Yao Yanli
01 · Lineage & Regional School
As a boy he was influenced by the food culture handed down in his family and developed a particular fondness for cooking. Within the regional tradition and school record of Zhenbutongluoyangshuixi Making Craftsmanship in Luoyang, Henan: Within the city of Luoyang, those who operate the Water Banquet fall into two streams: the official and the folk. The official stream is led by Zhenbutong, whose banquet menu incorporates everything from the Eastern Zhou "three geng" to the structure of Tang feasts. In his early years, Yao Yanli trained at the Luoyang Dali Restaurant, where he studied Shanghai cuisine, Anhui cuisine, and Huaiyang cuisine; this external technique was later merged by him into the Tang-style Water Banquet, so that local Luoyang practice and outside practice converge within a single establishment. The folk stream reproduces the banquet piecemeal according to each family's lineage, mostly passing down the method for soups and broths but struggling to assemble a complete banquet. The regional character ultimately rests in two places: first, the flavor profile—the Luoyang Water Banquet stresses clear broths, intact ingredients, and tender-cooked dishes, substituting vegetarian for meat and making the false indistinguishable from the real, demanding two solid skills of knife work and seasoning; second, the format—selecting ten soup dishes from the sixteen dishes of Yu cuisine (the four great items, eight middle items, and four table-closing items) as the body of the hot dishes, a selection standard born of Luoyang's long-formed banqueting habits. The history of the Luoyang Water Banquet (Luoyang Shuixi) must be understood on two levels. The culinary method is older than the banquet format itself: the Water Banquet takes soups and broths as its main dishes, and these soups are precisely the tradition left behind by the Eastern Zhou court banquets, which gave equal weight to the three "geng" soups—the dageng, the hegeng, and the (an ancient vessel for holding soup) geng. The Yu cuisine of the Luoyang area has preserved this principle, with the soup preceding the banquet. The way the banquet is composed came much later: it was only after the structure of Tang-dynasty feasts was passed down that the full-table format of "cold dishes first, then soups and broths, with the broths supporting the main body of the hot dishes" took shape. As for Zhenbutong, these two threads came together in the contemporary era: in 1997, Yao Yanli took charge of the Water Banquet and put forward the idea of "writing around the Tang dynasty, holding tightly to the hand of the Empress Wu," extrapolating from a single Water Banquet a total of five banquet suites—the Palace Water Banquet, the Empress Wu Water Banquet, the Prosperous Tang State Banquet, and the Nine Ding and Eight Gui Son of Heaven Banquet—expanding a single soup banquet into a genealogical system of banquets.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
Male, of Han ethnicity, born in August 1949, a native of Luoyang City, Henan Province. He is a national representative bearer of the Zhenbutong Luoyang water banquet making technique, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He is a Zhenbutong Luoyang water banquet making technician. In 1964, at the Luoyang Dali Restaurant, he learned the cooking techniques of Shanghai, Anhui and Huaiyang cuisines from masters including Cheng Zaokai, Zhu Chanming, Wang Yuqiu, Xu Xiangrong and Xu Jihuan. In 1997 he took charge of Zhenbutong Luoyang water banquet and, guided by its traditional craft, history and culture and its regional character, upheld Tang culture and incorporated elements of Central Plains culture. He put forward the idea of building the business around the Tang dynasty and holding fast to the hand of Empress Wu, restoring and exploring the tradition, refining and repackaging it, and launching the Palace Water Banquet, the Empress Wu Water Banquet, the High Tang State Banquet and the Nine Tripods and Eight Gui Son of Heaven Banquet, so that the water banquet grew from one set to five and acquired a distinctive style of dining culture. This enhanced the reputation and influence of Zhenbutong Luoyang water banquet. Within the documented technical tradition of Zhenbutongluoyangshuixi Making Craftsmanship in Luoyang, Henan: The Luoyang Water Banquet of Henan Province is an important representative of Yu cuisine, named for its use of soups and broths as the main dishes of the banquet. Its culinary craftsmanship can be traced back as far as the Eastern Zhou period, while the compositional form of the banquet dates back to the Tang dynasty. The soups of the Luoyang Water Banquet were a principal category of early Chinese cooking and constitute the main body of the cuisine. During the Eastern Zhou period, court banquets placed emphasis on the "three geng"—the dageng, the