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Food Ethics in Ancient China:
A Confucian Perspective
Chun-chieh HUANG*

1. Introduction
Food ethics in ancient China was a complex of ideas that emerged fromthe Chinese view of life and attitude toward the elderly. They can be seen as
the manifestation of the Confucian political ideal of the “kingly way,” and inparticular, the related idea of “humane governance.” Food ethics in ancient
China was also linked to the everyday practice of eating, especially in thecontext of rural life. In this paper, I will attempt to parse this thesis, focusing
on Mencius’ saying that “those who are seventy can eat meat.”
In his conversation with King Hui of Liang (梁惠王, r.319 301 BCE),
Mencius (孟子, 372 289 BCE) expounded his ideal of the “kingly way” ofgovernance. He stated:1
If the mulberry is planted in every homestead of ﬁve mu of land, thenthose who are ﬁfty can wear silk; if chickens, pigs and dogs do not misstheir breeding season, then those who are seventy can eat meat; if each
lot of a hundred mu is not deprived of labour during the busy seasons,then families with several mouths to feed will not go hungry. Exercise
due care over the education provided by the village schools, and discipline the people by teaching them the duties proper to sons and younger
brothers, and those whose heads have turned hoary will not be carrying
loads on the roads. When those who are seventy wear silk and eat meatand the masses are neither cold nor hungry, it is impossible for theirprince not to be a true King.

* Chun-chieh HUANG 黄俊傑 is distinguished chair professor of National Taiwan
University and President of Wen-de Academy
1 D. C. Lau trans., Mencius (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1984), Bk.1,
Part A, Chap.3, p.7.

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五畝之宅，樹之以桑，五十者可以衣帛矣；雞豚狗彘之畜，無失其時，七十者
可以食肉矣；百畝之田，勿奪其時，數口之家可以無飢矣；謹庠序之教，申之以孝悌之養，頒白者不負載於道路矣。七十者衣帛食肉，黎民不飢不寒，然而不
王者，未之有也。

In Mencius’ political thought, this scenario represents the ideal state. In his
conversation with King Xuan of Ci (齊宣王, r.319 301 BCE), Mencius
stressed this ideal again.
Mencius placed the idea that “those who are seventy can eat meat” at theheart of his theory of ideal governance. What is the signiﬁcance of the notionthat “those who are seventy” are eligible to “eat meat”? The commentators on
the Mencius, Zhao Qi (趙岐, 108 201) of the Later Han (25 220 AD), Zhu Xi(朱熹, 1130 1200) of the Southern Song (1127 1279), and Jiao Xun (焦循,1763 1820) of the Qing Dynasty (1644 1912) said that if seventy-year-olds
do not eat meat, they might experience hunger. This explanation, however,does not go far enough. In fact, Mencius’ doctrine was deeply imbued withthe spirit of honoring the elderly and the everyday practice of eating. As such,
Mencius concretized food ethics in ancient China.

2. Views on Age and Respect for the Elderly in Ancient China
Our discussion of food ethics in ancient China began with Mencius’ maximthat “those who are seventy can eat meat.” According to traditional Chinese
thought as inscribed in the ancient classics, a person’s life can be broken
down into a series of ten-year stages. The Book of Rites states:2
When one is ten years old, we call him a boy; he goes (out) to school.
When he is twenty, we call him a youth; he is capped. When he is thirty,
we say, ‘He is at his maturity;’ he has a wife. When he is forty, we say,
‘He is in his vigour;’ he is employed in oﬃce. When he is ﬁfty, we say,
‘He is getting grey;’ he can discharge all the duties of an oﬃcer. When
he is sixty, we say, ‘He is getting old;’ he gives directions and instructions. When he is seventy, we say, ‘He is old;’ he delegates his duties toothers. At eighty or ninety, we say of him, ‘He is very old.’ When he isseven, we say that he is an object of pitying love. Such a child and one
who is very old, though they may be chargeable with crime, are notsubjected to punishment. At a hundred, he is called a centenarian, andhas to be fed.

2 James Legge trans., Li Chi: Book of Rites (Montana: Kessinger Publishing, 2003),
vol.1, “Khü Li,” pp.65 66.

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29

人生十年曰幼，學；二十曰弱，冠；三十曰壯，有室；四十曰強，而仕；五十曰艾，
服官政；六十曰耆，指使；七十曰老，而傳；八十九十曰耄；七年曰悼。悼與耄，雖
有罪，不加刑焉。百年曰期，頤。

