Sweet potato was introduced by western missionaries in the late Ming Dynasty, and spread from Luzon Island to the south of China. Later, it gradually spread to all parts of the country. There are related records in Shu Min, The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration in Ming Dynasty, The Complete Book of Zheng Min in Qing Dynasty and Fuzhou Prefecture Records.
Sweet potato is also called sweet potato, sweet potato, sweet potato, sweet potato and sweet potato. Because of different regions, people call it sweet potato, Sichuan sweet potato, Beijing sweet potato and Fujian sweet potato.
The hometown of sweet potato is South America. Now it is found all over China except the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. As an ordinary potato food, sweet potato has so many nicknames, precisely because the planting area is too wide. Sweet potatoes can be seen in any province from Hainan to the northeast, from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to Gansu. Its planting area covers all dialect areas, and people in different dialect areas call it in different dialects, so it has many aliases.
The legend of the first person who introduced sweet potatoes;
There is a widely circulated legend about the introduction of sweet potato into China. It is said that there is a scholar named Chen Zhenlong in Changle County, Fuzhou, Fujian Province. After the failure of the imperial examination, he turned to business and traveled between Fujian and Luzon. He had settled in Luzon for a long time.
Chen Zhenlong found that sweet potatoes "grow alive" in Luzon, so he cut off a few feet of stems and leaves from sweet potato vines and cut them into small pieces, hoping to bring them back to Fujian. At that time, the Spanish colonists who ruled Luzon Island banned the export of sweet potatoes and prevented China businessmen from taking them away. Chen Zhenlong has a plan in his heart. He weaved a small piece of sweet potato vine into a cable, passed through the checkpoints set by the Spanish, and finally brought the sweet potato back to the motherland after seven days and seven nights of sailing.
After returning to China, Chen Zhenlong tried to grow sweet potatoes in the open space around his home and achieved success. So he made a report to the governor's office, explaining the good habits and planting methods of sweet potatoes and asking the government to promote them. Local officials accepted good advice, praised Chen Zhenlong's kindness and ordered the promotion of planting. Since then, sweet potatoes have taken root and sprouted in China.