Conquest, Migration and Food in Mongol China: Yuan Food in Chinese Context

This paper chronicles the spread of western foods to China with conquest and trade during Imperial times, especially during the time of the Mongol Empire. Over centuries, most of the important west Eurasian crop plants, domestic animals, and medicinal herbs became known at least marginally in China, and most were incorporated in Chinese foods and medicine. A particularly thoughtful (but anonymous) reader of this paper has suggested a theme: the enthusiastic adoption of foreign plants and animals, but the much less clear or enthusiastic adoption of the medical and nutritional beliefs that came with them from the west. This was less true in the Mongol period (and, probably, in the Tang period)1 than at other times, but even in Mongol times, Chinese medicine maintained its intellectual dominance – though we are probably missing some influences due to ideas being recast in Chinese medical language.