Interesting allusions to the smell of chicken tongue

There was a letter in Wei Wudi's anthology "Three Caos": a letter with Zhuge Liang. Its text says that today, five pounds of chicken tongue is fragrant to show its slight meaning. When I read this passage, I was curious. In history, Cao Cao actually wrote such a letter to Zhuge Liang. So what does chicken tongue taste like? When did Cao Cao send such a thing? Why do you want to send this thing? Unfortunately, the relevant materials of the Three Kingdoms and the Later Han Dynasty are not recorded. After a long time, I didn't care much, but I never understood its meaning. Recently, I went to the Three Kingdoms Forum and occasionally talked about it. Some people have come to the conclusion that Zhuge Liang's bad breath surprised the cudgel. So I was curious and went through the old case again. I really found something. I sorted it out a little over the weekend and shared it with you. First, let's see what this chicken tongue tastes like. According to "Compendium of Materia Medica", clove, formerly known as: clove chicken tongue. Smell: irritating, mild, non-toxic. However, it should be noted that the scientific name of Clove in China is Clove of North China (also known as Bai Jie and Qingke, also known as Clove), which belongs to the genus Clove of Oleaceae and is a shrub and small tree. The "clove" recorded in herbal medicine is produced in tropical areas (the herbal medicine says "clove leaves in Guangdong and South China"), but it is not the same kind. Clove is a Chinese translation of gomode in Arabic or Persian, which is mainly produced in Zhu Lin,, etc. For example, in the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhao's "Zhufanzhi" was downloaded: "Lilac is a country that eats a lot of women, and it is shaped like a T-shape, hence its name. You can breathe and play with things. The oldest one is called Lilac Mother. Lilac mother is also a chicken tongue. It's still a chicken tongue, and a thousand-year-old jujube is also real. Because it is T-shaped, it is called clove. Cloves are divided into male cloves, female cloves and female cloves, which are called "chicken tongue fragrance". Its fragrance is unparalleled, and the ancients used it to treat bad breath. Of course, clove is not used directly. The so-called "chicken tongue fragrance" is actually a processed spice. So it seems that this mysterious chicken tongue fragrance is not mysterious. It has been commonly used by doctors since ancient times, but can it really be inferred that Zhuge Liang has bad breath? It's too early to say. According to Hanshu, when talking to the emperor, the merchants in the Han Dynasty hoped that their mouths would taste like chicken tongues, so that they could make their mouths fragrant and elegant. In other words, the smell of chicken tongue was the daily necessities of courtiers at that time, even a kind of etiquette. How did this etiquette come from? According to historical records, during the reign of Emperor Heng of Han Dynasty, waiters were old and sick, with bad breath. Waiters were court officials who were very close to the emperor. Every discussion was so smoky that Emperor Heng couldn't bear it, so Emperor Heng once gave the old waiter a piece of chicken tongue incense and told him to put it in his mouth. According to Compendium of Materia Medica, this clove tastes pungent, but it is a little irritating. Diaocun thought that Emperor Heng had poisoned him, and he was scared to death. He wondered if he had made a big mistake (he probably saw the expression that the emperor's old son always couldn't bear to speak to the emperor), so he made a wild guess there and dared not eat cloves. When I came home from work, I suddenly wanted to say goodbye to my relatives and friends, which caused the family to cry bitterly, thinking that a catastrophe was imminent and I didn't know what had happened. Colleagues and friends asked him to spit out the "poison" in his mouth, and it looked like a chicken tongue. The matter was widely circulated and became a laughing stock. (2) It can be seen that when Emperor Heng was alive, the smell of chicken tongue was very common, and some colleagues in Diaocun could recognize it, but the attendants who served as important ministers beside the emperor could not recognize it. This shows that it was not a etiquette system to hold court proceedings with chicken tongue in their mouths at that time. After arriving at Emperor Heng, it is estimated that this time it is a difficult thing, which makes courtiers (mainly officials who want to face the emperor's performance, such as businessmen). Paying attention to the role of chicken tongue fragrance has become a trend, and finally a formal etiquette system has been formed. According to the article Han written by Cai Yong (the uncle of Cai Yong, a great litterateur of the Three Kingdoms), it is stipulated in the court etiquette of the Shang Dynasty that the Shang Dynasty should "play things with the fragrance of chicken tongue" so that the fragrance of chicken tongue can be truly written into the court etiquette system. Since then, the smell of chicken tongue has become synonymous with being an official in the DPRK. Later generations have poems as evidence. For example, in the Tang Dynasty, Liu Yuxi wrote in "Early Spring Snow Dress Zhou Liyuan Langzhong" that "Xin En * * * is in charge of dog teeth, and yesterday it contained chicken tongue fragrance". The background of writing this poem is that Liu Yuxi was demoted to Langzhou Sima. The main idea of the poem is that now the emperor has sent us to govern this place with fangs (wild place), and yesterday we had a chicken tongue together (on the field). In Tang Dynasty, Bai Juyi wrote a poem: the quill pens are matched with pens, all of which contain the fragrance of chicken tongue (Wei Cun returned a poem from Cui Hanlin and Qian Sheren as a gift to Si Shi). The main idea is to work with Tang Chao in Hanlin. (Note: Why quill pens? This is also a history. The history of using hard pen in China is not short, and it is self-contained. Among the documents found in Dunhuang, 20,000 pages were written in hard pen. You seldom hear about it. Therefore, Bai Juyi can not only use a writing brush, but maybe pen calligraphy is also a thief. Hehe) He Ning Shiyun, a poet in the Tang Dynasty: The change of the Ming court is muddy, and the smell of chicken tongue is fragrant. Furthermore, in the Ming Dynasty, Tang Xianzu had a poem: I finished my official duties in the three provinces, but I swallowed aloes with you. Tang Xianzu's suggestion was rough, but the result was added to the history of Xu Li's Canon. In my hometown of Jiangxi, when Xuwen County ordered Xiong Min to bid farewell to Tang Xianzu, he specially sent a chicken tongue to wish him an early reinstatement, but Tang Xianzu indicated that he had no intention of pursuing fame and fortune again, so he didn't accept it. It can be seen that the smell of chicken tongue is a symbol of being an official in the DPRK and discussing politics in front of you. Then it is not difficult to understand why Cao Cao sent chicken tongue incense to Zhuge Liang. This is a hint, that is to say, I, Cao Cao, hope to be the son of the Han family with you, Zhuge Liang, with a chicken tongue in my mouth and an official at the same time. I have to admit that Cao Cao is a smart man. He really wants to get the talents around Liu Bei, but he didn't say it directly, so he sent five pounds of chicken tongue incense as a way to show his kindness to Zhuge Liang, indicating his intention to recruit talents. As for when Cao Cao gave the chicken tongue fragrance to Zhuge Liang, it is unknown, which may be another unsolved mystery.