PERIPATETIC PLANTS OF EASTERN ASIA

36 CHAPTER 4 PERIPATETIC PLANTS OF EASTERN ASIA We must also take into account the wheat pasta eaten in northern China and Japan, countries usually thought of as consumers of rice or pasta derived from rice. Giovanni Rebora (1998) TROPICAL TUCK OF SOUTHEAST ASIA Asia, sprawling over the eastern portion of the Eurasian land mass as the largest of the world’s continents was, not surprisingly, the site of many more Neolithic upheavals than those that took place in the Fertile Crescent. Far to its south and east – in East and Southeast Asia (Indochina) – parts of this vast region can claim a close second in agricultural development. 1 Unfortunately, monsoon Asia, with perhaps the best claim, lies in the tropical belt where artifacts do not preserve well. Consequently there are considerable gaps in the archeological record of foodstuffs and much remains speculative. 2 Banana and Plantain It has been proposed that in the islands of Melanesia – especially Papua New Guinea – around 9,000 years ago, or even earlier, bananas were cultivated by Australoid peoples whose predecessors reached these Asian outposts by cross- ing Indonesian land bridges that were later submerged. Geographically there is no problem with this assertion. The wild ancestors of the domes ticated Peripatetic Plants of Eastern Asia 37 banana, Musa acuminata and M. balbisiana, (old usage designated the domesticated banana M. sapientum – “fruit of the wise men” – and the plantain M. paradisiaca – “heavenly fruit”) were located in a region extending from New Guinea to Thailand. 3 But there is a big question about whether bananas were utilized as a food at that point. Banana domestication would have been a lengthy process in which a small, seedy, ined- ible fruit was transformed into a large, seed- less, edible one (plantains are drier and less sweet but bananas nonetheless). And it seems likely that such a transformation transpired because of another of those fortuitous accidents that so often greased the domestication process. Because wild bananas were inedible food, the plants must have initially been cultivated to provide thatching to build shelters and fi bers to make rope. Their leaves have myriad other uses including those of wrapping and serving foods. 4 In addition, banana trees (actually giant herbs) are useful for shading other crops. But out of banana-plant cultivation for these other uses a sugar-, starch-, and nutrient-packed fruit would have sooner or later emerged as an edible bonus. When this happened, we have no idea. A Burmese legend explains that humans fi rst realized they could eat bananas only after seeing birds eating them. 5 With this bonus the cultivation of banana plants – now capable of feeding as well as housing people – spread to South Asia (where linguistic evidence indicates that bananas have been utilized since circa 3000 BCE ) and to East Asia, reaching south China toward the end of the fi rst millen- nium BCE . 6 Between these dispersals another occurred as human pioneers carried the fruits into Oceania by way of western to eastern Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia so that their cultivation was a familiar occu- pation in many Pacifi c islands by 1000 AD . When and how bananas reached East Africa remains a matter of conjecture, with the best guess being that they were carried across the Indian Ocean from Malaysia to Madagascar around the end of the fi rst millennia AD . Following this, the fruit moved westward across the continent to be named “banana” on the Guinea Coast. 7 38 A Movable Feast The question of whether bananas reached the New World before Colum- bus has produced some lively controversy. In part the debate has centered on the claim that banana remains were found in early Peruvian tombs and, in part, on observations of early chroniclers, who assumed that banana trees were native to the American tropics because they were so widespread. Most authorities agree, however, that bananas only reached the Americas from the Canary Islands in 1516 (where they had earlier been carried from Africa by the Portuguese). 8 All of this, however, does introduce a persistent and unresolved problem dealing with pre- Columbian America’s contact with Oceania that we will encounter again with the sweet potato. Ta r o Taros are among the oldest of the world’s domesticated foods. There are four kinds of root crops called “taro,” but only two of these – the “true taro” (Colocasia esculenta) and the “false taro” ( Alocasia macrorrhiza) are widely traveled. 9 The cradle of both may have been South Asia, although they were under dry land cultivation in Southeast Asia 7,000 or more years ago, and it is thought that the time and energy lavished on ancient terraces built in Bali, Java, and the northern Philippines represents an investment in taro propagation. 10 Wetland cultivation based on irrigation techniques whereby taro was grown in prepared beds to control weeds was a later development and dry land, or upland cultivation, has always been the most widespread method of cultivating Colocasia taro. Both taros began migrating with the Austronesians to reach the Philippines around 8,000 years ago, and Melanesia about 4,000 years ago. After this they sailed into the Pacifi c where they were carried by a hetero- geneous people – a mixture of Austronesians and the earlier Australoids. These were the greatest sailors of prehistory – their voyages marked by the Lapita pottery they left behind. Thanks to them taro became a highly valued foodstuff, even in the remote Hawaiian Islands where it is believed to have always been the staple. 