Why does Princess Yang Cangui eat fresh litchi?
Yang Guifei was born beautiful, charming, proficient in melody and good at singing and dancing. Tang Xuanzong doted on her. In order to win the favor of Yang Guifei, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, who was more than 10,000 people, always appointed someone to transport fresh lychees from other places through the post station every five or ten miles for his beloved princess to enjoy. Du Mu's "Crossing the Qing Palace" has such a description: "Chang 'an looks back and embroiders in piles, and the top of the mountain opens a thousand times. Riding the world of mortals and laughing, no one knew it was litchi. "
Every time I read Du Mu's quatrains, I always have doubts: Bai Juyi said that litchi "changed color one day, became fragrant on the second day, changed flavor on the third day, and lost its fragrance on the fourth and fifth days", which shows that litchi is easy to deteriorate. There were no planes and high-speed trains in the Tang Dynasty. Even with luck, how did this perishable litchi arrive in Chang 'an, Kyoto from other places through the relay of horses? How does Yang Guifei eat fresh litchi?
According to historical records, all the dignitaries in the ancient north ate fresh fruit. At that time, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty specially opened up the "Litchi Road" to transport litchi from south to north.
Traditionally, there is an explanation that "riding a princess laughs in the world of mortals", saying that in order to let Yang Guifei eat fresh lychees with good color and flavor, the court had to send someone to replace the newly picked lychees with fast horses and send them to Beijing the same day. Therefore, when Yang Guifei saw the dust raised by the fast horse, she knew that someone had brought her her favorite litchi, so she was beaming.
But from the common sense, Lingnan is thousands of miles away from Chang 'an, and no matter how fast a horse can arrive in one day. Later generations believed that the fresh lychee that Yang Guifei ate was sent to Chang 'an by transplanting a big tree with fruit. The history book says: "The roots of litchi are planted in vessels, and they are transported from Nanchu to Danhe River in Xiangyang, bei chu to Shangzhou and Qinling Mountains, where ships can't reach. However, if the fruit is just ripe, it will be picked over the ridge and cleared by air to China, which can be reached in one day. "
People who hold different views think that litchi is the earliest fruit stored in low temperature and controlled atmosphere. "Guangdong New Language" records a method: "If the tree is harvested well, leave the pedicel one inch and seal it with wax, but cut off the pedicel, seal the mouth with wax, and soak it in honey for several months, and the taste and color will remain unchanged."
Xu Bo, who lived in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, introduced another method in his Litchi Book: "Villagers often choose bright red, choose giant bamboo to cut a hole in the forest, put it on the Litchi Festival, and still seal the gap with bamboo rafts wrapped in mud. With the vitality and moisture of bamboo, it can be hidden until winter and spring, and its color and fragrance remain unchanged. "
Since ancient times, it has been the origin of litchi, a tribute of the imperial court, and is known as Lingnan and Fuzhou. Some historians speculate that it is more reasonable for the imperial concubine to take litchi as her flying whistle in Fuzhou, a neighboring city of Chang 'an.
It is said that Yang Guifei was born in Shu when she was a child. The Supplement to National History said that she was "born in Shu and loved litchi". The distance from Fuzhou to Tang Jing in the north is about 2,000 Li, which is only half the distance from Lingnan to Chang 'an. According to local chronicles, "Yang Fei was addicted to litchi, and it was only three days since Dazhou, Xixiang and Woods Valley were sent to Fuling and Chang 'an, and its color and fragrance remained unchanged. "This is the most possible and reasonable route to transport litchi. At this point, the fresh litchi presented to Yang Fei should be produced in Sichuan.
However, Zhang Dai's Sailing at Night in the Qing Dynasty subverted the imperial concubine's statement that litchi originated in Sichuan: "In Tang Tianbao, the imperial concubine loved fresh litchi. Fuzhou was ordered to send it by mail at the age of seven, and went to Chang 'an for seven nights, killing both men and women. "In this way, sent to changan is rotten litchi. From this point of view, this Yuhuan beauty may have eaten fresh lychee in Sichuan when she was a child, and it is impossible for her to eat fresh lychee after becoming a imperial concubine. & gt& gt？