Some people say that foodies should be careful to choose the dynasty before the Ming Dynasty if they cross, because many foods were introduced to China at the end of the Ming Dynasty, such as potatoes, corn, tomatoes, peanuts, and the beloved chili peppers of people who are not spicy.
As we all know, peppers are native to the Americas, peppers are produced in India, are foreign goods, so Chinese the history of eating spicy does not seem to be very long? In fact, there is another kind of pepper, which is our native Chinese.
Northern Qi Gao Yanzong, that is, the younger brother of Gao Changgong the King of Lanling, was briefly promoted to the position of Tianzi in the melee between Yuwen Yong and Gao Wei, and served as emperor for two days, but was caught by Yuwen Yong in battle, and after encountering humiliation and slander, Gao Yanzong "died with a pepper plug", at the age of 34.
In ancient times, there were various ways to commit suicide, the entrance to this piece, the more popular is poison and swallowing gold, this swallowing pepper sounds a little unreliable! Why is the pepper so big that it can eat dead people?
In fact, before the introduction of chili peppers, China's native peppers were peppercorns. The appearance rate and utilization rate of peppercorns in ancient times were very high, and it was known in the Book of Poetry that it was "pepper and its sweetness, Hu Kao Zhining"; Qu Yuan also loved it, regarded the peppercorn as a thing of high character, and in the "Nine Songs", there was a sentence of "Hui cuisine steamed Xilan, Dian Gui wine Xi pepper pulp".
Since the Pre-Qin period of the Western Zhou Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago, people have been using peppercorns, but at that time they were only used as spices to worship the gods. Whenever people make sacrifices, they will "choose their sweet fragrance and clean their wine", that is, they will use both peppercorns as spices and peppercorns as wine.
Of course, even if it is locally produced, peppercorns are also very expensive, mostly used by the nobility. In the Han Dynasty, there was also the so-called "Pepper Room Hall", where the pepper is also peppercorns, but the Pepper Room Hall uses not fruits, but pepper leaves, and paints them with mud, so that the whole house will be filled with the fragrance of peppercorns, and it is said that there is an anti-moth effect - what is the taste of this house...
Probably by the Wei and Jin Dynasties, peppercorns successfully entered the seasoning world, and the Qi Min Zhi Shu records that "its leaves and green picks can be harvested for the leaves, dry and the end, but also enough to fill the matter"; after the Tang and Song Dynasties, peppercorns as a condiment have swept the dietary world, which is of great use.
Such a flavorful seasoning, such a long history of development, the ancients developed more than just diet for it.
Peppercorns also have medicinal properties, and the Han Dynasty Shennong Materia Medica describes it as" as "spicy and warm." The main treatment of wind and evil qi, warm in the middle, in addition to cold paralysis, strong teeth and long hair, downward qi. "Its fruits, roots, stems, and leaves can be medicated.
However, there is also a saying in China that it is a three-point poison of medicine, and peppercorns are also the seeds of "poison" in people's minds.
Before Gao Yanzong, there was another person who tried to commit suicide with peppercorns, li xian, a famous minister of the Han Dynasty. It is recorded in the Later Han Book that Empress Dou died, and someone in the court proposed to bury her with noble etiquette, but Emperor Han Ling refused and convened a meeting to discuss the matter.
After Li Xian knew, he sat up in shock during his illness at home, "pounding the pepper with himself", shouting that if Empress Dou did not bury herself with the former emperor, he would "I will not survive" - if things did not go as he wished, he planned to kill himself with his own pepper to die Mingzhi!
Good fellow, bring his own peppercorns up to the court, people who don't know think he is going to eat on the spot.
There are not a few examples of this kind of "pepper killing". The empress in the Biography of Empress Xiaowen you in the Wei Shu Xiaowen you was given death, using the same peppercorns-"Later, he refused to lead the decision, saying: 'The officials have this, it is the kings who kill my ears!'" 'The whole thing is to cling to it, and to be strong is to exhaust it with peppers.' ”
When Wang Mang poisoned the Hanping Emperor Liu Yan, he used pepper wine and poison - "Winter, December, Mang put pepper wine on the day of The Wax and put it in the poisoned wine." ”
When Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty gave death to his eldest son Yuan Gong, he also tacitly used pepper wine--"Bong Zhao pepper wine is given to Heyang, and he is given death." ”
The "History of the South" records that when the Qi Ming Emperor of the Southern Dynasty was preparing to collectively poison Gao, Emperor Wu and other disciples, he also used pepper as the main one——" Ling Taiyi boiled the pepper erhu and ordered dozens of coffins to be built, saying that Shen Huifu, a shepherd, said: "When the pepper is cooked, it will be given to death for a while." 'Period three should be killed.' ”
Good fellow, die with a pepper plug, mash the pepper with itself, finish with the pepper, and die when the pepper is cooked... The ancients really excavated all kinds of small ways to commit suicide, and the use of peppercorns in this field is also too skilled!
But how much do you have to eat such a small peppercorn to achieve the purpose of suicide?
There is a saying that not all peppercorns will be like this, but only for a special species. The types of safflower peppers are divided into Qin pepper and Shu pepper, of which only Shu pepper has this effect, and it must be closed.
This statement is still recorded in many ancient books. For example, there is a commentary in the "Four People's Moon Order" of the Han Dynasty: "Pepper, spicy, hot, poisonous, especially its mouth." ”
Ge Hong of the Eastern Jin Dynasty recorded it in more detail in the "Elbow Reserve Emergency Fang", and the author may have seen the case with his own eyes - "The poison recipe of the closed-mouth pepper in the treatment: the one who closes the mouth of the Shu pepper is poisonous, and the person who eats the halberd swallows, so that he cannot breathe, he is desperate, and he makes people spit white foam, and spit down, the body is cold, the cure is the cure... And eat peppers not to drink hot, drink hot to kill. ”
Jia Sixun also held the same view in the "Qi Min Zhi Shu", saying that the closed-mouthed Pepper is the most toxic, so in the prescription, the Closed-mouth Pepper cannot be taken internally but can only be applied externally. It seems that the ancients have fully recognized the different aspects of pepper in specific cases.
But is it really so deadly as long as it is a closed pepper? In other words, many restaurants use a large number of peppercorns every day, is it difficult to make each grain accurate enough to not close the mouth? What if I get mixed in? I have never heard of a related case.
So I think it still depends on the posture of eating, the characteristics of peppercorns are hemp, and the book records that its poisoning symptoms are "halberds swallow, so that they can't breathe", that is, they can't breathe.
Peppercorns have such a fierce side, because they contain pepperlamide, an ingredient that can paralyze the taste and muscle nerves, of course, a small amount of one or two is not fatal, a large amount or grinded into powder, it is more dangerous. So, without talking about dosage...
In general, it is true that in history, it is true that the death due to eating peppercorns is probably that the pepper amide inside is in action, especially when swallowing pepper powder, it may produce anesthesia of the respiratory system, and then it is "not out of breath" Breathing difficulties and hanging.
Speaking of such a spicy gadget, there must be many people who have been choked by it and suffered from it, right?
Who would have thought of the excellent seasoning in the eyes of foodies, the beautiful imagery in the hearts of the literati, and such a suffocating side. However, pepper killing seems to have a concentrated outbreak period in history, there are more Han and Wei, and there are fewer in the back, and now it seems to make people feel incredible, like a niche, unbelievable means of death.
There are always all kinds of cases in life, no matter what it is, usually you have to be careful.