Preface
Time Line
A Word about Pronunciation
Introduction
Beijing Men Built a Fire
Slicing through Water
Interlude 1: Phonetics, or Why Some Characters Look Horribly Complicated
Sleep of the Truly Inebriated
Swallowing Clouds
Chinese Pigs Stand
Interlude 2: The Appalling Ignorance of Some Scribes
A Delicacy for Aging Men
No Contest between Fish and a Bear with Eight Legs
Courtesans Do Not Eat Crabs
Interlude 3: To All You Carnivores
The Sweet Fragrance of Crops Ripening
How to Avoid Being Vulgar
The Pockmarked Woman and the Pearly Empress
Interlude 4: Words Are Like Our Children
Buddha Jumping over Walls
Act without Acting, Taste without Tasting
Interlude 5: Like Eating Potato Chips
The Sublime Faith in Illusions
Pieces of Her Heart
Elixirs and the Food of Health
From Banquets to Voyages of Discovery
Epilogue: All Banquets Must Come to an End
Afterword by Linda Rui Feng
Appendix A. How to Exercise Your Arm and Throat while Drinking
Appendix B. A Few Recipes
Notes
Bibliography
Table of Dynasties
Table of Some Common Radicals Used in this Book
Table of Characters and Radicals Cited by Chapter
Acknowledgments
A Final Note