In the Classic of Poetry, China s first anthology of poems, reputedly adopted by Confucius for moral education, eating and particularly banqueting (or feasting) take place on various occasions such as the celebration of good harvests, homage to benevolent rulers, and ancestral sacrifices. In traditional Chinese society banqueting is an important ritual in the

2 68 PAN Fall 2003 social sphere (M. M. Yang, 1994, p. 137) and one of the popular forms of socialization that contributes significantly to social order, unity, and harmony. In many poems in this classic public or private banqueting creates a festive mood blended with a moral aura. The poem Deer Cries vividly conveys the moral undertones of a state banquet when the king proposed the following toast:... My guests of honor are all here;/ Your virtuous reputation resounds far and wide./ Please teach our people not to breach the proprieties;/ All gentlemen could follow your example./ I have fine wine,/ Let my guests of honor feast and play... (Ren & He, 1989, pp ). Traditional Chinese gastronomy possesses a double value integrating the good with the beautiful. Eating and drinking satisfy not only one s bodily needs but also one s aesthetic and spiritual needs. As banqueting was often highlighted with poetry-making, gastronomic appreciation and artistic creation became mutually enhancing and mutually inspiring. In Chinese literature and art and particularly literati literature and art, eating and drinking are aestheticized as worthy themes or subject matters, as the appreciation of gastronomic products, activities, and etiquettes is essentially an aesthetic value judgment. In a sense, Chinese gastronomy is a holistic art and a liberal art, and the study of Chinese literature and art necessarily involves gastronomy. As West explains, food... was elevated at an early period [in China] from necessity to art, from sustenance to elegance; the subsequent high cultural status assured that food would remain a key ingredient in the language and structure of literature and art (1997, p. 68). The Chinese concept of beauty is associated with that of taste. The Chinese characterword mei (beautiful; delicious) can be interpreted as a pictograph for a totemic emblem, or as an ideogram signifying a strong-bodied sheep, whose physical strength is beautiful, or the taste of mutton from a fattened sheep (Yü, 1984, pp ). It is synonymous with the character-word xian (delicious), whose ideogramic composition suggests fish cooked with mutton. The concept of taste acquires a metaphysical status in traditional Chinese metaphysical and medical thinking when the so-called Five-Flavors (referring to sourness, bitterness, sweetness, piquancy, and saltiness) theory is incorporated into the Five-Elements (or Five Evolutive Phases, referring to wood, earth, fire, metal, and water) theory, forming the philosophical underpinnings of traditional Chinese gastronomy, including herbological gastronomy. According to The Yellow Emperor s Classic of Medicine, one of the earliest classics of Chinese medicine, the harmonization of the five flavors in food, while embodying the harmony (and balance) of nature, contributes to the harmony (and balance) of the body and the mind (Ni, 1995, pp. 40; 93-94; ). In his discussion on food in early Chinese literature, Knechtges analyses a discourse on the perfect flavors by Yi Yin, the Chinese gastronome par excellence (1986, p. 53). Citing Yi Yin s discourse from the Chinese classic Lüshi chunqiu (The Annals of Lü Buwei), Knechtges interprets, Blending the five flavors is an extremely delicate task, comparable to the subtle skill required of an archer and coachman, or even the mysterious movements of the cosmos (Ibid.. Cf. Knoblock & Riegel, 2000, p. 308). Rooted in nature, the Five-Elements theory and the Five-Flavors theory both reflect human conceptualization of the law and order of nature and reify the dynamic balance that informs nature and characterizes nature s beauty. Also rooted in nature is traditional Chinese aesthetics, which forms an inherent link between the Five-Flavors theory and gastronomy in that harmonious, good taste is not only a manifestation of nature s beauty but also beauty in itself. To make and consume tasty food is to comply with the law and order of nature, and a taste for fine food is a taste for the beauty of nature. The appreciation and differentiation of taste demonstrate a human need for fine dining as a source of aesthetic as well as physical pleasure. Archeological findings from the Shang dynasty (ca ca BC) and the succeeding Western Zhou dynasty (ca ca. 771 BC) in ancient China indicate a large variety and an elaborate system of eating

