The world's grain civilization has many historical questions. Why are steamed buns and breads in the Eurasian continent? Is pasta related to Marco Polo's trip to China? Did the bun evolve from steamed buns? How is Chinese snacks made from corn, sweet potatoes and potatoes native to the Americas different from related products from Mexico and Peru in terms of shape? Wang Renxing, a famous food culture scholar, gave a new interpretation of these hot food topics with more than 855,000 words, with more than 855,000 words.

  my country is the origin of millet, sorghum and rice in the world. In the creation of foods with local grains as the main ingredients, whether it is the millet porridge you eat in daily life and hundreds of qihou porridges that are quite fertile, or the festival delicacies of the twenty-four solar terms such as rice cakes, Lantern Festival, Zongzi and Osmanthus cakes, they have been passed down from the forefront of history to the present, and there has been no fault during this period. The Chinese grain food civilization has been consistent since ancient times. Among them, millet steak, pancakes and rice noodles were the first to create the food of our ancestors in China. As the internationally renowned sinologist Xie Henai said, "There is no doubt that China has shown greater invention than any other civilization in this regard."

  "Food China" is the source of Chinese grain food civilization and a praise of Chinese grain food culture. Cooking for ten thousand years, steaming for eight thousand years, baking for five thousand years and fried for three thousand years. From the four cooking methods of boiling, steaming, baking and frying, the author proposed a very innovative cereal age sequence, and at the same time revealed the origin and evolution rules of more than 100 classic varieties in these four major cereals. Shortly after this book was published, it was listed on the first list of good books on humanities and social sciences in 2025 released by China Publishing Group.

  Survival wisdom in the era of grain food

  At the Qinghai Lajia site in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, a bowl of millet 4,000 years ago subverts the academic community's understanding of ancient noodles and witnesses how the Chinese ancestors created a dietary miracle in the era of grain food. When Western scholars question whether millet can make noodles, the farmer's woman in Shouyang County, Jinzhong, Shanxi gave the answer with the simplest "slide" technique - no complicated tools are needed, just hold the cooked millet balls in the palm of your palm, and the golden rice grains can slide into boiling water along the fingers to form noodles with uniform thickness. This primitive process originated from prehistoric evidence confirms the scientific restoration experiment of the team of Lu Houyuan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences: millet dough that has been soaked, pounded and pulverized is fully qualified to make noodles.

  The 2,500-year-old yellow-brown noodles unearthed from the Subeixi site in Xinjiang have triggered academia to rethink the processing technology of millet and sorghum. The wooden spoons and leather products found by archaeologists next to the pottery cauldron suggest that the ancestors might have adopted a unique pressing process. "Food China" guides us to turn our vision to the pottery noodles in the display cabinet of the Xinjiang Museum. Those strips of varying lengths are like squids made of animal skins. This technological resonance across time and space reveals the spread trajectory of the millet and sorghum civilization in the Eurasian continent.

  In the blue-patterned red pottery bowls at the Lajia site, the noodles from 4,000 years ago still maintain amazing integrity. "People believe that noodles are the product of the flour-food era in the history of human diet civilization. Only when the stone mill appears and the grains are ground into powder can noodles and other pasta be produced. Now, this understanding has been subverted. It contains the ancestors' understanding and control of the nature of chestnut millet, and has formed a complete set of cooking skills to create this bowl of noodles that shocked the world 4,000 years ago." The author lamented, "Even today, if millet is made into noodles such as noodles, food engineers should not only add wheat flour, but also add food additives such as compound phosphate." In Wang Renxing's view, the "noodles" that travel through time and space unearthed from the Lajia site and the Subeixi site are not only a surprising discovery in the archaeological community, but also an excellent metaphor for the wisdom and resilience of Chinese civilization.