According to this passage, when a person reaches the age of seventy, he or
she is regarded as “old” and should retire from social activities. Elsewhere,
the Book of Rites states: “A great oﬃcer, when he is seventy, should resign(his charge of) aﬀairs. If he be not allowed to resign, there must be given him
a stool and staﬀ.”3The same text also states that:
At forty, he was ﬁrst appointed to oﬃce; and according to the businessof it brought out his plans and communicated his thoughts. If the ways
(which he proposed) were suitable, he followed them out; if they werenot, he abandoned them. At ﬁfty, he was appointed a Great oﬃcer, andlaboured in the administration of his department. At seventy, he retired
from his duties.4
As was commonly practiced in ancient China, a man began rendering
government service at the age of forty, and retired at the age of seventy.
When a man reached the age of seventy, he would receive great respect.
According to the Discourses of the States, Duke Dao of Jin (晉悼公, r.572 558
BCE) in the Spring and Autumn period (722 481 BCE) received guests older
than seventy.5 A minister suggested that the king consult seniors regarding
major aﬀairs of state.6 In ancient China, feudal lords often sought advice frompeople aged seventy or older.
In ancient China, a person was considered elderly at the age of ﬁfty, andwould thereafter be honored and nurtured, as was sanctioned in the ancient
texts. The Book of Rites states that:
In nourishing the age, [……] For those of ﬁfty, the grain was (ﬁne and)
diﬀerent (from that used by younger men). For those of sixty, there wasmeat kept in store (from the day before). For those seventy, there was asecond service of savory meat.7

3 Ibid., p.66.
4 James Legge trans., Li Chi: Book of Rites, vol.1, “the Nei Zeh,” p.479.
5 “Jinyu” 晉語 [Discourses of Jin], in Guoyu 國語 [Discourses of the States] (Sibu
Congkan chubian suoben edition 四部叢刊初編縮本), vol.13, pp.100 101.
6 “Jinyu,” in Guoyu, vol.14, p.106.
7 James Legge trans., Li Chi: Book of Rites, vol.1, “the Nei Zeh,” p.465.

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One reason for the special reverence accorded to seventy-year-olds was
the relatively short life expectancy in ancient China (due mainly to the material conditions of everyday life and food scarcity). Seventy-year-olds werecalled “old people” and did not take part in the government business ofdefence or planning.8 In Former Han times, at the age of eighty a man was
called a t’ieh 耋, while at the age of seventy he was a mao 耄. A septuagenarian could not feel full without meat or warm without silk.9 This was inline with Mencius’ description, “those who are seventy wear silk and eat
meat,” and further embodies food ethics in ancient China.
In ancient China, food ethics was intrinsically linked to age, which wasused to measure a person’s spiritual journey through life. Confucius said, “To
be neither modest nor deferential when young, to have passed on nothingworthwhile when grown up, and to refuse to die when old, that is what I calla pest.” ( Analects, 14.43)10 In his own reﬂections upon his spiritual transformation, Confucius asserted that he reached the highest point at the age ofseventy. This is consistent with the fact that those who were seventy werecalled septuagenarians in ancient China.11

3. Eating in Ancient Chinese Society
The ethical ideas about food inherent in Mencius’ statement that “those
who are seventy can eat meat” pertain to the everyday practice of eating in
ancient China. As Kuang-chih Chang (張光直) argues, the raw materials for
preparing food in ancient China were complex and diverse. Rice ( fan 飯) andfood (cai 菜) belonged to diﬀerent categories – a distinction based on ideas ofhealth, medication, and nutrition. Furthermore, the major customs and ideas
about eating in Chinese culture remained virtually unchanged for three thousand years.12 Importantly, meat was not considered essential and was regarded
as a luxury. Coarse rice and water, on the other hand, were fundamental andindispensable. Beyond basic rice, one might eat meat after ﬁrst consuming
vegetables.13 In ancient China, members of diﬀerent social classes, such as
8 Ian Johnston trans., The Mozi: A Complete Translation (New York: Columbia
University Press, 2010), Bk.70, Chap.6, pp.860 861.
9 Esson M. Gale trans., Discourses on Salt and Iron (Taipei: Ch’eng-wen Publishing
Company, 1967), chap.25, pp.189 190.
10 D. C. Lau trans., The Analects (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2000),
Bk.14, chap.43, p.147.
11 D. C. Lau trans., The Analects, Bk.2, chap.4, p.11.
12 K. C. Chang ed., Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological and Historical
Perspectives (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), p.14.
13 Chang Kuang-chi 張光直, “Zhongguo gudai de yinshi yu yinshiju” 中國古代的飲食與
飲食具 [Drinking, Eating, and Utensils], in his Zhongguo qingtong shidai 中國青銅時
代 [Bronze Age of China] (Taipei: Lianjing chuban shiye gongsi, 1983), pp.249 283,