3 TASTING THE GOOD AND THE BEAUTIFUL 69 utensils and drinking vessels, their sophisticated craftsmanship made possible by an advanced technology (Yü, 1984, p. 120). The aesthetic of tableware is part of the gastronomic system, as beautiful tableware adds to the beauty of food and drink. This helps explain the avoidance of weapon-shaped eating utensils such as knives and forks at the Chinese dinner table. As Anderson notes, This use of food as social lubricant, stimulus, and marker is traceable to the very dawn of Chinese civilization and beyond, if the careful attention to beauty in the construction of Neolithic pottery means what I think it means (1988, p. 200). As sources of creative inspiration and aesthetic pleasure, eating and drinking are integral to the creative process in Chinese literature and art. For example, the story of Yi Yin mentioned earlier offers one of the most palatable anecdotes of Chinese mythology because of the rare literary flavor it produces in our modern imaginations (Yue, 1999, p. 40). Depicted in poetic elegance and imagination, eating and drinking are further aestheticized and better appreciated, which results in finer, richer culinary and gastronomic practices. Thus, a virtuous cycle is generated between eating-drinking and literature-art in their common pursuit of beauty. Many Chinese writers and artists, especially the literati, were gourmets who often incorporated their gastronomic experience and imagination into their creative or critical works. Among the recurring subjects of traditional Chinese painting are banqueting, tea drinking, and wine drinking, as well as a variety of food items such as vegetables and fruit. Gastronomic discourses have entered various genres of Chinese literature, and even the traditional form of literary criticism known as shi-hua (lit., remarks on poetry). Indeed, as West observes, Culinary arts and literature shared a vocabulary of taste and judgment... (1997, p. 68). For Chinese gourmet-readers the gastronomic component of a literary or painterly text is a source of vicarious pleasure. The illustrious Song dynasty ( ) literatus Su Shi ( ) enjoyed a reputation as both a multiartistic talent and a sophisticated gourmet, who deserves much credit for promoting a literati culture of eating and drinking with his literary as well as gastronomic practices. In his essay A Fu [rhymed prose] of the Epicure Su discusses various gourmet dishes such as crabs and clams by citing allusions from classical literature and mythology, writing that Gathering the beauty of things to nourish myself, the epicure (1994, vol. 2, p. 92). Su s contemporary Huang Tingjian ( ) wrote a poem about eating lotus seeds, which evoked the author s homesickness, his ambivalence toward holding public offices, and his longing for a reclusive lifestyle (Miao et al., 1987, pp ). Earlier, the poet Mei Yaochen ( ) wrote about the freshwater delicacy of the poisonous globefish, using its paradoxical features of delectability and toxicity as a metaphor for the mutuality of beauty and evil (Ibid., pp ). The Qing dynasty literatus Yuan Mei ( ) wrote his Cookery Book in an elegant prose style with a literary flavor, discussing the art of the kitchen with an exhaustive, exquisite inventory of recipes based mainly on the provincial cuisines of Jiangsu and Zhejiang in southeastern China (2000). Yuan s gastronomic ideals as exemplified in his recipes reflect the influence of an aesthetic that seeks freshness and naturalness. In the novel A Dream of Red Mansions, a classical masterpiece by Yuan s contemporary Cao Xueqin (Ts ao Hsueh-ch in; d.1763/64), eating and drinking figure conspicuously as a recurrent motif in the depiction of the aristocratic lifestyle (1994). This famous novel flaunts an encyclopedic knowledge of gastronomy, showcasing an eclectic selection of recipes and hygienic regimens typical of aristocratic dining (Cf. Z. J. Yang, 1994, pp ). The modern writer Lu Wenfu s novella The Gourmet even contains a quasi-philosophical discourse on cookery (1983, p. 90). In this story, Mr. Zhu Ziye (the protagonist), a gourmet and amateur chef, expounds on the paradoxical role of salt (as an enhancer and spoiler of taste) at a chefs seminar, saying that the simplest yet the most difficult thing about cooking is the art of salt management. Lu s thematization of the culinary arts has helped revive a literary vogue among contemporary Chinese culturati to write about their gastronomic experience and

