"One Chew for Two Thousand Years", by Cao Yu, CITIC Publishing Group, Xinsi Culture, June 2022 edition
How did the custom of eating betel nuts in China come about?
The most common betel nuts in China today are Hunan-style, and these packaged betel nuts are the ones we are most often exposed to. The color of the ripe fruit of the betel nut is relatively close to the color of the cover of the book "One Chew for Two Thousand Years", and the juice that comes out of the chewing is also this color. But in fact, the popularity of this type of betel nut is very recent in China. Just like the title of the book, "Two Thousand Years in One Chew", Chinese eat betel nut for two thousand years. Traditionally, the green betel nut is eaten, which is the most traditional way to eat betel nut. This original method of eating was once widely popular in the coastal areas of Guangdong, Hainan and Fujian, which are closer to the tropics.
This is the earliest realistic portrait of Chinese eating betel nut that we can see now, painted by William Alexander of the Macartney Mission in 1793, when this portrait was not written in place, but from his itinerary, the most likely place to paint was in Macau, he most likely saw such a situation of betel nut in Macau at that time, and then painted it, here are the leaves, there is a lime box here, This side is already wrapped betel nut, at this time to see the betel nut look almost exactly the same as the betel nut seen in Taiwan, so at that time Guangdong was popular to eat betel nut.
William Alexander depicts Chinese eating betel nut.
But if you have recently gone to Guangdong, you will find that in fact, Guangdong people have long stopped eating betel nuts, this custom is very strange to Cantonese, because it has disappeared for at least a hundred years, so that by the early years of the Republic of China, the problem of chewing betel nut has not become a social problem, and in other places it will be considered a social problem, but at that time in Guangdong there is no habit of chewing betel nut, which means that a traditional folk custom has completely faded.
Where did the custom of eating betel nuts in Guangdong come from? All the people in the world who eat betel nut, the origin of the custom of chewing betel nut is the Austronesian language group. Austronesian language groups may still be quite unfamiliar to people in north China or the north, if we understand the language composition of China, we usually say Sino-Tibetan languages, Han and Yi, which belong to the Sino-Tibetan language family. There is also a very typical language family is the Dongtai language family, the Dong, Zhuang, Dai all speak the language of the Dongtai language, which is active in the Indochina Peninsula; There is also a Miao-Yao language family, sometimes called the Indochina language family, which is active in the Indochina Peninsula. Next, there are Altaic languages in northern China, and there are several major language families.
Austronesian language group is also a very important ethnic group, the origin of this group, generally speaking, the academic community is widely regarded as coming from the mainland of Taiwan Island, Taiwan began to originate and then to the entire Pacific Islands and Southeast Asia these islands, this group is all over the sea, with navigation technology as a very prominent feature of them. It also has some strange folklore, such as the "black teeth of carving" recorded in ancient Chinese books, which are generally descendants of the Guide Island language group. So when we look at the ancient Chinese books, we will find that there is a problem, it will write a lot of confusing names for the southern ethnic groups, it may think that Ouyue, Yue, Luoyue are all baiyue, without careful distinction, but in fact, there are great differences between these native ethnic groups south of the Yangtze River in China, they may belong to different language families. For example, some are from the Dongtai language family, some are from the Austronesian language family, and these ethnic groups live in the land of South China. With the gradual expansion of the Han people to the south, some of these ethnic groups have integrated into the Han nationality, and some of them have left South China forever and migrated to the Indochina Peninsula, so the Austronesian language group is a very typical example, and now in Chinese mainland there is no longer any Austronesian language group, but it once had a settlement on the coast of China.
The Austronesian language group is currently found to be the first group to eat betel nut, the earliest site is on the island of Palawan, there is a Duyang Cave on this island, found the earliest traces of human chewing betel nut, about 5,000 years ago, the traces of the teeth of people who chewed betel nut, must betel nut and lime mixed after the traces, so the earliest traces of eating betel nut occurred in Palawan.