  Ethnic integration of dietary symphony

  Wheat crops such as wheat native to West Asia have been introduced to my country about 4,500 years ago, wheat rice, wontons, noodles, steamed buns, dumplings and sesame cakes have been presented to the dining tables of Chinese people in the past dynasties from the pre-Qin period through the Han and Tang dynasties, becoming a Chinese product that shares the beautiful food of East and West wheat grains in the Eurasian continent. The origin and evolution of traditional foods such as millet, beef and mutton soy steamed buns, and hanging stove pancakes shines with the light of the integration and innovative wisdom of the Chinese Valley food civilization.

  In "Food China", the kitchen scene in the Dunhuang murals freeze the scene of a chef in the Tang Dynasty making a steamed bun. This pasta made of fermented noodles and pancakes combines local pancakes with Central Asian sub-frying oven baking technology, and is innovatively a new technique that combines pancakes.

  The birth of beef and mutton soaked buns is a typical cross-cultural integration case in the history of Chinese diet. This kind of soap bun, which combines the elements of cakes, meat, soup and spices in Persia, Sogdian, and Han areas, was finally established as a delicate way of eating such as "water siege" and "mouth soup" in the Song Dynasty, becoming a living witness to the Silk Road diet dialogue.

  The evolutionary history of hanging stoves and baked cakes, from the Hellenistic Testament furnace to the Persian "Tandur" to the Central Plains "cage furnace", this kind of stove cake baked on open flames has witnessed the technological migration of the Eurasian continent. Today, in Xikou Town, Fenghua District, Ningbo, Zhejiang, people can taste the thousand-layer cake that combines the Sogdian fermentation skills and Jiangnan diet traditions. The prototype can still be seen in ancient Central Asian banquet pictures.

  The "She Keer's thorn" recorded in the "Complete Works at Home" in the Yuan Dynasty is made of walnut kernels, honey, and butter cakes as the filling and pinched into a triangle or flat circle, which is a perfect combination of Persian desserts and Chinese oven roasting skills. This kind of sesame cake, called "Samosa", evolved into a "fuku sage cake" in the "Zunsheng Bajian" of the Ming Dynasty. By the end of the Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty, the filling was replaced by dry steamed flour, and the three sesame cakes were steamed crispbread, thousand-layer thin crackers and luan cakes with a tendency to neutralize the sugar and oil ratio.

  The records of "Hu Binglu" in Dunhuang documents echo the Han and Jin naan pit unearthed from the Niya site in Xinjiang. If you observe the stone buns from Fuping County, Weinan, Shaanxi and baked naan in Persian, you will find that the two have similarities in the baking principle. This ancient cooking method of slate heat conduction and open fire smoked spreads along the Eurasian continent from the Black Sea coast to the Loess Plateau, and finally finds a unique survival soil in the northwest of my country. This cross-regional food culture exchange shows the diversity and adaptability of human food culture in the process of dissemination, and learn from each other, influence and promote each other.

  Empirical discoveries of multidisciplinary research

  The book "Food China" embodies Wang Renxing's research results for more than 40 years. It is another masterpiece that explores the origins of Chinese grain food civilization after his "The Essence of National Cuisine". The book traces the source of Chinese snacks and pastries from a global perspective for the first time, and for the first time, the cereal heritage discovered by archaeology and documentary records of past dynasties have been used to conduct a pioneering exploration of the historical origins of Chinese snacks and pastries.

  As a famous scholar who was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Chinese Food Culture Research Association more than ten years ago, Wang Renxing has been meticulous in his studies for many years. He has been collecting, verifying, scrutinizing and updating this book for writing. In "Records of the Revision of the Chinese Chapter of Grain Food", the author saw that each chapter has been revised many times, with the largest number of 19 times.

  Although the book has rich archaeological data, logical reasoning is rigorously verified and is not obscure to read. The beautiful and poetic language is fascinating. While reading, a series of staple foods and snacks that are soaked in the fragrance of history appear on paper, and the fragrance of books and valleys continues to blend.

