Abstract: Historical evolution formed the deep structure of Chinese culinary culture, which resulted in the characteristic of inner unification under the diversified surface, a trait best demonstrated by the interchangeable center-margin relation between staple and complementary foods in the course of evolution of social life. One example is the culinary culture of people living in the middle reaches of the Yellow River and those in northeast China. Although the former emphasize complementary foods while the latter staple foods, both regard these two kinds as indispensable foods. This sameness in difference is attributable to adapting food choice to suit changing eco-environment of people living in both areas on the one hand and food culture exchange and integration,on the other, brought about by population migration in the long history. It is right in such specific cultural and geographical ecology, the indigenousness and integratability of staple and complementary foods and, moreover, it is this coexistence of these two characteristics that ensures both the diversified ethnical and regional cultures and the unified culinary culture in general. On this very foundation the diversified but unified Chinese culinary culture has developed.

Key words: diversity, unification, the Chinese nation, culinary culture