Later records can also be found in the Malay Peninsula or in the Philippine Archipelago or southern Vietnam. But unfortunately, no such thing has been unearthed in South China. If according to the strict archaeological judgment method, we cannot confirm that the custom of chewing betel nut really existed before the Han people arrived in South China, but the literature can support the Han people to find betel nut after arriving in South China, so the evidence we can get now is that although we do not have clear archaeological evidence, we can indirectly infer that South China is the existence of betel nut-chewing Austronesian tribes, but we have no way to find any real proof, probably this is the case.
The practice of chewing betel nut spread with the Austronesian language group, spread beyond where we see it now, and affected its two northern neighbors, one in India and the other in China. After India was affected by this, almost the entire South Asian subcontinent have developed the habit of chewing betel nut, they have passed this down as a part of a religious ceremony, so chewing betel nut in India is a very common thing, and even now, Indians chewing betel nut and Austronesian language group is still a little different, Indians chew betel nut method is to cut the betel nut very broken, wrapped in the leaves, will also add lime, but they will also add tobacco, add sugar, will add other spices, is a very mixed chewing method. The custom of chewing betel nut in China has long been consistent with the chewing method of the Austronesian language group in Lingnan, that is, the state of green leaves and green wraps.
Medicinal uses of betel nut
If Chinese records of betel nut, the first person to record betel nut is Yang Fu, Yang Fu himself is a Guangzhou native, of course, the name Guangzhou appeared early and late, it already had such a statement as Jiaozhou Guangzhou in the Han Dynasty, but Guangzhou at that time was a general reference to all places in Guangdong and Guangxi. The emergence of the current Guangzhou City was redefined in the early years of the Republic of China, so the current Guangzhou is different from the scope of the previous Guangzhou. The location of Yangfujing is in the village of Xiadu in Guangzhou, which is now located in the urban area, and for a long time it was a suburban location outside the city. Here in Yang Fujing, in fact, this Yang Fujing is also problematic, it was later deduced, it may be the well in the back garden of Yang Fu's home. But because the location of this village has not changed for thousands of years, this inference is also reasonable, Yang Fu is the first person to record the betel nut.
Imagine that when Yang Fu of the Eastern Han Dynasty recorded the betel nut in detail, the information you got was that Yang Fu was a Han Chinese, he was a Han chinese in South Vietnam, he was most likely the descendant of an officer sent by the Han Dynasty to conquer South Vietnam, presumably such a conqueror appeared in the land of South Vietnam, he recorded in detail the method of eating betel nut. Earlier than him is Sima Xiangru, Sima Xiangru also recorded betel nut, but his betel nut only has one sentence, so we do not think that he is a thing that he has seen in the field or can directly convey information, he said a sentence in "Shanglin Fu", "Ren Pin and Lu", Ren Pin is betel nut, and Lu is a palm tree. The "Ren pin" he is talking about here is actually a transliteration of Jambi, which in Malay means betel nut and Pinang also refers to betel nut, both of which are said in Malay and Indonesian. We now see that Indonesia has a place called Jambi Province, which means Jambi. Like Tanjung Penang is also a place in Indonesia, Malaysia also has Penang, Penang is a very famous place, because it is closely related to the Xinhai Revolution, when the March 29 Guangzhou Uprising was launched, the headquarters was in Penang.
We look at these names and we can see that the Austronesian language group has an imagination of betel nut, just like the Western text for the oak tree, Western literature often appears in the "oak knight" or "oak leaf knight" such a statement, he believes that the oak tree represents a knight's noble character, so in the Western culture often appears such some place names. Chinese traditions also have similar ones, like the Garnet City in Henan, which was a very respected plant in ancient times, so this garnet is often used as a place name, and there are many small places related to garnets. Betel nut has the same meaning in the Austronesian language group, which he considers to be a very positive plant worth describing, just like Chinese the image of a more positive plant such as bamboo, lotus, or plum blossom in the Chinese impression, which is such an impression in the impression of the Austronesian language group.