11 Colocasia taro also moved west to India, and reached Egypt at the beginning of the Com- mon Era. Shortly thereafter it was introduced to Madagascar and spread throughout tropical Peripatetic Plants of Eastern Asia 39 Africa. Around 714 AD , taro was taken to Iberia by the Moors and 800 years later was carried to the Americas. Called “dasheen” or “eddoe” in the Caribbean, it became an important food for African slaves. 12 Ya m Several species of yams (genus Dioscorea) evolved separately in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Both the greater yam ( D. alata) and the lesser yam ( D. esculenta) were domesticated in Southeast Asia perhaps 6,500 or more years ago to join taro as a valuable root crop. From Southeast Asia yams moved into Indonesia and reached Melanesia by 2000 BCE , Microne- sia a bit later, and eastern Polynesia by 1500 BCE . 13 Yams were present in China by the third century AD and in India about 200 years later. They traversed the Indian Ocean to Madagascar a few centuries after this (between the eleventh and the fi fteenth centuries) and, by the end of the sixteenth century, D. alata had spanned the continent to be cultivated in West Africa. From Africa it crossed the Atlantic to the Americas in 1591 aboard a slave ship. 14 Africa also had native yams. Two of these D. cayenensis and D. rotun- data, may have been domesticated in West Africa as many as 8,000 years ago, suggesting an antiquity of agriculture south of the Sahara that some scholars have diffi culty accepting. In part this is because African yam cul- tivation only became widespread some 2,500 years ago with the advent of iron working – a technology which provided the tools that made it possible for people to expand deeper into forests where ecological circumstances favored yams over grain crops. 15 In most of the New World tropics, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, and manioc overshadowed the only native American yam ( D. trifi da ), which was only a signifi cant food in the northern regions of South America and in the Caribbean – areas where it is still widely cultivated today. Abroad D. trifi da also found acceptance. It is cultivated on a limited basis in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. On the Indian subcontinent it is called the “India yam” and in Africa the “cush-cush” yam. 16 Rice Sporadic arguments among scholars erupt from time to time over the issue of whether root crop cultivation such as that of taro and yams preceded rice 40 A Movable Feast in Southeast Asia. Pioneers from the region spread out into the Pacifi c with taro and yams, but not rice, prompting the conclusion that Asian rice (Oryza sativa) was not an important crop in Southeast Asia when they departed. Confusion arises because their pioneering was done gradually and in stages. It began about 8,000 years ago when Austronesian peoples left Southeast Asia to fan out into the East Indies and the Philippine Islands, but it was much later – thousands of years in fact – that they settled Mela- nesia and then hived out into the Pacifi c. But – and this is the important point – they did leave the mainland before rice became important there around 5,500 years ago. 17 An explanation for this tardy appearance of rice in Southeast Asia holds that it would have been diffi cult to cook it until pottery came into wide- spread use, whereas taro and yams could have been easily baked in earthen ovens or just tossed into the coals. A counterargument, of course, is that western Asian hunter-gatherers collected wheat or barley for food long before they had pottery. On the other hand they did not have such root crop alternatives. Wild self-propagating stands of rice would have grown best in humid areas on poorly drained soils. Cultivation began when grains were planted nearer the home base, but much time probably elapsed before wild rice – whose original home may have been South Asia – became the domesticated O. sativa that now is a staple for almost half of the world’s population. The slow march toward domestication prob- ably began at about the same time in China and India as it did in Southeast Asia – perhaps as many as 10,000 years ago – but at that early date rice was just one of many foods fi guring into the diet. In Southeast Asia rice cultivation was almost exclusively of the dry variety, probably beginning in upland forest areas as well as small dooryard plots – primitive forms of cultivation that still persist in remote areas. By contrast, wet rice cultivation was not widely practiced in Southeast Asia until after the Suez Canal was opened in 1869 – an event that greatly expanded trade to the region at a time when European powers were looking for ways to feed grow- ing colonial populations. 18 Peripatetic Plants of Eastern Asia 41 Other Fruits and Vegetables of Southeast Asia The eggplant ( Solanum melongena) is an Old World relative of New World tomatoes and potatoes. Also known as aubergines, eggplants were fi rst domesticated in either Southeast Asia or India. They reached Spain with the Muslims and from there moved north into Europe, south to Africa and west to the Americas. Thomas Jefferson is said to have brought them to North America. 