New! Shorter! A Brief Introduction to the History of the Eating of Dogs and Cats in China, Part 6
Okay, some history of real events here . . .
Greetings,
For some reason, as well as enjoying history in general, I just really, really enjoy Chinese history. There is always something new, fascinating and amazing to learn. Everything touches on something else, and, as stated, it’s like an endless series of rabbit holes. “ooooooooh! Look at that! Tell everyone I will be late for my appointment. I’ll be busy now for the next two hours.”
It doesn’t help matters any that I have fond memories of time spent in Asia, and have had and probably will continue to have more of them in the future.
So here’s some real history about Chinese consuming dogs and cats.
Enjoy. In the meantime, I hope to soon write another, probably final piece on the subject, this one showing a connection between dog eating, consumption of alcohol, and excess testerone all in one place in East Asian Culture, and I will probably share it tomorrow. Then the daily schedule stops, I focus on my class and other obligations like an adult should, and we go back to a slower, more relaxed schedule until winter time when the class stops. However, pieces will be shorter because my impression is that people do like them better thaat way.
Peace. Best to all of you and thank you again for spending time on my writing. Please tell your friends.
A Sampling and Context for Historical Reports of Eating Dog and Cat in Chinese History
In the last week, I have written several pieces arguing that Chinese restaurants do not secretly serve cats and dogs to unsuspecting customers. I have also written a piece arguing that if one wishes to raise meat animals to feed people, cats and dogs are a terrible animal to raise and an inefficient way to get calories. We even got into the subject of the historically common claim that Chinese ate rats. This was something that again was never proven, and even led to Wong Chin Foo, Chinese American intellectual, newspaperman, and human rights activist, offering a $500 prize, an unclaimed prize, to anyone who could prove that they did. I think that after four pieces I covered the subject pretty well.
However, there’s one thing I did not talk about.
Sometimes the Chinese, as well as other East Asians, have and still do eat dog meat. Which does not mean they are going to sneak it into food. Quite the opposite, they are more likely to display the fact that they are eating dogs when they do.
WHY EAT A DOG?
As discussed in the first piece in this series, for several reasons, raising dogs and cats is a lot more difficult and expensive than raising cows, sheep, and pigs. Basic ecology and economics dictate that dog and cat meat will not be a common, staple item in a society where most of the meat comes from animals that have been domestically raised for food.
So then under what conditions do people actually eat dogs and cats? (And, of course, some people do and have, as people will and have eaten anything.)
FOUND FOOD
While I have mentioned that raising dogs and cats for large scale meat production is just not good economics and therefore does not normally happen, if people find a dog or cat, then sometimes they eat it. (Notice, I said “people,” people in general, not Asian people specifically. If humans find and catch an animal, any kind of animal, sometimes they eat it. Sometimes. All people of all ethnic groups.)
Now in a survival situation, the goal is to take in more calories than one expends
Obviously, stealing and eating other people’s pets is a good way to invite a lot of anger, retaliation, and attention fast, not to mention that it’s generally a distasteful thing to do, so few people do it.
But there are also lots of feral cats and dogs out there, more so in the less developed areas of the world.
I am reminded of how in 2011, during my two years teaching at Fudan University in China, one of my friends in the USA, a Karen tribe refugee from Burma (Myanmar), suggested I take a trip to Mae Sot, Thailand where he had attended a boarding school for Karen and spent time in a refugee camp, just like many other refugees I knew in the USA, so I did. One unusual thing to me about Mae Sot was the noticeable presence of feral dogs. Although I never had any problems, people encouraged me to carry a club when I went for long walks in case wild dogs harassed or attacked me and when the school had a cook out, an event that usually involved killing a couple of the live chickens first, feral dogs would watch from the distance, dreaming of the chance to have some of the leftovers.
And under such conditions, if one is being harassed and threatened by feral dogs, inevitably someone is going to kill one of them once in a while. Not only that, some people are going to think that it’s turnaround to take the threatening animal and eat it afterwards, often with savage and vengeful celebrations of the event.
So, dogs get eaten.
Found animals get eaten, particularly in times of scarcity and famine, and Chinese and East Asian history is full of tales of famine.
For obvious reasons, there have been a wide variety of foods eaten during famine or periods of food scarcity by people everywhere. 1 Both the Kosher and Halal rules on food contain provision for eating the normally uneatable during times of scarcity. However, I have chosen not to go there, but instead will be writing on eating of dogs during periods of Chinese history where the food supply was considered normal, and there were no abnormal food shortages.
To explore this, I have pulled my copy of the book “Food in Chinese Culture, Anthropological and Historical Perspectives.” ( 1977) Edited by K.C. Chang, originally published by Yale University Press, but republished by the Southern Materials Center in Taiwan, off my shelf. Turning to the index, and checking under “dog” we find the following:
Medicine
Chinese medical practices are a very complex subject and most of what is written about them in the West is grossly distorted and greatly simplified.
