"Interpretation of the Name" said: "Therefore, if it is blocked between cold and warm, it will not rot."
After winter, everything withers, and vegetables are no exception. Facing the shortage of vegetables in winter, the ancients first thought of how to prolong the shelf life of vegetables and prevent them from rotting prematurely, so they had "pickles". Pickled vegetables in the pre-Qin period were called "mash" and pronounced Z. What is sugar? Liu Xi's Interpretation of Famous Foods in the Eastern Han Dynasty said: "If it is blocked, it will brew, so it will be blocked between cold and warm, and it will not rot." Now the so-called "Laotan sauerkraut" and "Korean kimchi" are all processed in this way.
Kimchi is one of the most important vegetables eaten by ancient people in winter. During the pre-Qin and Zhou Dynasties, the royal family set up a person who was specially responsible for pickling food, that is, "Qiang people". According to the article Qin Ren written by Zhou Li Tiangong, there are 1 eunuch (election), 20 female workers (Qin women) and 40 female slaves (Xi women) in kimchi, which consumes a lot and is mostly used for sacrifice except for eating. Zhou Li thinks that all kinds of vegetables can be fermented, among which seven kinds of vegetables, such as leek, Chinese cabbage, leek, sunflower, celery, water chestnut and bamboo shoots, are the main ones, which are called "Seven Fermented Grains".
Pickled vegetables are pickled whole vegetables, and another method is to chop vegetables and pickle them, which is called "pickles". Pronounced as jρ, the old saying "horseshoe crab" makes the processed vegetables taste better. Therefore, the Interpretation of Name and Diet has such an explanation: "It is also beneficial to win, and it is also suitable for all tastes."
In the Qin and Han dynasties, the ancient people ate a variety of pickled vegetables in winter, and the pickling methods were more mature. The "Four-person Month Order in September" records: "In September, ginger lotus is hidden for sunflower seeds and dried sunflower seeds." It means that in the ninth month of the lunar calendar, fresh ginger, Pinellia ternata (a herb that can be used as Chinese medicine), pickled sunflowers and dried sunflowers will be collected. There is also a vegetable variety that the ancients ate in winter-dried vegetables. Dried vegetables and pickles are made in the opposite way. Vegetables must be dried. Now the common "dried prunes" do this.
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, "cellar vegetables" appeared.
Regardless of pickled vegetables or dried vegetables, the loss of nutrients in vegetables is relatively large, and the ancients explored "cellar vegetables". Nowadays, Chinese cabbage, the main vegetable in northern winter, is generally stored in cellar to extend its shelf life.
The written records of ancient people eating cellar vegetables in winter were first found in Qi Yaomin's Book by Jia Sixie, an agronomist of the Northern Wei Dynasty in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. In the book, the cellar used to store vegetables and fruits is called "shadow pit".
In addition to cellar storage to extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables, winter storage methods include sand storage, cold storage, mixed fruit, wax sealing and sealing. For example, the "mixed fruit method" is to store different kinds of fruits and vegetables together to avoid spoilage.
Then, when did Chinese cabbage stored in winter become the main vegetable eaten by the ancients in winter? Chinese cabbage is a native vegetable in China, which was called "fermented grains" in the early days. Liang and Tao Hongjing in the Southern Dynasties once said in "A Bie Lu of Famous Doctors" that "food with fermented grains is the most commonly eaten". However, Chinese cabbage became the main vegetable eaten in winter after the Song Dynasty, and before that, the most important vegetable eaten by the ancients was sunflower, which was known as the "master of ten thousand kinds of vegetables".
It was also the Song people who first called fermented grains "Chinese cabbage". Chinese cabbage is a general term, also known as "white fermented grains" and "white-headed vegetables". In the Song Dynasty, there were many varieties such as Chinese cabbage (big white head), Chinese cabbage (small white head) and black and white vegetables.
Anti-season vegetables appeared in Qin and Han Dynasties.
"Hanshu": "Taiguan Garden grows winter onions and leeks, and builds furniture."
Although the original flavor of vegetables is basically maintained, there are some differences in freshness. As a result, "anti-seasonal vegetables" appeared.
Anti-seasonal fruits and vegetables appeared in the Qin and Han dynasties, and the "Pit Confucianism Incident" planned by Qin Shihuang involved this matter. According to Zhang Shoujie's Records of Justice in the Tang Dynasty, Wei Hong, a scholar in the Eastern Han Dynasty, quoted the Preface to Ancient Books in Zhao Ding: "(Qin Shihuang) planted melons in Lishan at moderate temperature, and the melons became solid. Dr. Zhao said it. Different people say different things, so it depends. " As a result, unknown so, a Confucian scholar, was killed after seeing the rarity of wax gourd.
The New Biography of Han Shu, Zhao Chen clearly records the fact that the ancients ate vegetables out of season. Zhao was a famous law-abiding official at that time. At that time, the royal vegetable special supply base "Taiguan Garden" planted anti-season vegetables, which cost a lot of money every year. Zhao suggested not to do this: "Taiguan Garden is planted with winter onions and leeks, and houses are built, burning fires day and night, waiting for warmth. I believe that this is a heartbreaking thing from time to time. It is inappropriate to stipulate it. It is illegal food, so I will keep it for thousands of years. " "Fire accumulation" is a flameless combustion method, which aims to increase indoor temperature and is beneficial to vegetable growth. Zhao Chenxin called out-of-season vegetables "illegal food" and could not be eaten. Obviously, this is a big bluff, and its real purpose is to persuade the royal family not to be too extravagant. However, the production and supply of royal out-of-season vegetables did not stop in the Han Dynasty.
