Cao Wei
In the spring sun and flower viewing season, the peach blossoms on the face of the people are red. Peach blossoms bloom, will peaches be far away?
Nanhui Peach Blossom Infographic
Looking at the red flowers in the peach orchards on the outskirts of Shanghai today, the Shanghai Peach Blossom Festival is also in full swing, and I think you must have also begun to make up for the sweet and juicy taste of peaches.
Nanhui Peach Infographic
When it comes to Peach in Shanghai, most people think of Nanhui. Nowadays, taking the Shanghai Metro Line 16 to the shore of Dishui Lake, you can see the peach forest from time to time along the way, and the predecessor of the Shanghai Peach Blossom Festival is the Nanhui Peach Blossom Festival of that year.
2021 Shanghai Peach Blossom Festival Pudong New Area Cultural and Tourism Bureau Map
However, all this is only the "time" of Shanghai peaches, and if you want to say that this delicious thing originated in Shanghai, you have to start from the Luxiang Garden in the old town of Nanshi!
At the beginning of the 19th century, Chu Hua, a Shanghai farmer, wrote the "Peach Spectrum" (1813), which is an important material for studying the history of Peach in Shanghai
Luxiangyuan, also known as Gu's Beiye, is a private garden built by the Ming Dynasty Jinshi Gu Mingshi in 1559, located in the northwest corner of the old city of Shanghai Nanshi, near the area of luxiangyuan Road, present-day Dajing Road.
Tongzhi Shanghai County Map Marked Version Infographic
The garden is named because of the stone side when it was built, the stone is engraved with the Yuan Dynasty calligrapher Zhao Mengfu's book "Luxiang Pond", Gu's garden lasted ten years, cost tens of thousands of silver, Luxiang Garden with Luxiang Pond as the center, surrounded by Luxiang Pavilion, Biyi Hall, Fuchun Mountain Pavilion, Jicuigang, Fen Ou Pavilion, Duguan Xuan, Dashi'an, Qinglian Pond and other scenery, together with Yu Garden, Rishi Garden and called the "three famous gardens" in Shanghai at that time.
2013 Luxiangyuan Road shanghainavi picture
Luxiangyuan present appearance, Huangpu District Luxiangyuan Road Cao Wei picture
When the garden was established, the Gu family introduced many peach trees from other places to plant in the garden, which became the beginning of peach planting in Shanghai.
According to the "Former Dust Dream Video", "Gu Shi returned to the Luxiang Garden, looked for xenomorph peaches, and planted them into forests... The flower color is lighter, the real is not very large, the skin is thin and sweet, the entrance is melted, there is no sour taste, so it is famous. "In a word, the peaches of Luxiang Garden, sweeter than first love!" It is said that at that time, local officials in Shanghai often gave the peach as a gift to their superiors, so whenever the peach was ripe, the peach orchard was strictly guarded, and ordinary people basically did not have access to this delicacy.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Gu clan fell, the Luxiang Garden was gradually abandoned, the Qinglian Seat was rebuilt into the Qinglian Zen Temple, and during the Daoguang Years, the garden site was changed to the Shecang and the Gunpowder Bureau, and soon after because of the explosion of gunpowder, the remaining buildings in the park were destroyed. Fortunately, due to its reputation, the peach trees in the garden were gradually "favored" as early as the fall of the Gu clan, and they were successively "taken over" and successively moved to the yellow mud wall in the southwest corner of Shanghai County.
Yellow mud wall now shadow Cao Wei figure
The Yellow Mud Wall, which is now the area of Xueqian Street on Penglai Road on the south side of the Temple of Literature in Huangpu District, Shanghai, is still within the scope of shanghai's old city box like Luxiang Garden. The peach trees of Luxiang Garden have been transplanted here and have gradually become a climate after years of cultivation.
During the Xianfeng period, there is a Peach Garden surnamed Wei here, more than 300 peach trees, because of the cultivation method, every harvest season is fruitful, peach is large, there are red spots, sweet and juicy, famous far and wide. When people have bamboo branches, they say: "Yaochi immortal taste is better than mellow mash, and different products compete to push peaches." It is said that the yellow mud wall is better, and the little red circle recognizes goose feathers."
