Nanyue vegetarian cuisine
Nanyue Vegetarian Cuisine
Dear friends:
Hello everyone! Welcome to Mount Heng in Nanyue for sightseeing and tourism.
Mount Heng in Nanyue is located in Nanyue District, Hengshan County, Hunan Province, 50 kilometers from Hengyang City. With its beautiful natural scenery, it has been known since ancient times as "the most elegant of the Five Great Mountains." During the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui, it was designated as the Southern Great Mountain, and from then on it was ranked among the Five Great Mountains alongside Songshan (Central Great Mountain), Taishan (Eastern Great Mountain), Huashan (Western Great Mountain), and Hengshan in Shanxi (Northern Great Mountain). It is renowned worldwide for its beautiful natural scenery, profound cultural heritage, and the religious landscapes of Buddhism and Taoism. When discussing the Five Great Mountains, Wei Yuan of the Qing Dynasty said: "Hengshan in the north moves like walking, Taishan sits, Huashan stands, Songshan lies down, and only Nanyue flies." This is one of the keys to its reputation as "the most elegant of the Five Great Mountains."
As early as ancient times, the Yellow Emperor and Emperor Shun came to Mount Heng to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth, and Yu also sacrificed a white horse here. Thereafter, emperors of successive dynasties came here for inspection tours and sacrifices. Nanyue has long enjoyed the reputation of being a "sacred land of Buddhism in Southeast Asia," and Mount Heng has as many as 375 cliff inscriptions. Nanyue was a refuge for recluses throughout the dynasties, with countless men of letters, and exiled officials and demoted ministers regarded it as a place of sojourn. Nanyue is steeped in scholarship, with more than ten academies alone, and famous ministers and great scholars came here to lecture in every dynasty. The great poets Du Fu and Han Yu both wrote verses about it, numbering more than 3,700 in total. Stone tablets bearing the imperial calligraphy of Qing Dynasty emperors Qianlong, Daoguang, Xianfeng and others stand in great numbers... Wang Zhao of the Ming Dynasty said: "All my life I dreamed of Zhurong Peak, longing to climb it but finding no path; today I take leisure and come to the summit, as if I were amid the five clouds." The uniqueness of its elegance is captured in a single phrase.
Since Mount Heng in Nanyue is known among the Five Great Mountains for its gorgeous scenery and enjoys the reputation of "the most elegant of the Five Great Mountains," where exactly does its "elegance" lie? Its "elegance" lies in the trees covering the mountain, the grass blanketing the slopes, and the green filling the eyes! There are nearly 60,000 mu of primary and secondary forest here, with a forest coverage rate of over 80%. The scenery differs in each of the four seasons: in spring the mountain flowers bloom in profusion, in summer all is verdant green, in autumn the red maples blaze like fire, and in winter auspicious snow promises a bountiful year. If you come in winter, you can also see rime, a rare sight in the south.
When traveling in Nanyue, besides enjoying its beautiful natural scenery and its long-standing Buddhist culture, what is most unforgettable is surely Nanyue vegetarian cuisine. When you are filled with excitement, forgetting everything and lost in the beautiful scenery of Nanyue, you arrive at Zhusheng Temple, a resting place along the way, and when the fragrant aroma of food wafts out from the incense kitchen, only then do you truly realize that you are indeed hungry!
Among Nanyue's vegetarian dishes, the most memorable are certainly those of Zhusheng Temple, where the incense kitchen can prepare vegetarian banquets for over a thousand people a day. A table of dishes neatly arranged, at first glance appears to include braised whole fish, braised pork, and steamed chicken. When people secretly marvel that such meat dishes exist in a pure Buddhist sanctuary, the monks busy serving nearby only smile without a word, and only after tasting do you realize that these vividly shaped dishes are all made from vegetables.
Not only are the vividly shaped dishes all made from vegetarian ingredients without a trace of meat, but they are also bright in color and authentic in taste, rich yet not greasy. Especially noteworthy are their elegant yet unconventional names, full of creativity—only then do you realize that these are the signature dishes with which Nanyue Buddhists welcome and entertain guests, deeply favored by Chinese and foreign tourists. Many merchants and celebrities visiting Nanyue all enter Zhusheng Temple to ask its famous Buddhist chefs to prepare a table of vegetarian dishes, purifying body and mind while feasting the palate. Moreover, the master told us that a full vegetarian banquet can have as many as 16 dishes, each with its own allusion and each with a special name. "Clean Body, Unstained," "The Four Elements Are All Void," "Sowing Jade in the Buddha's Field," "Magui Offers Longevity"—even the most common home-style dishes have their own explanations here. A dish blazing with flames that we ordinarily call tofu casserole must here be called "Buddha's Light Shines Abidingly."
