Cooking for the Khan: The Craft of Medicinal Cuisine in Mongol China
Introduction
Modern medicine encompasses a variety of approaches, with diet recognized as just one component of overall healthcare. However, in early China, diet was central to medical practice. As Paul D. Buell and Eugene N. Anderson note, “nutrition has always held pride of place in Chinese medical practice. Foods are the preferred form of therapy and no sharp distinction is made between them and medicine” (Buell 171). This philosophy is evident in Yinshan Zhengyao (飲膳正要 - Proper and Essential Things for the Emperor’s Food and Drink), a 14th-century text written by Hu Shihui, a court nutritionist for Kublai Khan. This text, both a cookbook and a medical guide, reveals the intricate craft of medicinal food-craft in the Mongol court. The book’s prefaces, recipes, and ingredient descriptions illustrate how food was believed to influence not only the emperor’s health but also the well-being of the entire empire. Furthermore, the text highlights the cosmopolitan nature of the Mongol court, incorporating foreign ingredients into traditional Chinese medicinal philosophy. This essay explores how the medicinal food-craft in Mongol China was deeply intertwined with imperial health, cultural exchange, and traditional medical principles, revealing its high status and the complex decision-making process behind its practice.
Background on the Mongol Empire and Traditional Chinese Medicine
The Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) was a vast and multicultural empire that ruled over China, incorporating diverse traditions, knowledge systems, and medical practices. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) played a crucial role in Yuan governance, particularly in maintaining the health of the ruling elite and reinforcing imperial authority. The Mongols, originally a nomadic people with their own medicinal practices, adopted and adapted TCM, integrating it with their existing knowledge and foreign influences from Persian, Tibetan, and Central Asian medical traditions. The Yuan court employed Chinese physicians and herbalists while also welcoming Muslim and Tibetan medical experts, reflecting the empire’s commitment to a broad, inclusive approach to healthcare. This fusion of medical knowledge was evident in texts like Proper and Essential Things for the Emperor’s Food and Drink, which combined Chinese dietary theories with ingredients from across the empire, such as spices from India and the Middle East. The Yuan Dynasty’s cosmopolitan nature allowed for the exchange of medical ideas, creating a rich, hybrid system that blended Chinese, Mongol, and foreign influences, ultimately shaping the evolution of traditional Chinese medicine in the centuries that followed.
The Health of the Emperor is the Health of the People
In the Proper and Essential Things for the Emperor’s Food and Drink, there are three prefaces written before any of the actual dishes or ingredients are discussed, and these prefaces give valuable insight into why this book on medicinal food-craft was made. In the second preface, written by Yi Ji in 1330, a quote is given from the person who brought this book to the Mongol court: “For this reason HIS health improved and he attained a great age. HE thereby stored up inexhaustible good fortune for his descendants" (Buell 188). In this quote, a minister in the Mongol court named Yi Ji describes that the importance of the book being presented to the emperor is so that the emperor can attain good health and will live a long time. These goals are standard for medical practices, but this also shows that the craft of medicinal food-craft still holds much of the same goals that medical practitioners have today. The second part of this quote describes how the craft of medicinal food-craft allows for the emperor to build up good fortune that can be passed to his descendants. This is very different from the current value of medicine and introduces an almost mystical aspect to the craft of medicinal food-craft. This mystical aspect of medicine is consistent with the Chinese medical practices at the time. Yi Ji further emphasizes the connection between the emperor’s health and the empire’s stability: “this undertaking intends to promote the security of the ONE MAN and thereby to cause all the people of the empire to be secure. It promotes the longevity of the ONE MAN thereby to achieve the longevity of all the people of the empire” (Buell 189). From his sentiment, it can be seen that medicinal food-craft focused heavily on the health of the emperor, believing that promoting the health of the emperor has the effect of also promoting the health of those in his empire. This again reinforces the mystical aspect of the medicinal food-craft, and also hints at the high status that practitioners of this craft might have held, especially within the Mongol court. The feeding of these medicinal foods to the emperor is shown in the image titled “Medicinal Foods.”