However, it’s safe to say that it’s not uncommon in Chinese medicine for cures or treatments to involve making some kind of medicine that includes animal parts. Often these animal parts come from unusual, exotic (even endangered), or generally hard to find species of animals.
Additionally, in Chinese medical practice throughout history, changes or modifications or additions of specific items to one’s diet, are often medicinally required. For instance, according to the book, “Food in Chinese Culture” (full citation below), it is stated that during the Tang Dynasty ( 618 to 907 AD )the flesh of dogs was believed to be beneficial, especially to the kidneys. ( p. 99)
Along similar lines, in the year 1368, the year when the Chinese ousted the Mongols from China, the Mongol Yuan dynasty was overthrown, and the native Chinese Ming Dynasty was founded, a book was published that detailed a lot of food beliefs of the time. Written by Jia Ming ( 賈銘 ) (aka Chia Ming in the older Wade Giles system) , google translate says the book title should be translated as “Dietary Tips” but a couple other common translations of the title are “The Instructions on Foods and Drinks” or “Essential Knowledge for Eating and Drinking.” According to this work, it is bad idea to consume distilled spirits while eating dog meat, or for that matter ginger or garlic, or one might get hemorrhoids or other unspecified chronic diseases. Therefore, we know people did it, and sometimes while drinking (a subject that fits tomorrow’s planned offering in this series and modern Asian practice of dog eating often being mixed in with wild evenings or afternoons with lots of alcohol and poor judgement.) (p. 227-232 with the specific reference to dog on page 232) [i]
HISTORICAL EXAMPLES
Historically, some people in China have in fact eaten dog.
During neolithic times dogs seem to have been eaten along with pigs and their bones are found in large quantities at the Yangshou and Lungshan sites. The Yangshou and Lungshan cultures both existed about 5000 years ago, approximately 3000 BCish. ( p. 29) This would be long before the people in China were showing most of the cultural characteristics that we associate with China today. I find myself wondering how they acquired all these dogs for eating and my guess is, as I described in parts of modern Thailand, the dogs came to them, followed them around, ate their discarded food, and perhaps lived in a complex semi-feral, semi-dependent, sometimes cooperative, sometimes competitive relationship. I imagine that from time to time, the people of these cultures occasionally decided, enough was enough, and when a dog took their food or otherwise bothered them, clubbed them and ate them while cheering about it to their friends. (Just intellectual theorizing on my part.)
During the Han Dynasty, approximately 202 BC to 220 AD, same time in human history as when the New Testament was written, the scholarly class in China kept a great deal of records and commentary on all kinds of subjects by writing on slips of bamboo. [ii] Naturally, being Chinese, and at this point the culture was showing many of the characteristics that we today associate with China and Chinese culture, many of these dealt with food and its preparation and consumption in exacting detail.
A small portion of these not only mentioned dog as a food product but did so in a very precise manner. i.e. preparation of “dog flank” or “dog liver” versus other parts of the dog. (p. 58)
Another source of information on ancient Chinese dietary practices are tomb paintings. Some of these are very well preserved and show great detail of what it was like in a high class Chinese kitchen of the Han Dynasty.
We learn for instance from these paintings, that in Han Dynasty times people would hang their meats high in the kitchen room from a wooden beam to prevent dogs from snatching them. We can tell this because some tomb paintings show dogs in the kitchen staring up at the food or trying to reach up and grab it, again reinforcing the ambivalent relationship many ancient humans had with dogs. ( p. 60-61)
The same source however does mention that dogs were eaten and can be seen hanging from the same types of ceilings in tomb paintings as well. i.e. the same book talks about a tomb excavation that took place in 1956 in Inner Mongolia, a Chinese province bordering Mongolia which has largely ethnically Mongol population, where a painting shows a kitchen with containers holding “a black pig, a yellow dog, two chickens, and a meat rack.” ( p. 61)
A feast scene from the same period describes among other feast foods “fatted dog,” not just any dog, but one fattened for a long period of time before being served. Other items on this list of gourmet foods are “beef flank, fatted dog, bear’s paw, panther’s breast, suckling pig, deer meat, (and) lamb shoulder.” Obviously not ordinary fare, but the sort of dish that will “enhance your reputation” if served. (p. 67)
According to the same source, during the Ming Dynasty ( 1368-1644 AD), it was believed that if one were using meat to flavor vegetables instead of using it as a main dish, then only a small quantity was needed. (Thus making my argument about the economics and ecology of raising some animals over others much less important.) Under such circumstances, many chefs would thrill or excite people by using a wide variety of exotic and unusual sources of meat in their dishes, with dog being among them. ( p. 201)
During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 AD), 18th Century poet, painter, and food writer Yuan Mei ( 袁枚 ), wrote and extensive book on food and cooking in which he reportedly commented that he did not wish to write about eating dogs and cattle because they were “friends to humans.” ( p. 274) [iii]
So that’s it, a quick introduction to the subject of actual eating of dogs in Chinese history.