At the banquet there are also a dish of salted ginger and a dish of crisp radish, both crisp and delicious, refreshing body and mind. The monks nearby will proudly tell you not to underestimate these Nanyue local pickles and sauces—they have even won awards at the National Food Exposition. Even a dish of tofu at the meal is a matter of great refinement. Nanyue is a land of tofu, with a production history of more than 2,000 years. There is traditional Huagu Opera lyrics as evidence: "Fried tofu, yellow on both sides; water tofu, tender and soft; dried tofu wafts five fragrances." People of Nanyue, young and old, love to eat bean products, and there is even a well-known children's rhyme: "Rumbling, rumbling, getting up at midnight to grind tofu; tofu is nutritious, tofu is nourishing, eating meat is not as good as eating tofu." And Nanyue Mount Heng's specialty—Hengshan dried tofu—has an even more distinctive flavor and is famous far and wide, beyond the reach of neighboring villages.
Daylily is also a local specialty here. Every July and August, the rich fragrance of daylilies drying in the sun drifts from almost every village. As early as two thousand years ago, the Book of Songs contained the line "Where can one get xuancao? Plant it behind the house." Xuancao, also known as xuancao or daylily, was the ancient name for daylily. Bai Juyi wrote in a poem: "Dukang can dispel gloom, xuancao can make one forget sorrow." Eaten as food, it has medicinal properties such as stopping bleeding, reducing inflammation, promoting urination, inducing sweating, strengthening the stomach, and calming the nerves, and it is delicious, crisp, and sweet.
Not only daylily—even a bowl of Zajiang rice noodles will make you willing to remain a Nanyue person forever. It is not only loved by the people of Nanyue but also a delicacy with which they entertain guests from afar. Its characteristics are that it is made and eaten fresh, finely cut, with uniformly thin sheets, its texture as fine as thread and as soft as cotton. Blanched in a light fermented black bean broth and then served with soup, its taste is beyond words.
Given time, let us warm a pot of wine and brew a pot of tea, and slowly savor and experience the specialties and flavors of Nanyue amid the imagery of Hengyue's rising clouds and Dongting's surging waves. Then you will unconsciously fall in love with this landscape and with the diligent and wise people of Nanyue nurtured by it.
Nanyue vegetarian banquets draw on local ingredients, mainly using eggplant, beans, flour, wheat gluten, lily, water chestnut, lotus root, red and white radish, and various melons and vegetables as raw materials, imitating chicken, fish, meat, and eggs to create banquets with the same names as meat dishes. Their appearance can pass for the real thing, and their taste is fragrant, fresh, and tender. For example, a dish called "Inconceivable" looks more and more like "fatty pork," but upon tasting, it turns out to be finely made from winter melon.
Nanyue vegetarian banquets usually include what are known as "One Fragrance (a single plate of vegetarian dishes)," "Two Degrees of Plum ('plum' and 'mold' being homophones, referring to fermented beans and fermented tofu)," "Three Fresh Soup (soup made from three seasonal fresh vegetables)," "Four Seasons Green (four different seasonal green vegetables)," "Five Lamps Gathering (five kinds of stewed dishes; there is a Buddhist text called 'The Five Lamps Meeting in Harmony,' after which this dish is named)," "Six Connected (usually referring to braised eggplant, stir-fried bamboo shoots, stewed mushrooms, oil-fried chili, and lotus root balls)," "Seven-Story Tower (seven ingredients such as mock meat, meatballs, steamed buns, wheat gluten, cabbage hearts, magnolia slices, and shiitake mushrooms stacked in layers, like the 'Family Happiness' or 'Lion's Head' among meat dishes)," "Eight Big Bowls (eight vegetarian dishes imitating meat to form a banquet)," "Nine As You Wish (dishes arranged according to season and number of guests, so that diners are satisfied)," and "Ten Scenes." Among these, "Ten Scenes" is the representative work of Nanyue vegetarian cuisine. There are two kinds of "Ten Scenes": one is "Ten Scenes Vegetarian Braise," made by braising and simmering magnolia slices, red radish, white radish, lily, cabbage hearts, shiitake mushrooms, water chestnuts, potatoes, dried bean curd skin, and wheat gluten, some of which are carved into various flower shapes, elegant and beautiful; the other is "Great Ten Scenes," which includes marine plants such as kelp and nori, as well as pearl rice, oil-wrapped chicken (made from vegetarian gluten), oiled dried bamboo shoots, rock sugar Hunan lotus seeds, Ten Scenes Vegetarian Braise, Seven-Story Tower, Eight-Treasure Rice, roasted mushroom soup, and green vegetables. There are also fully meat-imitating banquets arranged as ten big bowls. Ten Scenes uses a variety of ingredients and is finely prepared, with sweet, sour, soft, and crisp flavors all present, and both aquatic and land vegetarian foods included; eating this allows one to appreciate the full flavor of a vegetarian banquet.