Food Ethics in Ancient China

31

commoners, scholar-oﬃcials, and feudal lords, ate diﬀerent kinds and qualities of food.14 Archeological evidence suggests that the nobility in ancient
China ate a variety of meats, including pork, lamb, beef, dog, horse, rabbit,
chicken, duck, bird, and pheasant.15 Generally, however, people consumed far
more rice than meat in ancient China.16
In ancient China, common people consumed very simple food. The Bookof Odes states:17
In the sixth month they eat the sparrow-plums and grapes;
In the seventh, they cook sunﬂower seeds and beans;
In the eighth, they knock down the dates;
In the tenth, they reap the rice
And make the spirits for the spring
For the beneﬁt of the bushy eyebrows.
In the seventh month, they eat the melons;
In the eighth, they cut down the bottle-gourds;
In the ninth, they gather the hemp-seed;
They gather the sow thistle and make ﬁrewood of the ailanthus tree
To feed our husbandmen.
六月食鬱及䡴，七月亨葵及菽，八月剝棗，十月穫稻，為此春酒，以介眉壽。
七月食瓜，八月斷壺，九月叔苴。采荼薪樗，食我農夫。

This poem vividly depicts the lives of farmers in ancient China. Their foodincluded grapes, sunﬂower seeds, beans, melons, and sow thistle. The
philosopher Mozi (墨子, 479 381 BCE) reported that “in the times when thepeople of old still did not know how to make drink or food, they ate simply
and lived separately.”18 To eat “simply” here refers to eating vegetables. Mozi
esp. p.274.
14 Shi Shuqing 史樹青, “Tan ‘yinshi kaogu’” 談 「飲食考古」 [Some Notes on theArcheology of Food], in Kaogu yu wenwu 考古與文物 [Archeology and Documents],
6 (1984): p.103.
15 Yang Aiguo 楊愛國, “Han huaxiangshi zhong de paochutu” 漢畫像石中的庖廚圖[Pictures of Kitchens in the Stone Paintings of the Han Dynasty], in Kaogu 考古[Archaeology], 11(1991): pp.1023 1031, esp. p.1028.
16 Min Zongdian 閔宗殿, “Woguo yinshi jiego de huigu yu sikao” 我國飲食結構的回顧與思考 [Food Structure in China: Retrospection and Thinking], in Zhongguo nongshi
中國農史 [Chinese Agricultural History], 2 (1991): pp.59 66.
17 James Legge trans., “Ts’ih Yueh” 七月, The Odes of Pin 豳風 in The Chinese Classics(Taipei: SMC Publishing Inc., 1991), vol.4, Bk.15, pp.226 233.
18 Sun Yirang 孫詒讓, Mozi xiangu 墨子閒詁 [Commentaries on the Mozi] (Beijing:
Zhonghua shuju, 1986), Bk.6, p.35.

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also reports that people ate fruits and melons in summer and vegetables andgrains in autumn,19 and aﬃrms that the ﬁve grains were the staple for mostpeople.20 This style of eating emerged as early as Han times.21 It was also in
the Han period that the ﬁve grains came to be regarded as medication.22
In ancient Chinese society, commoners ate simple food. Confucius once
praised his pupil, Yan Hui (顏回, 521 481 BCE), for living in a meandwelling and surviving on only a bowlful of rice and a ladleful of water.23 In
the fourth century BCE, Mencius encouraged feudal lords to put humane
governance into practice by reminding them that “your army is met by thepeople bringing baskets of rice and bottles of drink.”24 All these records attest
to the simplicity of the food of common people in ancient China. Soup andboiled grain were consumed everyday by people of all social classes,25 but
common people would only eat meat on special festival days.26
In sum, for most people in ancient China, meat was hard to come by. The“ﬂesh-eaters” were those of the ruling class.27

4. An Explanation of Food Ethics in Ancient China
As viewed in a global context, the food ethics as articulated by Mencius
and Confucians are unique to ancient China. Anthropologists have documented various kinds of “death-hastening behavior” directed towards theelderly in non-industrial societies around the world, including killing andabandonment.28 For example, in Polar Inughuit society, the aged are left
19 John S. Major et. al. trans., The Huainanzi (New York: Columbia University Press,
2010), Bk.9 “The Rulers’ Techniques,” Chapt.28, pp.330 331.
20 Ian Johnston trans., The Mozi: A Complete Translation (New York: Columbia
University Press, 2010), Bk.5, Chap.2, p.31.
21 Huang Zhanyue 黃展岳, “Handai ren de yinshi shenghuo” 漢代人的飲食生活 [Foodof People in the Han Dynasty], in Nongye kaogu 農業考古 [Agricultural Archeology],
1(1982): pp.71 80.
22 See Cheng Jianhua 程劍華, “Gudai nongye yu zuguo yixue de shiwu liaofa” 古代農業與祖國醫學的食物療法 [Ancient Agriculture and Food Medication in Chinese
Medicine], in Nongye kaogu, 2(1984): pp.370 380.
23 D. C. Lau trans., The Analects, Bk.6, chap.11, p.49.
24 D. C. Lau trans., Mencius, Bk.1, Part B, chap.10, p.41.
25 James Legge trans., Li Chi: Book of Rites, vol.1, p.464.
26 Ma Feibai 馬非百, “Xianbuzu 29” 散不足第二十九, Yentie lun jianzhu 鹽鐵論簡注[Commentaries on the Discourses on Salt and Iron] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju,
1984), p.229. Cf. Li Shaochiang 李紹強, “Zhongguo gudai de jieri yinshi” 中國古代的節日飲食 [Food in Ancient Chinese Festivals], in Zhongguo nongshi 中國農史
[Chinese Agricultural History], 1(1990): pp.105 110.
27 James Legge trans., The Chinese Classics, vol.5, Tso Chuen, Duke of Chwang, 10th
year, p.86 and p.832.
28 Jay Sokolovsky ed., The Cultural Context of Aging: Worldwide Perspective (Westport,
Conn.: Bergin and Garvey, 1997), p.62.

