Taste Between the Lines

This chapter discusses the presentation of food in three vernacular novel masterworks from late imperial China, the time period spanning the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), the last two dynasties of imperial China. The Ming dynasty was established after military uprisings overthrew the rule of the Mongols in China. The Qing dynasty began after Ming China was conquered by the Manchus, an ethnic group from northeastern China, and ended with the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912.