On Hannaone.com



Dongchimi is a water-based kimchi that is a favorite among Koreans during winter. The origin of dongchimi is not very different from that of other kimchi, the salted and fermented vegetables that have been a part of the Korean diet since ancient times. References to kimchi, or jeo (zu in Chinese) as it was once known, are found in the "Xiaoya" section of the Shijing, a collection of Chinese poems that was written some 3,000 years ago. The term jeo is not found in Korean literature predating the Three Kingdoms (1st century B.C.-A.D. 7th century) or United Silla (668-935) eras. However , in the Samguksagi (History of the Three Kingdoms) (1145), there are references to pickled vegetables being part of the diet of the people of Goguryeo (37 B.C.-A.D. 668). In addition, one of the items that King Sinmun (r. 681-692) of the Silla Kingdom sent as a wedding gift to his in-laws was hae. Since hae was used to mean pickled or fermented, as in eohae (pickled fish), or jeohae (fermented vegetables), this reference to a gift of hae suggests that it was used as a general term for salted food items, or kimchi. Therefore, it can be inferred that fermented fish and vegetables have long been a basic Korean food, along with rice, wine, and soybean paste.