4 70 PAN Fall 2003 connoisseurship. As Farquhar observes in her ethnographic study on Chinese appetites, Reading Lu Wenfu s novella as gourmets, vicariously... enjoying the delicacies consumed by Zhu Ziye..., we have participated in a certain pleasure of the text, recovering the genteel daily life of an earlier Suzhou [a tourist city in southeastern China] and relishing the imagined tastes of its many local delicacies (2002, p. 113). Farquhar s observation suggests a holistic aesthetic of Chinese gastronomy that blends gastronomy with the arts, the body with the mind, and dining with its environment. The beauty of eating and drinking is savored at one level in terms of color, scent, taste, appearance, name, tableware, and dining environment (Cf. Wang, 1999, pp ), and at another level in terms of the spiritual and intellectual gusto and resonance derived from dining. For example, the grand banquet and the working luncheon hosted by the Chinese government during the 2001 APEC Meeting in Shanghai epitomized the aesthetics of Chinese gastronomy (Cf. Shen, 2001, p. 7). It has long been a popular practice among fine restaurants in China to name themselves and present their menus in poetic terms, to solicit poems, calligraphy, and paintings from renowned artists for their store signs and interior decoration, and to entertain their clients with artistic performances. Such practices not only enhance the reputation of a restaurant but also lend an aesthetic ambience to the dining space, thus rendering fine dining a truly aesthetic experience. Eating and drinking, while being aesthetic pursuits in themselves, are also the means by which to cultivate or heighten a diner s aesthetic sensibilities. In Vino Natura In traditional Chinese culture, eating often goes hand in hand with drinking. Wine and tea are the two drinks that have been synthesized with, and received the most attention in, Chinese literature and art. Wine plays the paradoxical role of intoxicator and facilitator of artistic imagination, awakening drinkers to their optimum creative moments. For many Chinese scholars to be intoxicated is to be inspired; wine is their Muse. Wine serves occasions of leisure and pleasure as well as moments of boredom, loneliness, melancholy, nostalgia, and sorrow. Furthermore, it is used as a vehicle for reaching the Tao or immortality. Naturally, Chinese scholars enthusiasm for wine has found expression in literature and art, and many poetic bons mots on wine drinking have become proverbial in the scholarly vocabulary. In traditional Chinese literature, the context of wine drinking has varied from period to period. In the ancient Confucian Classic of Poetry, wine drinking is often represented as part of feasting in celebration of benevolent leadership and heaven s blessing. Several centuries later, toward the end of the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), the poetic context of wine drinking shifted to that of carpe diem. Poems about wine drinking now reflected a keen awareness of the transience of life and a sense of urgency for merry-making, as scholars indulged themselves in wine as a way to quench their anxiety about the ineluctability of death. Such sentiments continued into the Three Kingdoms period ( ) when a coterie of cultural illuminati known as ming-shi (lit., illustrious scholars) resorted to wine to cope with their sorrows. Even the powerful warlord Cao Cao ( ) of the Wei kingdom ( ) wrote a poem about seeking solace in wine:... Singing over wine,/ How long is life?/... What can be used for dispelling sorrow?/ There is only Du Kang [a famous wine named after its legendary brewer] (Wu et al., 1994, pp ). The collective voice of those poets seems to be an Eastern echo to Horace s ode:... Show yourself wise: strain the wine clear, and trim/ Lengthy hope to the short space of our lives./ Envious time escapes/ Even now as we talk./ Harvest this day, discount tomorrow s gains (1983, 1.11, p. 144). During times of social turmoil such as the succeeding Jin period ( ), wine drinking found expression in literature under the theme of spiritual reclusion. Incorporating wine drinking into their lifestyle, scholar-recluses turned to wine as well as to nature for spiritual and

