Brief introduction of sauce culture

Our Chinese nation is the first nation to master fermentation technology in human history. Our ancestors widely used fermented salt-made food "sugar" made of various animal and plant materials. According to scientific research, "sugar" is a general term for sauce food by ancient ancestors in China. In other words, people at that time used beans and wheat flour as raw materials to make koji, and then added salt to make "China sauce", which was unique and charming in the history of human fermented food. This great innovation of our ancient ancestors has deeply influenced the diet life of the Chinese nation for thousands of years until now. It has also deeply influenced many countries and nationalities in the vast area of the whole eastern world. This influence even goes far beyond this geographical scope in history. Thus, the "China sauce culture" with a long history, rich forms, profound connotation, wide spread and great influence was formed. Today, our understanding of "sauce culture" can be summarized as follows: "Chinese sauce" is a fermented food with soybean as the main raw material and fermented by adding salt. "China sauce culture" is the sum total of customs, ideas, behaviors and other related things that people gradually formed in the process of making and using sauce. Observing the historical changes of China sauce culture from a big space-time and perspective is not only conducive to understanding the occurrence, development and morphological law of China food culture represented by China sauce culture, but also of great significance to a deeper understanding of the broader social and cultural life of the Chinese nation.

From "sugar" to "sauce"

When discussing "China sauce" and "China sauce culture", it is natural to start with "sugar". The so-called "sugar" and "Shuowen": "sugar, meat sauce is also". According to Zhou Li Tianguan's record: "I am the Lord of Four Beans, I am the Lord of Four Beans, I am the Lord of Four Beans, I am the Lord of Four Beans, I am the Lord of Four Beans, I am the Lord of Four Beans, I am the Lord of Four Beans. Note: Anyone who makes mash must first dry its meat, then lick it, mix it with Liangqu and salt, dip it in fine wine, and put it in the pot 100 day. Zheng Sinong said, "No bones." "Fermented meat paste" is fermented meat paste in a small jar. In other words, at the beginning, most of the sauces made by our ancestors were fermented with animal meat and put in jars.

There are many descriptions and records of Qin in the Pre-Qin Classic, such as Zhou Li, Yi Li, Book of Rites, Zuo Zhuan in the Spring and Autumn Period, Yang Gongzhuan in the Spring and Autumn Period, Liang Zhuan in the Spring and Autumn Period and The Book of Songs. According to Zhou Li, every time Emperor Zhou had a dinner party, he had to fill it with 60 kinds of "sugar" according to the system. In addition, Zhou Li's titles of "doctor" and "chef" also mentioned "a hundred shames and a hundred sauces" and "twenty jars and a hundred sauces" respectively. Today, however, we haven't seen the exact names of these 60 kinds of sauces, 100 kinds of sauces or 120 kinds of sauces. In Zheng Xuan's words, at that time, "it was impossible for reporters to record it twice, but there were things they had never heard of." But it also tells us clearly that as early as 3,000 years ago in ancient times, the sauces in China people's lives were already very rich.

Sauce Culture and Salt Culture in China

As a salty sauce and other salty foods, there is no doubt that it is inseparable from the necessary salty seasoning-salt. People's daily diet and life are inseparable from salt (as are other animals), and the invention of sauce food is obviously based on this life demand and life dependence. It is actually a necessity, which will appear in human daily life sooner or later. However, this kind of invention or appearance will not be an equal opportunity for all mankind, but should be first recognized and mastered in a special ecological environment. It is not difficult for us to realize that the existence of sauce foods has at least the following three effects on the lives of people who own them: first, the need for salt in daily diet; Second, salty food (also salty seasoning) is abundant; The third is the need to preserve food raw materials (salting and salt storage). It is the ancestor of salt sources near the seaside or land (such as pool salt, lake salt, rock salt, earth salt, well salt, etc.). ), it is not difficult to understand and obtain natural salt materials, but they just use natural salt sources conveniently. However, if this godsend opportunity is too convenient, it is likely to limit the way and direction of people's thinking and behavior in a certain sense. On the contrary, only those efforts to overcome many difficulties can be finally realized, and people's ideological wisdom and creativity can be more fully stimulated. According to the records of historical documents and the study of prehistory, the ancestors of the Chinese nation, the Yanhuang people in the cultural belt of the Yellow River Valley in China, are such an early group of human civilization. As a result, the salt in their hands has brought the above three functions to the extreme of history.

