The Origin of Tasting the New Year Festival

The Taste the New Festival, commonly known as the "Eat the New Festival", is a traditional festival of the Gelao, Miao, Buyi, Bai and Zhuang ethnic groups in Hunan, Guizhou and Gui provinces and regions. It is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. The festival is held on a date in the sixth or seventh month of the summer calendar every year when new grains are put on the field. Before the festival, housewives go to the fields to pick new grain and pound fragrant white rice. On the morning of the festival, the housewives steam the new rice and cook the fresh fish, invite the old guests and bring the children to the fields to worship their ancestors, and then the whole family gathers for a meal to wish for a good harvest.

Taste the new festival to put the earth cannon, firecrackers to sweep the village, play Nuo opera, singing songs, playing martial arts, the old man is a sieve with chicken, meat, wine, will be bolted with red peppers and green garlic bamboo poles inserted in the fields to show that send ancestor Bi. During the festival, the Gelao people also hold life release activities, mainly for wild animals and fish. Today, the Gelao villages of Anshun Xixiuwanzizhai and Pingba Dagouchang are the most solemn in the Eat New Festival.

Festival Ceremony Editor

The Tasting Festival,

The Tasting Festival

Commonly known as the "Eating Festival", Gelao and Miao, Buyi, Bai, Zhuang traditional festivals, especially Gelao for the prevalence. The time is the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar every year.

First, a village old man or a ghost master leads children to the nearby fields to pick new, pick some ripe grains and fruits and hang them under the ancient trees, then kill pigs, sheep and chickens, and use whole chickens, pig's head, goat's head, nine bunches of pork and twenty-four bowls of rice to offer sacrifices to the ancestors and the gods. The clansmen are arranged in order of seniority and kneel down to worship their ancestors, and the ghost teacher recites the Gelao language and uses a bamboo whip to point to the five grains and six animals to teach them how to read, and the people follow the instructions as if they were students.

2 festival activities editor

Taste of new festival festival festival, firecrackers, firecrackers to sweep the village, perform Nuo opera, singing songs, playing martial arts, Zhai old man is a sieve with chicken, meat, wine, will be bolted with red peppers and green garlic of bamboo poles inserted in the fields, to show that send ancestor Bi. During the festival, the Gelao people also hold life release activities, mainly for wild animals and fish. Today, Anshun Xixiuwanzizhai, Pingba Dagouchang and other Gelao villages have the grandest Eat New Festival. [1]

3Festival Time Editor

The seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, and

Tasting the new festival

The festival is called "Tasting the new festival", "half a year of the festival", tasting the new, the Bai people's language called " Ingo top". It is a grand festival in the countryside. Farmers from the field to pick a little will be ripe rice ears, rolled into rice grains, boiled into new rice, kill chickens and ducks, held a family feast, called the taste of the new. Before the feast, the rice is first offered to heaven and earth, sacrificed to ancestors, and then the new rice is fed to the dog, and then the new rice is tasted according to the order of elders and children in the family. Folklore has it that the rice seed was stolen from heaven. At that time, there was no rice in the world. The dog ran across the ocean to the sky, in the grain seed rolled, covered with sticky grain, back to float in the river in heaven, the body of the grain was washed away by the water, only cocked his tail left a few grains of grain, brought back to the earth, only after the rice.

The first yellow rice ears of the mid-autumn season, the Bai farmers and joyful celebration of the national agricultural festival Taste of the New Festival, "the first to enjoy" with hard work and sweat for the fruits of labor.

A few days before the Taste of the New Festival, the newly-dressed sisters-in-law and girls-in-law, wearing straw hats and carrying bamboo baskets, went to the paddy fields to pick early, plentiful rice ears. Before going to the fields, they also light red incense and stick it on the ridges of the fields.

4Historical Legends Editor

Legend has it that in the ancient times, floods inundated the sky, flooding the world, and all things became extinct. The founder of the Yi tribe, A

