Bai Laiqin
The sunshine in early spring shines warmly on the earth. Fifty years ago, the elms in my hometown would spit out new green again, and a string of fresh elms would be covered with branches. Yucai is the fruit of elm, green and flat, a bit like a miniature version of copper coins. Children like them best. Courageous children have climbed the tree like monkeys and saved money one by one. While stuffing money into their mouths, they broke off lush branches and threw them to friends waiting under the tree. The branches shook with the children's bodies, and the elm money fell like rain, flying in the wind, emitting a little sweetness.
When the elm is still young, you can pick it and eat it directly. Raw food is sweet and smells like leaves. More often, people still mix elm with fine flour, add some honey or saccharin, and steam it into a pot of delicious elm Baba. To steam the glutinous rice cake, you must first mix the washed and wet glutinous rice cake with flour, add water and stir it evenly, put it on the cage cloth, put it on the donkey, and then put it in a pot and steam it with slow fire. After steaming, cut it into blocks with a knife, then pinch a corner of the cage cloth and pour it into a small basin. Drop a few drops of sesame oil, then pour two spoonfuls of garlic juice and sprinkle some chopped green onion or coriander. Suddenly, the hot and delicious "Yu Qian Ba Ba" is ready. White and green, sweet and delicious, at this time, all the flavors of the country are presented in front of you. However, after a while, Lao Yuqian died, turned yellow, and it fell quietly.
According to classic records, in the eyes of poets, Yu Qian is not only a seasonal fresh food that women use to tease their children to relieve greed. In The Book of Songs tang style, there is a record that "the mountain has a pivot and Ji has a elm". As for Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica II", he said: "Before the elm leaves, Mr. Elm pods between the branches are small in shape and white in color. The custom calls for money, and it is nearly a thousand years after poetry. The lines in Yu Xin's "Jade Subset of Northern Dynasties" contain the poem "Peach blossoms are as good as horses, and elm pods are as clever as money". Yu Qian sang in poems all the way to Tang Dasheng. Bai Juyi has a poem that says "the elm pod throws money at the willow eye", and Li He also has a poem that says "the elm pod urges me to count, and Shen Lang Qian Qing Jiacheng Road". Cen Can said in "Play Asking the Home of Huamen Weng": "The elm pods on the roadside are as green as money. Will you pick them to sell wine? "Money is money, so I asked if I would like to sell a glass of wine. Because of its unconstrained nature, elm money changed from eternity to instant in an instant: "Elm pods scattered in the stars, osmanthus moved in the bright moon." "This is certainly not a delicious enjoyment. In the spring and autumn, the sun and the moon are not flooded, it is money and osmanthus. A word "scattered" completely changed my mood. " Yu pod flew far away to buy money to laugh at "expressed deep condolences to an unfortunate woman."
What really connects cooking is Song: "The cups and plates are cold in spring, and the billiard hall is rainy at night", which is natural and implies freshness and beauty. Writing in modesty is indeed a punch line. Yu Qian, written by Ouyang Xiu, makes people feel awake in the cold of late spring. Su Shi's poems are full of vicissitudes of life and warmth of human feelings, which makes people deeply impressed: "Spring breeze blows Yulin, and pods fly in piles." In the golden age, Yuan Haowen of Xinzhou wrote Yu Qian's poems to the extreme. He wrote a poem "Eating Elm Pods" for Yu Qian alone, and the cadence of the word 1 12 vividly described Yu Qian and his hidden feelings. In the poem, it says, "The dew sunflower is slippery with cold sheep ferns, and the spring elm is as poor as a pod. Elm is a waste of time, so it is necessary to fry it in Tian She. Xiao Sheng blows warm and sells sweet weather, and family members share cigarettes. Long hooks and short baskets are childish, and green duckweeds pile up in front of us in an instant. Cook white rice, cut leek and jade round, and recommend a new taste with a cup of fragrant beauty. Why cook dragon cannons and boast of being fat and fresh! Rats, livers, worms, arms, magic and decay push each other away. Tuan Tuan also had a good time in his dream, drinking and pecking at the real flying fairy at will. Sir, how can you eat ten thousand dollars today? " This kind of feeling is in line with Bai Juyi's introspection in "Looking at Wheat Cutting". "What merits do I have today? I have never been engaged in agriculture or mulberry. "
Many years have passed, but the memories of Yu Qian's childhood have been carefully sealed to the bottom of my heart, and it is still difficult to let go. It's a pity that an insect disaster in the 1970s destroyed elm trees in the countryside around Xi 'an, especially in my hometown, the Baxu Delta. I still remember those pests with black backs and yellow bellies, about a centimeter in size, crawling in groups on the elm tree, and finally huddled together and destroyed it. My old father sprayed those "evil spirits" with medicine and cut them with a sickle. After that, the elms in my hometown became less and less, and even basically disappeared.
