Niuyangroupengzhijiyi
01 · Historical Records
Beijing's Hongbinlou restaurant opened in the third year of the Xianfeng reign of the Qing dynasty (1853). It is an old establishment specializing in Halal-style cuisine, originally located in Tianjin and moved to Beijing in 1955. The Qing imperial court entertained guests who practiced Islam with a high-grade whole-lamb banquet. In the late Qing and early Republican period, the whole-lamb banquet flourished in the city's restaurants and taverns. Master chefs of Hongbinlou such as Song Shaoshan, building on the teachings of their predecessors, enriched and perfected the tradition, creating a distinctive banquet of 120 dishes. Because this banquet descended from late-Qing tradition, it deliberately avoided the taboo of the Empress Dowager Cixi, whose zodiac sign was the sheep. Although the lamb was used throughout, the character for 'sheep' (yang) was kept out of the dish names; instead, elegant alternate names were given according to each dish's character — for example, the dish made from sheep's eyes and spinal cord was called 'Whip Beating the Embroidered Ball,' while that made from liver was called 'Red Leaves Frosted.'
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The entire banquet takes the lamb as its sole main ingredient, applying craft to suit each part, with a complete structure and meticulous layout, executed according to established rules and methods. Hongbinlou's whole-lamb banquet employs a rich repertoire of cooking techniques, bringing the traditional methods to their fullest expression. The feast begins with the head of the lamb and ends with the tail, the dishes served in orderly succession without the least confusion. Taking just the head: the crown of the head is 'Qilin Crown,' braised; the meat at the back of the skull is 'Golden Diadem,' stewed; the brain is 'Cloud Cap,' simmered; the middle of the ear is 'Favorable Wind,' quick-boiled; the eyelid meat is 'Doorhide,' scalded; the meat behind the ear is 'Walnut Meat,' deep-fried; the meat beneath the nasal bone is 'Gazing Peak Slope,' pan-cooked; and the crisp nasal cartilage is 'Bright Bone,' steamed — and so on for every part.
Beginning with the head, ending with the tail
The banquet opens with the sheep's head and closes with its tail, the hundred and twenty courses serving up the carcass in order.
Breaking down the head
The head alone is divided into names and methods: the crown simmered, the brain braised, the ear middles scalded, the lid skin seared, the cartilage steamed.
Renaming to avoid the taboo
Avoiding the taboo on the character for sheep, every course carries an elegant alias while the meat remains the same.
The chefs who completed the banquet
From court to restaurant kitchens, chefs such as Song Shaoshan of Hongbinlou built on their teachers and settled on a hundred-and-twenty-course banquet.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Hongbinlou's whole-lamb banquet is anchored in Beijing, yet its source lies in the comings and goings along the Tianjin–Beijing line. The old establishment was originally located in Tianjin and moved to Beijing in 1955; but the whole-lamb banquet itself predates the shop, first appearing in the Qing imperial court as a high-grade reception for guests who practiced Islam, and only spreading to the city's restaurants and taverns in the late Qing and early Republican period. This north–south exchange between a famous shop and a famous banquet joined a single line of craft running from the palace down to the marketplace. The ways the banquet took root in different places accordingly diverged: in Beijing's Halal feasts, the whole-lamb banquet was still laid out according to the old system of 120 dishes; elsewhere, only a few famous pieces from the beginning and end were taken to form a small banquet — such as 'Whip Beating the Embroidered Ball' of eyes and spinal cord, or 'Red Leaves Frosted' of liver. What was reduced was the number; what was preserved was the method. Hongbinlou's master chefs such as Song Shaoshan, building on the teachings of their predecessors, enriched and perfected the tradition, creating a distinctive banquet of 120 dishes. Because this banquet descended from late-Qing tradition, it deliberately avoided the taboo of the Empress Dowager Cixi, whose zodiac sign was the sheep — although the lamb was used throughout, not a single 'sheep' (yang) character appears in the dish names. This very rule of renaming became, in itself, a mark by which the banquet could be identified.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Niuyangroupengzhijiyi · Niuyangroupengzhijiyi · Niuyangroupengzhijiyi · Niuyangroupengzhijiyi · Niuyangroupengzhijiyi · Niuyangroupengzhijiyi.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The craft of making Hongbinlou's whole-lamb banquet holds an important place in the history of Chinese cuisine; its elegant naming method further reveals the character of traditional culture and has a certain reference value for research into Chinese food culture. As to its survival: the craft of making Hongbinlou's whole-lamb banquet holds an important place in the history of Chinese cuisine; its elegant naming method further reveals the character of traditional culture and has a certain reference value for research into Chinese food culture. What makes this naming method worth attention is that it transplants an entire body of knowledge about the anatomy of the animal into the dish names: where the crown, the diadem, or the bright bone lies can be told at once from the name. Dish name and body part mirror one another, so the order of the banquet needs no separate rule — the name itself is the menu.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Man Yunlai 03-1430
- Zhao Tiesuo 03-1431
- Chen Lixin 05-2862
- Wan Chunsheng 05-2863
- Wang Tianming 05-2864
- Ma Guoqiang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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