19 Fruits such as the sweet pomelo (Citrus maxima) followed the same route whereas lemons (Citrus limon) and limes ( Citrus aurantiifolia), although natives of Southeast Asia, were apparently fi rst cultivated in India (where Sanskrit names for both exist) and perhaps China as well. In fact lemons seem to have been in China about 1900 BC and reached Rome around the beginning of the Common Era aboard Roman ships taking advantage of the newly discovered route and techniques for sailing across the Indian Ocean. Lemons are depicted in frescos and mosaics found at Pompeii. But the Romans apparently regarded the lemon as an exotic fruit and there is no written record of lemon cultivation in Europe until the Arabs in the tenth century spread the fruit in the Mediterranean region. Limes seem to have been domesticated in both India and China and were later introduced to southern Europe – perhaps by the Crusaders as well as the Arabs. Because limes were often viewed as green lemons, they are more diffi cult to keep track of than lemons. The latter was growing in the Azores in 1494 and both fruits began to fl ourish shortly after this in the New World, where the small, tart lime has alternatively been called a “Key” or “West Indian” or “Mexican” lime. (Persian limes are a recent cross between the lime and the citron.) CHINA’S CHIEF COMESTIBLES Rice Although wild rice may have originated in South Asia, it was fi rst cultivated in China, probably in the Yangtze Basin – a river practically synonymous with rice cultivation. Domesticated grains have been found there that are 7,000 years old and rice was the principal food plant for many burgeoning Chinese settle- ments. The cereal was originally cultivated on dry land, but with the advance of the Neolithic, irrigation techniques were gradually applied to wetland cultiva- tion, and ultimately rice seedlings were transplanted into wet fi elds. 20 42 A Movable Feast As rice cultivation spread in China, it also took root in Southeast Asia around 5,500 years ago and in India some 500 years later. The grain was introduced to Korea and Japan about 3,000 years ago, and perhaps a bit later to Sri Lanka, the Malay Archipelago, the Indonesian islands, the Middle East (via the Persian Empire), and from there to Madagascar, whereupon it entered East Africa. West Africa, however, which had its own native rice ( Oryza glaberrima), had to wait for Asian rice until a few decades after Columbus had carried it to the West Indies from whence it was transported eastward via the Atlantic slave trade. 21 In China water buffalo began to partner with humans in wet rice cul- tivation, which accelerated tremendously around 1000 CE when a fast- ripening rice from Viet Nam reached the Yangtze River valley. The result was a doubling of China’s population within the span of two centuries (from an estimated 60 million to 115 million). 22 Rice has continued to help spur population growth and today is a staple for billions. Millet and Cereal Imports Despite China’s identifi cation with rice, it was not its only important cereal, probably not even its fi rst. Rather, in the harsh climate of the north along another of China’s great rivers – the Huang Ho, or Yellow River – foxtail millet (Setaria italica ), and proso or broomcorn millet ( Panicum miliaceum) were under intensive cultivation by at least 5,000 to 6,000 years ago – a time when southern China was still a “foreign” (or separate) country. 23 The millets were later joined by barley and wheat – Middle Eastern contribu- tions to food globalization along with an import from Africa – sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) (which reached China from Africa via India). By at least 1000 BCE the Chinese were cultivating another grain, buck- wheat ( Fagopyrum esculentum), thought to be a native of Siberia and Man- churia. But intriguingly there is evidence that buckwheat was being grown in Japan much earlier between 3500 and 5000 BCE (it remains an impor- tant crop there used primarily for making buckwheat noodles or soba). Of course this raises, once again, that always pesky question about early contact between ancient cultures. 24 Culinary Competition These, then, were the crops that gave rise to China’s fi rst farming societies and later sustained what became China’s fi rst civilization. That civilization Peripatetic Plants of Eastern Asia 43 arose in a north that regarded the south as primitive, and because China’s gradient between a cool dry north and a warm wet south did little to pro- mote crop diffusion from one zone to another, rivalries seem to have been inevitable. 25 Wheat, ultimately, became the chief cereal in the north as did rice in the south – the crops helping to divide China into two entities, politically and economically, as well as culturally and culinarily. 26 In the latter case, four major cuisines emerged: those of the northern region and the eastern-coastal region under the infl uence of the north; and those of the southern region and the central-western region infl uenced by the south. 