Taste of New Year Festival

The Duke siblings, with their own puppy and a rooster, hid in a gourd and drifted in the flooded sky, and finally drifted to the Willow Tree Bay by the sea of Polo after a long time of hardship. To the flood receded, A Duk siblings hiding gourd hanging in the willow tree, when the cock crows and barks the day breaks dawn, from the early side of the fly a hawk, pecked through the gourd, A Duk siblings were able to return to life. From then on, the human world can continue. After the dangers of A Duk siblings surprised to find, in the dog's tail on the fluff is still sticking a few grains of grain, in the dog's bladder under the two lentils, the original is the arrival of the flood, the dog once climbed to the pile of grains on the play play on the stick. As a result of the dog's work, the world's grain species did not flood the sky and extinction, people's livelihood to continue. Since then, the Yi people regard the dog as the embodiment of good fortune, life-saving partner. Carefully fed on weekdays, go out to work and pastoral farming accompanied, and avoid eating dog meat. Whenever the annual festival or major festivals, we must first feed the dog, and then people can eat. At home, the Yi people on the rooster is also very dear to the dawn, as long as the festivals or hunting on the mountain, we must first look at the chicken Gua prediction of good or bad luck before traveling. They believe that the chicken know the morning know the time, can be forewarned, have predicted the future instincts of good and bad luck. Legends of the She People: Among the rituals of the She People, the most anthropological one is the Taste of the New Festival because

The Taste of the New Festival

it involves the myth of the origin of the rice plant. In this legend, rice was originally pearl rice from heaven. Unable to bear to see his people feeding themselves on a hundred herbs, the founder of the She tribe, Pan Gou, stole back the rice from heaven. Unexpectedly, his behavior was known to the Jade Emperor, and he sent heavenly soldiers and generals after him. Disc Gourd fought with them and was finally knocked down the cliff of Phoenix Mountain in Chaozhou, falling to his death on a big tree and scattering the rice. At that time, a sparrow flew to the tree and took away the rice, but the sparrow accidentally dropped the rice in a rock crevice. Another leech crawled into the rock crevice and stuck to the rice seed with the mucus on its body, eventually bringing it to the earth.

Watching the rice turn yellow and ripe in the field, the Third Princess, wife of Pan Gourd, spoke up: "This rice seed is what the late king sacrificed his life for, and he should be allowed to taste the new rice first!" Since then, the She people have had the custom of the Tasting of the New Festival, where the first bowl of rice would be offered to the ancestor Panzai to taste after the rice harvest, and sparrows and leeches were given some special privileges because of their service to mankind.

When I first encountered this myth, I didn't pay much attention to it, but later I read in Lu Shi Chun Qiu (The Spring and Autumn Annals of Lu Shi) that the son of heaven used a dog to taste the rice and realized that this was an important ritual for the gods during the month of Meng Qiu in ancient times. Today, people may have forgotten the connection between dogs and rice, but the ritual of "tasting rice with a dog" has survived. In many places, new rice is offered to the gods and ancestors, and then to the dog, before the whole family gathers for a meal.

The festival of tasting new rice and its legend reveal that the She people are one of the oldest rice-cultivating peoples. Judging from the excavations of cultural sites such as Hemudu and the Huaihe River Valley, China has at least 8,000 years of rice-cultivation history as the origin of rice. During this long history, a brilliant rice culture has been created, which constitutes an important part of the Chinese civilization, and the original creator of this culture has a great relationship with the Dongyi ethnic group, which is probably the source of the She ethnic group.

5 Folklore Edit

The Bai People

In the mid-autumn when the ears of rice are first yellowed, the Bai farmers celebrate the Taste of the New Festival, an agricultural festival of the Bai people, with great joy.

The Taste of the New Festival

The Taste of the New Festival

The Taste of the New Festival is the first time that a person has a chance to enjoy a meal in the middle of autumn. "The first enjoyment" with hard sweat for the fruit of labor. It is also called "Ingo Top" in Baihua.

A few days before the Taste of the New Festival, dressed in a new aunt and sister-in-law, girls and daughters-in-law, wearing straw hats, wearing a bamboo basket, to the rice paddies to pick early, plentiful rice ears. Before going to the fields, they also put red incense on the ridges of the paddy fields. So, the harvest is expected on the field, the smoke curls floating, laughter ripples ......

People pick back to the paddy after drying, then use the water pestle pounding. In these days, the sound of pounding rice in some villages is like a rhythmic, harmonious and pleasant music in the fields.

On the day of Taste the New Festival, middle-aged and old people, children and teenagers, like to be in the village under the green tree, or listen to people singing Dabenqu, or watch people playing the whip; young men and women like to go to the lakeshore, the field, accompanied by a dragon's head sanxian singing tunes; Housewives of the families, at home to cook the new rice, do "eight bowls".

