Skip to main content

KONGFUXI (CONFUCIUS) THE FOODIE

Mohan Guruswamy 

In the winter of 2013, I visited Cheifu, the birthplace of Kongfuxi, known to us as Confucius. Confucius was a man of my heart. He took food very seriously. 

The Philosophy of Confucius is deeply reflected in Chinese food culture. He attached great importance to food and described it as one of the three basic conditions, along with an army and trust, for founding a state.

It is said that Confucius helped to bring perfect taste to Chinese food by developing proper cooking techniques. His teachings regarding cooking methods are still considered as an important part in Chinese food culture.

Some Confucian food basics:
Food should be served in small or chopped pieces.
The taste of any dish depends on proper mixing of all of its ingredients and condiments.
Taste of individual elements does not have great importance in food, but fine blending of ingredients results in great taste and dishes in meals must be compatible.
Blending of food also results in harmony and is an important part of the philosophy; without harmony foods cannot taste good.

Confucius recommended:
Know the origin or source of your food.
The way you cut your food reflects the way you live.
Meat should be eaten in moderation.
Eat only until seven tenths full; control in portions promotes longevity.
You need not limit drinking, but do not drink to the point of confusion.
Hygiene is essential in food preparation.

Confucian philosophy strongly believes that food and friends are inseparable parts of life. A life without food and friends is considered as incomplete and improper.

Unfortunately Cheifu was lacking in good restaurants to do honour to Kongfuxi.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Helen Mirren once said: Before you argue with someone, ask yourself.......

Helen Mirren once said: Before you argue with someone, ask yourself, is that person even mentally mature enough to grasp the concept of a different perspective. Because if not, there's absolutely no point. Not every argument is worth your energy. Sometimes, no matter how clearly you express yourself, the other person isn’t listening to understand—they’re listening to react. They’re stuck in their own perspective, unwilling to consider another viewpoint, and engaging with them only drains you. There’s a difference between a healthy discussion and a pointless debate. A conversation with someone who is open-minded, who values growth and understanding, can be enlightening—even if you don’t agree. But trying to reason with someone who refuses to see beyond their own beliefs? That’s like talking to a wall. No matter how much logic or truth you present, they will twist, deflect, or dismiss your words, not because you’re wrong, but because they’re unwilling to see another side. Maturity is...
Post a Comment
Read more

The battle against caste: Phule and Periyar's indomitable legacy

In the annals of India's social reform, two luminaries stand preeminent: Jotirao Phule and E.V. Ramasamy, colloquially known as Periyar. Their endeavours, ensconced in the 19th and 20th centuries, continue to sculpt the contemporary struggle against the entrenched caste system. Phule's educational renaissance Phule, born in 1827, was an intellectual vanguard who perceived education as the ultimate equaliser. He inaugurated the inaugural school for girls from lower castes in Pune, subverting the Brahminical hegemony that had long monopolized erudition. His Satyashodhak Samaj endeavoured to obliterate caste hierarchies through radical social reform. His magnum opus, "Gulamgiri" (Slavery), delineated poignant parallels between India's caste system and the subjugation of African-Americans, igniting a discourse on caste as an apparatus of servitude. Periyar's rationalist odyssey Periyar, born in 1879, assumed the mantle of social reform through the Dravidian moveme...
Post a Comment
Read more

AI & Higher Education: The Empty Classroom

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE & HIGHER EDUCATION The Empty Classroom When students outsource learning to AI and companies cut the engineers who know better, both ends of the talent pipeline fray at once. India is not watching from a safe distance. Chuppala Nagesh Bhushan At the University of California, Berkeley, something unremarkable happened in spring 2026: a professor held office hours. The unremarkable part was that nobody came. Dan Garcia, who teaches CS 10, a broad introductory computing course popularly called “The Beauty and Joy of Computing,” found his calendar conspicuously clear at the very moment his gradebook became conspicuously alarming. Of the students who sat CS 10’s final examination, 35.3% received an F—five times the historical norm of roughly 7%. Two other courses in Berkeley’s elite Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences department suffered similarly: 10.6% of CS 61A students failed, and 16.8% of those in EECS 127, an upper-division optimi...
1 comment
Read more