As for cat . . .
Looking under “cat,” I find that during the Sung Dynasty (960-1279AD, before the Mongol Conquest), it says “game figured prominently in many lists of Sung dishes, probably because wealthy urbanites appreciated the novelty of such unusual ingredients as owls, magpies, and wildcats. As might be expected, these rarer ingredients were sometimes faked; the purchaser of venison might well be eating donkey.” ( p. 154)
So, people might try to eat cats but be secretly served other meat instead, probably chicken or duck. Hmmm. Kind of a completely reversal of the modern urban rumor trope where people order chicken and get cat, it seems.
Tomorrow if things go well, I am going to share some stories demonstrating the link between alcohol, testosterone, and dog eating in East Asian Culture and why such activities are normally done in a loud and boisterous way and not hidden at all, except maybe from wives and girlfriends who prefer that their men behave themselves
See you then . . .
REFERENCES
[i] This Chinese book from 1368 is not widely cited by modern scholars anymore. Although a valuable source on beliefs and practices of the time, scholars have decided that the author basically cribbed from a lot of other books of his time and have started going back to the primary sources for their studies as they generally should.
Nevertheless, the author’s name was Jia Ming ( Chia Ming in the older Wade Giles) which is written as 賈銘 or 贾铭 in the simplified characters.
The book’s title is 飲食須知 (in simplified characters: 饮食须知 ) or Yǐnshí xūzhī ( in Wade Giles “Yin-shih Hsu-chih.”)
According to a Google autotranslation of his Chinese language Wikipedia page (he has no English language Wikipedia page):
“Jia Ming (approximately 1269-1374), whose courtesy name was Wending and who nicknamed himself "The Old Man of Huashan", was a native of Haining (now part of Zhejiang ).
He was born in the reign of Duzong in the Southern Song Dynasty. He served as Wanhu in the Yuan Dynasty and died in the reign of Taizu in the Ming Dynasty. He had a lot of experience in eating well and maintaining good health. When Zhu Yuanzhang asked him about his daily maintenance, Jia Ming replied: "You must be careful about your diet." He was 106 years old. Author of "Dietary Instructions".”
I doubt actually if he lived to be 106, but I don’t really have any practical way to check. I mean, I already spent a lot of time on this today.
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B3%88%E9%8A%98
And why am I sharing all this with you? Because, dear reader, I am a weak and insecure and petty man, who if he finds himself obsessively searching for some near useless fact for approximately 40 minutes to an hour feels obligated to share it with someone.
“Well, didn’t you just look him up on Chinese google?” NO!! Because Chinese googlle often requires that you know how to write the Chinese name in Chinese and the book I started with does not include any Chinese characters. It took me about 40 minutes to an hour to get to that point of having a Chinese character name. Getting the proper Chinese characters for the author of an obscure and no longer much cited author of the year 1368 AD is not easy. (BTW, why all the Wikipedia checking? Because it’s a quick and easy place to find someone’s Chinese name if you are in a hurry. Professional translators have also told me that it is a great place to get the proper non-English name for obscure terms
For example:
· https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%98%9F%E8%89%A6%E5%A5%87%E8%88%AA%E8%A8%98
· https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B7%B4%E6%AF%94%E4%BC%A6%E4%BA%94%E5%8F%B7
· https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%8C%91%E6%88%B0%E8%80%85_(%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1)]
· https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%84%9A%E4%BA%BA%E5%96%84%E4%BA%8B
· https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B6%85%E7%B4%9A%E8%A3%BD%E4%BD%9C%E4%BA%BA
I assume I have proven my point.
[ii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_and_wooden_slips
[iii] This guy has a fun Wikipedia page. It even includes a quote from Fuchsia Dunlop, British Chinese food writer and cookbook author whose work I have greatly enjoyed. “
According to Wikipedia , “The food writer Fuchsia Dunlop has described Yuan as "China’s Brillat-Savarin," [9] I love it even if I have no idea who Brillat Savarin is. Some day I will have to look him up. As stated, I have read two books by Fuchsia Dunlop, one a Sichuanese cookbook and the other a memoir of her time in China where she became tired of regular college and became the first foreign student at one of Sichuan’s best cooking schools. I admit, I was extremely yet pleasantly surprised by how much my occasionally arrogant self learned from her memoir. Both books were well worth reading, and I hope to read many more by her.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuan_Mei
And what’s the best way to tie this whole thing up?
How about with a couple good quality videos teaching how to make a relatively simple, good tasting Chinese vegetarian dish?
For famine foods in Chinese history consider seeing