Colorful Cold Noodles in the Song Dynasty: The Taste of Pure Experience

Abstract:This article focuses on a small body of poems inspired by Du Fu's 杜甫 (712–770) "Huai-Leaf Cold Noodles" (huaiye lengtao 槐葉冷淘) that use poetry to describe a culinary dish. Du Fu's poem on cold noodles created a literary trope that linked gastronomy to the expression of ideas about identity, lifestyle, and society. Song dynasty literati built on Du Fu's praise of cold noodles to meditate on the relationship between food preparation and weighty issues of morality, politics, and aesthetics, to be followed in the late Song and Yuan by recipes that downplayed larger issues of politics and morality while stressing the aesthetic purity (qing 清) of a bowl of cold noodles. This historical approach demonstrates how writings on culinary dishes can embody personal experiences, create a sense of immediacy, and lend historical weight to daily life.