5 TASTING THE GOOD AND THE BEAUTIFUL 71 political refuge. While rediscovering their inner selves through the ritual of returning to nature, they camouflaged their political dissidence and discontent through daily inebriation. For them, alcoholism was social escapism. Representative of their subculture was a drinking coterie known as the Seven Sages of the bamboo grove, whose drinking idiosyncrasies are mentioned in Liu Yiqing s ( ) book A New Account of Tales of the World, which consists of anecdotal vignettes of his contemporaries (1994). One of the Sages, Liu Ling (n.d.), wrote An Eulogy on the Virtues of Wine, celebrating drinking as a way of life (Wang, 1999, p. 200). During the later phase of the Jin period, drinking took a Taoist turn when wine was thematized as a spiritual vehicle for reaching the Tao. Tao Yuanming ( ), one of the most illustrious drinker-recluse-poets in Chinese culture, set the fashion of thematizing the wine-induced Taoist mood and spiritual realm which the drinker entered. His poem Drinking Wine: The Fifth reveals an epiphanic mindset of the poet under the vinous influence, which is generally considered among Chinese poets the ultimate aesthetic state of wine drinking as well as of poetry making: Picking chrysanthemums under the east hedge,/ Leisurely, [I] see the South Hill./ The hill s aspect looks good at sunset;/ A flock of birds are flying home./ In this there is true meaning;/ Trying to discriminate it, [I] forget the words (Wu et al., 1994, p. 553). In his poem Drinking Wine: The Fourteenth, Tao Yuanming relishes a moment of inebriation when he and his friends became oblivious of self and the value of the material world. As he concludes, Others are lost in fame and fortune;/ Yet for us there is a deep taste in wine (Ibid., p. 562). What he means by a deep taste in wine actually refers to his spiritual transformation of becoming one with nature (Wang, 1995, p. 197). In this sense, Tao Yuanming s aesthetic of wine drinking may be expressed as in vino natura. A salient aspect of the aestheticization of wine drinking is the celebration of wine as the wellhead of artistic imagination and inspiration. The Taoist-minded poet Li Bai ( ) of the Tang dynasty ( ) was dubbed with the epithet of Drunken Immortal for his legendary idiosyncrasy of composing poems while intoxicated. In his poem Drinking Alone Under the Moon Li lauds wine for empowering him to attain the Tao: Three cups reach the Great Way;/ One dou [decaliter] accords with Nature (1988, p. 515). In his poem Eight Immortals in Wine Du Fu ( ), Li Bai s contemporary, dramatizes the tipsy behavior of eight scholar-celebrities in the capital city of Chang an, who rode a burst of creative energy under the spur of wine:... Having drunk a dou [decaliter] of wine,/ Li Bai wrote a hundred poems.../ Having downed three cups of wine,/ Zhang Xü [n.d.; a master calligrapher] left for posterity the brushwork of a Cursive Saint... (Chou, 1974, vol. 1, pp ). Wine drinking was further aestheticized when it became embedded in Chinese literati culture and can hardly be separated from artistic creation or appreciation. The literati, among whom teetotaling was rare, often found a vinous spree conducive to their artistic creativity and aesthetic sensibilities. Savoring wine as the impetus behind his artistic imagination, Su Shi ( ) wrote in his poem At Guo Xiangzheng s Residence, Painting Bamboo and Rock on the Wall While Drunk : My empty intestines, on receiving wine, shoot sprouts;/ My liver and lungs, turning jagged, yield rocks and bamboos... (1994, vol. 1, p. 196). The literati perception of wine drinking again forms an interesting contrast with that of Plato, who, commenting on the true nature of inebriation, said, My own experience in medicine has entirely satisfied me that vinous excess is detrimental to the human frame. And therefore I can never be a willing party to heavy drinking... (Hamilton & Cairns, 1989, Symposium, p. 531). The literati s drinking party, however, is comparable with the Greek symposion as an occasion of intellectual exchange. In his essay Notes on the Drunken Old Man Pavilion the renowned literatus Ouyang Xiu ( ) of the Song dynasty ( ) basks in a moment of poetic inspiration under the vinous influence at an outdoor drinking party: The mind of the drunken old man lies not in wine but between hills and rivers (Guwen guanzhi, 1993, pp ). An earlier paragonal occasion was the Orchid Pavilion Gathering, which took place in the scenic

