Most writing about Chinese food history repeats dates without saying where they come from. This page is the opposite exercise. For each dish we have written about, it gives the earliest text we have been able to read ourselves, the line that text actually contains, and the edition we read it in.
Two things this page is not. It is not a claim about when a dish began: the column says “the earliest we have found,” and an earlier text may well exist. And it is not a chain of quotations copied from other books; where we could only reach a passage through a later work, we say so rather than presenting it as the original.
Chinese passages are given as the edition we read prints them. Some of those editions print simplified characters and some print traditional ones, so this page contains both. We have not converted them to look consistent. How we check a quotation is set out on our page on editorial method.
The Table
| Date | Text | What it records | Where we use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| c. 200 | Shiming 释名 | The word bing 饼 defined; hubing 胡饼 | shaobing, the character for noodles |
| 3rd c., recorded c. 430 | Shishuo xinyu 世说新语 | A bowl of hot tangbing 汤饼 | the character for noodles |
| 3rd–4th c., in the Taiping yulan 太平御览 | Shu Xi 束皙, Bing fu 饼赋 | Dough worked and stretched by hand | biangbiang noodles |
| c. 537 | Nan Qi shu 南齐书 | An emperor’s taste for shuiyin bing 水引饼 | the character for noodles |
| c. 540 | Qimin yaoshu 齐民要术 | Shuiyin noodles; an ox-horn press; a hubing oven; zong 粽 | noodles, pressed noodles |
| c. 550 | Jingchu suishi ji 荊楚歲時記 | The five-pungent platter 五辛盤 on New Year’s Day; the Lichun entry with no food in it; three festival congees — a bean congee on the fifteenth, a barley congee at Cold Food, a red bean congee at the solstice | spring roll, congee |
| c. 860 | Youyang zazu 酉阳杂俎 | The Xiao family’s wontons | wonton |
| 1147 | Dongjing meng Hua lu 东京梦华录 | Bing shops split into two trades; fine-strand liangfen | shaobing, liangfen |
| 1274 | Meng liang lu 梦梁录 | Tofu soup and fried tofu in the cheap wine shops and rice shops of Hangzhou; congee at the dawn and midday shops; the temple laba congee; the "head-count congee" | douhua, congee |
| 1313 | Wang Zhen nongshu 王祯农书 | Buckwheat noodles called heluo 河漏 | pressed noodles |
| 1330 | Yinshan zhengyao 饮膳正要 | Four court mantou 馒头, all with filling; the soybean entry on tofu | baozi, xiaolongbao, douhua |
| before 1696 | Guangdong xinyu 广东新语 | Jian dui 煎堆 and its popped-grain filling; four kinds of zongzi, one with a sappanwood heart; fenguo 粉果; and the word chasu 茶素 | jian dui |
| 1758 | Dijing suishi jisheng 帝京岁时纪胜 | Water-rinsed noodles; hawthorn threaded on a string; the spring platter and “biting spring” | zhajiangmian, tanghulu, spring roll |
| 1864 | Dumen jilue 都门纪略 | Hawthorn as a pressed cake, not on a stick | tanghulu |
| 1906 | Yanjing suishi ji 燕京岁时记 | Bingtang hulu 冰糖壶卢 on bamboo skewers | tanghulu |
| 1909 | Chengdu tonglan 成都通览 | Prices for baozi, sweet water noodles, chicken feet, youtiao, spring rolls and three kinds of doufunao; a "summer foods" heading with four congees under it | baozi, sweet water noodles, youtiao, spring roll, douhua, congee |
| 1919 | Dazhonghua Jingzhao dilizhi 大中华京兆地理志 | Zhajiangmian 炸酱面, named | zhajiangmian |
| Republican period | Ganquan xian xuzhi 甘泉县续志 | A definition of tangbao 汤包 | xiaolongbao |
| 1930 | Jiading xian xuzhi 嘉定县续志 | Two kinds of mantou; tangbao; stinky dried tofu | xiaolongbao, stinky tofu |
The Lines Themselves
c. 200 — Shiming 释名, “Explaining Food”
餅,并也,溲麪使合并也。
“Bing means to join: you wet flour and make it come together.”
胡餅,作之大漫沍也。亦言以胡麻著上也。
“Hubing: made large and flat. It is also said to be named for the sesame put on top.”