hegeng, and the (an ancient vessel for holding soup) geng. The Yu cuisine and the local dishes of Luoyang have consistently upheld this tradition, attaching importance to the preparation of soup and broth dishes. After eight cold dishes, the Luoyang Water Banquet selects ten outstanding soup dishes from the sixteen dishes of Yu cuisine—the four great items, the eight middle items, and the four table-closing items—making them the principal component of the hot dishes across the whole banquet. In its selection of dishes, the Luoyang Water Banquet carries the tradition of substituting vegetarian for meat and making the false indistinguishable from the real, which requires profound culinary skill to accomplish. Although several restaurants in Luoyang operate the Water Banquet and related dishes, and folk households can imitate it, it is the Luoyang Zhenbutong Restaurant that represents those who have mastered the essence of the Luoyang Water Banquet and can produce it at high quality. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Ten soups after eight cold dishes": The hot courses are not a single dish but ten soups selected from sixteen staple preparations; cold dishes set the scene and the soups set the weight of the meal. "The three-soup system of the Eastern Zhou": The emphasis on soups continues the Eastern Zhou court rule of three principal broths, when soup was the substance of a meal rather than an accompaniment. "Vegetable for meat, imitation for the real thing": A long-standing rule requires vegetable preparations to imitate meat in both form and taste, which takes accurate observation, knife work and careful seasoning. "Court, Wu-emperor and High Tang banquets": After taking over in 1997, Yao Yanli packaged a series of Tang-inspired banquets, expanding one soup banquet into five.
Ten soups after eight cold dishes
The hot courses are not a single dish but ten soups selected from sixteen staple preparations; cold dishes set the scene and the soups set the weight of the meal.
The three-soup system of the Eastern Zhou
The emphasis on soups continues the Eastern Zhou court rule of three principal broths, when soup was the substance of a meal rather than an accompaniment.
Vegetable for meat, imitation for the real thing
A long-standing rule requires vegetable preparations to imitate meat in both form and taste, which takes accurate observation, knife work and careful seasoning.
Court, Wu-emperor and High Tang banquets
After taking over in 1997, Yao Yanli packaged a series of Tang-inspired banquets, expanding one soup banquet into five.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
In 2009, Yao Yanli was announced in the third batch of national representative bearers for Zhenbutongluoyangshuixi Making Craftsmanship, with Luoyang, Henan as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Zhenbutongluoyangshuixi Making Craftsmanship in Luoyang, Henan: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Luoyang, Henan as its declared area, and Luoyang Jiujia Co., Ltd. as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.
04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier
Historical origin
The history of the Luoyang Water Banquet (Luoyang Shuixi) must be understood on two levels. The culinary method is older than the banquet format itself: the Water Banquet takes soups and broths as its main dishes, and these soups are precisely the tradition left behind by the Eastern Zhou court banquets, which gave equal weight to the three "geng" soups—the dageng, the hegeng, and the (an ancient vessel for holding soup) geng. The Yu cuisine of the Luoyang area has preserved this principle, with the soup preceding the banquet. The way the banquet is composed came much later: it was only after the structure of Tang-dynasty feasts was passed down that the full-table format of "cold dishes first, then soups and broths, with the broths supporting the main body of the hot dishes" took shape. As for Zhenbutong, these two threads came together in the contemporary era: in 1997, Yao Yanli took charge of the Water Banquet and put forward the idea of "writing around the Tang dynasty, holding tightly to the hand of the Empress Wu," extrapolating from a single Water Banquet a total of five banquet suites—the Palace Water Banquet, the Empress Wu Water Banquet, the Prosperous Tang State Banquet, and the Nine Ding and Eight Gui Son of Heaven Banquet—expanding a single soup banquet into a genealogical system of banquets.
05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage
National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.
| Bearer | Declared area | Roster code | Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yao Yanli | Luoyang, Henan | 03-1433 | This page |
06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records and the associated project dossier, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。