As the sun sets over the mountains and the shadows scatter, people carry feasts and light incense, and first go to the fields to sacrifice to the "God of the fields" and "God of the grains", and then go home to sacrifice to the "King of the Zaos" and "King of the Lianzhu", and then go home to sacrifice to the "King of the Zaos". Then they go home and offer sacrifices to "Zao Wang Fu Jun" and "Lian Zu Lian Zong". After that, they sit around the table and have dinner.

Dinner on the Taste of the New Year Festival is very rich. Such Bai flavorful delicacies as pork ribs stewed with lotus beans, white papaya chicken, loach drilled with tofu, fried milk

The Taste of New Year Festival

fans and other delicacies can be found on the tables of many families.

There is no fixed day for the Bai people to celebrate the Taste the New Festival. It is determined by the ripening of the rice crop and which villages or families celebrate the festival on which day.

The custom of the Bai people to taste the new festival has a long history, the Ming Dynasty scholar Xie Zhaoxiang in his "Dianliu - customs", wrote this text, "the turn of summer and fall, rice to the immature, the first to take its young ears, flat and drying, feed to the relatives, called the taste of the new."

Over the years, which family's responsible field planted well, what new varieties have been selected, what measures to increase production, often become a hot topic of conversation on the day of the festival.

The Zhuang

The festival is held every year in the seventh and eighth months of the lunar calendar, when the new grains are ripe. Generally single-family, but also invited neighboring friends and relatives to come together. On the day of the new tasting, every family cooks large amounts of new rice and hearty dishes. Early in the morning, women go to the fields to cut green rice leaves and offer them to the shrine, offer prepared food and fruits, burn incense and light oil lamps. When everything is ready, the dog is called to the shrine, a large spoonful of fresh rice is scooped, a little of each dish is given, and in appreciation for his work, he is allowed to eat his fill first on this day as a reward.

Jingpo

The Jingpo New Tasting Festival, commonly known as "Eating New Grains", was originally a primitive religious festival held by the Jingpo people after the grains were basically ripe before the fall harvest. When tasting the new, the tribes, villages and communities of the masses gathered in the official home; as a taste of the new grain of the elderly women dressed in full dress; used to put the rice in the bamboo basket, surrounded by rice, beans, sorghum, and colorful flowers embellishments. The collected rice is covered with large, round green leaves on top and carried to the official's house, where it is first fried in a pot by the older women, then pounded in a hand pestle and pestle by the girl, and the pounded rice is mixed with ginger before the sorcerer presides over the rituals,

Sorcerer Presides Over Rituals

The sorcerer gives thanks to the various gods for the reward of the bountiful harvests. After the sacrifice, the shaman throws small packets of new grains and vegetables wrapped in green leaves on the spot, meant to be shared by the wild spirits. The reason for the small packages is to prevent the many spirits from snatching the offerings. When tasting the new rice, although all the men, women and children of the village come to participate, each person can only share a small package of new rice, and when cooking, the main addition of old rice as a supplement. When the new tasting ceremony held in the home of the mountain official or head of the end of the new tasting ceremony, the masses only formally began to taste the new.

After 1980, some Jingpo areas resumed the Tasting Festival, which is usually held in August and September of the lunar calendar. Before the start of the sickle, the owner cuts some new grain, carries it home respectfully, and offers it to the "ghost house". Offerings include eggs, wine and rice cakes. A sorcerer is asked to pray to the "Jadang Ghost" and other ghosts to protect the grain from disasters before it is received at home. After the prayers, the offerings are shared between the shaman and the old man. For the main meal, the dog is fed first, and then the family and guests eat. The reason for this is that, according to legend, the dog brought down the grain seeds from the sky, and the dog did a great job, so people treat the dog with extra favor.

The Dong people

"June 6, early harvest ripe". In the Dong ethnic area, this day is the festival of tasting the new, and some places choose auspicious days to taste the new. The festival is the same as the festival in the Dong ethnic area, and the content of the festival is very similar to that of the festival. On the day of the festival, the dog is the guest of honor, the new rice

Dong

Rice is cooked, so that the dog tasted after the talent to taste. Because legend has it that in ancient times, the flooding, the extinction of the grain seed, is a white dog across the ocean, in the Queen Mother of the West of the Sun Valley Ping played a roll, full of sticky grain, in the back of the body of the grain is washed away by the water, only the dog cocked in the water at the tip of the tail with a few grains of grain. Humans rely on these few grains to develop to the present day. In order not to forget the dog's contribution, therefore the dog is invited to taste the new grain first when it comes on the scene.