After reaching the vision of the Han people, Yang Fu was the first to record it, and he said so, "Betel nut, if the bamboo shoots are born on poles, the essence of the seeds is hard, the stem is straight up, there are no branches and leaves, and its shape is like a pillar." It was not five or six feet above, and the flood was swollen, like a tree. Because of the crack, out of the ear, no flowers and real, as big as peach and plum", to describe the appearance of betel nut, the last important point is to say "drinking set as a mouth", it is said that the Lingnan people chewed at that time, plus explanation, the oyster ash added to the betel nut with chewing can make people feel happy, commonly known: "betel nut to stay, you can forget your worries." Later, the Materia Medica also followed the phrase "betel nut to stay, you can forget your worries", so it is from here that a very important cultural imagination of betel nut comes from. Therefore, starting from Yang Fu, he specially wrote this "Foreign Body Chronicle", introducing various products of Lingnan to the Central Plains, which was the first time that the people of the Central Plains knew that Lingnan had so many products, which may have very important medicinal value or edible value.
Betel nut after Yang Fu introduced it to the Chinese civilization and the Central Plains civilization, the first use of betel nut was produced, because betel nut is something that Lingnan people often chew, and the impression of Lingnan people at that time was more miasma, so he thought that the reason why Lingnan people did not have diseases in Lingnan was because they chewed betel nut, and betel nut can get rid of miasma, with such an imagination, so from this time on, betel nut was given the alias of washing miasma, he thought that this thing could remove the miasma in the south. Miasma is a very interesting imagination, if you think about it now, if a Beijinger wants to go to Guangdong now, probably will not take miasma as a factor of consideration, I may go to Guangdong to miasma, should not think about this matter. In fact, not only will I not think about it now, but no one will think about it since the Beginning of the Ming Dynasty.
But if you put it in the Two Han Dynasties or the Wei and Jin Dynasties, people at that time were still very afraid of distributing Lingnan, thinking that if I arrived in Lingnan, I would not live long, I would not survive, I would definitely be miasma, I would definitely die. Yesterday I was in Beijing and I also felt a feeling of walking on the streets of Guangzhou, and Beijing also became very wet, a little Lingnan feeling. In short, in that era, at least before the Song Dynasty, basically Lingnan was a place that was feared, because it had a lot of imagination about miasma, thinking that there would be miasma in Lingnan, and the book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" wrote a lot of imagination about the miasma of Yunnan, in short, there was miasma in the south, which was a common imagination at that time.
But then why didn't it? Especially after the Southern Song Dynasty, there was basically no much description of the miasma in Lingnan, mainly because the living conditions in Lingnan became better, everyone was willing to go, and the miasma was actually an excuse. If I don't want to go to it, there will be miasma, and if I want to go to it, there will be no miasma. After the living conditions became better, so that by the time of the Ming Dynasty, Lingnan had become a place where merchants gathered and were thousands of miles of fertile wilderness, and at that time it was rushing to go, and those who were officials were still very happy at the thought of being able to go to Lingnan to scrape the ground, and at this time they were not afraid of miasma at all. At the time of the two Han Dynasties, miasma was still a very obvious thing, so betel nut had entered the cultural vision of Chinese, and was immediately given an imagination of washing miasma. Betel nut has also become a preferred drug for all the qi, that is, all the bad qi, vomiting, and feeling that the qi is not smooth can be used to regulate, so betel nut was used as the preferred drug in the four major southern medicines at that time, so the demand for betel nut at that time was very large. But don't think that betel nut is a cheap thing, the price of medicine in ancient times was very high.
The form of betel nut into medicine is generally like this, the state of the cylinder after the betel nut heart is sliced, you can see that its texture is very beautiful. So sometimes when we say that some wood or something is better, we will say that it has a betel nut grain and comes from here, because its grain is very good.
For the first record of betel nut after the medicine was started by Zhang Zhongjing, Zhang Zhongjing at that time in his prescription clearly wrote several flavors about the lower stomach qi, vomiting, consumption of medicinal use to betel nut, from his beginning, Ge Hong and Tao Hongjing have described the use of betel nut, the betel nut after the confirmation of Wei Jin, it has become a very common down gas medicine, its status of traditional Chinese medicine has been further consolidated. So much so that after the Eastern Jin Dynasty, it was already a very common medicine.
