Of Tripod and Palate

Attitudes toward food and commensality constituted a central fiber in the social, religious, and political fabric of ancient Chinese society. The offering of sacrifices, the banqueting of guests, and the ritual preparation, prohibition or consumption of food and drink were central elements in each of China's three main religious traditions: the Classicist (Confucian) tradition, religious Daoism, and Buddhism. What links late Shang and Zhou bronze vessels to Buddhist dietary codes or Daoist recipes for immortality is a poignant testimony that culinary activity - fasting and feasting - governed not only human relationships but also fermented the communication between humans and the spirit world. In Of Tripod and Palate leading scholars examine the relationship between secular and religious food culture in ancient China from various perspectives.

JAMES A. BENN Assistant Professor of Chinese Religions at Arizona State University, USA ROBERT F. CAMPANY Professor of Religious Studies and East Asian Studies at the University of Indiana, Bloomington, USA CONSTANCE COOK Associate Professor of Chinese Language and Literature and Director of Asian Studies at Lehigh University, USA VINCENT GOOSSAERT Researcher at the CNRS and Vice-Director of the Groupe de Sciences Sociales des Religions et de la LaIcité, Paris, France ROMAIN GRAZIANI Maître de Conférences at the University of Paris 7 and lecturer at the École Normale Supérieure, France JOHN KIESCHNICK Lecturer in Buddhist Studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Bristol, UK TERRY F. KLEEMAN Associate Professor of Chinese and Religious Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA VIVIENNE LO Lecturer in the Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine at University College, London, UK POO MU-CHOU Research Fellow at the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, China MICHAEL J. PUETT Professor of Chinese history in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, USA