Chilli in China: a garden ornament that won Sichuan and Hunan
Chillies probably reached China in the 1570s with Fujianese sailors. The first written record, from 1591, treats the plant as an ornament. Poor households used it in place of taxed salt and expensive black pepper. Hunan and Sichuan, damp provinces where chilli was thought to drive out excess moisture, adopted it most keenly.
Checked October 20, 2026 · How we source facts
Timeline
- 1570s (probable)
Historian Brian Dott thinks chilli arrived several times, mostly with Fujianese merchant crews from Southeast Asia, with a further route through Korea into the north. [1]
- 1591
Gao Lian, a Hangzhou connoisseur, writes the first Chinese record of chilli and praises it for its looks as well as its heat. [2]
- 1684 (Hunan) / 1749 (Sichuan)
Chilli first appears in local gazetteers of Hunan and Sichuan. [3]
- Late 19th century
The name lajiao ('spicy pepper') becomes the agreed national name for chilli. [2]
- 1930s
Otto Braun, a Comintern adviser, recalls in his memoir that Mao told him: "The food of the true revolutionary is the red pepper." The memoir is the only source for the quote. [3]
Customs and words
- Substitute spice: early Chinese cooks used chilli mainly in place of things that cost more, such as salt or black pepper. Salt was a taxed government monopoly. [1]
- Medicine: in traditional Chinese medicine, eating chilli was thought to expel excess moisture in damp climates such as Sichuan and Hunan, partly by making people sweat. [1]
- 'La mei' (spicy girls): a term for feisty, independent women, especially linked to Hunan. It was once a criticism and is now mostly a compliment. [1]
Questions
When did chilli reach China?
Probably in the 1570s. The first written record is Gao Lian’s, in 1591.
Why do Sichuan and Hunan eat so much chilli?
One reason given is traditional Chinese medicine: chilli was thought to drive excess moisture out of the body in damp climates. It was also a cheap substitute for taxed salt and costly black pepper.
More chilli history
- Chilli in Mexico: where it began, and what the Aztecs did with it
- Chilli in Peru: 7,500 years of uchu
- How chilli reached Europe: Columbus, Spain and Portugal
- Chilli in India: from Portuguese ships to 40% of the world’s dried chillies
- Chilli in Korea: why kimchi wasn’t always red
- Chilli in Thailand: the heat came from pepper first
- Paprika in Hungary: from Turkish pepper to a Nobel Prize
- Chilli in Africa: berbere, melegueta and the Mombasa chilli
- Chilli in the USA: Tabasco, the Scoville test and New Mexico
- Chilli history myths, checked
Sources
- Eat This Podcast interview transcript with Brian R. Dott, author of The Chile Pepper in China (Columbia University Press, 2020): 1591 earliest record, arrival likely 1570s; Fujianese crews; substitute for salt/black pepper; TCM damp-climate rationale; 'la mei' (secondary source)
- The Spectator (Fuchsia Dunlop review of Dott, 20 June 2020): Gao Lian of Hangzhou 1591, aesthetic appeal; salt was a taxed monopoly; lajiao name only in late 19th c (secondary source)
- Nautilus (Andrew Leonard, 'Why Revolutionaries Love Spicy Food'): Hunan 1684 and Sichuan 1749 first gazetteer mentions; Otto Braun memoir quoting Mao on red pepper (secondary source)