英文摘要
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In culturology, food and the act of eating are full of social and cultural meanings. The reception of food and drink is related to the mechanism of social culture cultivating, and this could be seen as a microcosm of the whole society. The situation of food and drink at Northern Sung Dynasty has its time background as presented in Meng Yuan-Lao's ”The Dream of Hua in the Eastern Capital,” Coming from all directions, communicating with every country. The delicacies from many seas belong to the market; the different food from the universe is in the kitchen. This is the prosperous image of the capital, and at that time the writing of food and drink from the literati are just like the encyclopedia; they liked to find out the origin of the food material with poetry and articles; also added the historical perspective, including the environmental depiction of economics, agriculture, and culture of the time.
Through the description of Southern food and drink from the literati of Northern Sung Dynasty, we can tell that the acceptation of Southern food represents the development of the South and the acceptation of Southern culture. No matter they feared for the assimilation or enjoyed to be like Southern people, when they were eating Southern food, facing the Southern environment and diet, this is how they viewing the South, facing the South, the space different from Central Plains in culture and politics, the real Southern experience and the imagined South. They got close to the South through food and drink, and displayed their relationship with the South in their discourse on food and drink.
This research focus on ”food and drink,” but not studying the cooking skill at that time, instead, exploring how Southern food appeared on the dinning table of the literati, from raw and astringent to sweet and refreshing; and how these delicacies bred by this scary land tamed the taste of the Northern people, furthermore, to arouse Sung people pondering on the issue of food and drink and life; to open the aesthetic thinking from the sense of taste. Southern food didn't merely feed the Sung people, but also provide the cultural reflection on the Southern nature, climate, food and drink, and the transportation of the food. In addition, this research also discusses the subtle feelings of the Southern literati, who came to Central Plains with the Southern commodity, and how they view the South which nurtured them.
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