Ancient Chinese Edibles – Cannabis as food during Dynastic China

Eating edibles appears to be a recent development. But did you know that ancient people used cannabis as food during the Chinese dynasty?

We have known for quite some time that ancient Chinese villagers used cannabis as a source of food. Decades ago, archaeologists discovered texts about the P’o Chu-i, a porridge similar to modern rice porridge. The ancient Chinese made p’o chu-i from hemp seeds, meaning we have edibles that date back to ancient China.

Despite the existence of these historical records, we never had concrete archaeological records until recently. In 2019, a construction project in Shaanxi province uncovered an ancient tomb from the Tang Dynasty. No one had disturbed the tomb for the past 1,320 years, making it an archaeological jackpot of untouched treasures. A group of researchers from Shandong University examined the tomb and discovered some well-preserved cannabis seeds. The seeds happened to be much larger than modern cannabis seeds, but were confirmed to be Cannabis sativa. So now we have concrete evidence that ancient China used cannabis as food.

At the same time, these results are not too much of a surprise. Chinese civilization has used cannabis as a traditional medicine for centuries. In addition, China is home to one of the world’s largest hemp industries. As a result, cannabis as a food fits quite well with how the country has used the plant throughout its history.

Replica of this ancient cannabis dish

As I mentioned earlier, Dynastic China used hemp seeds in a porridge resembling rice porridge. Rice porridge is still a common staple of the Chinese diet today. For those who don’t know, you can make congee by boiling boiled rice in water. Being of Chinese descent myself, I eat congee with my family quite often. We usually mix in some kind of protein, like pork, and then season it with salt. The dish is fairly simple, but it’s absolutely delicious when prepared properly.

However, modern congee does not use cannabis ingredients in any way. Unlike dynastic China, modern China stigmatizes cannabis use quite heavily. The Chinese government has made cannabis illegal, but we can try to keep P’o Chu-i’s spirit alive. If you feel like making rice porridge, maybe add some CBD oil to spice it up. In this way we are able to continue a tradition and honor one of the earliest examples of edibles in human history.