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Hu Sihui

Illustration of Hu Sihui providing dietary counselling

Hu Sihui (Chinese: 忽思慧, 和斯輝, 忽斯慧, also Hu Zheng Qi Huei; active nr. 1314–1330) was a Chinese court therapist and dietitian during Yuan dynasty. He is known for his book Yinshan zhengyao (Dietary Principles),[1] that became a classic in Chinese medicine and Chinese cuisine.[2] He was the first to empirically discover and clearly describe deficiency diseases.[3]

Biography

The career of Hu Sihui, as he states in preface to his book,[4] was in the reign of Buyantu Khan in Yenyu years (1314—1320). His ethnicity is unclear. He has been credited as of Mongol descent by some East Asian scholars,[5][6] while Western scholars have pointed out his Turkic descent,[7][8][9] his book being "far too comfortable with Turkic and a larger Islamic culture."[8] He was an official in Xuanhui Yuan (the Ministry of Court Supplies and Provisions), around 1315 Hu Sihui initially emerged as the therapist of Empress Dowager, soon also became the therapist of the acting Empress, and later received the rank of the chief Imperial therapist and became responsible for dietary planning of the numerous members of the Emperor's family.

As tradition has it, Buyantu Khan, after several years of expeditions and irregular life, was overstrained and suffered acute pain in his kidneys. The vegetable soup prescribed by Hu Sihui cured the pains in 3 months, and one of Emperor's spouses became pregnant. The Emperor grandly awarded Hu Sihui as the cause of this "double joy".

In 1330, Hu Sihui, no longer busy with the Emperor and his harem, completed and presented to the Court his book Yinshan zhengyao, summarising his experiences as court dietitian. The main idea of his work was that people preparing food for the Emperor are directly responsible for efficiency of the State, as a monarch may get sick from improper eating, and lose the ability to properly manage state affairs effectively.

Legacy

Hu Sihui's book was widely accepted in Later Yuan, but won even wider influence after the fall of Yuan. Ming Dynasty, after occupying Beijing in 1368, started to combine Chinese cuisine from other regions with the cosmopolitan cuisine of Yuan court. Jingtai Emperor of Ming (ruled 1449—1457) personally wrote a preface to an edition of Yinshan zhengyao.[10]

As a culinary encyclopedia, this book made some regional recipes aссepted as part of national cuisine of the whole of China. For example, it is this book that contained a recipe of a roast duck that could be a predecessor of the widely known Beijing duck.[11][12]

Bibliography

  • Buell, Paul, E. N. Anderson, Hu-ssu-hui. A soup for the Qan. Chinese Dietary Medicine. Kegan Paul International, 2000. 715 pages. ISBN 978-0-7103-0583-1
  • Husihui, Paul D. Buell, E. N. Anderson, et al., A Soup for the Qan Chinese Dietary Medicine of the Mongol Era as Seen in Hu Sihui's Yinshan Zhengyao: Introduction, Translation, Commentary, and Chinese Text (Leiden: Brill, 2nd rev. and expanded, 2010).
  • Françoise Sabban, "Cuisine À La Cour De L'empereur De Chine: Les Aspects Culinaires Du Yinshan Zhengyao De Hu Sihui," Médiévales (1983): 32-56. [1]

References

  1. ^ John Makeham (2008). China: The World's Oldest Living Civilization Revealed. Thames & Hudson. p. 271. ISBN 978-0-500-25142-3.
  2. ^ Jack N. Losso; Fereidoon Shahidi; Debasis Bagchi (2007). Anti-angiogenic functional and medicinal foods. CRC Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-1-57444-445-2.
  3. ^ Needham, Joseph. Poverties and Triumphs of the Chinese Scientific Tradition. \\ In: The "Racial" Economy of Science. Indiana University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-253-20810-6, ISBN 978-0-253-20810-1 – page 41 on discovery of deficiency diseases
  4. ^ Unschuld, Paul Ulrich. Medicine in China: A History of Pharmaceutics. University of California Press, 1986. ISBN 0-520-05025-8, ISBN 9780520050259 pages 213—214
  5. ^ 赵阳 (2006). 历代宫廷御医档案揭秘. Beijing Science and Technology Press. ISBN 9787530433225.
  6. ^ Zhihe, Yu; Yunmei, Ye (1995). 称谓妙拾. 新华出版社 (via University of California). p. 177. ISBN 9787501126682.
  7. ^ Anderson, E.N. (2014). Food and Environment in Early and Medieval China. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 229. ISBN 9780812246384.
  8. ^ a b May, Timothy (2016). The Mongol Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia [2 Volumes]. ABC-Clio. p. 156. ISBN 9781610693400.
  9. ^ Jinsheng, Zheng (2018). Dictionary of the Ben Cao Gang Mu, Volume 3. University of California Press. p. 188. ISBN 9780520291973.
  10. ^ Imperial Food in the Ming Dynasty на сайте China Internet Information Center
  11. ^ "Beijing Duck". International Chinese Language Council website. China Internet Information Center. 2008. Archived from the original on September 14, 2008. Retrieved October 17, 2008.
  12. ^ "北京特產 (Specialties of Beijing)" (in Chinese). Xinhua. April 8, 2004. Archived from the original on July 13, 2004. Retrieved September 10, 2007.
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