Achang

The Achang people in the Lianghe and Longchuan areas also have the habit of tasting the new festival on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Lunar Calendar, the day of the festival, we should go to the ground to pull a canopy of taro with the most seeds, cut a double ears of corn, bundled on a bamboo stick, placed in the corner of the house, and then pounded the new rice to make rice, the rice is cooked to the first bowl of feed the dog, and then the whole family gathered together for a meal.

The fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar is the day of the full moon, but also the Yi family's traditional Taste of the New Festival, which is called "Cutting Play for Pu" in Yi. At this time the field of early rice has ripened, people take back the new grain, dry and clean, with a scorn hoard Luo storage. The day of the festival must be spring new rice, taste the new festival. If you meet the rainy weather, with the kangzhang dry, with mortar and pestle mortar spring new rice, to ensure that the festival to eat new rice.

Yi people

Yi family members in the "tasting new festival before eating, first to scoop a big bowl of rice to feed the family dog, and then people can start to eat tasting new rice. This custom has an unusual origin. Legend has it that in ancient times, floods inundated the sky, killing and destroying everything in the world. Yi ancestor A

Yi

Du siblings with their own dog and a rooster, in the flooding days to hide in the gourd drifting, after all the hardship and finally drifted to the Polo sea Willow Bay. To the flood receded, A Duk siblings hiding gourd hanging in the willow tree, when the five night cock crows and barks the day breaks dawn, from the early side of the fly a hawk, pecked through the gourd, A Duk siblings were able to survive, and from now on the human world can continue. After the escape A Duke siblings surprised to find, in the dog's tail fluff still sticking a few grains of grain, in the dog's bladder under the two lentils, the original is the flood came before, the dog once climbed to the pile of grains on the playful play on the stick. As a result of the dog's work, the world's grains and cereals did not flood the sky and extinction, the livelihood of people to continue. From then on, the Yi people regard the dog as the embodiment of good fortune, life-saving partner. They feed their dogs carefully on weekdays, go out to work and farm with them, and avoid eating dog meat. Whenever, annual festivals or major festivals, we have to feed the dog first, and then people can eat. At home, the Yi people on the sound of dawn rooster is also very precious, as long as it is a festival or hunting on the mountain, we must first look at the chicken Gua prediction of good or bad luck before traveling. They believe that the chicken know the morning know the time, can be forewarned have predicted the future instincts of good and bad luck and misfortune.

Yi festival slaughter chicken dinner, chicken Gua should be respected by the elders of the tribe peeling food to see Gua, if there are guests from afar with the table, chicken Gua, must be flicked in the guest bowl, to show respect for the guests.

The Yi people are also fond of gourd and willow, willow tree as an auspicious tree, the gourd as a cult; eagle's claw as a ritual practice to drive away the evil important tools. The Yi believe that the eagle has saved mankind, and the sharp eagle's claws can pierce the evil, dispel the evil and promote the good, and have boundless magic power. The Yi people have tasted the new rice festival, to take back the married girl, invited the elders of the clan, friends and relatives invited each other, kill chickens and slaughter sheep, to celebrate the harvest, to taste the new rice.

When the Yi people eat new rice, the elders are honored, guests first, elders and guests to sit in the center of the main hall, "on the eight", first by the elders to raise the cups and marigolds, the younger generation can only end the bowl to take the chopsticks, otherwise it will be regarded as a respect for the elders and guests disrespect. During the Yi girls will take advantage of you, intimate to your bowl full of new rice, signaling that you eat and drink enough, but avoid spilling waste.

The night, men, women and children in the bright moonlight, play the gourd sheng, flute Lu, play the big three strings, around the campfire dancing up a cheerful "Chetogu". Unmarried young men and women then meet in pairs, blowing willow leaves, singing love songs, holding hands in the quiet village side of the bamboo forest between the rendezvous .......

Lahu

The Taste the New Festival is a traditional festival of the Lahu people, Lahu transliteration "Za Si Ou Za", meaning new rice festival, held in July and August of the lunar calendar, the festival period of one day. The festival is held in July and August of the lunar calendar and lasts for one day. During the harvesting season of Lahu villages, whoever's grains are ripe first will hold the activity of eating new rice first. On this day, the host family will kill pigs and slaughter chickens, and invite neighbors, relatives and friends to come together to taste the new rice and sumptuous food and wine. Before the feast, incense and wax are lit, a bowl of new rice is offered to the god of heaven, Ursa, and the gods and spirits of the ancestors, then a bowl of new rice is offered to the dog, and after that new rice is offered to the livestock and farm equipment.

