2. "Er Ya Yi" contains: "Ferns are born like children's fists, purple and fat." Bai Juyi, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, said, "Pteridium aquilinum has been used as a child's fist", and Huang Tingjian, a poet in the Song Dynasty, also said, "The bud is just beginning to grow into a child's fist." This refers to bracken. In fern producing areas, people generally call ferns "fist dishes", "fist sprouts" or "bergamot dishes", hence the name "bergamot shark's fin", which is actually "fern shark's fin".
3. Pteridium aquilinum is a delicious food with a long history. Zhao Nan in the Book of Songs: "Look at Nanshan and pick its ferns." In the Tang Dynasty, Chen Zangqi recorded in Herbal Supplement that at the end of the Shang Dynasty, Bo Yihe, the son of the solitary bamboo king, vowed not to eat after the demise of the Shang Dynasty, picked ferns and Wei to satisfy his hunger, and finally starved to death in Shouyang. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Mr. You Li, Mr. Dong Yuangong and Mr. Qi Liji, known as the "Four big noble", were determined to be noble and lived a long life. Because they fled the Qin Dynasty, they took their wives and children to live in seclusion in Shangshan, Shaanxi Province today, collecting ferns to eat. When Liu Bang, the Emperor Gaozu, heard about it, he admired it very much and asked them to go down the mountain to be an official, but they refused and continued to live a poor and secluded life. Therefore, Shangshan area has been called "Shangzhi" until now. "Business" or "endowment". "Herbal Supplement" also said: "Four hermits eat it and live a long life", which means that these four hermits eat ferns and live a long life. "Song of Merchants" written by "Four Nobles" said: "The deep valley song of Momo Mountain. Purple clover can satisfy hunger. Where will I go when Tang Yu goes away? It is a great advantage to build a high-grade horse. Fear of wealth is not as good as ambition of poverty. " Therefore, bracken has the dietotherapy effect of prolonging life.
4. The method of Bo Yi Brothers and Hermit No.4 eating ferns remains to be verified. According to Qi Yao Min Shu, people in Tianshui, Gansu Province ate bracken in the late Wei Dynasty by picking it in February, making it into dried vegetables and eating it in autumn and winter. Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica records that the method of eating bracken in Ming Dynasty is to take tender stems, boil mucus with gray soup, and dry them as vegetables. In the Qing Dynasty, boiled water was used to soften, roots, leaves and thick stems were removed, tender parts were selected and cooked in chicken soup. Nowadays, bracken can be boiled, burned, simmered, stewed and fried. There are many cooking methods and countless dishes.
It is said that Liu Bang's son Liu Gao went out hunting one day. A sudden gust of wind swept him and his entourage into the clouds. When he opened his eyes, he found himself hanging from a pine tree. It was quiet all around, and there was no sound at all. He wants to find his way back to the palace, but where can he find it? So he walked in the Woods for a few days, and when he was hungry, he had to eat bracken to satisfy his hunger. He had been dead for several days when his entourage found him. The doctor found out the cause of death from him, but it was too late. From then on, people in the Han Dynasty stopped eating bracken. If it is not the fault of bracken, then the history of Han Dynasty will be rewritten.