What foods are used as our staple food?

1. Rice

Today, rice is the most important staple food for Chinese people. But before the Tang and Song dynasties, rice was not the most important food crop. The rise of rice can be seen as a gradual shift of Chinese civilization from the Yellow River region in the northwest to the Yangtze River region in the southeast. As the proportion of rice in the staple food of the Chinese rose, the center of economic gravity gradually shifted from the arid Loess Plateau to the humid middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

In comparison with crops such as corn, beans and millet, which were mainly grown in the north, rice had a higher and more stable yield per acre, and the agricultural potential of the south, centered on rice fields, was more developed. With the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty and other southern regimes to bring a large number of northern population of the development of the fields of Jiangnan, Jiangnan region gradually become the source of the world's taxes. The New Book of the Tang Dynasty makes it clear that Guanzhong is known as a fertile field, but the output is not enough to give the capital ..... The corn in the south-east is transferred to the canal. The corn mentioned here is obviously referring to the high quality rice produced in the southeast.

2, barley and wheat

Whether wild barley and wheat were imported from Central Asia, there is no clear conclusion. But it is certain that the large-scale cultivation and processing technology of double wheat and Central Asia have some connection. Therefore, barley and wheat were not commonly grown in most northern regions until the Han Dynasty.

The advantage of wheat is that it has a different growth cycle from that of corn and millet, providing life-saving rations when grains such as corn and millet are green. The development of production technology in the Han Dynasty solved the problem of irrigation and milling necessary to grow wheat, which is the rapid spread of wheat cultivation. However, in the Han Dynasty, pasta was still the exclusive property of the rich and powerful, and the common people could only eat the cooked wheat rice made from hulled barley.

3, soybeans

In prehistoric times, soybeans were mainly grown in the northeast of China. With the continuous selection of human breeding culture, soybean in the oily components continue to increase. To the Warring States period, the ancients called "beans" soybean began to replace the millet, known as and corn alongside the important crops.

In the works of the Hundred Schools of Thought, the existence of beans and corn is almost always mentioned when talking about agriculture. In "Mozi", it is mentioned that the cultivation of crops, trees and art gather beans and corn. In Xunzi, it is mentioned that businessmen and industrialists do not cultivate fields but gather beans and millet. In the Warring States period, beans and millet were synonymous with food.

4, corn

Corn is the first important crop domesticated by the Chinese, the wild species of which is widely distributed in the Chinese region of the dogwood. Today, some history books will be corn and millet side by side. In fact, the two are not exactly the same. Corn's seeds have a hard shell and are called millet after they are hulled, while millet's seeds are sticky when cooked and are often called yellow rice today.

Because corn is protected by a hard shell, it can be stored for a long time, which is extremely important for primitive Chinese society with low productivity. The Book of Agriculture of the Yuan Dynasty records that among the five grains, only corn is resistant to aging. The hard shell of corn can prevent mold, insects and corruption, which is conducive to long-term storage. Today's archaeological excavations often find pre-Qin and even the Stone Age stored corn.

5, taro

The tuberous roots of plants such as potatoes and taro are eaten only as vegetables today. But they were indeed one of the earliest staple foods in China, bar none. Even before China's ancestors successfully domesticated dogwood for corn and wild rice, they learned to grow root tubers to eat as a staple food. The modern Taiwanese aborigines, before they came into contact with the Han Chinese, grew taro for a living.

The large ones weighed seven or eight pounds and were eaten by burying the taro in ashes and simmering them, then gathering the whole community to share them. Examples of living on root tubers are common in tribes throughout China that still maintain a primitive state of life. There are many advantages to using root tubers as a crop, such as the simplicity of growing them, the ease of cooking them, and the high starch content that provides energy. The disadvantages are that native Chinese root tubers contain more water and are difficult to store.