Editing Chinese food therapy (section)

==Origins==
A number of ancient Chinese [[Cookbook|cookbooks]] and treatises on food (now lost) display an early Chinese interest in food, but no known focus on its medical value.{{sfn|Engelhardt|2001|p=174–175}} The literature on "nourishing life" ({{zh|s=养生|t=養生|p=[[Yangsheng (Daoism)|yǎngshēng]]|labels=no}}) integrated advice on food within broader advice on how to attain [[Xian (Taoism)|immortality]]. Such books, however, are only precursors of "dietary therapy", because they did not systematically describe the effect of individual food items.{{sfn|Engelhardt|2001|p=175–176}} In the volume on "Fermentations and Food Science" of [[Joseph Needham]]'s ''Science and Civilization in China'', H. T. Huang considers the ''[[Recipes for Fifty-Two Ailments]]'' (c. 200 BCE) and the ''[[Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon]]'' as precursors of the "dietary therapy" tradition, the former because it recommends food products as remedies for various illnesses, the latter because it discusses the impact of food on health.{{sfn|Huang|2000|pp=120–21}} The ''[[materia medica]]'' literature, exemplified by the ''[[Shennong Bencao Jing]]'' (1st century CE), also discussed food products, but without specializing on them.{{sfn|Huang|2000|p=134}}

[[file:Recherches pour servir à l'histoire naturelle des mammifères (Pl. 80) (6947132294).jpg|thumbnail|right|The ''Shiliao Bencao'' stated that many parts of the [[wild boar]] could be used therapeutically. Boar [[gallstone]]s, powdered and [[decoction|decocted]], could cure epidemics. Boar teeth, burnt to ashes and ingested, could alleviate the symptoms of [[snakebite]]s. And [[refining|refined]] boar fat taken with cereal wine could help nursing women produce more milk.{{sfn|Tsang|1996|p=54}}]]

The earliest extant Chinese dietary text is a chapter of [[Sun Simiao]]'s ''[[Beiji qianjin yaofang|Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold]]'' ({{zh|c=千金方|p=qiānjīn fāng|labels=no}}), which was completed in the 650s during the [[Tang dynasty]].{{sfn|Engelhardt|2001|p=176}} Sun's work contains the earliest known use of the term "food (or dietary) therapy" (''shiliao'').{{sfn|Engelhardt|2001|p=173}} Sun 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.{{sfn|Engelhardt|2001|p=177}} His chapter contains 154 entries divided into four sections – on fruits, vegetables, cereals, and meat – in which Sun explains the properties of individual foodstuffs with concepts borrowed from the ''Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon'': ''[[qi]]'', the [[zang-fu|viscera]], and vital essence ({{zh|c=精|p=jīng|labels=no}}), as well as correspondences between the [[Five Phases]], the "five flavors" (sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, and salty), and the five grains.{{sfn|Engelhardt|2001|pp=178–181}} He also set a large number of "dietary interdictions" ({{zh|c=食禁|p=shíjìn|labels=no}}), some based on [[Chinese calendar|calendrical notions]] (no [[Eleocharis dulcis|water chestnuts]] in the 7th month), others on purported interactions between foods (no clear wine with horse meat) or between different flavors.{{sfn|Engelhardt|2001|pp=181–183}}

Sun Simiao's disciple Meng Shen ({{zh|s=孟诜|t=孟詵|labels=no}}; 621–713) compiled the first work entirely devoted to the therapeutic value of food: the ''Materia Dietetica'' ({{zh|s=食疗本草|t=食療本草|p=Shíliáo běncǎo|labels=no|l=food therapy materia medica}}).{{sfn|Engelhardt|2001|p=184}} This work has not survived, but it was quoted in later texts – like the 10th-century Japanese text [[Ishinpō]] – and a fragment of it has been found among the [[Dunhuang manuscripts]].{{sfnm|Engelhardt|2001|1p=185 (not extant, origin of fragments)|Huang|2000|2p=136 ("first ''bencao'' compilation devoted to diet therapy")}} 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.{{sfn|Engelhardt|2001|pp=184–187}} The works of Sun Simiao and Meng Shen established the genre of ''materia dietetica'' and shaped its development in the following centuries.{{sfn|Engelhardt|2001|p=187}}