Cultural origins · OrienX Journal
“Harmonise the five flavours”: what does the Suwen say?
In Shengqi Tongtian Lun, the phrase follows a discussion of excess. It is neither a recipe nor a requirement to combine five tastes in every meal.
The Chinese phrase jin he wu wei, often translated as “carefully harmonise the five flavours”, comes from the Shengqi Tongtian Lun chapter of the Suwen. By itself, it can sound like cooking advice. In the text, it closes an older medical discussion of the body, flavours and the effects attributed to consuming too much of one taste.
The line in context
In the passage, “阴之所生，本在五味” comes before a series of warnings about excessive tastes; then comes “是故谨和五味”, meaning that the five flavours should be brought into careful accord. Within the Suwen’s system of organs, yin and yang, this concerns restraint in the face of excess, not putting five tastes in one bowl, still less giving a bowl a bodily effect.
Immediately before the phrase, the chapter describes what it believes would happen when sour, salty, sweet, bitter or pungent flavours become excessive. It explains these effects through the Suwen’s own view of the organs, yin and yang. It then calls for a careful relation among flavours. It does not provide ingredients for dinner.
An older idea and a separate modern practice
Nor does the book say that a ceramic bowl can harmonise the body. Its historical language of health belongs to its original setting; modern nutrition questions require modern evidence. Keeping that distinction gives the phrase its cultural meaning without asking it to promise more.
If you came from the low-bowl page, the place of that line in the argument is the key point. Its open 20.6 cm surface lets grains, pulses and vegetables be arranged apart; the diner can taste each before seasoning, while its curved interior holds a little sauce. OrienX makes attention to flavour into a table gesture here. The ancient text describes neither this form nor this method.
Source: Huangdi Neijing Suwen, “Shengqi Tongtian Lun”, chapter 3. For a separate practical reading, see “Taste first, season second”.
Cover image: page from a historical Suwen edition, Wikimedia Commons, public domain. This is not the exact page of the quotation.