Image titled “Medicinal Foods” (Buell 335)
In this image, there seems to be one man that sits above the others in the position of honor, which can be taken to be the emperor. There are two smaller people, that can be taken to be servants, and two other men that could be other ministers or possibly the dietician. In the third preface to the original work, the author Hu Shihui described how if “those in charge of the kitchen are unable to investigate the natures and flavors of these [foods], and simply present all of them to the emperor to eat, and if he eats them, [Hu Shihui fears] that he will not avoid becoming sick” (Buell 190). This comment reveals more of the goals and motivations behind practitioners of the medicinal food-craft at the time. It seems that practitioners of this craft were responsible for the health of the emperor, which likely affords a position of high influence and trust, but also likely comes with risks in the case of the emperor actually getting sick as Hu Shihui describes. This comment from Hu Shihui also reveals that the preparation of the recipes made by medicinal dieticians takes place in the royal kitchens. It is slightly unclear where Hu Shihui gains his knowledge of the natures of food, so where the crafting of the recipes occurred remains unknown.
Medicinal Food-craft as seen through Roast Wolf Soup
After the prefaces, Hu Shihui starts to list many recipes for dishes that can be made while also ensuring that all the ingredients complement each other to create a hearty and healthy meal. Of the many recipes that are included, one interesting recipe to look at is Roast Wolf Soup. The description that Hu Shihui writes about this soup is as such, with the first part being a description, the second part being a list of the ingredients, and the third part being cooking instructions:
[1]Ancient bencao do not include entries on wolf meat. At present we state that its nature is heating. It treats asthenia. I have never heard that it is poisonous for those eating it. In the case of the present recipe we use spices to help its flavor. It warms the five internal organs, and warms the center.
[2]Wolf meat (leg; bone and cut up), tsaoko cardamoms (three), black pepper (five qian), kasni (one qian), long pepper (two qian), grain of-paradise (two qian), turmeric (two qian), za'faran (one qian).
[3]Boil ingredients together into a soup. Adjust flavors of everything using onions, sauce, salt, and vinegar. (Buell 286)
This recipe holds many interesting aspects of the medicinal food-craft. First, the description in the first part talks about how the bencao, which is an encyclopedic gathering of medicine, natural history, and Chinese herbology, doesn’t include wolf meat and that they state what effects that they believe that the meat has “at present.” This shows the cosmopolitan nature of the Mongol court and the many cultural influences that they had. Much of the herbology and medicinal philosophy that is used to describe the dishes and ingredients comes from a predominantly Chinese methodology, but some ingredients are not popular in China. For example, the wolf meat was popular with the Mongols but not with other Chinese cultures. The expansion of traditional Chinese ideology to these foods that were unlikely to be included in Chinese tradition emphasize that these craftsmen were required to have a thorough understanding of both traditional Chinese medicine and also have a cosmopolitan palate. This cosmopolitan palate that is required is reinforced when looking at the ingredients that are called for in making roast wolf soup, with the tsaoko cardamoms originating from southeast Asia, the kasni and turmeric originating from India and Indonesia, the za’faran (saffron) originating from Greece, and the grain of paradise originating from west Africa (Britannica). Many of these ingredients were foreign to the traditional Chinese medicine, and practitioners of this craft would need to determine their medicinal effects before they could be fed to the emperor.
Another aspect of the description describes the soup as warming/heating. This concept of the dish being warming refers to the traditional Chinese medicine concepts of hot and cold syndromes. This concept of syndrome (症) is a holistic summary of the patient’s health, and different syndromes can have hot and cold properties. Hot syndromes display symptoms such as high fever, unconsciousness, delirium, dysphoria, thirst, constipation, oral ulcer, sore in mouth, and dry eye. Cold syndromes display symptoms such as hypothermia, cold limbs, lost appetite, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting (Liu 3). As such, when you have a cold syndrome, you are supposed to eat warming foods, and when you have a hot syndrome, you are supposed to eat cooling foods. If you don’t have either syndrome, you are supposed to eat both types of foods in order to balance yin and yang, with warm foods being eaten more in cold seasons and cool foods being eaten more in the hot seasons (Liu 2). These distinctions were very important to practitioners of this medicinal food-craft, and formed the basis of how different ingredients were combined into a dish.
Another point of note in the description of roast wolf soup is that, although practitioners of this craft were likely not often the chefs making the meals, they had to completely plan out the meals. This means that the meals needed to not only be medically beneficial to the consumer, but they also needed to taste good as indicated by the comments about changing the flavors using spices and other additions to the soup. These various considerations highlight the many factors that practitioners of this craft needed to consider and the many complex interactions that they needed to plan for to create a tasty yet also healthy meal. When considering these interactions, these craftsmen would have to carefully consider the properties of each ingredient, including flavor, medicinal quality, and toxicity, before deciding how ingredients should be combined in a dish.
