Chinese food therapy
Chinese dietary practice linking food and medicine through traditional concepts.
Chinese food therapy, known as *shíliáo* in Chinese, is a dietary approach based on traditional Chinese beliefs about how food affects the body. It emphasizes eating according to the seasons and in moderation. The underlying principles blend Taoist Wuxing, a classical concept, and the eight principle theory, a traditional systematization, both drawn from traditional Chinese medicine. Foods prepared in this style are called *yàoshàn*, meaning "drug-food." This practice has long been common among Chinese communities in China and abroad, and it gained attention from Western readers in the 1990s through books like *The Tao of Healthy Eating* and *The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen*.
The roots of Chinese food therapy go back to ancient times, though early cookbooks and food treatises—now lost—showed an interest in food without focusing on its medical value. Writings on "nourishing life" (*yǎngshēng*) mixed food advice with broader guidance on achieving immortality, but these were only precursors, as they didn't systematically describe individual foods' effects. H. T. Huang, in Joseph Needham's *Science and Civilization in China*, points to the *Recipes for Fifty-Two Ailments* (around 200 BCE) and the *Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon* as early influences: the former used food as remedies, the latter discussed food's impact on health. The *Shennong Bencao Jing* (1st century CE) also covered food products but didn't specialize in them.
The earliest surviving Chinese dietary text is a chapter from Sun Simiao's *Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold*, completed in the 650s during the Tang dynasty. This work contains the first known use of the term "food therapy" (*shiliao*). Sun wrote that he wanted to share current knowledge so people would turn to food before drugs when ill. His chapter has 154 entries in four sections—fruits, vegetables, cereals, and meat—explaining each food's properties using concepts from the *Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon*, such as *qi*, the viscera, and vital essence (*jīng*), along with correspondences between the Five Phases, five flavors (sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, salty), and five grains. He also listed many "dietary interdictions" (*shíjìn*), some based on calendar rules (e.g., no water chestnuts in the 7th month) and others on food interactions (e.g., no clear wine with horse meat) or flavor clashes.
Sun Simiao's disciple, Meng Shen (621–
- field
- Traditional Chinese medicine, dietary therapy
- known_for
- Concept that medicine and food share a common origin; classification of foods as heating or cooling; use of five flavors to affect viscera
- earliest_extant_text
- Sun Simiao's Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold (c. 650s CE)
- first_work_entirely_on_food_therapy
- Materia Dietetica by Meng Shen (621–713 CE, now lost)
- key_modern_term
- Yàoshí tóngyuán (药食同源, 'medicine and food, same origin')
Quick Facts
- Claims
- Health claims relating to Chinese diet
- Topics
- Traditional Chinese medicine
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The earliest extant Chinese dietary text is a chapter of Sun Simiao's Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold, completed in the 650s during the Tang dynasty. Sun's work contains the earliest known use of the term 'food therapy' (shiliao). He stated that he wanted to present current knowledge about food so that people would first turn to food rather than drugs when suffering from an ailment. His chapter contains 154 entries divided into four sections – on fruits, vegetables, cereals, and meat – in which he explains the properties of individual foodstuffs with concepts borrowed from the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon: qi, the viscera, and vital essence, as well as correspondences between the Five Phases, the 'five flavors', and the five grains. He also set a large number of 'dietary interdictions', some based on calendrical notions or purported interactions between foods.
Sun Simiao's disciple Meng Shen compiled the first work entirely devoted to the therapeutic value of food: the Materia Dietetica. This work has not survived, but it was quoted in later texts – like the 10th-century Japanese text Ishinpō – and a fragment has been found among the Dunhuang manuscripts. Surviving excerpts show that Meng gave less importance to dietary prohibitions than Sun, and that he provided information on how to prepare foodstuffs rather than just describe their properties. In the early 14th century, Hu Sihui, who served as Grand Dietician at the court of the Mongol Yuan dynasty, compiled a treatise called Yinshan zhengyao, which is still recognized in China as a classic of both materia medica and materia dietetica.
Reader's Guide
Chinese food therapy represents a long-standing tradition that integrates dietary practice with medical theory, influencing health approaches in China and across East Asia. Its central tenet, that 'medicine and food share a common origin', underpins the classification of foods by their thermal nature (heating or cooling) and by five flavors (sour, sweet, bitter, pungent, salty), each purportedly affecting specific viscera. This system, rooted in Taoist Wuxing and eight principle theory, was systematized in texts from the Tang dynasty onward, notably by Sun Simiao and Meng Shen, and later by Hu Sihui under the Yuan dynasty. The tradition shaped Korean and Japanese dietary literature, with the concept entering Japan in 1972 as ishokudōgen. In the late 1990s, the yakuzen diet evolved into a simplified version where herbs are added to relatively balanced meals. The Chinese government has approved a number of herbs as food ingredients using the 'Traditionally Both Food and Chinese Medicinal Materials' lists, colloquially known as the Yàoshí Tóngyuán Catalog. Despite its historical prevalence, there have been few studies in English literature about the practice of Chinese food therapy.
Did You Know?
- The earliest known use of the term 'food therapy' (shiliao) appears in Sun Simiao's Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold, completed in the 650s.
- Meng Shen's Materia Dietetica, the first work entirely devoted to food's therapeutic value, has not survived but was quoted in the 10th-century Japanese text Ishinpō.
- Hu Sihui's Yinshan zhengyao, compiled in the early 14th century, integrated Mongol foodstuffs like mutton and was influenced by Turko-Islamic culinary and medical traditions.
- The concept of 'medicine and food, same origin' (yàoshí tóngyuán) is a common saying among proponents of Chinese food therapy.
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