Because salt is an indispensable daily necessity for people, the fact that almost all the regimes in the history of China monopolized the production and management of salt also indirectly proved this point. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the state clearly formulated that "anyone who dares to add salt cast iron privately will lick his left toe and disappear into his device." A strictly forbidden law. However, salt is a substance that is easy to absorb moisture and deliquesce, which increases the difficulty of storage. The edible salt preserved in ancient families was mainly preserved in relatively closed coarse pottery, because the seepage prevention function of cheap pottery could avoid the loss of deliquescent salt. In order not to waste any salt, the poor even adopted the method of completely dissolving salt in water, so that only the right amount of salt water was used when cooking. Until today, when I visited some rural areas and remote mountainous areas, I can still see such a scene. Salt is so precious, so it is undoubtedly a very desirable and ingenious method to use soy sauce to maximize the preservation of salt and give full play to its edible function. Another important factor, perhaps more important, is that as early as in the early history, people competed for food in the Central Plains of the Yellow River Basin in China. Because it is probably because of this invisible huge hand that a common attempt to preserve food with salt was launched in an all-round way very early, so various salted foods appeared one after another, and the most primitive "sauce" came into being. It turns out that the sauce food "sugar" is mainly derived from various animal raw materials, which should be enough to explain the purpose of preserving important ingredients. That is to say, with the rapid development of primitive agriculture and the use of pottery (even earlier other natural utensils), the earliest China sauce may have appeared in the daily life of our ancestors. The evolution of the word "sauce" is just enough to show that China sauce, a cereal raw material, is separated from "sugar", and the history of its leap-forward development is completely credible. The original "sauce" is synonymous with "sugar". Therefore, sauce culture and salt culture in China are complementary and interdependent.

The beans and salt used to make sauces are also important issues in the study of China sauce culture. In the history of China, the state power of past dynasties almost invariably carried out a monopoly policy on salt. Because salt is a necessity for people all over the world to live on, and it is inseparable from a meal, it naturally becomes the most reliable, extensive and lasting source of fiscal and taxation imposed on people by those who have the power to rule the people. However, because sauce is the absolute dependence of ordinary people who are poor and have almost nothing, ensuring the supply of salt when people make sauce naturally becomes the basic policy of the rulers' political needs. Therefore, although Wang Mang, the supreme king in troubled times, also told the world that "husband's salt is the master of food and vegetables", he tried his best to ensure the market demand (Volume 24 of Hanshu Shihuozhi). "A hundred sauces, a hundred flavors." This long-standing folk proverb shows China people's deep dependence on sauce, and also shows the subtle changes and subtle differences in flavor and taste of China sauce under the conditions of manual operation and experience. Sauce-making is also an important task in the history of China and a great achievement of women. Making delicious sauce is an important symbol of being a "good wife" and an excellent "householder", and it is also an important skill to win a good reputation for yourself and your family.

The Evolution and Development of China Sauce Culture

The brewing technology of China sauce has experienced a very slow historical evolution. Of course, the sauce-making technology of prehistoric Yanhuang ancestors was primitive, and simple pickling should be its basic feature. The brewing technology of China sauce in pre-Qin period should be understood in all kinds of "sugar". Shuowen is interpreted as "meat sauce". Sauce, "Shuowen" is interpreted as: "Yi also, from meat, unitary, wine, sauce also." "Oh, yes, it can be wine in August." Wine, too ... from water. Paragraph note: "No need for meat" in the pre-Qin period; "Take millet as wine"; Take the spring as the moon. In other words, sugar in the pre-Qin period was basically made of various meat raw materials (adding appropriate amount of grain flour) and wine. The proper amount of rice flour (mainly millet flour at that time) here is to promote fermentation, while wine is to effectively master fermentation (of course, rice flour and wine also have the meaning of taste and mouthfeel). This method can still be found in our field trip today. A few years ago, the author pleasantly tasted Li Jia's fish: fresh fish was cut clean, wrapped in glutinous rice, mixed with wine, salt and other materials, put into a ventilated and drained jar, and slowly fermented. This is the "Fu" repeatedly mentioned in China's ancient literature, and it is also the basic brewing technology of Qin in the pre-Qin period. People in the Han dynasty said that "sauce is made of beans", which means that meat is basically replaced by beans.