Speaker: Zhang Jian Venue: School of History and Sociology, Chongqing Normal University Speech time: April 2023
Zhang Jian is a second-level professor, doctor of history and doctoral supervisor of the Department of World History, School of History and Culture of Sichuan University, vice president of the China Overseas Transportation History Research Association, consultant of the China Agricultural History Society, deputy secretary-general and executive director of the China World Medieval History Research Association, and former deputy secretary-general and standing director of the China World Ancient History Research Association. He mainly researches world history, and is the author of "Research on Geographical Discoveries, 15th-17th Centuries", "The Spread and Significance of Crops in the New World", etc., and has published more than 200 academic papers.
Food crops are the primary crops among crops, which are related to the survival and reproduction of human beings. For China, the world's most populous country with more than 1.4 billion people, the feeling that "the people take food as the sky" is also profound. Among the crops in the Americas, food crops are also the most important. In my research, I have counted more than 60 kinds of agricultural and forestry crops domesticated, cultivated, cultivated and endemic to the Americas by American Indians in history. Among them, the influence is very large, and the widely distributed ones are roughly divided into eight categories (including grain feed, economy, dried fruits, vegetables, fruits, medicinal herbs, Titian, ornamental crops, etc.) more than 20 kinds. Due to its importance, in this lecture we will only briefly describe the spread of maize, potatoes and sweet potatoes in food crops in the Americas.
Corn: Two centuries of transmission
The scientific name of maize is maize, a family of grasses, an annual herb. Also commonly known as bud valley, jade wheat and so on. Corn has strong adaptability to soil climate and water fertilizer, low requirements, fast growth, high yield, less labor and time-consuming, easy storage, and drought resistance, cold resistance, barren resistance, and its advantages are outstanding, so it has spread all over the world in about two centuries. The spread of maize, its further improvement and the creation of new varieties have greatly solved the problem of feeding people on all continents and the feed needed to raise livestock and poultry.
On February 15, in Diaoling Township, Linkou County, Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province, farmers used equipment to thresh corn in preparation for spring plowing. Xinhua News Agency
About 7,000 years ago, corn began to be domesticated and cultivated in the valleys of the central highlands of Mexico. Large stone warehouses containing corn have been found in Peru more than 4,000 years ago. The Indians also enshrined corn along with people as a symbol of life, carving it into Mayan monuments and on the pyramids of Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico. Under the long-term selection and cultivation of Indians, by the end of the 15th century, the main characteristics of each cultivard or variety had basically formed.
The Columbus expedition "discovered" corn after its first voyage to the Americas. It was first mentioned in his diary on October 16, 1492, and called it "Indian grain". "This island [Ferdinan Island-Long Island] is full of greenery," he said,...... They cultivated and harvested Indian grains and other crops throughout the year" (Zhang Zhishan, ed., Columbus Voyage to America: Historical Documents and Modern Studies, Commercial Press, 1994). On November 15, Gosh wrote: "There was a land there [at this time they were in Cuba] where a crop was grown, bearing fruit somewhat like wheat, which the locals called Mahiz (later the etymology of the Spanish maiz, English maize, meaning corn). "Corn, as a peculiar crop never seen by Europeans at that time, such as Columbus, aroused great interest from the crew, and after tasting it, Columbus and his party greatly appreciated its taste. When the expedition returned, Columbus brought back corn. Among his gifts to the kings and queens of Spain was a packet of golden corn kernels. Corn has since entered Europe. In 1494, an Italian pamphlet gave a preliminary description of corn. In 1511, the botanist Peter Matyr's introduction to corn was widely circulated. In 1532, specimens of European cultivated maize were already available in the herbarium in Italy. The German naturalist Fuchs drew accurate drawings of corn plants in his 1542 Dehistoria stirpium commentariiinsignes, and described that corn was cultivated in various gardens at that time. The 16th-century Spanish historian and missionary Sargon wrote in detail about corn in his General History of Things in New Spain, published in 1577. From the middle of the 16th century, corn slowly left the courtyard and became one of the main food and fodder crops in southern Europe. In the 17th century, corn was popularized in the Iberian Peninsula and became a grain crop second only to wheat, and was introduced to the Mediterranean coast of Europe. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the names of corn were more disordered throughout Europe, including Spanish wheat (millet), Indian wheat, Turkish wheat (grain, millet, millet), French millet and more than a dozen names. This also reflects the perception of maize and the spread of maize.