  What I mentioned today is the very famous "Loose Lotus Leaves Cold-Tao" in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Since the Tang and Song dynasties, records have been seen in documents such as "Shi Lin Guang Ji" and "Shan Jia Qing Gong", and Du Fu has written "Love Tao" that has been sung for the ages. "Food China in the Valley" describes Su Dongpo, a giant in the Northern Song Dynasty, and his friends drink with a white wine and fish bass and eat locust leaves. "If you compare Su Shi and Du Shi, you can see that the locust leaves Lengtao, which was quite ritual in the Tang Dynasty, was called "Lotus bud cake" by Dongpo. It was served in a small bowl. The green cold beans and the snow-white fish fillets in the red ice plate were complemented by each other. More than 1,300 years ago, a bowl of locust leaves Lengtao, which symbolized the identity of a court official, was given a new idea of ​​smiling at life and showing off his heroic spirit in the joyful drink of Dongpo and his friends." In such a poetic description, we seem to see that Su Dongpo, who was transcendent in adversity, sings with wine and singing in the creation and enjoyment of food.

  The argument of "Food China" to solve the case-solving and is often inspired by "opening the brain". The chapter "Pasta - Re-Exploration of Pasta" says that the Arabs invented pasta, but this invention cannot be attributed entirely to the Arabs, which aroused people's curiosity. The noodle making technology brought to Sicily by the Arabs, "It is obvious that the thin noodles in the Arab-Islamic food culture at that time should be a concrete manifestation of Chinese culture, rather than cultural elements of the Roman Empire, represented by bread." Because some experts have long concluded that the world's main traditional noodle making methods all originated in China and spread to its surrounding areas. "Even if knowledge is far away in China, you must seek it." At that time, the attitude of the upper class of the Arab Empire towards Chinese culture also created a good environment for the spread of Chinese culture, including thin noodles, to the west. The author advances layer by layer, and the analysis is fascinating.

  I remember that during a cultural promotion event held at the Italian Embassy in China more than a decade ago, an Italian official proudly claimed that the Italians invented noodles. In "Food China", the author quotes historical materials and experts from many countries to prove that "the pasta, known as the Italian national treasure, is likely to be imported products transported from Asia to Italy by Arab merchants by sea less than 1,000 years ago." At the same time, since the 14th century, the records of Marco Polo's Travels on Chinese pasta at that time are true, and its impact on pasta should not be ignored. It can be seen that all countries have proud national treasures, but many ordinary foods have integrated genes and have migrated and relocated for thousands of years. Searching for the source and verifying can tell the whole story, but whether it is necessary to emphasize the national treasure does not seem to matter.

  Wonton is a common snack in urban and rural areas in my country. Many people think it is transformed from dumplings. The records of "chaos" in the book are quite interesting and the research of predecessors. The initial creation of wonton is actually related to the ancients' cosmic view of "Chaos of Heaven and Earth". According to the author's research, "Hundun" or "Chao" is a relatively popular word during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. From the Han and Tang Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the name, preparation method, shape and edible customs of wontons have undergone major changes. From the ingredients, preparation method to the final product, the quality is obviously different from dumplings, and has become a good pasta product that is popular all over the country.

  The shape of wontons has changed drastically, from planar triangles to three-dimensional ingot shapes, becoming increasingly diverse. "Every time the shape of wontons has changed in history, it contains the hope and pursuit of beauty of ancient Chinese. A bowl of ingot-shaped wontons full of hot soup in the Tang Dynasty meant a booming source of wealth; a wonton shaped like a pillow in the Yuan Dynasty meant restlessness; a wonton shaped like a small pocket in the Ming Dynasty should be a sign of a bumper harvest. Over the past 2,600 years, the shape of wontons has changed from single to diverse. It shows that it has been given new connotations in the repeated tides of the times, and the "chaotic image of heaven and earth" presented at the beginning has gradually been submerged in the long river of history." Small wontons, a great realm. After reading this book and eating wontons, do you feel a different feeling?

  An unusual picture interpretation

  Complementing with the widely cited texts, the 589 precious pictures in the book include archaeological food remains, cooking utensils from all ages, murals of ancient tombs, bamboo and silk characters, famous paintings handed down from generation to generation, Ming and Qing New Year pictures, extraterritorial food scenes, ancient food restoration, late Qing food paintings, photos of the Republic of China, snack operation scenes and standard photos of snack pastries, many of which are precious archaeological pictures, which give you a glimpse of the true appearance of noodles, wontons, dumplings, steamed buns, buns and zongzi at that time over the past 4,000 years. For example, the Han Dynasty ramen kitchen figurines discovered so far are the earliest archaeological evidence of wheat dough line-shaped products in the world.

