How did the famous Chinese “Meat Stone” appear?
Anyone who sees this exhibit for the first time at the National Palace Museum of Taiwan asks a logical question: what is a piece of baked pork doing here? But in fact, the delicious brisket on a luxurious stand is the creation of a Chinese stone carver who lived in the 19th century. And this is far from the only artifact of this type. Why did they create stone food replicas in the Middle Kingdom?
“The Meat Stone” is not just a whim of a virtuoso master and not his joke. The sculptor immortalized the ancient national dish - stewed pork belly dongpo. According to legend, this dish was invented back in the 11th century by the Chinese poet, artist and philosopher Su Shi, who went by the pseudonym Dongpo.
Legend has it that one day the poet was preparing his favorite pork dish, but a guest came to him. While they talked and played chess, the forgotten meat remained on the fire. The water in the pot boiled away and the pork began to bake, becoming golden brown. Su Shi decided to try what happened, and he liked the unexpected result. This is how the popular dish Dongpo in China appeared.
The author of the world-famous “Meat Stone” is unfortunately unknown. All we know is that he lived and worked during the Qing Dynasty, almost 200 years ago. The carver made his work from semi-precious jasper stone, so skillfully that it is simply impossible to visually distinguish it from the original.
Despite the fact that the height of the product without a stand is only 5 cm, the “Meat Stone” is considered one of the most valuable exhibits of the palace museum. For two centuries it has delighted people with its accurate imitation of cooked pork belly. The master completely repeated the layers of meat and even created pores and folds on the skin. The stone is covered with several layers of paint, which accurately conveys the color of baked pork meat.
People in China love pork. The Celestial Empire is the world leader in its production and consumption. Many Chinese families cannot imagine their diet without juicy baked brisket. Hundreds of thousands of tons of this meat are stored frozen as the country's strategic reserve.
In the same National Palace Museum of Taiwan there is another “food” exhibit. This is “Jadeite Cabbage”, carved from ornamental stone with incredible precision. A small cabbage is made of delicate, sometimes translucent leaves on which locusts crawl.
Unlike the “Meat Stone”, this sculpture has a natural color and no paint was used in its creation. A smooth transition from white to green is one of the features of the natural jadeite stone. The master masterfully used the veins and defects of the material, turning them into stems and leaf fibers.
Stone miniatures from jasper, jadeite and jade in the form of vegetables, fruits and prepared dishes began to be created during the Yuan and early Ming dynasties, in the 13th-15th centuries. But the real flourishing of this art direction occurred in the second half of the Qing dynasty, in the 17th-19th centuries.
“Jadeite cabbage” once decorated the Yong-he Palace of the Forbidden City. This was the residence of Emperor Guangxu's wife, Lady Jin. Some historians believe that the product was part of the woman's dowry. The delicate leaves of Chinese cabbage could symbolize the innocence of the bride, while the locusts represented fertility.