A modern recreation of this traditional Mongol roast wolf soup is shown in this Tiktok:
Delving Into the Ingredients: Wolf Meat
The ingredients described in the making of this roast wolf soup include wolf meat, tsaoko cardamoms, black pepper, kasni, long pepper, grain-of-paradise, turmeric, and za'faran. All of these ingredients that are called for in the recipe seem to have a warming nature, and this homogeneity of warming ingredients also includes the additional items that can be added for flavor like onion, sauce, salt, and vinegar (Buell 496-551). Two interesting example to delve into their ingredient descriptions are the ingredient descriptions for wolf and tsaoko cardamom. The description for the wolf meat is shown below.
Description of wolf meat as an ingredient (Buell 443)
The translated version of this description is given as, “Wolf Meat is salty in flavor, heating in nature, and lacks poison. It is good for supplementing and augments the five viscera. It fills up the bowels and fills out the essential air medullae. If there is chill accumulation, it is beneficial to eat it. The flavor is superior to that of fox or dog meat” (Buell 512). This description of wolf meat reinforces its quality as a warming ingredient, and that it is beneficial in combating chill accumulation. The description also says that it augments the five viscera, which includes the heart, liver, spleen, lung, and kidney. Also, considerations on the relatively good flavor of wolf meat are included. It can be seen how these effects from the ingredient come together to achieve the effect of the entire wolf soup, again illustrating the care that goes into ingredient selection.
Delving Into the Ingredients: Tsaoko Cardamom
Another ingredient used in the recipe was the tsaoko cardamom, the description of which is shown below.
Description of tsaoko cardamom as an ingredient (Buell 480)
The translated version of this description is given as, “Tsaoko Cardamom is acrid in flavor, warming, and lacks poison. It regulates pain of chest and abdomen, controls vomiting, supplements the stomach and brings down qi. It disperses liquor poison” (Buell 549). This description again lists this ingredient as having a warming nature, which fits with the overall warming nature of the roast wolf soup. The ingredient also describes that it controls vomiting due to its warming nature, which makes sense as the Liu et al. article names vomiting as a cold syndrome. Also to note is that this ingredient also functions to supplement the stomach, which is a very different effect from the wolf meat that supports the five viscera (of which the stomach is not included). This heterogeneity of effects in the ingredients that were included into the roast wolf soup shows a desire from these craft practitioners to maximize the health benefits to different systems while also making sure the ingredients also complement each other, or at least don’t conflict with each other. Another interesting aspect of this description is the mention of poison. An important consideration for ingredients being added to the recipes is to make sure that they lack poison, as you don’t want to poison the person eating the dish. Although most of the ingredients in the text are said to lack poison, there can be found a few ingredients or dishes that are said to have poison. One example of these ingredients with poison is alcohol/liquor, which is said to have poison, but is also said to have other beneficial medicinal effects. This leads to a situation where ingredients with poison are consumed, and thus dishes that have ingredients that also dispel this poison, like this tsaoko cardamom, are very important.
Conclusion
Through this in-depth look at the prefaces, recipes, and ingredients in the translation of the Mongol text Proper and Essential Things for the Emperor's Food and Drink, details about the goals and considerations of craftsmen that designed dishes for the Mongol emperors can be elucidated. These analyses show the importance of this crafting role, as the health of the emperor, and by extension the health of the imperial descendants and the people of the empire, rests on their shoulders. The various considerations that they must take into account when deciding which foods can be eaten and when they should be eaten are explored, looking at the ingredients warming or cooling quality, their poison content or effect on poison, their effect on certain parts of the body, and their flavor. These many considerations that go into designing dishes for the emperor to eat show the intricacies of the craft, and the high-stakes decisions that a court dietician of the Mongol court must make.
Works Cited
“Britannica.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., www.britannica.com/. Accessed 22 Mar. 2025.
Buell, Paul D., and Eugene N. Anderson. A Soup for the Qan: Chinese Dietary Medicine of the Mongol Era as Seen in Hu Sihui’s Yinshan Zhengyao, 23 Aug. 2010, https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004180208.i-662.
passtheflamingo. “Historical Recipe: ‘Wolf’ Soup.” TikTok, 24 June 2021, www.tiktok.com/@passtheflamingo/video/6977494162987961606.
Liu J, Feng W, Peng C. A Song of Ice and Fire: Cold and Hot Properties of Traditional Chinese Medicines. Front Pharmacol. 2021 Jan 19;11:598744. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2020.598744. PMID: 33542688; PMCID: PMC7851091.
