本文擬由明清的飲膳書籍與食譜材料入手，觀察明清飲食文化中感官描述的演化，以及士人品味的塑造和身分認同的關係。首先從出版文化史的角度，論證明中葉以後江南地區的飲食奢華風尚，影響江南的出版文化，帶動了飲膳書籍與食譜的大量刊行，江南的飲食文化也成爲中國飲食文化的主流。接著將重心放在食譜中感官描述的演變與發展，透過文本分析的方式來呈現這些感官的記載與描述，所經歷的一段由簡而繁的變化，說明當時人們對於食物菜餚的感官由認知到表達有了進一步的發展，同時證明了當時人對感官享樂的要求愈來愈高。第四部分則是指出明清部分士人或文人爲宣揚自己特殊的味覺觀，創作出一種特殊風格的「文人化食譜」，其實就是以選擇性的攝食來表達自己的「品味」，並建構他們社群的自我認同，以利於和其他社會群體作區分。此外，近年來關於明清文化史熱烈討論的問題之一，就是晚明士大夫所建構的鑑賞品味文化，到了清代是否延續？既有的研究大多傾向認爲明清士大夫的消費文化呈現斷裂性，而從本文的分析結果則顯示有相當緊密的延續性。

Drawing on Ming and Qing dietary writings and recipe books, the present article presents observations about changes in the description of sense perceptions relating to the food culture of the Ming and Qing period, and the relationship between the construction of taste among the gentry and their self-identity. The article begins with an examination of the publishing industry, and demonstrates that after the middle of the Ming period, the fashion for luxurious eating in the Jiangnan regioninfluenced the book-publishing culture of Jiangnan, leading to the publication of a profusion of books on food and drink and recipe books. As a consequence, the dietary culture of Jiangnan came to be seen as the mainstream for China's food culture as a whole. The article next turns to changes and developments in the description of sense perceptions in recipe books during this period, and through an analysis of the texts, reveals that these records and descriptions of sense perceptions went through a process of change from simple to complex. This indicates that, with respect to tastes in food, people at the time went through a process of development both in knowledge and in expression, and at the same time demonstrates that at the time people's demands for sensory enjoyment grew ever higher. In the fourth section, the article shows how a section of the gentry and literati during the Ming and Qing created a kind of special style of "literati recipes" in order to promote their own particular views on taste and the senses. In fact, this was a matter of seeking to demonstrate their own "good taste" by their selection of recipes, and constructing the self-identity of their circle in contra-distinction to that of other social groups. Finally, one of the questions most hotly debated in recent years on Ming and Qing cultural history has to do with whether or not the connoisseur culture constructed by the literati in the late Ming was continued into the Qing period. Most research is inclined to the view that gentry consumption culture between the Ming and Qing reveals a decisive break, but the conclusion from the analysis in the present article is that there was close continuity.