At this date bing is the general word for anything made of flour, not the flatbread the word points to today.
3rd century, recorded c. 430 — Shishuo xinyu 世说新语, “Appearance and Manner”
何平叔美姿仪,面至白,魏明帝疑其傅粉。正夏月,与热汤饼。
“He Yan was handsome and very pale, and Emperor Ming suspected he wore powder. In high summer he was given hot soup noodles.”
The emperor’s test was to make him sweat. The dish is incidental, which is why it is useful: tangbing was ordinary enough to serve at court without explanation.
3rd–4th century — Shu Xi 束皙, Bing fu 饼赋, preserved in the Taiping yulan 太平御览, ch. 860
面弥离於指端,手萦回而交错
“The dough parts at the fingertips; the hands circle and cross.”
We are reading this through the Taiping yulan, a tenth-century compendium that quotes it. The rhapsody itself does not survive whole.
c. 537 — Nan Qi shu 南齐书, ch. 32
上好水引饼,戢令妇女躬自执事以设上焉。
“His Majesty was fond of shuiyin bing, and Ji had the women of the household prepare it themselves to serve him.”
c. 540 — Qimin yaoshu 齐民要术, “Bing Methods”
水引:挼如箸大,一尺一断,盘中盛水浸。宜以手临铛上,挼令薄如韭叶,逐沸煮。
“Shuiyin: roll it as thick as a chopstick, break it into foot lengths, and soak it in a bowl of water. Over the pot, press it out with the hands until it is as thin as a chive leaf, and boil it as it comes to the boil.”
割取牛角,似匙面大。钻作六七小孔,仅容粗麻线。
“Cut a piece of ox horn about the size of a spoon bowl. Drill six or seven small holes in it, just wide enough for coarse hemp thread.” — the powder-bing method, which is an extrusion press.
便著胡饼炉中,令熟。勿令反覆!
“Put it into the hubing oven until done. Do not turn it over!” — from the marrow-bing method, and our earliest named oven.
The same book quotes a third-century work on the festival food that became zongzi:
黏黍一名’粽’,一曰’角黍’。
“Sticky millet is called zong, also jiaoshu, ‘horn millet.'”
c. 550 — Jingchu suishi ji 荊楚歲時記, the New Year and Lichun entries
膠牙餳。下五辛盤。進敷于散。服卻鬼丸。
“Malt sugar offered, the five-pungent platter set down, fuyusan powder taken, the ghost-repelling pill swallowed.” The book’s old commentary, quoting Zhou Chu’s Record of Local Customs, names what was on the platter: garlic, small garlic, Chinese chives, rape and coriander. The platter belongs to New Year’s Day. The same book’s entry for the first day of spring has paper swallows and two pasted characters, and no food at all. Quoted from the Song Jinlong 宋金龍 annotated edition, based on the Baoyantang miji text, in the traditional characters that edition prints. Used on spring roll vs egg roll.
正月十五日。作豆糜。加油膏其上。以祠門戶
去冬節一百五日。即有疾風甚雨。謂之寒食。禁火三日。造餳大麥粥
冬至日。量日影。作赤豆粥。以禳疫
"On the fifteenth of the first month, make a bean congee, put fat on top of it, and offer it to the door-gods." "A hundred and five days after the winter solstice there is high wind and heavy rain; this is called Cold Food. Fires are forbidden for three days, and malt-sugar barley congee is made." "On the winter solstice day, measure the shadow of the sun, and make a red bean congee to drive off plague." Three congees, three festivals, and all three are in the main text rather than the old commentary. The same book’s La-day entry, for the eighth of the twelfth month, has no congee in it at all. Used on the congee page.
c. 860 — Youyang zazu 酉阳杂俎
今衣冠家名食有:萧家馄饨,漉去汤肥,可以瀹茗。
“Among the famous dishes of the great houses today: the Xiao family’s wontons — skim off the fat from the broth and you could brew tea with it.”
1147 — Dongjing meng Hua lu 东京梦华录
凡饼店,有油饼店,有胡饼店。
“Of bing shops there are oil-bing shops and hubing shops.” — two separate trades, each with its own product list.
From the sixth-month seasonal foods of the same book, in a list of things sold cold: 细索凉粉, fine-strand liangfen.
