The earliest one served on the table is a Gramineae plant called "Millet", which has linear leaves and light yellow seeds and is called yellow rice after peeling. Mature millet is similar to common dogtail grass. This humble thing saved the stomach of our ancestors. Millet is a food with distinctive personality. After domestication, it has the characteristics of strong disease resistance, drought resistance and poverty tolerance, and short growth period. But it also has serious shortcomings, even if the weather is favorable, it is difficult to increase production, and the particles are small and difficult to process and digest. Nevertheless, our ancestors finally took the first step from scratch.
There is such a poem in The Book of Songs Feng Wang Su Bie Li: "He Su Bie Li, he Su Yang." Xiaomi's good gay friend Ji appeared. Xiaomi, some people say it's non-stick millet, others say it's sorghum. This ancient grain appeared a little later than millet, but the advantage of millet is its high yield. As a result, the population of our ancestors expanded rapidly, and Chinese civilization stood out in the competition with other ethnic groups in East Asia. Xiaomi is not only a kind of food, but also a social activity. Zhou people regarded Ji as the head of the five grains and called her ancestors Houji. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, Ji was deified and became the "Valley God", which together with the "Land God" constituted an important part of the national synonym "Guo". Thus, Ji evolved from a grain into a "spiritual totem".
At present, more than half of the people in the world eat rice every day, and more than 30% of the farmland in China is planted with rice, which is the only gramineous plant that still maintains the livelihood of China. As early as 10,000 BC, the ancestors in southern China began to collect the seeds of this plant and began to try artificial planting. Different from the competition between northern millet and millet, southern rice has obvious advantages and has been dominant since ancient times. Interestingly, influenced by nomadic people, the north mainly eats powdered food, such as flour, steamed bread, cakes and other reprocessed foods, while the south still maintains the same granular food civilization as the original ancestors. Rice is a great gift from the ancestors of the South to the world.
If you have staple food, you can't live without vegetables. Next, let's talk about common vegetables around us. There were not many kinds of vegetables in the Spring and Autumn Period, Warring States Period, Qin and Han Dynasties. The five kinds of vegetables were mainly sunflower, epimedium, onion and leek, among which onion and leek were still eaten. Kwai is the first of five courses. As early as the Zhou Dynasty, sunflowers were indispensable for three meals a day. I believe that there is no shortage of sunflower on Confucius' dinner table. By the Han Dynasty, the influence of sunflowers was growing. The poem begins with "Sunflowers in the Green Garden".
The Book of Qi Yaomin in the Northern Wei Dynasty specifically introduced the planting technology of sunflower, which shows its great influence. In the Tang Dynasty, sunflower was challenged by other vegetable varieties, and its planting gradually decreased. When Li Shizhen compiled Compendium of Materia Medica in Ming Dynasty, he included it in the grass department on the grounds that "there are too many people eating today", and sunflower was removed from the vegetable team. Today, okra has successfully attacked and re-entered the public table.
Hops are tender leaves of soybean seedlings. There is a poem in The Book of Songs Xiaoya Bai Juyi: "Bright white, eat our seedlings. Bright and white, feeding on our fields. " It means that there are distinguished guests at home. If you want to keep them, feed the horse fresh epimedium leaves, which will make the horse happy. Stay the horse before entertaining guests, which expresses China's ancient and tactful hospitality. The ancients didn't grow easily and seldom ate tender seedlings, so the leaves of Epimedium were very precious at that time. In the Qing dynasty, the leaves of Epimedium were still high-grade vegetables on the table, and the price was more than 30 yuan per pair. Ordinary people can only taste fresh food occasionally at parties. Put some epimedium leaves in the chicken soup. It's really delicious.
Xiè, this is a very obscure word, but there is a very grounded name in my hometown: "wild garlic". When I was a child, my grandmother always looked for wild garlic from the wild and mixed it with flour to make cakes. It is said that wild garlic can strengthen the spleen, stimulate appetite and help digestion. Since it is called wild garlic, a strong pungent smell is essential. The ancients used various methods to cook wild garlic, such as pickling, soaking, mixing, frying, boiling, stewing and frying. In order to eat good things, the ancients really opened their brains.
It's time for coarse grains to play Sweet potato, native to America, began to enter China in Wanli period of Ming Dynasty, and it is an authentic foreign product. Sweet in taste and rich in nutrition, it is a food suitable for all ages. "Compendium of Materia Medica" records that "sweet potato can tonify deficiency, strengthen spleen and appetite, and strengthen kidney yin", which can be described as a delicious combination of medicine and food.
Sweet potato can enter China thanks to one person. His name is Chen Zhenlong, and he is from Fuzhou, Fujian. In the early years, Spanish colonists introduced sweet potatoes from America and planted them widely in the Philippines. Chen Zhenlong, who is doing business locally, saw that sweet potatoes are rich and delicious, so he wanted to plant them in his hometown. However, the export of sweet potatoes to China is prohibited. Chen Zhenlong is a very clever man. He took a sweet potato vine and put it in the laundry list, and brought it back to China smoothly. With the appearance of exotic food crops such as sweet potato, corn and potato, the grain structure of China was changed, and the population of China increased from 1 100 million in the late Ming Dynasty to 450 million in the late Qing Dynasty. These exotic crops made great contributions to this.
Unlike coarse grains, most fruits are native to China. The earliest fruits eaten by China people are peaches, plums, plums, apricots and dates, which are listed as "five fruits" for offering sacrifices to immortals in the Book of Rites. According to ancient records, the cultivation history of apricot is at least 3500 years, while the cultivation history of jujube is even longer, starting from 7000 years ago. With the appearance of the Silk Road, exotic fruits such as grapes, watermelons, pomegranates and almonds have quietly influenced our lives. Apple is one of the latest fruits to enter China. Apple originated in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and was introduced to China in Daoguang period of Qing Dynasty. Since then, it has become one of the most common fruits.
After talking so much delicious food, the snack show finally came. In the note novels of the Northern Song Dynasty, a kind of snack that has been lost was recorded, which is sad to read now. In autumn, the smell of fried chestnuts wafts on the streets of Tokyo. Li Hejia's fried chestnuts and gorgons were the most famous "time-honored brands" at that time. His fried chestnuts have a unique skill, that is, adding a little musk to the fried chestnuts, which is extremely sweet and full of vitality. In the morning, there was a long queue at the door. Dignitaries or royalty sent people to buy and deliver exquisite boxes, and Li He was always full. Ordinary people, as long as they pay ten pence, can buy a bag, wrap it in fresh lotus leaves and carry it home with red rope to savor it.
After the change of Jingkang, Li He's shop never opened again. His son went to Yanshan Mountain, and Chen Fu, the messenger of the Southern Song Dynasty, crossed Yanshan Mountain by road. Li He's son specially gave him 20 packets of fried chestnuts, and then left in tears. These chestnuts are full of deep affection and yearning for their hometown, and deep homesickness lingers in their hearts. Chestnuts are sweet, but memories are bitter.
Among the 667 main cultivated plants in the world, 167 are native to China, accounting for 20.4%, ranking second in the world, which is a great contribution made by the Chinese nation to human survival and civilization. Our dependence on food is not only for survival, but also for deep feelings. From a grain of rice to a table full of banquets, we integrate cultural connotation and survival philosophy into our daily diet. Sacrificing ancestors and educating future generations inherit the national spirit and pride, which will never die from generation to generation.