Since the Western Han Dynasty, China has opened a sea passage with the African continent, starting from the African continent, passing through Sri Lanka and Nanyang Islands, and finally landing off the coast of Fujian. During the Western Han Dynasty, watermelons traveled across the ocean along this route to China. At that time, only members of the royal family and nobles were entitled to enjoy watermelons. However, watermelon was not called watermelon at that time.
Tao Hongjing, a medical scientist in the Southern Dynasties, once described a peculiar melon in Notes on Materia Medica. "Yongjia has a big cold melon that can be hidden until spring." . Li Shizhen, a medical scientist in the Ming Dynasty, thought that this cold melon mentioned by Tao Hongjing was watermelon. In other words, when watermelon first came to China, its name was Hangua.
The name watermelon appeared in the Southern Song Dynasty. As for why it is called watermelon, some people think that watermelon entered the Central Plains from the Western Regions through the Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty, hence the name.
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In China, the word "watermelon" was first seen in the book "Sleeping on the Land" written by Hu Jiao in the Five Dynasties. Hu Jiao was originally the secretary of Han Xiao, our military envoy of Xuanwu, and joined the Khitan with Han Xiao. Later, when Han Xiao was killed, Hu Jiao could not return to China and became a prisoner. He stayed in Qidan for seven years before returning to the Central Plains. After he came back, he wrote this poem based on his experience in Qidan.
The time when the Khitan broke Uighur mentioned in the book can also be matched: in 924, Liao Taizu sent a mission to Gaochang Uighur in the western regions, which was called "the Khitan broke Uighur" in history.
Hu Jiao returned to the Central Plains in 953, when watermelon had been introduced to Qidan for more than 30 years.
However, just because Hu Jiao once tasted watermelon in Qidan does not mean that watermelon was introduced to China in the Five Dynasties. From the Five Dynasties to the Northern Song Dynasty, there was no record of watermelon in various historical books, and the economy of the Song Dynasty was developed. If watermelon was introduced and planted at this time, it should be found in the book records.
Watermelon was really introduced into the Central Plains and planted on a large scale in the Southern Song Dynasty, nearly 200 years after Qiao Hu, the first melon eater.
People's Network-Watermelon was called "cold melon" by the ancients, and was introduced to China from Africa in the Western Han Dynasty.