Zhiliguanfucaipengrenjiyi
01 · Historical Records
Zhili was the former name of Hebei Province in the Qing dynasty and the Republican period; Baoding was the seat of the governor-general, and over the 187 years from the second year of the Yongzheng reign of the Qing (1724) through the eight emperors of the Xuantong reign, 74 men served 99 terms as Governor-General of Zhili. Zhili official cuisine arose from the folk yet possessed an aristocratic character; it had local features yet embraced the culinary winds of the whole realm, reached its zenith from the Qing to the Republican period, was popular in the "Zhili Province" near the capital (present-day Baoding, Hebei) yet influenced the entire northern cuisine, and is a rather special series of dishes. From the early eighteenth century (1724) to the mid-twentieth century, as northern and southern food cultures blended, Zhili official cuisine absorbed widely and entered a period of rapid development. From the mid-nineteenth century, retired official chefs returning home began to set up training workshops, training large numbers of cooks; great folk restaurants rose, and it became a point of honour to cook the official cuisine.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Governors from different regions brought culinary cultures and cooking techniques from all quarters, so that Zhili official cuisine absorbed them into a single whole; the structure of its dishes and banquets thereby developed a distinctive style. In selecting ingredients it draws mainly on local Baoding produce; in taste it is chiefly salty-fragrant yet embraces many flavours; in preparation it shows consummate craft, complete process steps, rigorous procedure, and varied methods — with a character all its own.
Documented process record
Governors from different regions brought culinary cultures and cooking techniques from all quarters, so that Zhili official cuisine absorbed them into a single whole; the structure of its dishes and banquets thereby developed a distinctive style. In selecting ingredients it draws mainly on local Baoding produce; in taste it is chiefly salty-fragrant yet embraces many flavours; in preparation it shows consummate craft, complete process steps, rigorous procedure, and varied methods — with a character all its own.
Workshops of the retired prefectural chefs
From the mid nineteenth century retired chefs from the governor's kitchen opened training workshops and trained many cooks, and large restaurants rose to cook these dishes.
The Baoding guild hall
Run by the inheritor as a cultural restaurant, the guild hall is famed as a museum you can eat for its dishes, vessels, dress, broths and banquets.
Salty fragrance with many secondary tastes
Local Baoding produce goes into the wok, the taste is chiefly salty fragrance with many turns, and the structure of dishes and banquets varies with the prefects brought in.
Complete stages and many methods
Refined technique, complete stages, strict procedure and many methods, brought together from the ninety-nine terms served by the prefects of 1724 to the late Qing.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The centre of gravity of Zhili official cuisine lies around Baoding; the governor-general's seat, the city of the yamen, is the centre of its craft. The culinary practices brought from all quarters by successive governors met and mingled here, joined with the locally salty-fragrant seasoning and ingredients of Baoding; after the mid-nineteenth century, retired official chefs opened training workshops in Baoding, folk grand restaurants followed, and it became a point of honour to be able to cook the official cuisine. Liang Lianqi turned the Baoding Guild Hall into a cultural dining enterprise, and then established the Zhili Guild Hall in Shijiazhuang and Beijing, so that the spread of this craft thus extended beyond the old Zhili lands.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present, through excavation and collation of the Zhili official culinary culture, the Zhili official cuisine has been carried on and developed. Liang Lianqi (recorded in the official archives of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in September 1958, a native of Baoding City, Hebei Province. A representative inheritor of the craft of cooking Zhili official cuisine, a project under the fifth national-level batch of the national intangible cultural heritage. A Zhili official-cuisine cooking technician. A labour model of Hebei Province. He runs the Baoding Guild Hall as a cultural dining enterprise; for its rich dish culture, vessel culture, costume culture, master-broth culture and banquet culture it is widely praised as a "museum you can eat in." He founded the Zhili Official Cuisine Research Society and the Baoding Guild Hall Folk-Custom Culture Research Society, and collected 100 types of rare old books on food and drink. In 2008, with the "Xiangtu" (Native Soil) programme of CCTV, he filmed a six-part feature that displayed the craft of cooking Zhili official cuisine against the cultural backdrop of the Zhili governor-general's yamen. He entered the catering trade in 1985, opened the Yulanxiang Chef School in 1997, and trained catering talent for society; afterward he successively established the Zhili Guild Hall in Shijiazhuang and Beijing.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Liang Lianqi 05-2886
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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