Diagram of a corn plant in Fox's Flora, published in 1542. Profile picture
In the early 16th century, Portuguese slave traders roaming the west coast of Africa introduced corn to the Congo in West Africa, then known as "Portuguese millet". Portuguese sources from 1561 already mention maize in the Zambezi River basin of Africa (present-day western Zambia, northern Zimbabwe, and the country of the Kalenga). Maize then spread rapidly to the tropical rainforest regions of Central Africa. According to the Dutch man Olfel Daper (Dapper) in the early 17th century, corn was already being grown in large quantities on the Gold Coast (Ghana) of Africa at that time. At the same time, corn has been planted in Angola and in parts of Africa. According to Portuguese records, Portuguese colonists were already growing corn in Zanzibar, East Africa, in 1634.
In the early 17th century, corn was introduced from the Turk-ruled Balkans to Russia and the surrounding region. Near the end of the 18th century, corn spread among the Slavs in Ukraine, the Kuban lowlands and Georgia. Over time, corn gradually replaced millet (millet) as one of the staple foods of some of Russia's poor inhabitants. However, in the eyes of the middle and upper classes of Russian society, corn was still a vegetable until the 19th century, and it was gradually recognized as food.
In 1601, the Spaniards introduced corn to the Mariana Islands in Oceania. At the end of the 17th century, explorer William Dampier discovered that corn had become a bulk food for the inhabitants of Timor. It can be seen that corn has begun to be popularized in Nanyang at this time. In 1542, the Portuguese came to Tanegashima in southern Japan, and in 1579 they introduced corn to Nagasaki, Japan. The Japanese write corn as "southern barbarian millet" or "maize".
Corn is introduced into China, and there are many channels. To put it simply, one is from West Asia and Central Asia along the overland Silk Road to the northwest of the mainland (Shaanxi and Gansu); The second is that the Portuguese brought corn to India, and then introduced it to the southwest of the mainland (Yunnan) through Indochina, Myanmar, etc., and then promoted and Sichuanqian; The third is to cross the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, and corn was introduced to the southeast coast of the mainland (Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong) by Portuguese and Chinese businessmen. All three routes were introduced to maize later in the mid-16th century. In 1560 (the 39th year of the Ming Dynasty), there were the earliest clear records and morphological descriptions of corn in China. Zhao Shichun's "Pingliang Fuzhi" volume 4 "Pingliang County and Property" contains: "Fan wheat, a western tianwheat, seedling leaves like shu straw and fat short, and the end has ears, like rice instead of fruit. It is like a tower, as big as a pongzi, and between the nodes. Flowers weeping red velvet, at the end of the tower. Five or six inches long. Planted in March, harvested in August. Its detailed description can help us clearly determine that it is corn, and the crops such as "jade wheat" recorded in the previous Fang Zhi are difficult to determine as corn due to the lack of morphological description. Documents from 1573 (the first year of the Wanli Ming Dynasty) first showed that corn was introduced from abroad. Tian Yiheng's "Liuqing Riza" volume 26 "Yumai" recorded: "Yumai is from the west, and the old name is Fanmai. Because of his former entry into the imperial palace, so the name is imperial mai... The flowers bloom at the top, the fruit is knotted, and the valley is really different. Wuxiang (Hangzhou) has spread this kind, and there are many kinds. Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" pointed out: "Jade millet, planted in the western soil, the planters are rare." You Yun: "The seedling heart has a bud, like a brown fish, and white whiskers hang down from the bud." For a long time, the buds were dismantled and clustered. The seeds are also as large as rice dumplings, yellowish and white. It can be fried and fried. Although Xu Guangqi's Complete Book of Agricultural Administration only talks about corn in a few strokes, it is worth noting that the "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration" uses the name "corn": "There is no kind of corn, or jade wheat, or jade straw, and the cover is also planted from other sources." (Volume 25 "Arboriculture Tanibe")
