Cooking, Meals and Drinking in Tang China

Cooking and drinking in Tang China took place across an empire conventionally dated to 618–907 CE, with the Wu Zhou interruption and changing frontier control forming part of its political history. Its foodways varied with climate, local resources, trade and wealth. Rice and flour foods, vegetables, fish and meat did not have the same place everywhere, and the food available to a court household differed from what most people could preserve or serve. Meals belonged to a wider world of household provision and exchange, but the work of preparing and consuming food was shaped by local circumstances.

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Regional foods and changing supplies

Grains and plant foods formed the basis of many meals. The empire’s broad ecological contrast helped shape what people ate: rice was especially important in the wetter south, while northern diets relied more on wheat and flour foods. Barley, millet, beans and other grains also formed part of the food supply. Turnips, garlic, yams and taro, along with fruits such as pears, peaches, apples, pomegranates and jujubes, added variety.

Meat and fish varied by region and access. Pork and chicken were among the meats eaten, while lamb was particularly favored in the north. Along southern coasts, seafood was an important source of animal food. Dairy products, including goat’s milk, yoghurt and kumis, had spread into northern China through earlier contacts with non-Han communities such as the Xianbei and remained familiar during the Tang.

Trade overland and overseas brought additional ingredients into China. Tang accounts name golden peaches from Samarkand, dates, pistachios and figs from Persia, pine seeds and ginseng roots from Korea, and mangoes from Southeast Asia. Exchange with India brought knowledge of sugar refining, improving the processing of cane juice into sugar. Sugarcane cultivation in China had begun before the Tang.

Preserving food and managing seasonal needs

Preservation helped households keep food usable beyond the time it was gathered or prepared. Common people used methods such as salting, brining and digging deep trenches. These approaches required fewer resources than the ice storage available to the court and wealthy households.

The emperor maintained large ice pits in parks in and around Chang’an, while affluent families could keep smaller stores. Each year, laborers cut about a thousand blocks from frozen streams in mountain valleys. A block measured roughly 0.9 by 0.9 by 1.1 metres. Stored ice made it possible to keep some foods cool and enjoy chilled delicacies, including melon, during summer. The work and space required for ice storage made this kind of seasonal refreshment especially accessible to the elite.

Preparing ingredients and cooking dishes

Northern wheat could be ground into flour and made into cooked dough foods, while rice and millet could be boiled or steamed as grains. Dough had to be mixed, shaped and heated; a steaming vessel held food above boiling water, while a pot cooked it in liquid. Markets sold prepared cereals, pastries and cakes as well as raw ingredients, giving urban buyers alternatives to preparing everything at home.

Southern coastal accounts describe jellyfish seasoned with cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, cardamom and ginger, oysters with wine, and squid cooked with ginger and vinegar. These preparations combined a local animal food with ingredients chosen for fragrance, heat or acidity. The resulting dishes help explain how seasoning changed a meal rather than merely enlarging its ingredient list.

Meat could also be prepared in different ways. Recipes were recorded for bear, an animal described as difficult to catch, including steamed, boiled and marinated preparations. Beef had a different status because cattle were valuable as draft animals. The Tang court discouraged eating beef, and from 831 to 833 Emperor Wenzong banned cattle slaughter, a decision associated with his Buddhist convictions.

Vessels for serving food and drink

Ceramics provide evidence for the equipment used to serve food, wine and tea. Yue ware, a fine stoneware with a celadon glaze, was made in Zhejiang. Its ash-based glaze could range from grey to olive or brown, and its vessels included elegant forms such as ewers. Yue ware was valued at the imperial court in the ninth century and was also used at Famen Temple in Shaanxi.

In the north, Tang-era Xing ware was known for its white body and clear glaze. Its kilns in Hebei produced both finer and coarser wares, and marked pieces have been found at the Daming Palace site. The contrast between white northern Xing ware and greenish southern Yue ware was noted by Lu Yu in his writing on tea.

Tea as a prepared drink

Tea drinking, already popular in southern China before the Tang, spread more widely during the dynasty. Buddhist monks valued its alerting effect, and tea was used to help examination officials and candidates stay awake. Its appeal also included pleasure and the belief that it had medicinal qualities. Tea therefore moved through religious, scholarly and courtly settings as well as everyday consumption.

Lu Yu’s Classic of Tea, written in the 760s, brought together knowledge about growing, harvesting, processing and drinking tea. Its three scrolls contain ten chapters, including sections on tea-growing regions, tools, water, boiling and consumption. Lu Yu describes making tea cakes by processing leaves through stages that included steaming, pressing, drying and storage. He also describes twenty-eight utensils for preparing and drinking tea.

Lu Yu’s preferred method was to grind tea cake, add the powder to boiling water, simmer it briefly, stop heating and ladle the drink into bowls. The text also treats the choice of water as part of preparation, showing how tea could become a practice with its own specialized knowledge and equipment.

Tea leaves could be packed in folded and sewn paper bags to help preserve their flavour. Attention to the source and quality of tea was encouraged by its movement through court tribute and gifts. Lu Yu compared regional teas, while the wider spread of tea drinking made its preparation and evaluation familiar beyond its southern growing areas.

Tea shops, hospitality and formal occasions

Tea shops and sellers of prepared food offered ways to eat and drink beyond the household. Accounts describe Uyghur visitors making tea shops their first stop when they entered a town. Central Asian sellers also marketed sesame cakes in Tang China.

Tea could also mark a social occasion. In a poem about Lu Yu setting off to gather spring tea, the poet Huangfu Zeng imagines meeting him at a remote temple, drinking beside a clear spring and sharing a quiet evening by candlelight. The poem offers a literary image rather than a record of an ordinary meal, but it shows how tea could be associated with companionship and cultivated hospitality. At court, tea also had an institutional use in sustaining examination officials and candidates; fine serving wares and access to ice, meanwhile, reflected resources not shared equally across society.

For the wider setting, see Food, Dress and Markets in Tang China: Everyday Consumption and Social Distinctions.