Compared with the official family in the Luxiang Garden, after coming to the yellow mud wall, this peach became much more close to the people. Whenever the peaches are ripe, just hand over the small ocean 2 corners, you can enter the garden to pick and eat, how big your appetite is, you can eat as much as you want, but there is a point, only allowed to eat in the garden, not allowed to take out, if you want to take out, you need to spend another money to buy.
Taolin Infographic
With the rapid development of Shanghai after the opening of the port, during the Guangxu years, the area around the yellow mud wall gradually prospered, and the land price gradually rose, and the owner saw that the profit from investing in real estate was far better than the planting of peaches, so he cut down the peach trees and rebuilt the houses. The relationship between Shanghai peach and the old city box has gradually drifted away.
Although it has left the old city, the Shanghai peach is still "incense and fire", and as early as the peach in the yellow mud wall area became famous in Shanghai, some people have begun to transplant it elsewhere. Longhua, Xiaomuqiao (now Xiaomuqiao Road area) once had a lot of peach orchards, after entering the Republic of China, the latter gradually abandoned, Longhua has become a new landmark of Shanghai peach, spring Longhua flower viewing, summer tasting peach, gradually became a fashion.
Longhua Temple Infographic
"Golden Voice" Zhou Xuan once had a song called "Longhua's Peach Blossom": There are no flowers in Shanghai, everyone goes to Longhua, Longhua's peach blossoms have also increased in price; you also buy peach blossoms, he also buys peach blossoms, Longhua's peach blossoms move home... Similarly, there is now a famous "Poem in Prison" in the Stele Forest Area of longhua martyrs' cemetery: Longhua has looked up to the high wind throughout the ages, and the heroic soldiers have not died in vain. The peach blossoms outside the wall are bloody, generally bright and generally red. It is also a true portrayal of this past.
"Longhua's Peach Blossom" old record infographic
Like the beauty of peach blossoms in spring, Longhua peaches were equally popular in Shanghai at that time during the ripe season, becoming a popular seasonal fruit. According to the old man's recollection, the fine peaches inserted into the wheat tube and sucked hard, often leaving only the skin and the core, the quality of which is excellent, which can be seen.
Longhua peach Cao Weitu
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, the Longhua area became a place of war, and a large area of peach forests was seriously damaged, and in the summer of 1938, the Herald reported that due to the impact of the war, the vendors were stagnant, and the supply of Longhua peaches fell sharply, so that the "price was strange". By the victory of the War of Resistance, the Longhua Peach Forest was devastated, and there were not many peach seeds left, almost lost. Only Xinzhuang, Huajing and other places still have a small number of peach trees that have been transplanted before, but the scale is not the same as before, and the famous Longhua peaches in Shanghai have been extinguished for a while.
In 1955, the Liberation Daily published an article discussing how to prevent the loss of Longhua peaches, which received a good response, and there were four farmers in Xinzhuang Township who intercepted the old branches of Longhua peaches and grafted them into the Luchang Temple Peach Orchard, and the "Luchang Peaches" cultivated were indeed different.
Luchang Temple Infographic
The peach seed has since been promoted to many places in Shanghai, among which the nanhui area has the widest planting area and the best quality. After several generations of horticulturists carefully cultivated, the now famous Nanhui peach was formed, and the genes from which Luxiang Garden originated were also "passed down by blood".
Fenghua fruit farmers picking peaches Zhejiang Daily photo
It is worth mentioning that in addition to many trips within the scope of Shanghai, the footprints of Luxiangyuan Peach have already left Shencheng, and even spread overseas.
During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Yinchong, a zhejiang flower farmer, brought back Longhua peach seedlings from Shanghai and cultivated them in Fenghua to form the brand of "Fenghua Peach". At the same time, some foreigners have introduced this peach seed into the United States, Japan and other countries to graft and cultivate local varieties.
Fenghua customs officers conduct a sugar test on the exported peaches General Administration of Customs/Cheng Ketu
From Luxiang Garden to yellow mud wall, from Longhua to Nanhui, and even out of Shencheng and into the world, the fantasy journey of a little peach reflects the changes in Shanghai's urban history over the past few hundred years.
Editor-in-charge: Zhu Zhe
Proofreader: Liu Wei