Seafood gained prominence as a southern flavor in middle-period China. Among the southern products that piqued gourmets’ fancy, the pufferfish as a deadly delicacy presented a special case. How did it come to acquire its contentious reputation? This article traces the process that transformed it from a dangerous ancient killer to an alluring treat by the early twelfth century. Its shifting cultural stature was propelled by demographic and geographical reconfigurations, negotiations between northern and southern culinary traditions, and the literati effort to collect and classify natural knowledge. Along the way, diverse encounters and experiences with different pufferfishes were coalesced into one uniform category hetun (“river-piglet”), connoting at once danger and delicacy. The metamorphosis of the pufferfish demonstrated the interplay between literary, medical, geographical, and natural knowledge across genres in middle-period Chinese history.