27 Vegetables and Fruits China’s stock of native vegetables and fruits was supplemented with other fruits of early globalization that originated elsewhere. By the fi rst century BCE , cucumbers, peas, onions, coriander, sesame, grapes, and pomegranates were part of the Chinese diet, having arrived from other centers of agricul- tural innovation – especially the Fertile Crescent, India, and North Africa (via Central Asia). Later, under the Tang Dynasty ( 618–907 AD ), the Per- sians donated spinach (now known as “Chinese spinach”) to the dietary possibilities. 28 Yet, all of these were late-comers when compared to the melon ( Cucumis melo) – an apparent African native –and the bitter orange ( Citrus auran- tium) that reached China from Southeast Asia, via the Indus Valley. Both were growing in southern China some 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, along with apricots ( Prunus armeniaca ) and jujubes ( Ziziphus jujuba). After their arrival in China, melons seem to have been almost rushed over to the Indus valley. Oranges, by contrast, moved more slowly. Whether the sweet orange was a native of China, or like its bitter cousin, actually originated in Southeast Asia (Viet Nam, then called Cochin China, may have been the place) has not been resolved despite its scientifi c name Citrus sinensis. Initially, however, all oranges were bitter and used mostly for their scent – that bitterness probably the reason that they remained in China (and India) for many centuries before they became known elsewhere. The Arabs carried the bitter orange from India into the Mediterranean basin around 1000 AD , but the sweet orange from China trailed behind to enter the Mediterranean sometime in the fi fteenth century, perhaps with Genoese traders or Portuguese explorers. 29 44 A Movable Feast Other native fruits reached the outside world from China. In the past the apricot was regarded as a kind of plum that had come to China from Armenia (hence the scientifi c name P. armeniaca). But there is evidence, as suggested earlier, that the fruit actually originated in China and may have been cultivated there for some 5,000 years. It arrived in Mesopotamia, by way of northern India, and later Alexander the Great introduced the fruit to Greece, leaving Roman legionnaires to spread it throughout Europe. 30 The jujube, with a French name meaning “lozenge,” is defi nitely a native of China that has been grown there almost as long as the apricot. From China the fruit spread out over East Asia and was cultivated in the Medi- terranean circa 2,500 years ago. In fact, the lotus jujube ( Ziziphus lotus) was the fruit of the lotus-eaters of Libya known to us from accounts by Herodotus and Pliny. In addition, cinnamon ( Cinnamomum zeylanicum) and cassia ( Cinnamomum cassia), natives of Sri Lanka and Burma respec- tively, were fi rst mentioned as spices in China around 2500 BCE – at about the time that the Chinese acquired cassia from Burma. Roughly a thou- sand years later, cinnamon was passed westward as far as Egypt, where it was used in embalming, and perhaps as a foodstuff as well. 31 Agricultural Revolution The infl uence of the south gained ground against that of the north during the Song dynasty ( 960–1279 AD ), when China’s “fi rst agricultural revolu- tion” (after the Neolithic) took place. 32 Private land ownership and a new elite class of landed gentry did much to promote agriculture in the south, whereas the north was increasingly coming under the control of Central Asian nomadic groups. This, in turn, provoked mass migration southward into the temperate and subtropical lands along the Yangtze River and beyond with long growing seasons. 33 Agricultural abundance meant swelling urban populations and with prosperity a demand arose for such novel foods as bananas, originally from Southeast Asia, and the native litchi and apricot. Tea and sugar also came into general use during the Song dynaty. 34 What really fueled this fi rst agricultural revolution, however, was state encouragement, beginning in 1012, of a rice variety that had originated in central Vietnam. This was the drought-resistant, early ripening Champa rice, which Song agricultural offi cials imported and then handed out free of charge to farmers. Another virtue of Champa rice was that it could be cultivated in poor soils and, consequently, the amount of land planted in Peripatetic Plants of Eastern Asia 45 rice grew enormously, and an already thriving trade in rice to the cities grew exponentially. So did the population, which almost doubled in the two centuries between 1000 and 1200. 35 Soybean Shen Nung, a legendary Chinese emperor, known in folklore as the “Divine Ploughman” or the “Divine Husbandman” is credited with ordering (around 2700 BCE ) plants classifi ed according to food and medicinal value. Out of that list emerged fi ve principal and sacred crops. Four of these, barley, wheat, millet, and rice, have already been noted. The addition of the soy- bean as the fi fth may be confi rmation that this piece of Chinese folklore was elaborated substantially later than 2700 BCE , because some sources do not place the domesticated soybean ( Glycine max) in China before 1000 BCE . Others insist, however, that the wild soybean ( G. soja) of north- eastern China and Manchuria has been domesticated for at least 4,500 years, which squares with the legend while leaving the suspicion that the latter may have had something to do with the dating of the former. Regardless, the soybean has become the most widely consumed plant in the world. Moreover, it is the only plant food that yields a whole protein (as do meat and milk) – an especially important quality in crowded countries where animal protein is in short supply. Today soy is the most important of the vegetable oils, but is also used for sprouts, vegetable milk, meal and fl our, tofu, sauces, salad dressings, and margarines, and has a number of other food-processing uses. The beans are also dried and salted as a snack. 