The 53rd time in "Dream of the Red Chamber" writes that Jia Fu passed the Chinese New Year's Eve, which was very solemn, and put on a feast, and also offered TuSu wine, hehuan soup, auspicious fruit, and ruyi cake.
Needless to say, this seasonal Tusu wine was available in the Song Dynasty, but on the surface of fruits such as fruits and preserves or carved or molded or printed to express auspicious patterns, patterns, poems, etc., to express the meaning of wishes, just like the engraved apples we buy on Christmas Eve today.
Ruyi cake is a ruyi-shaped pasta made of glutinous rice flour, flour and sesame seeds, and then sprinkled with fried sesame seeds on the surface of the pasta, taking the auspicious meaning of jade ruyi.
Let's talk about this acacia soup. Since it is a Chinese New Year's Eve family reunion feast, of course, it is indispensable to drink acacia soup.
This acacia soup, but not the 38th time Dai Yu ate crab that day to drink acacia flower soaked wine, just take a few acacia flowers to boil a soup, it is actually a meat soup, acacia flowers in it, more like Titian seasoning similar to Guizhi spice things, and at the same time a good mouth.
Red scholar Zhou Ling believes that in addition to the acacia flowers, this acacia soup should also be boiled with pork liver, pig lung, pork and other meat, and the soup that is boiled out is beautiful in flavor and has the slight fragrance and sweetness of the acacia flower.
The soup floats up and down, and the crimson acacia flowers dotted with it also make people feel beautiful and delicious.
Some people also think that acacia soup is to put chicken, duck, pork and other types of meat together to stew, so the name of acacia, it feels unlikely, and this variety of different meats put together to stew, probably will not taste good.
Some people also believe that this acacia soup is made of hen meat with golden fungus, lion's head mushroom and lily, acacia boiled and stewed, its soup color is thick but not turbid, the taste is sweet and sweet.
In short, this soup is called acacia, and there must be a variety of dishes and meats in the soup, and then on this Chinese New Year's Eve reunion night, it is natural to symbolize the joy of people's reunion with the combination of vegetables.
In the "Shennong Materia Medica", it is said that "Hehuan, the Lord's Five Organs, The Heart of Profit, and Makes People Happy and Worry-free"; Ji Kang of the Three Kingdoms also said in the "Treatise on Health Maintenance", "Acacia is angry, Xuancao forgets worries", so this acacia flower that relieves the liver and relieves depression is mentioned many times in the novel, the acacia wine that Dai Yu drinks in the 38th time, the acacia soup that Chinese New Year's Eve in the 53rd time, and the 76th time the author directly points out that the Acacia trees are planted everywhere in the Grand View Garden through the mouth of Xiangyun.
Garden smoke sunset tree (acacia tree), autumn turbulence chalcedony.
In addition, when the Cao family was at its peak of prosperity, they also made wine with acacia flowers many times: Hurt! The author remembers that the acacia flowers are brewed before the dwarf ship? Twenty years.
Therefore, this little tree acacia is really a witness to the past glorious and rich life of the Cao family.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Fei Boxiong, a famous doctor in Jiangnan, recorded in the second volume of his "Medical Alcohol Leftovers" that there was a prescription for relieving depression and heying soup, which had the effect of soothing the liver and clearing heat, nourishing the blood and calming the heart. The specific medicinal herbs used are:
Acacia spends two dollars, tulip two dollars, agarwood five cents, angelica two dollars, white peony one dollar, danshen two dollars, Bai Ren two dollars, mountain gardenia one dollar and five cents, chai hu one dollar, mint one dollar, Poria two dollars, red dates five dollars, orange cake four dollars.
Fei Boxiong was a famous doctor in the Xianfeng period, famous in the north and south of the great river, and treated tens of thousands of people in his lifetime, but the Xie Yu Hehuan Soup clearly recorded in his medical skills will never be the Hehuan Soup in "Dream of the Red Chamber", because it is difficult for us to imagine that Jia Fu, a big family, gathered around a table at the Chinese New Year's Eve Night Feast and drank Chinese medicine there.
At that time, the reunion and rejoicing, the Chinese New Year's Eve of that year, was actually the last bustle of Jia Province, the prince took off the inspection of the capital of the nine provinces, but with Jia Yu Village also supplemented the Great Sima and the assistant military aircraft counselor Chao Zheng, the promotion of the four major families, because Jia Yu Village, also hidden crises and killing opportunities, such as the evil current in the depths of the bush, surging in the unknown dark place, but the people below it were completely unaware, singing and laughing day by day, singing and dancing.
At this Chinese New Year's Eve feast, the Jia Mansion on the surface is still lively and brilliant, full of flowers, firecrackers, laughter and Khotan.
Cold and summer, the years flies, unconsciously, it is another year of Chinese New Year's Eve, but may the present world be stable, peace and eternal enjoyment, may this feast not disperse, acacia flowers bloom often, acacia wine often drink, acacia soup wafting incense every year in every household Chinese New Year's Eve night.
Author: Lord of the Afternoon Dream Hall, this article is to read less of the original works of the Red Chamber.