The culinary arts flourished during the Han dynasty. Among the burial provisions for noblewoman Xin Zhui, at Mawangdui, some 30 food containers were found. The meats alone included beef, lamb, pork, venison, rabbit, crane, chicken, duck and fish.
Poultry was popular during the Han dynasty with eggs, wild fowl, bamboo partridge, turtledove, quail, crane, wild goose, swan and sparrow.
Dishes were meticulously prepared: roasted, stewed, scalded, poached, fried, steamed, stir-fried, air-dried, pickled or smoked. As The Book of Han put it: '[To] the people nothing is more important than food.'
Other staple food encompassed grain, millet, wheat, beans, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds and rice.
Keen on maintaining a healthy diet, Han gourmets consumed a wide variety of fresh vegetables and fruits, including mustard greens, onions, bamboo shoots, ginger, lotus roots, dates, pears, plums, bayberries and water chestnuts.
An autopsy performed on the well-preserved remains of Lady Dai found she had dined on melons before her death.