Betel nut and Buddhism
When we talk about the influence of the Han people's southward migration on betel nut, we know that a very important era in the development of betel nut is the era of the Wei and Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties, which is a very important period for betel nut, in fact, the core of this period lies in the southward shift of the center of gravity of the rule. In the two Han Dynasty records of betel nut, generally speaking, appeared in the "Foreign Objects" or appeared in some medical books or medicine books, then after the two Han Betel nut began to appear in the literature of the Chinese, the core point is that the focus of China's rule from the original Luoyang to Jiankang, when he moved the capital to Nanjing, Jiankang is now Nanjing, the entire culture and scholar group have migrated to the south, its understanding of betel nut has been greatly strengthened, strengthened the understanding of betel nut, Because Jiankang is much closer to the south. The original ruling frontiers, such as the Han Dynasty, when the Han Dynasty put the capital of Jiaoguang Erzhou in this position, between Wuzhou in Guangxi and Fengkai in Guangdong. This location is a place with no shielding, basically a place with many mountains in the middle reaches of the West River, so that place is very unsuitable for development as a capital city or as a large city.
Guangzhou is a very suitable place for the development of a large city, all flat land, which can rule the fertile plains of the entire Pearl River Delta. In the Time of South Vietnam, the urban area of Guangzhou has always existed as a city, but in the Han Dynasty he destroyed this city and moved it to Fengkai, which means that stability is better than development, for the Han Dynasty, Lingnan is not important, so I need to put your city in a relatively small place, I want to limit your development. Then in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, especially in eastern Wu, the situation was different, because Eastern Wu did not rule the developed areas in the north, so the south was very important to him, and he attached great importance to the development of Guangzhou. At this time, the Sun Wu regime at that time moved the capital of Jiaoguang Erzhou, which was originally in Fengkai, to Guangzhou and re-established Guangzhou, and at this time he believed that Lingnan was very important to him.
By the time of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Lingnan was also very important to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, because it had lost all the hinterland in the north, and Guangzhou was very important to him at this time, and he needed to strengthen his rule here, constantly send competent officials, and constantly develop the products of Lingnan to be able to use it. Therefore, when the center of gravity of Chinese rule shifted southward, betel nut became particularly important as something recorded in the literature.
For example, in Beijing, Beijing's cultural resources are also very many, so that as a cultural person in Guangzhou, I often think that I want to move to Beijing, because Beijing has gathered too many resources, and being close to the center of gravity of domination is the natural attribute of cultural people. The same is true in Jiankang, when your capital is in Jiankang, cultural people will run to live near Jiankang, so that you will naturally have more records and descriptions of southern products. Records of the south have become even less extensive, resulting in the Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties period being the era in which betel nuts are most described.
Under the premise of such a mourning, feel the unique mental state of that era, and the Han people who migrated south felt that the north was in a state of mourning. If you know the history of the introduction of Buddhism to China, you will talk about the White Horse Temple in Luoyang, which was the first Buddhist temple in China. Although Buddhism had already spread to China during the Eastern Han Dynasty, its real rise was during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and in the context of both the North and the South, as we all know, both the North and the South entered the great chaos, and Buddhism became the biggest winner. And both rulers need Buddhism to consolidate his unorthodox regime. If you compare it to the previous regime, such as the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty is a very orthodox regime, and its dependence on religion is relatively weak. However, no matter which side the Southern and Northern Dynasties went, whether it was Northern Wei or Xiao Liang, they all belonged to the pseudo-regime, because since the usurpation of the throne by The Song Emperor Liu Yu, the legitimacy of the entire regime has been greatly questioned, and Buddhism has been greatly developed at this time, and Buddhism has once again strengthened the impression of betel nut.
