Philosophy in Chinese Cooking Culture

Chinese cooking culture reflected in all aspects. Ancient Chinese philosophers often made analogies between their ideas and cooking styles. 
For example:
1. 老子在《道德經》中提到："治大國，若烹小鮮"。
Laozi said in “Tao Te Ching” that "ruling a large country is like cooking small fishes."
2. 孔子曾提到："食不厭精，燴不厭細"以比喻身正和嚴格要求自己。
Confucius said “eat no rice but is of the finest quality, no meat but is finely minced” to express that people should be strict with themselves.
3. 班固在《漢書》中寫道："王者以民為本，而民以食為天"，將飲食看成是治理國家首要的問題。
Ban Gu wrote in "Book of the Later Han" that "emperors regard people as the foundation of their empire, and people regard food as their prime want". He thought eating was the most important thing to rule a country.
4. "君子遠庖廚"，來源于《禮記》。意為心胸廣大的人應該仁慈，不應進入廚房宰殺動物以備食用。
 “Gentleman should be far away from kitchen.” (from “Book of Rites”) means that people who have a broad mind should be merciful. They shouldn’t go into the kitchen to kill animals for eating.
5. 藥王孫思邈說過："救急之道在于藥，安身之本在于食。"
Sun Simiao (King of traditional Chinese medicine) said "eating is the foundation of the health".
6. 《本草綱目》作者李時珍也有"藥補不如食補"的說法。
The author of “Bencao Gangmu” – Li Shizhen thought that "food cures better than medicine".