36 Presumably soybeans were similarly employed by the ancient Chinese who even dried eggs. Tofu was the “meat without bones” of vegetarian Bud- dhist missionaries who made mock meat dishes from it and carried soy- beans to Japan and Korea in the sixth century AD , where they gained staple status. Soybeans also found their way into the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and Indonesia at an early date, and made the journey to India, but eons would elapse before they developed into a major crop in the Western Hemisphere. 37 [...]... meat was a part of the diet, along with pickled fish and shellfish which served as side dishes to accompany Peripatetic Plants of Eastern Asia 49 rice.57 Another side dish was a form of sushi that originated as a method of preserving fish by fermenting them in boiled rice Sushi is a Japanese word but the same preservation practice was also employed in southwestern Korea, China, and Southeast Asia, where it... Pharonic times, and reportedly was a part of the diet of Hebrew slaves Cucumbers are sometimes difficult to sort out in the literature from their other melon relatives but it seems clear that they Peripatetic Plants of Eastern Asia 47 were an important vegetable in classical times Both the ancient Greeks and the Romans knew cucumbers – the Romans eating them in a salad of sorts, with salt, pepper, vinegar... receive it, the Chinese spread fish culture throughout all of Asia For some 500 years, until the “Great Withdrawal of 1433,” Chinese naval expeditions reached every inhabited place on the China Sea and Indian Ocean, telling of the grandeur of each new dynasty, distributing treasure, and passing along skills such as those of fish-farming.41 SOUTH ASIAN ALIMENTS The Indus civilization, which came into being... more.51 LATER EAST ASIAN AGRICULTURE The development of agriculture in Korea and Japan lagged considerably behind that of China For the most part the Japanese remained huntergatherers until the very end of the Neolithic period (known as the Jõrmon 48 A Movable Feast era), gathering acorns and chestnuts, hunting game, and exploiting the marine resources within and off the shores of their islands.52... they were drinking alcohol In fact, millennia before the advent of distillation in the West the Chinese were producing beverages with an alcohol content of between 10 and 15 percent These were not beers, but rather the result of a “combined fermentation” process whereby an ad hoc ferment was produced to begin the fermentation of a mash of cooked cereals.39 Fish And finally, well before 1000 BCE, the... important relative of the cucumber is the cultivated melon It may have originated in tropical Africa, but India, Southwest Asia, and Egypt are also mentioned as cradles of the melon, opening up the distinct possibility that melons may have originated, or at least become domesticated, in a belt running all the way from India to Africa.49 The melon is especially hard to keep track of because of its membership... a “tale of three cereals.”43 Rice, although eaten everywhere in India, was only a dietary mainstay in the south, where it was intensively cultivated Wheat, by contrast, was mainly cultivated in the north, whereas millet – grown on the poorest soils – was the staple of the poor Barley and peas, also Middle Eastern imports, were cultivated, as was sorghum Although the dispersal of sorghum to Asia is... oranges from China, limes and lemons from Southeast Asia, date palms from Mesopotamia, and the pomegranate probably from Persia where it is thought to be a native A member of the squash family and another native of India, the cucumber (Cucumis sativus), was most likely first domesticated in the north.47 A mainstay of Indian cuisine, the cucumber, a member of the gourd family, had become a common vegetable... intake of good-quality protein All three of these items had a profound effect on cuisines and cultures, with the effect most dramatic in Japan There the ancient Shintõ religion saw eye to eye with the Buddhist prohibition on killing animals, and meat consumption practically disappeared, whereas the eating of fish (generally raw according to the proverb: “Eat it raw first of all, then grill it, and boil it... 6,000 years ago in Southeast Asia, entered the Indus valley to become the favorite fruit Some 24,000 couplets of the Hindu epic Ramayana (c 300 BCE) refer to the numerous fruits of the region such as jackfruit (Artocarpus beterophyllus) and Jambolan plum (Eugenia jambolana) but none are mentioned so frequently as the mango which, among its many uses, was the foundation of chutney.46 Other fruits were . 18 Peripatetic Plants of Eastern Asia 41 Other Fruits and Vegetables of Southeast Asia The eggplant ( Solanum melongena) is an Old World relative of New. consumers of rice or pasta derived from rice. Giovanni Rebora (1998) TROPICAL TUCK OF SOUTHEAST ASIA Asia, sprawling over the eastern portion of the Eurasian