We now look at the history of Buddhism, the previous period of time to see the impact of the Austronesian language group on the Indians that paragraph, Indians chew betel nut very early, before the birth of Buddhism Indians have a general habit of chewing betel nut, but Chinese no, Chinese is not mainly because of climatic conditions, India is suitable for the cultivation of betel nut, the southern end of the Western Continent of South Asia is suitable for the cultivation of betel nut, so they can grow it, but China is not suitable for planting betel nut, until now only Hainan and Taiwan can produce betel nut, Other places are not suitable for planting, for example, the southern part of Guangdong and even very hot places are not suitable for planting betel nut, because winter will still be affected by the cold wave, the betel nut tree once affected by the cold wave after the seed is very small, after the small seed this thing is no way to have enough commercial value, the commercial value will be greatly reduced. So in India, this thing was deeply embedded in Indian culture before the birth of Buddhism, so when Buddhism was born it has naturally become a Buddhist offering, and the "five trees and six flowers" rule includes bodhi tree, tall banyan tree, bay leaf palm, betel nut and sugar palm. Needless to say, Bodhi is the embodiment of wisdom, Gao Rong is generally a very ornamental plant, the bay leaf of Baye palm is used to write the Baye sutra, and the Tibetan scriptures we have seen are written in baye, it is used to write scriptures after drying. Betel nut is used as a perfume and a refreshing object for Buddhist monks, and the main role of betel nut in India at that time was in these two aspects. On the one hand, there is incense, and you can't use your filthy breath to rush the Buddha, so you need betel nut to incense. In addition, you need to use betel nut to refresh, Buddhist monks are actually quite easy to fall asleep when meditating and meditating, if you have betel nut it will be better. Sugar brown is the thing used to produce a brown sugar, and it was also a very important offering for the temple at that time, so these things are meaningful, and we now see the Buddhist rule of five trees and six flowers.
This stipulation does not seem to have retained this thing very much after Han Buddhism, because the "five trees and six flowers" are all tropical crops, and it should be unlikely that the Han Land will grow these things alive. Needless to say, Bodhi and Banyan trees are barely OK, bay leaves, betel nuts and sugar palms are impossible to survive. Lotus flowers can still survive, clerical orchids, yellow ginger flowers, frangipans, Burmese osmanthus flowers and ground spring golden lotus, this should be inactive, if it is in North China, it should be inactive, the south will be a little better, but also can not completely gather the five trees and six flowers. "Five trees and six flowers" I have seen the most qi in Thailand, Thailand generally its Buddhism has maintained the traditional Buddhist requirements of "five trees and six flowers", Thai monks still maintain the tradition of chewing betel nut, Thai Buddha in front of the offering, this is the betel nut. Pre-Buddha offerings are essential betel nuts, in southern Buddhism.
When this Buddhism flourished in the land of China, Chinese also suddenly found betel nut, Chinese has always used betel nut as a kind of medicine, since the Eastern Han Dynasty has been using betel nut as a kind of go to the miasma to use, suddenly found that Buddhism also uses betel nut, at this time the status of betel nut came up, I offer Buddha to use this thing, so betel nut has been used as a reward for a long time, rewarded to monks or temples. The price of betel nut at that time was very high, and in ancient times, the price of a commodity transported over a long distance would become very expensive. We still think it's quite common to eat a lychee in Beijing now, but when I was a child in Beijing, it was already a very rare thing, let alone in the Southern Dynasty, which was a very expensive food.
The clearest example of the Han Chinese use of betel nut as a symbol of faith is the mural tomb of Zhang Wenzao in Xuanhua, Hebei Province, which has two plates of betel nuts in front of his tomb. Explicitly enshrined betel nut in front of the tomb, so this is a very powerful discovery, you have this evidence is ironclad evidence, there are two plates of betel nut clearly placed there, it shows its strong belief in Buddhism, because Zhang Wenzao's tomb is a very interesting tomb, he used a burial method of the Western Heavenly Di Bi Li, burned to ashes and then tied in a puppet and buried, that is a Xi Tian Di Li burial method, a very strong symbol of Buddhist belief. The verses behind it are all Buddhist scriptures, so it is a very strong manifestation of the Buddhist faith, and there is no meat in all the tributes in it.
As also emphasized in Xiao Ling's will of the Southern Dynasty before, Xiao Ling instructed his family not to offer him the three animals slaughtered after his death. As we all know, according to the Confucian tradition, when a prince dies, he must at least use the specifications of a small prison, so it is necessary to slaughter livestock. But this was not allowed in his request, he asked for betel nut and jerky and wine to be offered, and the jerky belonged to the three pure meats, which in some Buddhist concepts, because at that time the abstinence from alcohol and meat was not very strong. In that era, betel nut was already considered a Buddhist and could be used to replace traditional Confucian rituals, because Confucianism placed great emphasis on sacrifice, and this method was already adopted at that time, replacing it with betel nut.