6 72 PAN Fall 2003 site of Lanting (lit., Orchid Pavilion) in southeastern China in the spring of 353. At the invitation of the eminent poet-calligrapher Wang Xizhi ( ), forty-one scholars of fame participated in the gathering. Sitting alongside the banks of a meandering stream and drinking wine by turns from a wine cup floating downstream, those participants composed a total of thirtyseven poems, to which Wang Xizhi wrote an introduction entitled The Orchid Pavilion Gathering (Ibid., pp ). Wang s essay has acquired an enduring notability as a masterpiece of calligraphy and literature ever since. Even today this event is still commemorated and reenacted annually by both Chinese and international culturati. The subculture of wine continues to flourish in China today amid China s economic reforms. Wine drinking is promoted as a cultural activity distinguished from alcoholic indulgence or abuse. People are expected to drink for aesthetic pleasure and intellectual cultivation rather than for mere physical gratification or weaving improper social connections for personal gain. Social drinking is expected to be more a symposion-like activity than a mere feast for the palate, as it synthesizes with artistic activities into a holistic process. The Xian Heng Tavern, probably the best known tavern in China, derives its name from a short story entitled Kong Yiji by Lu Xun ( ) (Cf. Lu, 1973, p. 20), the father of modern Chinese literature. Located in Lu Xun s hometown, the historic city of Shaoxing in southeastern China, this tavern is today frequented by both domestic and international culturati drinkers, who are attracted by its literary resonance to relive the times in Lu Xun s story through the agency of wine. The Tao of Tea Any discussion of wine in Chinese culture necessarily involves tea as the sobering Other. Tea and wine, like yin and yang, maintain a subtle balance and yet form a sisterly conviviality. As a scholar s drink, tea symbolizes noble thinking that sustains plain living; its aesthetic and intellectual qualities are valued more than its nutritional and medicinal functions. Despite their seemingly counterbalancing effects, tea and wine are both consumed for artistic imagination and inspiration. Tea is documented in the earliest Chinese medical references Shen nong s Materia Medica and The Yellow Emperor s Classic of Medicine dated more than two millennia ago. It entered the scholars circle to become their drink of choice during the Six Dynasties period ( ) when the scholar Du Yü (d. 311) wrote A Fu [rhymed prose] of Tea in praise of tea (Shu, 1997, p. 351). Later, during the Tang dynasty ( ), a tea culture emerged, thanks to the scholar and tea gourmet Lu Yü ( ), who spent about thirty years writing his Classic of Tea. Popularly venerated as the Tea Saint, Lu Yü has helped to call attention to its [tea s] antiquity and virtues, and his essay almost certainly first gave to tea the great meaning that it holds for the East today (Carpenter, 1974, p. ix). The first textbook of tea-ology in the world, Lu s classic documented his visits to various tea farms, where he gained first-hand knowledge in the variety and quality of tea, the technology of tea farming and processing, the locations of natural sources of water most fitting for making tea, and the etiquette of tea drinking. In his poem Meeting Lu Hongjian [Lu Yü] during His Tea Picking, the poet Huangfu Zeng (d. 785) writes: A thousand peaks expect this reclusive visitor;/ Aromatic tea grows grove upon grove./ Picking tea, he reaches the depths of mountains;/ Misty clouds envy his solitary travel. (Shu, 1997, p. 357). Lu s expertise and connoisseurship in tea exerted a farreaching influence on the tea industry and tea culture in China and throughout the world. His art of tea drinking was formulated more than eight hundred years earlier than was the Japanese tea ceremony. As Sen observes,... it was Lu Yü and the other Chinese poets and literati who truly made tea known to the Japanese... they were the first to see it as an indispensable ingredient in creating an ideal world of human freedom, and they taught the Japanese to find supreme joy as human beings in attaining such a world through tea (1998,

