"Compendium of Materia Medica": Sweet potato has the effect of tonifying weakness, strengthening qi, strengthening the spleen and stomach, and strengthening kidney yang.
When it comes to sweet potatoes, no one knows in today's society, after all, who can refuse to come to a hot baked sweet potato in the cold winter? Or drink a bowl of sweet potato porridge.
Sweet potatoes are also called sweet potatoes, and as you can see from the name, sweet potatoes are exotic species. Some people think that sweet potatoes were brought back by Zhang Qian when he went to the Western Regions, just like the grapes, walnuts, coriander and so on brought back by Zhang Qian. But this is not the case, sweet potatoes were not introduced to the mainland until the Ming Dynasty, that is to say, the history of sweet potatoes in the mainland is also hundreds of years.
Sweet potatoes originated in the Americas, and during the Great Voyage, sweet potatoes were brought to the East with the colonization of Western countries. But colonizers of any country strictly forbade sweet potatoes from flowing into China. This may be the earliest embargo and blockade of China by Western countries.
We would like to thank two people, one is Chen Yi and the other is Chen Zhenlong.
l Chen Yi
Chen Yi, a native of Dongguan, Guangdong Province, followed someone to Annam to do business in the eighth year of the Ming Dynasty, and after arriving in Annam, the local natives of Annan used sweet potatoes to entertain them. At that time, Chen Yi did not know what sweet potatoes were, but he felt that sweet potatoes were sweet and tender, and they were extremely delicious. In the face of this unknown delicious food, Chen Yi was fascinated, especially when he knew the yield of sweet potatoes, a bold plan took shape in Chen Yi's heart!
Chen Yi decided to take sweet potatoes over to his hometown!
However, the Annan people regarded sweet potatoes as treasures and forbade them to be circulated to the outside world, and Chen Yi had to wait for a while, until two years later, that is, in the tenth year of the Wanli Calendar, Chen Yi found the opportunity to bribe the natives at that time, hid the sweet potato seeds in the copper drum, and secretly brought them back to his hometown.
After Chen Yi brought the sweet potato back to his hometown, after experimentation, he began to grow sweet potatoes on a large scale and spread the sweet potato widely. Before chen yi died, he chose his grave next to the sweet potato field, and also instructed future generations to have sweet potatoes in the sacrifice when they were offering.
Chen Yi, as the "first person to introduce sweet potatoes in China", has made great contributions!
l Chen Zhenlong
After Chen Yi introduced sweet potatoes, although he had the intention to spread widely, but at that time, the transportation was inconvenient and the communication was blocked, but without the support of the government, the effect of sweet potato promotion was not obvious. So more than a decade later, sweet potatoes are not yet known to the public.
12 years after Chen Yi introduced sweet potatoes, Chen Zhenlong, a native of Fuzhou, Fujian Province, discovered the sweet potato as a crop when he was doing business in Luzon, and realized the great significance of sweet potatoes, so he thought of bringing sweet potatoes back to his hometown. But at that time, the colonizer of Luzon, Spain, had a strict ban on sweet potatoes, and sweet potatoes were not allowed to leave the country!
This prohibition did not bother Chen Zhenlong, who in the twenty-first year of the Ming Dynasty, "took the potato vine and twisted it into the water rope" and coated the rope with mud as a cover, successfully bringing the sweet potato vine back to China.
Chen Zhenlong also has the heart to promote sweet potatoes, but suffers from no channels. Until the drought in Fujian and the grain harvest failed, Chen Zhenlong asked his son Chen Jinglun to write to Inspector Jin Xuezeng of Fujian and recommend sweet potatoes, saying that sweet potatoes can provide disaster relief. Jin Xue once agreed to try it, and the results of the test shocked everyone, and the sweet potatoes were not only extremely high in yield, but also delicious in taste.
Jin Xue had ordered the vigorous promotion of sweet potatoes, which represented the official official intervention! In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi began to introduce sweet potatoes widely grown in Fujian to other provinces in order to relieve disasters. During the Qing Dynasty, local governments began to promote sweet potatoes, so sweet potatoes were quickly widely spread throughout the country. Many people who study history say that the reason why the Qing Dynasty had a prosperous kangqian was that the role of sweet potatoes was great.
Finally, sweet potatoes are now grown in most parts of the country, but the most delicious is the Liaoning golden honey potato
, Shaanxi Lintong chestnut sweet potato, Fujian Zhangpu Liuao honey potato, Zhejiang Lin'an Tianmu Mountain small sweet potato and other varieties.