Shaoweiyan shidan 燒尾宴食單

Shaoweiyan shidan 燒尾宴食單, also called Wei Juyuan shipu 韋巨源食譜, is a book on diet written during the Tang period 唐 (618-907) by Wei Juyuan 韋巨源 (684-704), who was Vice Director of the Summer Office (xiaguan shilang 夏官侍郎) during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian 武則天 (regent 684-690, ruler 690-704). He later rose to the offices of Director of the Chancellery (shizhong 侍中), Director of the Palace Secretariat (zhongshu ling 中書令), and Left Vice Director of the Imperial Secretariat (zuo puye 左僕射). He was ennobled as Duke of Shu 舒國公.

His book, presented to Emperor Zhongzong 唐中宗 (r. 683-684, 705-509), was dedicated to the imperial "burnt-tail" banquets (shaowei yan 燒尾宴) held to celebrate fresh graduates or officials being promoted. Concerning the origin of this expression, there are several stories, one of which goes that a sheep that is introduced into a herd is only accepted by the other animals if its tails is burnt before. Another one says that a (ghost) tiger transforming into a man had to burn his tail because this was the only part of his body not participating in the metamorphosis.

The collection of recipes describes 58 extraordinary dishes of a wide range of types, from rice (fan 飯), congees (zhou 粥), cakes (gao 糕), biscuits (bing 餅), to dumplings (hundun 餛飩) and rolls (biluo 饆饠). The book mentions cooking and preparation methods for all types of meat, including poultry, beef, sheep, rabbit, game, bears, monkey, turtles or donkey. For many recipes, the author adds brief commentaries, sometimes concerning his sourses, but more often with regard to preparation methods, for instance, that the recipe of the "Eight Immortals Dish" (baxian ban 八仙盤) required the carving of a goose into eight parts.

The text is found in the series Tangren shuohui 唐人說薈, Shuofu 說郛 and Xunmintang congshu 遜敏堂叢書.