1274 — Meng liang lu 梦梁录, on the cheap eating shops of Hangzhou
更有酒店兼卖血脏、豆腐羹、螺蛳、煎豆腐、蛤蜊肉之属，乃小辈去处。
“There are also wine shops that sell blood offal, tofu soup, river snails, fried tofu and clam meat — places for the lower sort.” A second passage puts fried tofu in the vegetable-soup-and-rice shops, “where poorer people go to fill themselves cheaply.” Tofu is in the Song street record, and it is cheap food; the unpressed curds, doufunao, are not named there. Used on douhua.
御街铺店，闻钟而起，卖早市点心……冬天卖五味肉粥、七宝素粥，夏月卖义粥、馓子、豆子粥。
此月八日，寺院谓之“腊八”。大刹等寺，俱设五味粥，名曰“腊八粥”
二十五日，士庶家煮赤豆粥祀食神，名曰“人口粥”，有猫狗者，亦与焉。不知出于何典。
Congee sold from shops that open on the sound of the bell, with one menu for winter and another for summer; the temples’ five-flavour congee on the eighth of the twelfth month, already called laba congee; and, seventeen days later, a red bean "head-count congee" which the author records and then declines to source — 不知出于何典, "I do not know which text it comes from." Used on the congee page.
1313 — Wang Zhen nongshu 王祯农书, on buckwheat
或作湯餅,謂之「河漏」,滑細如粉,亞於麥麪,風俗所尚,供爲常食。
“Or it is made into soup noodles, called heluo: smooth and fine as powder, second to wheat flour, favored by local custom and eaten as everyday food.”
1330 — Yinshan zhengyao 饮膳正要, “Rare Delicacies”
倉饅頭 羊肉 羊脂 蔥 生薑 陳皮各切細
“Granary mantou: mutton, mutton fat, spring onion, fresh ginger, dried tangerine peel, all finely cut.”
All four of the court mantou in this chapter have fillings, which is worth knowing before anyone tells you the word has always meant a plain steamed bun.
before 1696 — Guangdong xinyu 广东新语, ch. 14
廣州之俗。歲終以烈火爆開糯穀。名曰炮穀。以爲煎堆心餡。煎堆者。以糯粉爲大小圓。入油煎之。以祀先及餽親友者也。
“The custom of Guangzhou: at the end of the year they burst glutinous grain open over a fierce fire; it is called paogu. This is used for the heart-filling of jian dui. As for jian dui: glutinous rice flour is made into rounds large and small and fried in oil, to make offerings to the ancestors and as gifts to relatives and friends.” The filling is popped grain and has a name of its own. Sesame is not mentioned in this account of jian dui, although the writer uses the word for sesame further down the same entry, of something else.
端午爲粽。以柊葉裹者曰灰粽、肉粽。置蘇木條其中爲紅心。以竹葉裹者曰竹筒粽。三角者曰角子粽。水浸數月。剝而煎食甚香。
“At Duanwu they make zong. Those wrapped in zhong leaves are called hui zong and rou zong; a strip of sappanwood is set inside to make a red heart. Those wrapped in bamboo leaves are called zhutong zong. The three-cornered kind is called jiaozi zong. Soaked in water for several months, then peeled and pan-fried, they are very fragrant.” This is three centuries later than the zong in the Qimin yaoshu above, so it is not an earliest record; it is here because it sits in the same entry, and for the last sentence. We have not found another text that describes keeping cooked zongzi in water for months and then frying them.
平常則作粉果。以白米浸至半月……一名粉角。
“Ordinarily they make fenguo. White rice is soaked for half a month… it is also called fenjiao.”
All three passages are from juan 14, the entry headed 茶素, read in a modern typeset edition that prints the text in traditional characters, and checked character by character against the printed page. The fenguo line stood on this page before we held that edition; we have now checked it against it.
1758 — Dijing suishi jisheng 帝京岁时纪胜
京师于是日家家俱食冷淘面,即俗说过水面是也。
“In the capital every household eats cold-rinsed noodles that day, commonly called ‘water-passed noodles.'”
小儿辈又以酸枣捣糕……线穿山楂,绕街卖之。
“Children also make cakes of pounded sour jujube… and hawthorn threaded on a string, sold all round the streets.”
