Thinking Food in Poetry

research on Lu You's food philosophy

Siyang Zheng

Tourism College of Zhejiang

Hongcheng Zhou

Zhejiang Gongshang University

pp. 59-68

in: Andrea Borghini, Nicola Piras & Beatrice Serini (eds), Philosophy of Food, East Asian Journal of Philosophy 1 (2), 2022.

Abstract

Lu You is the Chinese poet with most extant poems. Many of his over 9,000 poems are in some way related to food, thus representing a significant source for the research on food culture and philosophy in the Song Dynasty. This paper analyses Lu You’s poetic remarks on food, and summarizes their gist, which can be categorized into four precepts: control food and avoid gluttony, choose vegetables over meat, eat lightly, and use food to keep fit. In this way, the paper contributes to our understanding of Lu You’s poetry, which in turn reflects the viewpoints on food of the literati and officialdom class in the Song Dynasty.