Another local traditional famous specialty dish in the Nanyue vegetarian cuisine series is "Nanyue Guanyin Bamboo Shoots." Mount Nanyue is high and rich in bamboo, and the monks and Taoists in the temples and monasteries on the mountain mostly eat vegetarian food, being very particular about the preparation of bamboo shoot dishes—frying, stir-frying, pickling, and boiling, in a dazzling variety of methods. The most distinctive is oiled bamboo shoots, traditionally said to be made from tender, plump young shoots picked from the mountain around the birthday of Guanyin (the nineteenth day of the second lunar month). The method is: remove the shells of fresh young shoots and wash them, boil them briefly, take them out and dry them in the sun, then soak and store them in tea oil. The longer they are stored, the better their quality and the more fragrant their taste. The finished product is strip-shaped, resembling a phoenix tail, pale yellow and glossy, with tender flesh, crisp and refreshing, and richly fragrant. When eating, take them out and add a little salt and pepper for an incomparable flavor. There are also salted young shoots boiled in brine, sun-dried and steamed several times, and stored in jars, which also have a distinctive flavor. There is also what is called "Jar-Full Bamboo Shoots": when the bamboo shoots break through the soil, cover them with a jar and press a stone on top; when other bamboo shoots grow new leaves, the shoots have filled the jar, white, tender, and sweet, and can be sliced and stir-fried; the shoots can also be boiled, mashed into shoot paste, mixed with ingredients, and made into shoot cakes and shoot blocks, each with its own flavor. The Tang Dynasty poet Li Shangyin wrote in "First Eating Bamboo Shoots, Presented to Those Seated" about the wonderful feeling after eating bamboo shoots: "Tender sheaths and fragrant buds first emerge from the forest, in Yuling their price is weighed as gold. The imperial capital and land and sea should have countless things, how can one bear to cut a heart that aspires to the clouds."
Fresh bamboo shoots are generally soaked briefly in warm water, then taken out, drained of excess water, placed in hot oil, stir-fried over high heat, and then seasonings are added. If you want the bamboo shoots to retain their original flavor, do not soak them in warm water—stir-fry them directly, and the taste is also quite good. Dried bamboo shoots must be soaked in warm water until softened before quick stir-frying.
All bamboo shoots, when stir-fried or boiled, must be cooked with a bit more oil to taste good. Besides being a delicacy, bamboo shoots also have the effects of lowering blood pressure and blood lipids and brightening the eyes and clearing the liver.
In addition, there is also wild goose mushroom. Every year in the third and eighth lunar months, when wild geese fly over the towering Mount Heng in Nanyue, many men, women, young, and old in Nanyue carry bamboo baskets or bamboo hampers and busily search for and pick wild goose mushrooms in the woods and grass. There are dozens of kinds of mushrooms on Mount Nanyue, but only the wild goose mushroom is top-grade. The wild goose mushroom is light brown and umbrella-shaped, as small as a copper coin and as large as a vegetable bowl, loose in texture and plump in flesh, fragrant, sweet, fresh, and tender, and delicious. It is suitable for noodles, soup, and stir-fried meat alike. There is an even more distinctive way to eat it: fry fresh wild goose mushrooms in boiling tea oil until cooked, then store them together with a little tea oil in a jar, called mushroom oil. A few drops of this oil on a dish immediately produce a fragrant aroma, a cool and refreshing taste that promotes salivation and greatly stimulates the appetite.
Nanyue Buddhist vegetarian banquets are the essence of religious food culture. According to the "Records of Nanyue," Nanyue vegetarian food has a history of 600 years and was a delicious "green food" specially researched and cooked by ancient Nanyue monks to entertain high officials and nobles. Its taste is light and refreshing, its colors pleasing to the eye, its shapes exquisite, and its color, aroma, and taste are all complete.
Nanyue vegetarian banquets attract large numbers of tourists not only because of their exquisite dishes but also because of their concept of being "green" and "healthy." When visitors come to Nanyue, besides enjoying the beautiful mountains and rivers and praying for health and peace, they can also taste purely natural healthy vegetarian food, which accords with people's wish to "return to simplicity."
According to research by nutritionists, vegetarians live far longer than non-vegetarians. The Indians of central Mexico are a primitive vegetarian people with an extremely high average lifespan, and many of them simply do not know what cancer is, which is the envy of others; Buddhist monks also enjoy long life because of vegetarianism. Moreover, vegetarians have less subcutaneous fat and less cholesterol in their blood, so they suffer less from high blood pressure, heart disease, and other illnesses. During World War II, Northern Europeans were forced to eat vegetarian food, and it was found that the incidence of heart disease across the whole population dropped greatly. After they later switched to eating meat, the incidence of heart disease rose again.
Through detailed analysis and comparison, Western scientists found that a vegetarian diet not only can fully provide the protein and other nutrients the human body needs, but can also remove harmful health factors such as excess cholesterol brought by animal foods. Vegetarians are not only healthier physically than meat-eaters but also more adaptable physiologically. A vegetarian diet is also a diet that improves intelligence, cultivates a good mood, and benefits beauty.
In the course of continuous development and progress, humanity has long realized that eating should not merely pursue filling the stomach; deliciousness and rich nutrition are the most basic requirements. Today, humanity increasingly reflects on itself and on other life. At the same time, humanity is paying more and more attention to its own living environment—the Earth, and even outer space. Therefore, returning to nature, returning to health, and protecting the Earth's ecological environment are deeply influencing modern concepts of diet.