Shiology

The meaning of “Shi”

“Shi” originates from the Chinese character “食”, which can function both as a noun and a verb. As a noun, “shi” refers to food, covering everything edible from basic ingredients to complete meals. As a verb, it means to eat, describing the action of consuming food.

What is Shiance

Shiance refers to any human activity related to the acquisition or utilization of food and its resulting outcomes. It encompasses a wide range of practices, including gathering, hunting, fishing, farming, breeding, transporting, storing, cooking, fermenting, purchasing, selling, eating (or consuming), and appreciating food, as well as food-related economic, administrative, legal, educational, and other activities.

What is Eater

Eater refers to human beings viewed from the perspective of their essential need to eat. In its intrinsic sense, it emphasizes understanding individuals based on their dietary needs, while its broader meaning includes everyone who depends on food—men, women, migrant workers, the elderly, children, and so on.

What is Shiology

Shiology is not merely the study of food, eating, or food culture; Shiology is the science that studies the mutual relationship and rules between humans and food. Shiology is a knowledge system that studies and solves shiance issues. Shiology is a knowledge system that reveals the objective laws of shiance. Shiology is a knowledge system that studies the genesis, evolution, and objective laws of shiance behaviors.

Shiology takes Shiance as its primary object of study. Its overarching mission is to comprehensively and thoroughly address humanity’s shiance issues—to extend human lifespans, optimize social order, and ensure the continuity of the species. Structurally, Shiology is defined by the “Shiology Triangle,” which comprises three key elements: the eater’s needs, food acquisition, and the shiance order. Its foundational framework follows a “3-13-36” model.

Shiology elucidates a range of core principles, including “Body transformed from food”, “Food and human body coupling”, “Eating can cause disease”, “Eating can cure disease”, “Eating is a five-sense aesthetic experience”, “Shiance breeds civilization”, “Shiance triangle”, “Shiance Priority”, “Shiance behavior follows food ecosystem and food converting system”, and “Shiance order is the basis of human social order”. Furthermore, the Ministry of Education of China supports institutions with degree-conferring autonomous review qualifications (such as "985" universities) in independently establishing Shiology as a first-level interdisciplinary discipline, in accordance with their own conditions.

Shiology (English Edition)
Published in January 2025 by Joint Publishing (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., Shiology (ISBN 978-962-04-5513-1) comprises 330,000 words across seven chapters. As the first English monograph on Shiology, it provides readers worldwide with an accessible resource to understand and study this field.​

Introduction to Chinese Cuisine
Published in September 2024 by Higher Education Press, Introduction to Chinese Cuisine (ISBN 978-7-04-062091-7) consists of 360,000 words. Aiming to construct a comprehensive knowledge system of Chinese cuisine, the book is organized into six chapters that explore various aspects: general overview, ingredients, techniques, dishes, systems, and dining practices. This structure offers a holistic, systematic, and innovative perspective on Chinese culinary arts.