Shiwei zayong 食味雜詠

Shiwei zayong 食味雜詠 is a collection of poetry on gastronomy written during the high Qing period 清 (1644-1911) by Xie Yong 謝墉 (1719-1795), courtesy name Kuncheng 昆城, style Quanpu 全圃, Fengfu 豐甫 or Dongshu Laoren 東墅老人, from Jiaxing 嘉興, Zhejiang. He obtained the jinshi degree in 1752 and was a junior compiler (bianxiu 編修) in the Hanlin Academy 翰林院. He travelled a lot in the southeastern region of China in his function as manager of the provincial examination of Jiangnan 江南 (Jiangsu) and provincial education commissioner (xuezheng 學政) of Jiangsu.

The collection includes 101 poems, of which 58 are dedicated to the southern cuisine, and the rest to the north. 52 poems deal with dishes of vegetables, fruits, and melons, 24 with meat dishes, 11 with gastronomical products and 14 pieces with seasonings such as wine, sauces, tea, pepper and ginger, and 24 songs of meaty food. These poems reflect the local flavours of Zhejiang and Beijing in the mid-Qing period. Moreover, introductions before and notes in between the poems examine the history of these dishes, making the book an important historical source for the study of Chinese cooking.

The late Qing scholar Ruan Yuan 阮元 (1764-1849) rated Xie's descriptive poetry as even better than Cai Xiang’s 蔡襄 (1012-1067) Chalu 茶錄 and Fu Hong's 傅肱 (fl. 1059) Xiepu 蟹譜, both from the Song period 宋 (960-1279) and regretted that it was not included in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書. He therefore recommended his sons Ruan Fu 阮福 (1801-1875) and Ruan Gu 阮祜 (1804-1870) publish the book, which happened in 1832. The original manuscript of Xie Yong is preserved in the Beijing Library 北京圖書館.