In Zhang Wenzao's tomb, the two tribute plates on the far right hold betel nuts.
But I think that even if betel nut is found in Zhang Wenzao's tomb, it cannot be considered that in the Liao era, there was a possibility of widespread eating of betel nut in the north, because I always thought that in the north betel nut was a very expensive thing, or something that only matched the Buddhist belief, it may not be so widely popular, maybe a small number of nobles will enjoy it, but it is unlikely to have a large number of popularity, it is a high-priced thing after all. On this special occasion, we sometimes feel that what is found in the tomb is a normal, but what is found in the tomb is actually a perversion, for example, we often find a large number of bronzes, we will find bronzes when we investigate some of the more important sites, but did the ancients really eat bronzes? It is impossible, the ancients ate with pottery, but those pottery were not preserved, it has a problem of survivor bias.
The same is true inside the tomb, the things that are displayed in the tomb are not the furnishings of their daily lives, there will be some changes, because it is a tomb, there is a special purpose, pinning on other ideas, it is not the same as the daily use. Of course, the tomb is already very good physical evidence, compared to other furnishings. If there is no way, we can only restore a scene of our present life by imagining that people in a thousand years from now want to restore a scene that we have now, and it is very inconceivable to restore the scene of our present life through a scene of a tomb, and we sometimes restore the scene of life in the form of a tomb. If you want an ancient person who has crossed over, it will feel like a very eerie and terrifying thing.
How does betel nut become a symbol of love relationship?
After arriving in the Southern Dynasty, the two uses we have just talked about, one is the medicinal use of betel nut, which is based on the characteristics of its object itself. The other is the use of Buddhism, which came directly from Indian Buddhism and was borrowed by Chinese culture. There is also a very important one, one of the four kinds of imaginations I am talking about about betel nut is called "straightening the pavilion, a thousand and one", which makes the betel nut appear many times in the derogatory poem. That is, when a literati or a scholar in the Central Plains is relegated to the south, he usually writes about betel nut, and will repeatedly emphasize that his heart is the same as betel nut, infinite yearning, and has a loyalty to the imperial court here, he wrote in this paragraph, "The original is not big, the end is not small, the top is not tilted, the bottom is not oblique, straightening the pavilion, thousands of one", this series of things actually reflects the betel nut as a thing, it is a state of being praised, it is given a cultural imagination by the Han, it is a positive plant This kind of cultural imagination began to appear, and this imagination was the first imagination of Han culture superimposed on the betel nut.
Of course, this imagination soon turned into another kind of imagination, loyalty to the partner. Because this kind of thing generally refers to the emperor, although I was sent to Lingnan, I saw the betel nut and I wrote it down to express that my heart for the imperial court has not changed, I still have my heart to the emperor, my heart to the court. However, after going to the people, after all, the opportunity to become an official is not everyone's, but the relationship of love should be that everyone has it, so after going to the people, its image becomes an image of loyalty and mutual need, and it becomes another state, and it becomes a folk love letter.
Betel nut has long maintained a symbol of love relationship, for example, in Indian mythology there is often a relationship between betel nut and love object, very natural betel nut will be used as a kind of love object, because it has "straightened pavilion, thousands of one, up not leaning, down not oblique", anyway is a very positive love image, probably such a meaning, so it has always had such a meaning. In Chinese culture, there is also such a meaning, for example, in Guangdong, Vietnam, and now Vietnamese weddings are also there, and betel nuts are exchanged as a very important gift in Guangxi. Betel nut is a very formal exchange in Lingnan weddings, which embodies a formal relationship, not a secret relationship.