According to the Biography of Empress Deng in the later Han Dynasty, in the first month of the seventh year of Yongzheng (A.D. 1 13), Empress Deng offered sacrifices to the ancestral temple in the off-season: "If you offer a new flavor, it is not a festival, or it is better to nourish and strengthen, or it is better to wear sprouting teeth (buds)." From the imperial edict of Queen Deng, we can know that the greenhouse for producing out-of-season fruits and vegetables is to raise the temperature with fire, dig some pits, and use the ground temperature to accelerate germination and seedling raising. These methods were widely used after the Tang and Song Dynasties, especially in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
In early ancient times, natural heat sources were used to produce anti-season fruits and vegetables. The Tang Dynasty was the "inner garden" for the court to grow out-of-season fruits and vegetables, so by introducing hot springs and hot water, the temperature suitable for vegetable growth was created. Wang Jian, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in his poem "Early Spring before the Palace": "Warm soup in the inner garden, melon in the middle of February", which is what he said.
After the Tang and Song Dynasties, "yellow" dishes became popular.
Agricultural Book: "When there is no wind, its leaves are yellow and tender, which is called leek yellow."
After the Tang and Song Dynasties, out-of-season vegetables have been widely accepted. "Out-of-season things are precious", and out-of-season vegetables are regarded as delicious food! However, due to its high cost, Xie regretted that "the poor can't do it". So, the poor have to eat pickles and dried vegetables? Of course not. The ancients found a way to "yellow" vegetables. This "yellowing" method appeared in the Qin and Han Dynasties, that is, vegetables could not form photosynthesis during their growth, no longer produced chlorophyll, and vegetables turned yellow. Yellowing produces more tender vegetables with less fiber, which not only supplements the shortage of winter vegetables, but also meets the taste demand.
The earliest variety of yellowed vegetables is bean sprouts, which are called "yellow rolls", that is, "soybean sprouts" that people often eat now. In the Song Dynasty, bean sprouts began to become a home-cooked dish in China. According to Song Mengyuan's Dream of Tokyo, the streets of Tokyo in winter are rich in anti-season vegetables and fruits: "There are all kinds of flowers, leeks, lettuce, blue buds, Bohe, walnuts and Zezhou in the market."
In the Song Dynasty, not only soybean sprouts, but also other beans could turn yellow. Lin Hong, a poet in the Song Dynasty, recorded the folk method of making black bean sprouts: "Soak black beans in water to expose tender buds, put them in pots with chaff skin, spread sand to plant beans, flatten them with wooden boards, cover them with barrels for a long time, and then dry them at dawn, so as to be neat and free from wind invasion."
The yellowing phenomenon of leek, onion, garlic, celery and other vegetables was very common in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Yuan's "Agricultural Books, Baigu Collection No.5, Caishu" recorded the situation of people planting leeks at that time: "In winter, the roots are hidden in the shade of underground houses, and the horse manure is warm and long, and the height can be feet high, but there is no wind. Its leaves are yellow and tender, which is called leek yellow. " Leek is more expensive, "several times more profitable than regular leek", and northerners regard leek as a rare vegetable in winter.
Greenhouse vegetables "cave goods" appeared in Qing Dynasty.
"Five Miscellanies": "Soybean sprouts and leeks in the middle of winter in Shi Jing."
Due to the limited natural heat source, anti-season vegetables and anti-season flowers (Tang flowers) were produced by artificial means after the Tang and Song Dynasties. For example, during the Southern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou flower shop built a greenhouse to let the flowers inside open in advance. Zhou Mi's "Wild Words in" records: "Those who put flowers early are called' Tang' flowers. Its method is to decorate the secret room with paper, chisel the ground into a ridge ... then boil the soup in the ridge, wait a little, the soup will be smoked, and then use a micro fan to fill it with spring and beautiful breath. Waiting for it, the flowers will be released. "
In the Ming Dynasty, kang or kang was basically used to produce out-of-season vegetables. The so-called "fire room" is what everyone calls a greenhouse in modern times. Just like the kang used to sleep in the north, the kang was built in the room to burn the fire and increase the temperature of the vegetable shed. "Five Miscellaneous Matters III" written by Ming Metabolism records that "there are yellow-bud leeks in Beijing in the middle of winter, which are made by building pits and enriching rooms and warming kang". At that time, wealthy families in Beijing would build cellar kang. In the middle of winter, not only soybean sprouts and leeks are in an endless stream, "other flowers and fruits are everywhere", but also peony flowers and cucumbers.
In the Qing Dynasty, the greenhouse used to grow out-of-season fruits and vegetables developed from the pit to the ground, commonly known as the "flower hole". At one end of the kang, there is a stove, and at the other end, there is a dung jar. The flowers produced are called "Tang Hua" and the vegetables are called "Dongzi Goods", mainly including cucumbers, lentils and eggplant.
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