  In general books, what we see is often a few words of picture description. However, there is very little to see what is and why the things in the picture are, and there is even less clear identification and in-depth and detailed explanation. In the analysis and interpretation of the objects found in the archaeological discoveries, "Food China" allows us to feel the accuracy and persuasiveness of the empirical practice.

  The noodles in the copper turf unearthed from the Xue Guo tomb in the Spring and Autumn Period of Tengzhou, Shandong Province, are all said to be dumplings in the archaeological report and the picture description of the museum. After professional analysis and requesting the pastry chef to restore it, the author was finally determined to be the earliest wonton in my country. Did the Tang Dynasty cakes and snacks unearthed from Turpan, Xinjiang on the booth of the National Museum come from outside the region or originate from the local area? The author analyzed its shape, color, dough composition, etc. in detail, determined its shape source based on botanical knowledge, interpreted its cultural connotation based on semiotic research results, and discussed its popular era and production technology based on archaeological reports and documentary records. Finally, the invention of these fancy stove cakes came from the ethnic groups who like sweets in the Eurasian continent.

  The discussion on the origin and development of buns in the book overturns traditional cognition, and early buns were not a simple evolutionary relationship. The penta pills recorded in Shuxi's "Bai Fu" in the Western Jin Dynasty have many similarities with modern buns, from the ingredients, preparation to the way of eating, and are considered to be the main source of later generations of buns. The bricks and murals of ancient tombs of Han and Jin dynasties unearthed archaeologically, such as the bricks of kitchen portraits unearthed from Han tombs in Xindu, Sichuan, the murals of Yuan Taizi's Eastern Jin tombs in Chaoyang, Liaoning, and the scenes of busy and busy making of stuffing and steaming in Xiangyang, Hubei all provide precious physical evidence for the origin and development of buns. From the "spike steamed buns" in Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty to the "green buns" in the capital of the Later Zhou Dynasty in the Five Dynasties, to the Jiangyuer buns in the Song Dynasty, "after 2,000 years of evolution and the integration of the six major regional grain cultures, every style of Chinese buns has both a distinct regional culture and contains the genes of Chinese grain food civilization."

  Pancakes are a common breakfast item in northern China, and pancake stalls can also be seen on the streets of Morocco, Africa. So, where is the origin of pancakes in the world? The pottery glass unearthed in Henan should be a proof of the invention of pancakes by the ancestors of China 5,000 years ago. For the cereal cooking utensils that have been passed down to this day, using the method of comparison between ancient and modern times, the familiar ovens used for hanging stoves and cylinder stoves can be reduced to Tandu furnaces originating from Central and Western Asia and the Hellenistic Testa furnace respectively.

  What is amazing in the book is the stunning work in the history of Chinese pastries - the restoration of the Twenty-Four Qi Wontons in the Early Tang Dynasty. The pictures show an epic scene that is unprecedented in Chinese snacks and pastries. In the picture, 24 kinds of fancy wontons with different flower-shaped fillings such as cherry blossoms, pear blossoms, peony blossoms, peony blossoms, azaleas, lilac flowers, etc. can feel the vivid and charming beauty through the picture. Why did the Twenty-Four Qi Wontons appear in the "Burning Tail Food" presented to the emperor by Wei Juyuan? The author examined the varieties, colors, fillings and social background of the wonton flower shapes one by one. "Before and after Wei Juyuan offered food, flowers appreciation became popular in Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, and flowers fighting became a fashion that was popular in the whole city at that time. This wonton masterpiece gathered representatives of hundreds of flowers in the year in the name of the twenty-four solar terms under the background of such flower appreciation, flowers fighting and flower eating. In order to prevent flowers from blooming at the same time in different solar terms, it was expressed in the form of wontons, vividly and wonderfully embodying the royal flower appreciation concept of "all" as beauty."

