This translation of a medieval text subtitled: Chinese Dietary Medicine of the Mongol Era As Seen In Hu Szu-Hui?s Yin-Shan Cheng-yao (YSCY) is mesmerizing. It is in three parts, (historical and cultural context, analysis of the text, and text and translation).
An explanatory monograph-sized introduction sets the stage and gets the reader into this important time in history. It is an excellent start to reading great information about foods of those times. This volume's original was written by an imperial dietary doctor who detailed foods and their medicinal values in those days and he presented this information to the Mongol Emperor Tu-temur who ruled from 1328 to 1332 C.E. The Buell/Anderson translation of the 1456 C.E. edition provides page by page translation with copies of each original page and a page-by-page commentary. Included are more than two hundred recipes and court delicacies, dietetic materials, and more. After them is an Appendix called Materia Dietetica et Medica and another section by Charles Perry called Grain Foods of the Early Turks (who were neighbors of the Mongol court).
This YSCY, as it is fondly called, has many prescriptions for life and health. It was China's very first dietary manual. The title translates as: Proper Essentials for the Emperor?s Food and Drink, and is written by Hu, the court?s senior dietary doctor. The doc may have been Chinese or Turkic, and it is clear that he was well educated. He probably grew up in a milieu where Chinese, Turkic, and Mongol cultural elements existed side by side because the book shows influence from Turks, Chinese, Koreans, Russians, and people of other ethnic ancestry in important roles at the Mongol court.
Health aspects discussed include regulating "qi," ways to live longer, and how diet might endanger health. Though the influences of the writer are wide and varied, the medicinal aspects are predominantly Chinese and not Near Eastern; though there are some Arabic medicinal items. The authors think that this is due to his having a largely Chinese audience in mind. But the food use such as rice has recipes mainly Muslim as it specifies aromatic or fragrant rice. Besides rice recipes, there are many for soups and liquors and other meal components. All the Chinese and the textual materials are transliterated using Wage-Giles and this review uses the author's transliterations.
Before almost every recipe, the original author indicates what condition the recipe treats and then he tells how to make it. For example, the recipe for Black Chicken Soup reads:
It cures asthenia, internal impairment by over strain and evil qi of chest and abdomen. Black chicken (one; pluck, clean and cut up into small pieces), prepared mandarin orange peel (one chi'en; remove white), lesser galangal (one ch'ien), black pepper (two ch'ien), tsaoko cardamon (two).
Combine ingredients with onions, vinegar, and sauce and put into a jug. Seal the mouth. Let boil until done. Eat on an empty stomach.