When spring comes, reading Yu Qian's poems and thinking about the fun of eating Yu Qian and Yu Qian's cakes often reminds me of my childhood memories, and also reminds me of the legend of the old man in my hometown about Yu Qian's tree. It is said that once upon a time there were two poor scholars, one named Tian Yu and the other named Changqing. They studied in the same school, never blushed, never quarreled about anything, and became brothers, so they became half-brothers, with Tian Yu as their brother and Changqing as their brother. It happened that the emperor Wang Kaike and the two brothers discussed it, pieced together some travelling expenses and went to Beijing to catch the exam. We have to walk because of the lack of meals. Walking, it's almost time for the exam, but the distance is only half. Evergreen said to Tian, "Brother, if we go on like this, we can't keep up with the times. Why don't you spend a few taels of money on the carriage and get out of here? If there is a future, you will be very happy. " After that, he gave all the travelling expenses to Yutian and hired horses and chariots for Yutian. The two brothers said goodbye with tears.
Yutian arrived in Beijing as scheduled and won the Jinshi after taking the exam. At that time, the court lacked an official in charge of military pay, and the emperor issued an imperial decree to let Yutian take the official seal. Yutian's senior officials sat down and began to be honest and clean. Gradually, they saw that money was black and greedy, so they tried their best to deposit their wages in their own vaults. That's not enough. From time to time, I take some Qin Bing to the local area to plunder people's wealth.
When Changqing came home, his hometown suffered from famine, and he was reduced to the point where he had no food for one night. In desperation, he went to Beijing to find Yutian. Who knows that Yutian's face hung two feet long after meeting, and he ignored it. Said evergreen dressed as a beggar, humiliated him, gave him two pieces of silver and sent him back overnight. Evergreen couldn't stand this insult, threw away the silver and left without looking back.
After a disastrous year, Evergreen studied hard. Three years later, he went to Beijing to catch the exam, won the first prize, and became the minister of punishments. One day, Changqing examined a big case of embezzling 22 thousand gold. The prisoner's surname is Tian Ming. Evergreen was surprised. Can this man be his old classmate? When the prisoner brought it, it was him. Tian Yu knelt at the foot of Evergreen and begged Evergreen to forgive. Evergreen thought twice, or put national laws first and sentenced Tian to death.
After Yutian was beheaded, Changqing personally collected the body, buried it in the wild, and sent money to Yutian's parents on time every month. The next year, a tree grew on the grave of the field, and people called it elm. When the elm grows up, it blooms in early spring, and a few days later, the flowers fall. Like copper coins, people call them jade porcelain. Some people call elms elms elms. People say that because Yutian is greedy for money, she is not blessed to enjoy it. Therefore, money can only be seen but not used; Because Yutian is dishonest and has a bad heart, there are holes in the elm tree, and it is often not good to get out of the water.
Yutian is too bad to forgive. However, after his death, he became an elm tree, which made a little contribution to mankind, and it can also be regarded as making amends. It can also remind people not to be too greedy every year, otherwise, his yesterday will be the greedy man's tomorrow! There are too many corrupt officials now, which may also be related to too few elms. Without elm trees, it is a pity to lose the delicious taste of childhood, but it is even more sad to lose the living fossil of warning education for officials!
A little Mo Hao Shangfeng literature and art
Feng wenyi
Organizer: Jinsui Literature Society
Editor-in-Chief: Wang Xinjing and Yang Xingang
Founder: Yifan Yang Chongde Su Yindong Bi Qiongkong Bai Hongyan Hui Hui
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