7 TASTING THE GOOD AND THE BEAUTIFUL 73 p. 55). Lu Yü s deep interest in Buddhism also helped usher tea drinking into the Buddhist and particularly Zen (Chan) culture to become part of Zen aesthetics and practice. Poet-monks such as Jiaoran (720-ca. 800) were inspired to write about the miraculous power of tea as an enlightening substitute for wine (Shu, 1997, p. 359). Lu Yü s Classic of Tea certainly reflects an aesthetic perspective on tea drinking, which can be seen, for instance, in his discussion of a poem about tea that... speaks of froth as flaming brilliance, and says that it must be as lustrous as the snowdrift and as sumptuous as the spring lotus (1974, p. 109). As Carpenter explains,... the act of drinking tea must be attended by beauty. Throughout the book, Lu Yü returns to that theme. The environment, the preparation, the ingredients, the tea itself, the tea bowl and the rest of the équipage must have an inner harmony expressed in the outward form (1974, p. 5). The very fact that Lu Yü was both a devoted tea gourmet and a talented writer made tea drinking integral to artistic creation, which has facilitated the aestheticization of tea drinking. Lu s convivial relationship with poets helped initiate the subgenre of poetry about tea, which describes various aspects of tea culture including varieties of tea, tea farming and processing, occasions, rituals, and ambience of tea drinking, moods and sentiments evoked in the drinking process, and anecdotes of scholar-drinkers. Drinking tea as a Taoist elixir of life, the Tang dynasty poet Lu Tong (Ca ) wrote about his spiritual experience in his poem Thanks to Administrative Commissary Meng for Sending Me New Tea, which conjures up the consummate aesthetic state of tea drinking to be savored and relived vicariously by the reader: The first bowl moistens one s throat./ The second bowl dispels one s loneliness and boredom./ The third bowl searches one s withered entrails [i.e., unproductive mind];/ Only to find five thousand volumes of words therein./ The fourth bowl induces a light sweat;/ All unfair things in one s life are dispelled through bodily pores./ The fifth bowl purifies one s muscles and bones./ The sixth bowl reaches immortals and deities./ The seventh bowl one cannot drink / Once it is downed, one will feel pure wind blowing underarm./ Where are the fairy hills of Penglai [fairy islands]?/ Yüchuanzi [Lu s cognomen] is about to return there on this pure wind (Shu, 1997, p. 377). Significantly, such a state also illustrates an important notion in traditional Chinese aesthetics that is expressed as gradually entering the realm of delight (jian ru jiajing) by the famous artist Gu Kaizhi (ca ) of the Eastern Jin dynasty ( ). Applied to gastronomy, this notion aptly captures the essence of a traditional Chinese view of eating (Knechtges, 1997, p. 239) as well as drinking. Tea drinking, like wine drinking, reached its ultimate stage of aestheticization when it was incorporated into the literati s spiritual regimen and creative activities. The literati lifestyle and pursuit of spiritual and aesthetic ideals, such as tranquility, purity, plainness, subtlety, leisure, and elegance, are among the major themes of traditional Chinese poetry and painting, in which tea drinking necessarily receives a many-faceted representation. The Ming dynasty literatus Zhang Dai (1597-ca. 1685) describes a leisurely ambience of tea drinking in his essay Misty Rain Gazebo :... anchoring against the river bank amidst misty waves, in a quiet and easy manner, facing the tea stove, this is where one s mind feels at ease... (1982, p. 79). According to the famous modern culturati Lin Yütang ( ), There is something in the nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation of life... De Quincy says quite correctly that tea will always be the favorite beverage of the intellectual, but the Chinese seem to go further and associate it with the high-minded recluse (1937, pp. 224; 225). In writing about tea, many Chinese poets use elaborate, colorful imagery and allusions to literature, art, or mythology. In his poem Brewing Tea at the Examination Hall, which exemplifies the thematization of tea drinking, Su Shi ( ) writes: The crab eyes [i.e., the froth in the boiling tea] having passed, fish eyes emerge;/ The pine wind [i.e., the sounds of the boiling tea] soughing./ Fine pearls drop from the tea grinds./ Flying snow circles the tea pot,/ The silver pot pours out tea (1994, vol. 1, p. 70). In his poem Echoing Secretary Zhang

