The Beef Taboo in China

The Beef Taboo in China explains how and why, around the turn of the second millennium, the Chinese determined that cattle should not be slaughtered or eaten. This taboo remained prevalent until the beginning of the twentieth century and is still observed by some today. Goossaert situates this prohibition within evolving Chinese attitudes toward animals and meat and juxtaposes the taboo with vegetarianism and other forms of meat ethics. He argues that the emergence of this specific practice must be understood in several contexts, notably a new agricultural economy and ecology in early modern times that protected plow cattle and marginalized pastures; a sacrificial reform that eliminated beef as the standard offering to gods and spirits; and the development of Daoist rituals, cults, and moral theology that tabooed beef and made this observance a linchpin of Chinese civilization.