Shushipu 疏食譜

Shushipu 疏食譜, full title Benxinzhai shushi pu 本心齋疏食譜 "Notes on simple food from the Studio of [Seeking] Foundations in the Heart" is a book on diet written during the Song period 宋 (960-1279) by Chen Dasou 陳達叟, style Benxin Weng 本心翁. Chen also wrote a similar book, Zhongchao shipu 中朝食譜, which is listed in the bibliographical book Congshu juyao 叢書舉要 of Yang Shoujing 楊守敬 (1839-1915). Chen hailed from Qingzhang 清漳 (modern Feixiang 肥鄉, Hebei), but practically nothing is known about his life. His name is only mentioned in Wang Shixian's 汪士賢 Shanju zazhi 山居雜誌 from the Ming period 明 (1368-1644), and in the Qing-period 清 (1644-1911) bibliography Qianqingtang shumu 千頃堂書目.

Because the text is included in Zuo Jia's 左圭 (fl. 1273) series Baichuan xuehai 百川學海 from the Song period, there is no doubt that the text dates from that period of time. In this edition, Chan Dasou is called a student in the Youshan Academy 友善書堂 (see academies), and it might therefore be that he was only the compiler, and not the real "author" of the content.

The book includes recipes for various dishes such as pulse (chuo shu 啜菽), vegetable soups (gengcai 羹菜), rice dumplings (fenci 粉糍), leek dumplings (jianjiu 薦韭), butterfly noodles (yilai 貽來), yam dishes (yuyan 玉延), various desserts like lychee or longans (qiongzhu 瓊珠), steamed buns (yuzhuan 玉磚), salted or pickled dishes (yinji 銀齏), water dumplings (shuituan 水團), bamboo shoots (yuban 玉版), lotus roots (xue'ou 雪藕), radish (tusu 土酥), steamed chestnuts (chuili 炊栗), stewed taro (weiyu 煨芋), wolfberry dishes (caiqi 采杞), sweet water chestnuts (ganqi 甘薺), green bean vermicelli (lüfen 綠粉), mushrooms (zizhi 紫芝), and white rice (baican 白粲), totaling 20 items.

For each item, the author first introduces the method of preparation, cooking methods, or special features, and then summarizes the characteristic taste of this vegetarian dish in the lyrical shape of praises (zan 贊). This style of writing is concise, similar to songs, with a clear focus and easy to recite and remember. In the preface and postscript of the book, the author asserts that these vegetarian dishes were inspired by a mind free from worldly desires. Throughout the recipes, the book repeatedly emphasizes the idea of vegetarianism as an expression of purity and transcendence beyond worldly concerns.

The Shushipu lists 20 recipes of dishes, in a very refined and elegant language, but these recipes are rather poetic than practical, because there are virtually no quantities provided. The bibliography Qianqingtang shumu writes the title 蔬食譜, which would mean "Notes on vegetarian food", while shushi 疏食 means "coarse" or "simple" diet. The book is also to be found in the series Shuofu 說郛 (Wanwei shantang 宛委山堂 edition) and Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編.