8 74 PAN Fall 2003 Min s A Song of Tea Contest The Song dynasty scholar Fan Zhongyan ( ) recounts a popular literati activity known as dou-cha (lit. tea contest), in which tea drinkers compared the quality of their own tea and brewing water, their etiquettes of making tea, and their poems composed while drinking tea (Shu, 1997, p ). In Cao Xueqin s novel A Dream of Red Mansions, tea drinking is featured in plot, theme development, and characterization (Gao, 1989, p. 144). The enormous popularity and influence of this literary masterpiece has helped turn tea drinking into an elaborate aesthetic system as part of a genteel culture. Tea is integral to the Chinese spirit (Carpenter, 1974, p. 3), and tea drinking has become a social institution in China (Lin, 1937, p. 221). Tea drinking is also aestheticized into a popular art of exquisite taste. In present day Beijing, the Lao She Teahouse was opened in homage to the renowned modern writer Lao She ( ), who was also a sophisticated tea drinker, and such eponymy evokes an intellectual ambience in this preferred drinking space. The southeastern tourist city of Hangzhou is noted for its top grade tea named after the Dragon Well, an ideal water source for growing tea. In this city, tea houses in various elegant styles blend into the scenic totality surrounding picturesque West Lake, which itself is a favorite subject for Chinese poets. The interiors of these tony teahouses are decorated with poems and paintings along with exquisite displays of tea équipage (also inscribed with poems and paintings) and performances of tea ceremony to the accompaniment of music. Every year after the spring tea harvest, some teahouses even hold demonstrations of manual tea-processing (i.e., hand-roasting in a heated wok), during which an aesthetic resonance occurs between the dexterous tea worker and the freshly picked sensitive tea leaves. Such a milieu cultivates a natural as well as a cultural beauty that elevates tea drinking to a holistic aesthetic pursuit. In recent years China has made an attempt to further globalize tea drinking as a cultural event, and this year has seen it hosting the Tenth International Festival of Tea Culture in Shanghai and the Second Chinese Tea Saint Festival (in homage to Lu Yü) in the neighboring city of Hangzhou. Conclusion The aestheticization of eating and drinking has figured prominently in traditional Chinese culture for centuries. Such a practice facilitates the communion and union of the arts, its dynamics having been preserved in Chinese communities overseas when asceticism was the order of the day in mainland China during the Mao era. As part of social mores, gastronomy is necessarily inscribed with the codes and values of a culture, but to some extent it also transcends ideology and politics. In China today gastronomic sensibilities permeate people s collective consciousness, as the indulgence of appetites is a highly visible, even flamboyant, aspect of a growing consumer regime (Farquhar, 2002, p. 3). Ironically, this is taking place when food shortage and malnutrition among part of the population remain a burning issue undermining public health and social stability. Some Chinese epidemiologists even suspect a possible connection between the recent SARS epidemic and the trendy consumption (banned by the government) of certain wild animals, which may be the carriers and transmitters of deadly germs. Despite this, the cultivation of an aesthetic awareness in food production and consumption in Chinese culture continues to contribute to the constant refinement of Chinese gastronomy, serving as a key to understanding the historical development of this time-honored art. The representation of eating and drinking in Chinese literature and art not only adds one more interartistic dimension to traditional Chinese aesthetics but also provides valuable crosscultural and interartistic perspectives for the contemporary study of gastronomic culture and the semiotics of food and eating. In discussing the globalization of Chinese cuisine, Wu and Cheung also suggest its global implications. One the one hand, Chinese cuisine is often perceived as a representative of Chinese culture, or an authentic cultural marker (2002, p.

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