  
  A stunning work in the history of Chinese pastry - a restoration of the Twenty-Four Qi Wontons in the Early Tang Dynasty

  Photographed by Li Dong and made by Li Qian

  The author exclaimed: "Chinese cooking is art. As early as more than 1,300 years ago, the Tang Dynasty dim sum master was able to create such wonderful and poetic pictogram pastries. It is truly a monument of Chinese pastry art and a pinnacle master in the history of Chinese wonton development." To this end, the author invited Wang Zhiqiang, a Chinese pastry master who appeared in "China on the Bite of the Tongue", to lead the lead, and repeatedly discussed and tried the production with his disciples, and finally restored and presented this masterpiece. After repeatedly reading the text of this chapter and watching the pictures, I couldn't help but sigh that the 24 solar terms were presented with the color and shapes of wontons and 24 different seasons of flowers. What advanced aesthetics and extraordinary imagination and creativity did our ancestors have?

  The truth and inheritance of "grain for nourishment"

  In recent years, for weight loss and health reasons, people have tried to minimize carbohydrate intake. Low-carbon diets and ketogenic diets are prevalent. The intake of grains for Chinese people has decreased year by year, resulting in nutritional imbalance. How to understand the importance of grains? Why did pre-Qin doctors rank "grains" ahead of all foods, that is, they were ranked "for nourishment". The preface of the book quotes papers and comments published by foreign scientists, giving scientific answers to this question.

  The paper "The Importance of Carbohydrates in Human Evolution" points out: "In the past million years, carbohydrate consumption has been crucial to the accelerated evolution of the human brain." Another foreign scholar commented: "For a long time, we have believed that the evolution of human brain thinking began with the first use of tools to hunt animals and cut meat. However, this new study shows that only after carbohydrates are added to the diet can we be called complete people in cognitive and social sense." Obviously, this has given us a deeper understanding of "grain for nourishment" at a new level. The author once interviewed a famous nutritionist who made it clear that not eating staple foods is harmful to health, and carbohydrates are crucial to health. Western theories and Eastern food and nourishment both confirm this, both in ancient times and in modern times.

  "Five grains for nourishment" is the foundation of health and wellness. "Five grains for nourishment" means that the ancestors of China have regarded grains as the "staple food". Mr. Zhang Guangzhi, anthropologist and archaeologist, emphasized that "between rice and vegetables, rice is more advanced and more basic than vegetables." Yuan Mei, a famous foodie in the Qing Dynasty, even believed: "Rice is the basis of all kinds of flavors. "" The taste of rice is above all kinds of flavors. Those who know the taste do not need to use dishes when they meet good rice."

  In addition to strengthening the awareness of grains as nourishment, the book also contains the author's deep concerns about the inheritance and development of grain food. "With the impact of the wave of industrialization, the craft tradition formed by Chinese snacks and pastries for thousands of years is gradually disappearing. Although the country has launched a series of measures to protect intangible cultural heritage, fine products from traditional crafts have become rare foods that are difficult to find in the daily market." The author deeply explored and sorted out the essence of traditional crafts that has been obscured for a long time or little-known, hoping to preserve this precious cultural heritage in future generations. This year, the first issue of the "China Good Book List" has been listed on 11 new books. "Green Food China" has ranked among the archaeological, historical, artistic and literary works, indicating that Graen Food culture has truly entered the hall of elegance, and the treasure that has been passed down for thousands of years is worthy of being cherished.

  Since ancient times, grain food has been continuously integrated and innovated. Skills will age and varieties will change. Only persistence and development in the long river of history can create the true bloodline of civilization. "Grilling China" is not only a tribute to the inventors of Chinese snacks and pastries, but also remembers their great historical contributions to shining the Eastern civilization in the world's grain culture civilization, but also deeply contains the call and motivation for the people of today to inherit the past and open the present and continue the context of Chinese grain culture civilization. (Jiang Mei)

[Editor in charge: Feng Kong]