Legend has it that Ursa created the ancestors of Lahu, Zadi and Nadi, and according to Ursa's will, the two of them got married and reproduced their offspring. At that time, people didn't have grains to eat, and only ate dirt to survive. Ursa sent dogs to bring grains to the people and taught them how to plant them. The Lahu people were so grateful to Ursa that every year when new rice was produced, the first thing they did was to offer it to Ursa and to the spirits of their ancestors. Lahu people also can't forget the dog, the first bowl of new rice to give the dog to eat.

Yao people

The Yao people have many folk festivals, such as Panwang Festival, Song Festival, New Tasting Festival, Bullfighting Festival, Women's Festival and so on. Each festival contains rich connotation and meaning. For example, the Panwang Festival and the Song Festival are both held in honor of Panwang, who is said to be the ancestor of the Yao people. Every year, on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, which is said to be the birthday of King Pan Gu, the Yao family will sing "Pan Wang Song" to praise the kindness of King Pan Gu, so it is also called the "singing festival".

The sixth day of the sixth month of June is the Yao's Taste of the New Festival, the day of the festival, the earliest ripe buds, rice, etc., picked off the rice made into a meal first fed to the dog, and then the whole family can eat. This is because according to legend, the grains are brought by dogs. It is said that a long time ago, the ancestors of the Yao people in their migration, due to wind and waves, the boat was overturned, and all the food fell into the sea. Just when people for the future life of the hair of knowledge, someone surprised from the dog's tail found a few grains of grain seed, so it planted in the ground, carefully cared for, after the fall harvested a lot of grain, Yao people through the difficult times. So in order to remember the kindness of the dog, people naturally cook rice and give it to the dog first as a reward.

"Women's Day" is the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar every year, Yao women to do a good job of plantain poop, give each other to taste, as a way to remember the reproduction of Yao descendants of the Panjin sister of the festival.

The Lisu

Taste of the New Festival - Yunnan Dehong Lisu customs, Yunnan Dehong Lisu broad festival, the ancient Lisu people moved into Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province, has been more than two hundred years, although with the Dehong Jingpo, Achang, Dai, Han and other ethnic groups living together, but still retains a unique customs. The Dehong Lisu Cuoshi Festival is the grandest festival of the year, which directly translates to New Year, and is rich in activities. Dehong Lisu Broad Time Festival on New Year's Eve, the old man to wine, meat, poop and other food offerings to heaven and earth ancestor spirits, symbolically in the fireplace tripod, door, columns, each sticking a little food; in order to thank the ploughing oxen a year of hard work and the ancestors of the family dog to bring the seeds of mankind, please taste a little of the New Year's Day food first. On New Year's Day, people sing and dance all day long, playing musical instruments such as the sanxian, gimenxian, sheng, flute, etc., and men, women, and children are all on the stage in an atmosphere of wine and poetry. On the second day of the New Year, target shooting and hunting activities are held and then the new year's labor can begin. Some of the larger villages, in the Dehong Lisu broad season during the festival also erected swings, men, women, children and old people play for ten days and a half months.

The Dehong Lisu broad festival in the old days, due to the people living in poverty and living scattered, the scene is not very lively. After the establishment of new China with the economic development and improvement of life, equality and unity of all ethnic groups, festivals are increasingly rich. 1989, 1990 of the Dehong Lisu broad festival in Longchuan County, Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province, Longchuan town of Lisu people living in the village of Lanexian held. Here opened up a wide field, built a permanent broad time sign, a 12-meter-high brick structure on top of the sign, shaped with a crossbow in hand to open up the front of the Dehong Lisu ancestor heroes statue. Activities in addition to swing, song and dance, the most striking is "on the knife mountain" sports and athletic performances. It is 36 sharp knives into more than 20 meters high knife ladder erected on the ground, by the trained braves barefoot climbing straight up, people to witness the bravery of the thrilling action as fast. On the knife mountain performance of Yunnan Dehong Lisu people dare to knife mountain, fire dare to break through, valor, tenacity and progress of the national spirit.

