A friend asked why cucumbers are called cucumbers instead of green melons? Have you ever thought about this seemingly boring question? In fact, this question is not boring, it has certain historical reasons.
According to historical records, cucumbers were first introduced to China during the Han Dynasty when Zhang Qian was serving as an emissary to the Western Regions. Zhang Qian was a great diplomat. At that time, he introduced many fresh crops from the western region, including cucumbers, broad beans, pomegranates, grapes, etc. One of the peculiarities of these crops is the need to precede them with a hu character. For example, cucumbers were originally called courgettes, and broad beans, also called coriander beans. Courgette was brought to the Central Plains by Zhang Qian, its adaptability and survivability are very strong, so it has been promoted throughout the country, because of its high yield, simple cooking methods, unique taste and wide popularity, until now it has been favored by everyone.
Soon, the courgette entered a golden age of development in China, especially during the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sixteen Kingdoms period. Shi Le, the founding emperor of the late Zhao Dynasty, paid more attention to agricultural production, and Shi Le was a member of the Xie ethnic group, and we Han people called him Hu ren. But Han Chinese contemptuously refer to foreigners as Hu. This made Shi Le very angry, and people called the people on the street Hu people. He stipulated that in his own country, neither language nor writing was allowed to leave a beard, that no one could replace it, and that those who did so should be severely punished not even by a courgette. Since we can't call him cucumber, we have to change his name. What should we change? Because fully ripe cucumbers are yellow, they were renamed cucumbers. You might say cucumbers are green? How can it be yellow? That's because all the cucumbers we eat and see now are unripe cucumbers. In the process of cultivation and edible improvement, it was found that when cucumbers were still green, they tasted best and were most nutritious until chlorophyll was lost. Cucumbers turn yellow when ripe and cannot be eaten. Do you think this is a surprise? If you're not convinced, you might as well plant a cucumber and see if it's yellow when it's fully ripe.