Of Tripod and Palate Food, Politics, and Religion in Traditional China

by Sterckx, Roel

• ISBN13: 9781403963376
• ISBN10: 1403963371
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-10-07
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The offering of sacrifices, the banqueting of guests, and the ritual preparation, prohibition or consumption of food and drink were central elements in each of ancient China's three main religious traditions: the Classicist (Confucian) tradition, religious Daoism, and Buddhism. In Of Tripod and Palate, leading scholars examine the relationship between secular and religious food culture in ancient China from various perspectives.

Author Biography

Roel Sterckx is University Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the East Asia Institute in the University of Cambridge.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	1	(8)
Roel Sterckx
Moonshine and Millet: Feasting and Purification Rituals in Ancient China	9	(25)
Constance A. Cook
Food and Philosophy in Early China	34	(28)
Roel Sterckx
When Princes Awake in Kitchens: Zhuangzi's Rewriting of a Culinary Myth	62	(13)
Romain Graziani
The Offering of Food and the Creation of Order: The Practice of Sacrifice in Early China	75	(21)
Michael Puett
Eating Better than Gods and Ancestors	96	(27)
Robert F. Company
A Taste of Happiness: Contextualizing Elixirs in Baopuzi	123	(17)
Poo Mu-chou
Feasting Without the Victuals: The Evolution of the Daoist Communal Kitchen	140	(23)
Terry F. Kleeman
Pleasure, Prohibition, and Pain: Food and Medicine in Traditional China	163	(23)
Vivienne Lo
Buddhist Vegetarianism in China	186	(27)
John Kieschnick
Buddhism, Alcohol, and Tea in Medieval China	213	(24)
James A. Benn
The Beef Taboo and the Sacrificial Structure of Late Imperial Chinese Society	237	(12)
Vincent Goossaert
About the Contributors	249	(2)
Index	251