Photo by Huang Jianjun
In the twenty-third year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty, Han Jizong, a Truman from the Yuhuan Hall, returned home from Xing'anzhi County, Jiangxi. For some reason, he detoured through Changsha and Nanjing, and went up Jiuhua Mountain to enter incense. Coincidentally met pilgrims from Zhangzhou, Fujian, shared the Zhangzhou Wendan pomelo fruit, obtained thirteen Wendan seeds, brought them back to his hometown (now Longxi Township, which was part of Truman at that time), personally selected, sown and cultivated, and finally planted three Wendan plants. Since then, Wendan seeds have identified this warm land with a subtropical monsoon climate, and have bloomed and borne fruit in Truman's front yard and between mountains and rivers.
At that time, the 378 square kilometers of land in Yuhuan were separated by a water in Whirlpool Bay, and the sea water was deep and rapid, forming the whirlpool turbulence of Whirlpool Bay, a world wonder, and the two sides of the strait needed to take a ferry boat to stagger across the sea. For this reason, people on Yuhuan Island can rarely eat Chumen Wendan with fragrant, soft and juicy flesh.
Living on Yuhuan Island, I was fortunate enough to taste Wendan once a year when I was young. My mother had a very good colleague who was a Truman, and every year before and after the heavy snowfall, he sent a Wendan to my family, and the whole family regarded it as a treasure and treasured it in my bed cabinet. At the end of Chinese New Year's Eve meal, my mother opened the door of the bed cabinet, and a rich aroma rushed out. The mother held Wen Dan to the dining table, carefully drew a circle in the middle with a knife (could not touch the flesh), peeled off two round-roofed grapefruit hats, and the fragrance filled the house, and the family tore off the white edelweiss-like fruit bowls together in the rich aroma, revealing beige crystal fruit petals, which were distributed by each person, which was Chinese New Year's Eve cool after meals.
Photo by Huang Jianjun
On National Day 1977, the construction of the Zhangmen Dam was completed and opened to traffic. After grafting and selecting the seeds of Truman Wendan with local jade orange, Tuluan, etc., the varieties were better, and the seedlings multiplied south to Yuhuan Island, and Wendan was planted on a large scale in the county. After the frost fell, it was frosty, ripe and full, and began to be sold in the bazaar. Most people buy a few a year, and when the whole family gets together or when friends and relatives visit, they share their delicacy with an imposing ritual.
In the early 90s of last century, I was working outside the propaganda department of the Yuhuan County Party Committee and received a task, that is, to compile a brochure introducing Yuhuan. At that time, Truman Wendan had won the championship in the national pomelo fruit quality appraisal for many times and was quite famous. In order to introduce our hometown of Wendan and compile a brochure, my colleagues and I went to Qinggang Yuangen Village for field research, and also asked photographers to photograph Wendan fruit as illustrations.
Walking into the beautiful mountains and surrounded by mountains, the mountains of Wendan make you feel unreal, and some of the dense Wendan trees are interspersed with citrus trees, which are not crowded, but the fruitful fruits have crowded the space of my dreams and inspirations. Approaching an old tree, more than a hundred Wendan strands are straddling and pulling the branches and leaves of the old tree, and in the soft glow of the setting sun, they seem to bask in autumn with the old grandmother, so warm and happy. The fruit farmer weighed the cut Wendan in his hand and selected one for us to taste, the juice was sweet and sour.
Wendan's unique aroma is its favored hardcore. When it is plucked from the tree and comes to your home, it is the opening of another life form. And when it has a natural water dissipation process, the pulp absorbs the moisture of the inner layer of the fruit bowl and peel, the sweetness and moisture are improved, the color of the peel is gradually deepened, the fruit body is relaxed, and the aroma is available from wisps to easy reach. Every year in late autumn, when the weather becomes cold, I buy Wendan home, from autumn to winter, from winter to spring, cherish each other, it spreads a burst of breath, such as the affectionate call of "the flower on the stranger, can slowly return", full of tenderness and honey.
People who plant Wendan also become romantic, hanging a few fruits on their own Wendan tree, but they don't pick them off, until the house is cleaned in the New Year, and then cut the leaves, decorating the green microclimate in the cold winter of La Yue, which is also a vigorous day.
Nowadays, Yuhuan Wendan is famous and known as "China's first pomelo", and has become a tourist and cultural symbol of his hometown. In the course of its short history, it permeates the charm of a terroir and the creativity of a culture. The three Wendan trees planted from 13 seeds have bred thousands of Wendan trees on 45,000 mu of land in their hometown, harvesting tens of thousands of tons of fruit every year.
Photo by Huang Jianjun
About a month after the frost fell, the annual Wendan Festival in my hometown welcomed visitors from all directions, and the self-media rushed to broadcast live direct sales, and a large number of photography enthusiasts came with long guns and short cannons, leaving behind the silhouette of Wendan hanging fruit in late autumn and the happy scene of fruit farmers' harvest. Some painters were infected by the beauty of Wendan's natural form, and they took out their brushes and painted faces and exotic flowers on the dignified and elegant Wendan, making Wendan shine. In late autumn last year, a dashing and handsome theatrical gauze student came to my house, his face full of collagen, clear eyebrows, red lips and white teeth. It was at the spring equinox of the second year, seeing that it was all shiny and its face was so thin that it was skinny, that I reluctantly peeled it off.
I think that if Han Jizong had not met the pilgrims, or had met the pomelo of the pilgrims but had not tasted the pilgrims, and tasted and did not bring back the passion of the seeds, who would have spent the "first pomelo in China" today? The fact is that all assumptions do not exist, and the real existence is that Wendan becomes the fruit of reunion and wealth of the jade ring, and the fragrance floats for thousands of generations. (Ye Qing)