Strictly speaking, Xu Guangqi's "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration" only used the word "corn" for the first time in the scope of agricultural books. In my research, I found that the use of the word "maize" in the context of literary works had already occurred before the Agricultural Government. For example, the word "cornmeal" as a food pastry has appeared in the Ming Dynasty novel "Jin Ping Mei": for example, "When I took four plates and four bowls when I boarded, there were a lot of ga rice on the table, and I couldn't eat it; Two more plates of cornmeal and goose fat steamed cakes" (Episode 15). This seems to indicate that the cultivation of corn in the Ming Dynasty was still very rare, and people still regarded cornmeal as a relatively rare hospitality food. By the Qing Dynasty, due to the increase in population, corn was completely spread and popularized. It should be added that Chinese not only grew up in historical thinking, leaving a wealth of historical books and historical materials, but also good at image thinking, drawing many historical pictures about corn. Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" draws a concise picture of corn and captures the characteristics of corn plants; In the Qing Dynasty, Wu Qipu's "Examination of Plant Names and Facts" (Volume 2 "Cereals and Cereals") even depicts the details of corn's stems, leaves, male inflorescences, and female inflorescences (fruit spikes). The appearance of corn drawings in the Ming and Qing dynasties also reflects the daily life of corn entering the Chinese.
In the processing and consumption of corn, Chinese has developed a variety of eating methods: including boiling, grilling, steaming corn on the cob, stir-fried corn kernels for cooking, grinding corn kernels into flour to eat, breaking corn kernels and cooking porridge with rice or millet. Corn also had an influence on Chinese and Chinese culture, for example, the popular afterphrase: "Monkey (or bear) breaks corn (or bud valley) - break one and lose one".
Potatoes: from "ghost apples" to "hot potatoes"
Potato (Solanumtuberosum L.), alias potato, artichoke, yam egg, etc., is an annual herb of the nightshade family, for the convenience of introduction, I use the more common name of potato in life - potato. According to current research, the domestication and cultivation of potatoes can be traced back to 7,000 years ago, and the area where humans first cultivated potatoes can be located between Lake Titicaca and Lake Bobo in Bolivia. In Peru and Bolivia, pottery with the image of a potato has been found in the 4th century AD. From Peru to Chile, pottery modeled after potatoes has also been excavated in ancient tombs.
The oldest surviving color drawing of a potato by Crusius in France in 1588. Profile picture
Potatoes have many advantages, including low soil requirements, low demand for water and fertilizer, high yield, better nutrition, not afraid of war, easy to process and eat, and can grow in cold areas at high altitudes, and potatoes gradually spread around the world at the end of the 16th century.
There are different theories about the initial spread of potatoes. American scholars believe that it was discovered only in 1532 when the Spaniards arrived in northern Peru. In 1570, potatoes were introduced from Peru to Spain. However, British scholars believe that potatoes were introduced to Europe by the Spanish in 1525. Soviet scholars have verified that the Spanish navigator Siza de Leon brought some potato nuggets back to Spain from Peru in 1555 and reported to King Charles I how to eat this rare crop. This is also the first time that physical potatoes have appeared in Europe. After the potato entered Europe, it was initially only planted in gardens for ornamental purposes and for botanists and pharmacists to collect and study. The famous German botanist Fox probably referred to the cultivated potato crop before 1560, and drew a color picture of the plant and fruit tubers of the potato in his "Vienna Botanical Codex", which is probably the earliest potato picture in Europe.