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33

behind to fend for themselves or perish.29 Similarly, the Witotos ofNorthwestern Amazonia remove the aged and the inﬁrm from society andleave them in the bush to die.30
Some of the characters inscribed on the oracle bones used for divinationin Bronze Age China have been identiﬁed as depicting the killing of theelderly.31 This sort of behavior can be traced back to the Paleolithic Age. It
was also a common practice in ancient China to leave the elderly in themountains to be eaten by beasts.32 Moreover, those over sixty were sometimes
buried alive in ancient China.33
Against this historical background, two possible explanations for
Confucian food ethics may be oﬀered. Firstly, in the days of Confucius,
Mencius, and the Former Han Dynasty (25 220), when the Book of Rites wascomposed, China was an agrarian society where food and other resourceswere not as scarce as they had been in the Shang dynasty (c.1600 BC c.1046
BC), during which nomadic societies dominated.
Among the many nomadic peoples who interacted with the Han Chinese
people throughout Chinese history, the Huns played an important role in thedevelopment of the Han Dynasty (206 BCE 220 CE). Historians haveconcluded that in the nomadic society of the Huns, the young and the strong
ate the best food while the elderly ate the food that remained.34 A possible
explanation for this is that nomadic societies frequently suﬀered from foodshortages and the elderly might become a burden for the tribe. Unlike thenomadic society of the Huns, Han dynasty China—the China of Confucius
and Mencius—was a mature agrarian society in which “death-hastening
behavior” would be regarded as immoral.
Moreover, in agrarian societies such as ancient China, experience-basedknowledge was highly esteemed. The elderly had more experience, andtherefore more knowledge, of farming than young people. Among the many
29 George Peter Murdock, Our Primitive Contemporaries (New York: The Macmillan
Co., 1934), p.214.
30 Ibid., p.467.
31 Xu Jinxiong 許進雄, Zhongguo gudai shehui: wenzi yu renleixue de toushi 中國古代
社會：文字與人類學的透視 [ Ancient Chinese Society: An Epigraphic andArchaeological Interpretation] (Taipei: Taiwan shangwu yinshuguan, 1988), p.434.
32 Ibid., p.436.
33 Ma Changshou 馬長壽, “Zhongguo gudai huajia shengzang zhi chiyuan yu zaixian”
中國古代花甲生藏之起源與再現 [On the Origin and Reemergence of Live Burial at
the Age of Sixty], in Zhou Weizhou 周偉洲 ed., Ma Changshou minzuxue lunji 馬長壽民族學論集 [Collection of Essays on Ethnology by Ma Changshou] (Beijing:
Renmin chubanshe, 2003), pp.14 45.
34 See Ban Gu 班固, Han shu 漢書 [History of Han] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1964),
p.3743.

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schools of thought in ancient China, Confucianism was distinctly historicallyminded.35 It was therefore natural for Confucians, and most notably Mencius,
to articulate food ethics that favored the elderly.

5. Conclusion
In this paper, I have contextualized Mencius’ expression that “those whoare seventy can eat meat” in relation to food ethics and eating practices inancient China. A person would retire from public service at the age ofseventy and would subsequently receive respect from other members ofsociety, especially if his self-cultivation had progressed with age.
Moreover, common people in ancient China suﬀered from a scarcity ofmaterial resources, including food. Most meals, therefore, consisted of riceand vegetables. Only on special festival days were common people able to eat
meat. This was the reason Mencius regarded the provision of meat for those
aged seventy and over as a hallmark of humane governance. Confucian foodethics, therefore, grew out of the everyday practices of agrarian society, as
well as Confucianism’s profound philosophical commitment to history andage.

35 Chun-chieh Huang, Humanism in East Asian Confucian Contexts (Bielefeld:
Transcript Verlag, 2010), p.25.