She

She in eastern Fujian has a tradition, every fall when the rice harvest, to choose a good day to hold a "taste of the new" ritual activities, with the new harvest of rice milling, boiled into white rice, made into patties, etc., to honor the sky and earth to honor the ancestors, thanks to the gift of heaven and the blessing of the ancestors, and then invited the four neighboring villagers *** to taste, and then invited the four neighboring villagers *** to taste. Then they invite their neighbors to taste the rice and share the happiness of the harvest. This is the annual "New Tasting Festival" (also called "New Food Festival") of the She people. September 23rd is the day of the Autumn Equinox, and the people of Xieta She Village in Muyun She Township, Fuan City, have chosen this day as this year's New Tasting Festival. Xieta is a famous She village in eastern Fujian.

The scenery here is very beautiful. A small mountain stream called "Xiuxi" bubbles down from the foot of Baiyun Mountain and flows through Xieta to a famous grapevine. The grapevine stretches four or five kilometers, green trees and vines, from a distance, like a long green tapestry. In summer and fall, into the ditch, green shade, such as cover, gurgling water, really have to say endless refreshing and cozy.

This grape ditch are long local "stinging grapes", juicy, sweet, not sour, not astringent, in the market is very popular, the price is much higher than the current red varieties of giant bee grapes, is the focus of the Xieta village products. Perhaps because of this, the Xita people also called this small mountain stream for the "source of wealth stream".

Xita is also one of the birthplaces of the blue-skinned She tribe in eastern Fujian. "Xita blue" in the she tribe within the "Daling Zhong", "back door Ping Lei", every year, many blue clan members return to the village to recognize their ancestors. At present, the village has more than a hundred households, more than 600 Ding, are "Ru Nan blue" descendants.

Xita is also one of the key villages of She culture in East Fujian, which has successfully organized many large-scale She songs and folk culture festivals, and received leaders at all levels, cultural scholars and news media. Xita Village is undoubtedly one of the most charming She villages in eastern Fujian.

In the seventh and eighth months of the lunar calendar, the rice harvesting day of a She household is the household's new tasting festival, also known as the "new food festival. [2]

According to the She tradition, an auspicious day must be chosen for the start of the rice harvest. They grind the rice from the first cut into rice, cook it into white rice, scoop up three bowls, and put them in a bamboo rice sieve, and then put them in a bamboo rice sieve, and then put them in a bamboo rice sieve, and then put them in a bamboo rice sieve. Put in the bamboo rice sieve, placed on the drying platform to offer heaven and earth, and then scoop three bowls. Afterwards, three more bowls are scooped and lit with ming joss sticks and taken to the left and right shrines and the hearth to offer sacrifices to the local gods, the God of the Ancestors, and the God of the Stove. After the festival, several bowls of good food and wine are added, and neighbors are invited to taste the new rice together. When tasting, the elders of the family are asked to "move the chopsticks" first, to show respect for the elderly and to congratulate them on their health and longevity. When tasting new rice, the more guests the better. It is said that "the more people who taste it, the more food there is". After each person has finished eating, he or she should also put a bowl of rice on the table. It is called "leftover warehouse".

6Inheritance Significance Editor

The New Tasting Festival "Caixin"

The rice culture of the She people is also a key to understanding the food culture of Chaoshan and even the mysteries of the Chaoshan people. Historically, food is not just a way of filling the stomach, but a way of life that first affects the human body and then the human spirit. Since the Han Dynasty, there has been a saying in China that "those who eat meat are brave and defend themselves, while those who eat grains are wise and skillful", indicating that the ancients had already paid attention to the relationship between human beings and food. Parry, a contemporary American anthropologist, once pointed out that "man is the product of the food he consumes, not only is his physical body composed of the food he consumes, but even his spiritual world is affected by the food." The food culture of Chaoshan was first developed under the strong influence of the She rice culture. The dietary habits of the Chaoshan people have also determined their stature and physique and their industriousness and shrewdness, among other characteristics. A broader understanding of rice culture is also needed: it simply refers in general to a farming culture based on rice cultivation. Historically, not only dry rice and rice were grown in Shetian, but also beans, wheat, millet, jik, taro, bamboo, vegetables and tea; after the Ming and Qing dynasties, sweet potatoes and corn began to become the new major crops. Many famous Chiu Chow snacks, such as bamboo shoot kuey teow, turnip cake, ping pong kuey teow and sweet potato porridge, are related to these crops.

Some foods, although they lost their original traits, are still related to the rice culture. For example, rice wine, as the poem "Shijing Binfeng - July" says, "Rice is harvested in October, and spring wine is made for this purpose." It is then linked to rice and the spring festival of the gods. Another example is soy sauce and bean paste, which are important flavorings in Chao cuisine, mainly from bean crops.