1864 — Dumen jilue 都门纪略
山楂蜜糕（又名金糕）
“Hawthorn honey cake, also called golden cake.” — in this Beijing guide, hawthorn appears as a pressed cake. The skewer is not here.
1906 — Yanjing suishi ji 燕京岁时记
冰糖壶卢乃用竹签,贯以葡萄、山药豆、海棠果、山里红等物,蘸以冰糖,甜脆而凉。
“Bingtang hulu is made by threading grapes, yam beans, crab apples, hawthorns and the like onto a bamboo skewer and dipping them in rock sugar: sweet, crisp and cold.”
1909 — Chengdu tonglan 成都通览
糖包子 每個四文。
“Sugar baozi, four cash each.”
甜水面 席馆晨售,每碗十六文,太粗无味。挑担者六文一碗。
“Sweet water noodles: sold in the morning at banquet houses, sixteen cash a bowl, too coarse and without flavor. From a carrying pole, six cash a bowl.”
鸡爪爪(三文)
“Chicken feet, three cash.” — from the list of cooked meats sold ready to eat.
The same street-food list runs to roughly a hundred and fifty priced items, fourteen of them noodle dishes: 荞面, 甜水面, 炉桥面, 攒丝面, 杂酱面, 白提面, 素面, 卫生面, 卤面, 牛肉面, 面棋子, 抄手面, 挂面 and 米粉. Neither xiaomian nor dandan mian is among them, and neither appears in the book’s list of celebrated food shops either.
夏天食品 须热天方有售者
冰粉 米凉粉 凉糍粑 凉虾 藕稀饭 糖水 绿豆稀饭 荷叶稀饭 豆浆稀饭
"Summer foods — only on sale in hot weather." Four of the nine items under that heading are congee: lotus-root, mung bean, lotus-leaf and soy-milk. Vol. 2, p. 266. Used on the congee page.
1919 — Dazhonghua Jingzhao dilizhi 大中华京兆地理志, part 16, ch. 68
炸酱面 京兆各县,富家多食之。旅行各乡镇,便饭中以此为最便。
“Zhajiangmian: in the counties of Jingzhao, well-off households often eat it. When traveling through the towns, it is the most convenient simple meal.”
Republican period — Ganquan xian xuzhi 甘泉县续志, ch. 7b
包子肉餡中多湯者,謂之湯包。或菜餡。蒸時皆襯松毛。
“A baozi whose meat filling holds a lot of soup is called a tangbao. Some have vegetable fillings. They are steamed on a bed of pine needles.”
1930 — Jiading xian xuzhi 嘉定县续志, “Products: Food and Drink”
饅頭有緊酵、鬆酵兩種。緊酵以清水和麵為之,皮薄餡多。南翔製者最著。
“There are two kinds of mantou, tight-leavened and loose-leavened. The tight-leavened kind is made with plain water, thin-skinned and generously filled. Those made at Nanxiang are the most celebrated.”
The same section works through bean products one by one and places stinky dried tofu among them, as the kind steeped in a brine of bamboo-shoot roots and greens until it takes on a smell. We are reading that passage in a modern Chinese rendering rather than the original, so we describe what it records instead of quoting it.
What We Have Not Found
This section is the point of the page as much as the table is.
The Shuowen jiezi 说文解字 on the characters mian 麪 and 面. We have seen it quoted in online dictionaries only, not in an edition we hold, so it is not used on this site and is not listed above.
A date for the word miantiao 面条 itself. We have not found one we can check.
The name zhajiangmian between 1758 and 1919. The gap in the record is real; we have not filled it.
The claim that zhajiangmian originated in Shandong. We have not found the record it rests on. That is not the same as saying it is false.
A primary source for the Changsha stinky tofu brine. Recipes circulating online disagree with each other, and we have not found an early text.
The origin of dan in dandan noodles. In the 1909 Chengdu survey the two characters appear only in a children’s rhyme.
A Tang-dynasty record behind the Chang’an origin story for the sesame ball. English accounts place jian dui at the Tang court in Chang’an. We have not read the text that claim rests on, and do not repeat it.
Using This Page
If you are writing about one of these dishes and want to check a line, the edition is named in the entry, and for some of them we hold a photograph of the page. Write to us through the contact page and we will send it.
If you know of an earlier text than one listed here, we would like to hear about it more than anything else on this page. Corrections are made on the page itself, and this table grows as we read.