However, in the northern literature records, there is a relationship of stealing affection, such as Jia Lian and You Erjie in the Dream of the Red Chamber begging for betel nuts, which reflects an informal relationship, it is also a relationship between men and women, but it is an informal relationship between men and women. But Lingnan is a very formal relationship between men and women, it embodies the name of "betel nut, betel nut, reward betel nut, betel nut song", it is accompanied by a set of rituals, this is a very formal occasion, betel nut in Lingnan does not have any negative meaning of stealing. But after leaving Lingnan, this meaning was born, why is this? You think the meaning of love hasn't changed, but because it's not that common in the North, it's given a more informal relationship. So there will be such a meaning in it.
This is a painting painted in the early years of the Republic of China, "This Chinese picture of selling betel nuts, its people use cages to fill Annam Hainan betel nuts, sell along the alley, each piece is broken with scissors, buy sporadic food", which is a record of the sale of betel nuts in the early years of the Republic of China at that time. In fact, by the 1980s, some vendors selling betel nuts could often be seen on the streets of Hunan, of course, they did not use this burden, but generally used small carts to travel. The state of packaged betel nut that we are familiar with now has only become popular on a large scale since the 90s, and its real popularity is that after 2000, with the promotion of television media in the country, it is also in specific occupations, such as train drivers and e-sports industry practitioners, it has special career preferences.
In Taiwan, betel nut has a unique meaning, is betel nut Xi Shi, which is a unique cultural symbol produced in Taiwan. Taiwan has always been able to produce betel nut, China's only two betel nut production areas are Hainan one is Taiwan, Hainan betel nut and Taiwan betel nut source is not the same, Taiwan's native ethnic minorities are the habit of picking betel nut, but Taiwan's betel nut Xishi is another custom, the two sources have a big difference, in the book there is a more detailed description. After the Qing Dynasty, in the great changes at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Canton area was once a very important betel nut-eating territory, and now there are only sporadic cultural remnants, and the mainland area only has Xiangtan left after the twentieth century, and only the Xiangtan area has retained the custom of eating betel nut relatively completely. But for the betel nut record of the Guangzhou people are the most written, Guangzhou in history to eat betel nut for a long time, and Guangzhou is the core of Lingnan culture, this place records the history of betel nut, including Yang Fu's "Foreign Object History", Wan Zhen's "Nanzhou Foreign Object History", Shamen Yijing, he is a monk, he once gave porridge teachings overseas, in Indonesia, Malaysia and Sumatra these islands to carry out the teachings. Shamen Yijing, a native of Guangzhou, set out from Guangzhou to try to spread Mahayana Buddhism to a place where there was no Buddhism, and did a very brave act, but in the end it was not very effective. But he wrote a very important note called "The South China Sea Sent back to the Inner Law", and wrote down his entire trip to see the situation in Southeast Asia. Zhou Zhifei's "Lingwai Dai Answer", he was a person from the Song Dynasty, Qu Dajun was a person from the late Ming Dynasty, and Zhao Gunong was a person from the Qing Dynasty, these are all Cantonese. Rong Yuan and Yang Chengzhi are also Cantonese, writing "Betel Nut Research", which is the Republic of China period, the most recorded people about betel nut are still Cantonese, these people formed a series of betel nut records, only then did I later have sufficient resources to write this book. Of course, I am also from Guangzhou, and I have inherited a tradition, and the call in the dark made me write this book.
After the continuous processing of Chinese literati, the image of betel nut in Chinese culture has been further strengthened. For example, Li Bai's "A Betel Nut" uses this allusion "When the golden plate, a betel nut is recommended". There is also a tear to the betel nut, "tears to the betel nut, with the wild goose returned." There is also Yu Xin's "Suddenly Seeing Betel Nut", "The green house is ripe, and the purple spikes are blossoming." Mo said and did not go far, once met." Because of the rendering of the image of betel nut by these literati, the betel nut has formed a more intense image of cultural imprint in Chinese culture, making the betel nut a symbol in Chinese culture, just as we generally say that the lotus flower will think of "Eileen Says" or think of hibiscus, there will be a series of cultural imaginations, the cultural imagination of betel nut starts from here, so it has a more positive cultural imagination in it, because the literati of the Southern and Northern Dynasties continue to render, creating allusions for it.
Guest/Cao Yu
Finishing / Lee Yong Bo
Proofreading/Lucy