Society and Culture of The Han Dynasty - Clothing and Cuisine

Clothing and Cuisine

Further information: Culture of China, Han Chinese clothing, and Chinese cuisine

The most common agricultural food staples during Han were wheat, barley, rice, foxtail millet, proso millet, and beans. People of the Han also consumed sorghum, Job's Tears, taro, mallow, mustard green, melon, bottle gourd, bamboo shoot, the roots of lotus plants, and ginger. Some of the fruits the Han ate included the chestnut, jujube, pear, peach, plum (including the plum of prunus salicina and Prunus mume), melon, apricot, red bayberry, and strawberry. The Han Chinese domesticated and ate chickens, Mandarin ducks, and geese, camels, cows, sheep, pigs, and dogs. The type of game animals hunted during the Han included rabbit, sika deer, turtle dove, goose, owl, Chinese Bamboo Partridge, magpie, common pheasant, and cranes, while fish and turtles were taken from streams and lakes. Beer—which could be an unfermented malt drink with low alcohol content or a stronger brew fermented with yeast—was commonly consumed alongside meat, but virtually never consumed alongside grains such as rice. Wine was also regularly consumed.

The 2nd-century-BCE tomb of the Lady Dai contained not only decayed remnants of actual food, such as rice, wheat, barley, two varieties of millet, and soybeans, but also a grave inventory with recipes on it. This included vegetable and meat stews cooked in pots, which had combinations such as beef and rice stew, dog meat and celery stew, and even deer, fish, and bamboo shoot stew. Seasonings mentioned in the recipes include sugar, honey, soy sauce, and salt. Recipes in the Han usually called for meat stuffed in cereals, cakes, and other wrappings.

Like their modern counterparts, the Han-era Chinese used chopsticks as eating utensils. For drinking beverages, wealthy people during Han often used cups with golden handles and inlaid with silver.

For the poor, hemp was the common item used to make clothing, while the rich could afford silk clothes. Silk clothes found in Han tombs include padded robes, double-layered robes, single-layered robes, single-layered skirts, shoes, socks, and mittens. The wealthy also wore fox and badger furs, wild duck plumes, and slippers with inlaid leather or silk lining; those of more modest means could wear wool and ferret skins. Large bamboo-matted suitcases found in Han tombs contained clothes and luxury items such as patterned fabric and embroidery, common silk, damask and brocade, and the leno (or gauze) weave, all with rich colors and designs. The Han also had tools for ironing clothes.