문인 식탁 위의 야미(野味) — 송대 문헌을 중심으로

Abstract

Claude Lévi-Strauss viewed cooking as an act that mediates the boundary between nature and culture, transforming nature from an object of fear into a controllable part of culture. Cooking is a symbolic act that reconfigures the relationship between humans and nature, serving as a cultural device that reveals ecological sensitivity. China boasts a long history of rich food culture based on a variety of wild ingredients. This food culture emerged from interactions with local ecosystems, with food serving both as an expression of ecological context and as a marker of cultural identity. In modern times, however, most wild, hunting-oriented ingredients have disappeared from the table, and the symbolism and literary representations of food culture have gradually faded. Therefore, reviving the traces of wildlife cuisine in ancient literature is not merely a return to the past but an important opportunity to reassess the relationship between humans and nature. In particular, exploring literature and food culture holds the key to restoring the sensory world and symbolic language that have been weakened in modern society. The Song Dynasty was a period of intense exchange between the center and the periphery, marked by a great expansion in food ingredients and recipes, and the beginning of the rise of wild game cuisine as a high-end food culture. During this period, great literary masters enjoyed a food culture that utilized wild animal ingredients and expressed their experiences in poetry. This study sheds light on the diversity of Song Dynasty food culture by examining how wild ingredients were represented in the poetry of Song Dynasty writers. It also reveals that the wild animals depicted in Song Dynasty poetry were significant to the poets’ nostalgia and identity formation at the intersection of their hometowns’ natural environment and culture.