Guests in traditional Chinese clothing attend the Confucius family feast held in Qufu, a county-level city in Jining, East China's Shandong province. [Photo/jnnews.tv]

Jining in East China's Shandong province held an event on July 16, recreating a grand Confucius family feast to promote Confucian culture and raise the city's profile.

The activity, which was the largest of its kind on record, reproduced the whole process of a Confucius family feast, including its dishes and traditions.

Confucian family cuisine consists of a variety of dishes that generations of the descendants of Confucius, who is a great ancient Chinese philosopher and educator, made to entertain emperors and other distinguished guests. The dishes are famous for their elegant names, sophisticated cooking methods, delicate flavors, and the exquisite ways that they are served.

Confucius family cuisine was once displayed at Expo Shanghai 2010 and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Qingdao, Shandong in 2018. The cooking techniques of Confucius family cuisine was recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2011.

The event had great significance in demonstrating the effects of Confucianism on Chinese food culture, said Feng Enyuan, an official of the China Cuisine Association.