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| Buddhism Chinese vegetarianism is commonly associated with Buddhism, as beliefs and religion played an important role in determining a persons diet, as well as geography, education and wealth. Between the two major different styles of Buddhist practice, namely the Northern School (Mahayana that is practised within India, Japan, Korea, China, and Tibet) and the Southern School (Hinayana that is practiced in Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam), only the Northern School scriptures explicitly forbid the eating of meat. Also, vegetarianism is not a usual practice in Tantric Buddhism, which includes Vajrayana Buddhism practised by Tibetans. New Menus For The Emperors In 507 AD, the Buddhist Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty held a conference to debate the question of eating meat. He then also wrote a piece of literature called "Forsake Alcohol and Meat" in which he persuades Buddhists to become vegetarians and traditionally, Emperor Wu is called to be responsible for the introduction of vegetarianism in Chinese Buddhism history. Since then, Emperors across the many different dynasties of China had the best chefs at their service. Therefore, many finest Chinese cuisines are inevitably created and influenced by the Emperors' imperial kitchens. With the numerous accounts of change to dynasties, takeovers from different Chinese rulers across the country and diverse population changes from other parts of China, many different styles of cooking techniques were introduced into Beijing and then flowed through to other parts of China. Vegetarian cuisine has always been an important part of the Chinese culture and has been a popular choice of cuisine from the Song Dynasty and was later further developed in the later Ming and Qing dynasties. The main characteristic of Chinese vegetarian food is that it is uniquely cooked, nutritious and by all means healthy. The key ingredients to Chinese vegetarian cuisine are dark green leafy vegetables, mushrooms, fruits and tofu (bean curd). Vegetable oil is usually the condiment used for cooking, as it is not only delicious, but it also aids digestion processes and may prevent cancer. Innovative imperial chefs of the Chinese Emperors made use of Soya Beans to create ‘meat like’ dishes to attract ‘non-vegetarians’ to eat them, namely the Emperor, Empress and their close dining companions, as having a vegetarian diet on the 1st & 15th Lunar day of each calendar month was considered as a way of cleansing the soul in religious terms as it meant they were not sacrificing another living beings life for food, and with the Emperor being used to having the finest cuisines, the chefs did not want to displease the Emperor with bland vegetarian dishes. Although full-time vegetarianism is not of common practise in modern Hong Kong, Malaysia, China and Singapore, vegetarian restaurants are usually full on the lunar calendar prayer days, which are the 1st and 15th of the Chinese Lunar calendar month. Some famous Chinese vegetarian dishes include vegetarian chicken, vegetarian braised pork, vegetarian beef, vegetarian ham, tofu slices, vegetarian prawns and vegetarian fish. All these dishes are not made from real "meat", but are processed products from Soya beans and are cooked to imitate and taste like real meat. Further Links to Chinese Vegetarianism & Informative Vegetarian Links Finding Vegetarian Chinese Restaurants in Asia Soya Foods Vegetarians Visiting China Vegetarian Restaurants in China Buddhist Cuisine History of Soy Bean Imperial Chinese Food Traditional Chinese Food Vegan Village Vegan Society |
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