Chinese Food Culture and the Theory of Yin Yang and the Five Natural Elements

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24520043
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Chinese philosophy
• Research Institution: International Christian University
• Principal Investigator: KOTO Tomoko 国際基督教大学, 教養学部, 教授 (90195751)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 中国飲食文化 / 陰陽五行説 / 五味論 / 本草学 / 日本飲食文化 / 韓国飲食文化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

For Chinese Food culture and the theory, 1) Organize the flow of Chinese food culture ideas of each era using literature such as "Siku Quanshu『四庫全書』", "Daozang『道蔵』, " "Shu Zang『術蔵』", 2) Compare Chinese "Compendium of Materia Medica" with Japanese "Yamato Materia Medica『大和本草』" , and the Korean "Donguibogam『東医宝鑑』".
"Yamato Materia Medica『大和本草』" was presented an easy-to-understand information for general people. The readers can be inferred to be a officials or leaders of village who correspond to their rescue at the time of the famine. On the other hand, readers of "Compendium of Materia Medica『本草綱目』" is mainly a specialist for the drug. Consideration of food Materia Medica related certificate in Japan and China as well as South Korea only also is a future challenge.

Free Research Field

中国哲学