Historically, the fruit tuber of potatoes was delayed by irregular shape, many nodules, dark bud eyes, difficulty in peeling, and poor color, and it was once suspected of being poisonous. Of course, we now know that sprouted potatoes and undercooked bud eyes are toxic because of solanine; Due to poor preservation, the sun-exposed parts of many surface discoloration and greenery are also toxic because they contain glyco-alkaloids, and need to be thrown away or removed. And 400 years ago, it was even thought that eating potatoes would cause leprosy to spread. Therefore, the French region of Burgundy officially declared in 1619 that potato eating was prohibited in the region. Prejudice against potatoes continued in Europe for two centuries, but the high yield of potatoes and advances in awareness still allowed potato cultivation to spread.
For a long time, European countries were very confused about the name of potatoes, as many as dozens, and the confusion of titles also reflected the views of countries on the origin, spread and characteristics of potatoes at that time. This confusion has also led to the very different roots of potatoes in the major European languages today. English, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese are derived from the common root potato, patata, patata, and batata, respectively; German, Russian, and Dutch are derived from the common root Kartofell, картофель, and Aardappel, respectively; The French word pommedeterre (meaning: apple in the soil).
The earliest recorded consumption of potatoes by Europeans came in 1573, when a hospital in Seville regularly bought potatoes for consumption. It can be seen that potatoes have entered the field and market in Spain. According to records, potatoes were cultivated as vegetables in Italy in 1588. In the second half of the 16th century, potatoes were introduced to England, and famous pirates such as Drake, Huggins, and Rayleigh were the first to introduce potatoes to Britain. By 1596, the Englishman Gerrade was growing potatoes in his London garden. In 1552 and 1553, the General History of the Indians and the Peruvian Yearbook, written by Gomara, were published in Spain, becoming the first Western documents to record and introduce the potato. French agronomist de Serres introduced potatoes in 1600, and Austrian (Austrian) Clucius gave the earliest botanical description of potatoes in 1601 and said that potatoes were grown in most German gardens at that time. The frequent and fierce wars in Europe at the end of the Middle Ages and the early modern period also greatly stimulated the promotion and popularization of potatoes. In 1641-1642, an anti-English uprising broke out in Ireland, and the English invaders brutally suppressed the rebels in Ireland, and the war led to the failure of most crops or even the loss of grain. Potatoes, on the other hand, survived the ordeal underground, allowing the Irish to survive the famine, and Ireland became the first European country to use potatoes as one of its staple foods. In 1697-1698, Peter the Great and his entourage travelled to Western Europe, and in 1699 he received a bag of potatoes (potato cubes) from a Dutch friend in Moscow. Peter the Great ordered them to be distributed to the provinces for cultivation, and potatoes were introduced to Russia. Contrary to the long-standing discrimination against potatoes in Western Europe, throughout 18th-century Russia, potatoes were a rare food largely reserved for aristocratic families. Due to the frequent occurrence of various types of food poisoning caused by the sprouted potato pieces not thrown away or not gouged out of the bud eyes, the green part of the skin and flesh was not cut off, not cooked, so some Russians in this period called potatoes "ghost apples" (чёртоваяблока), and the majority of peasant serfs in Russia at that time did not accept it. Later, with a concurrent famine and plague in Russia in 1765, Catherine II realized the importance of potatoes, so the tsarist government began to strongly encourage the cultivation of potatoes. In the first half of the 19th century, Nicholas I continued to persuade farmers to grow potatoes, and potatoes gradually spread in Russia.
It is currently speculated that the Portuguese introduced potatoes to India around the second half of the 16th century. Potatoes were then introduced to Indonesia. According to Western sources, the Dutch shipped potatoes to Nagasaki, Japan, in 1601. Recent research has further revealed that the Dutch transported potatoes from the port of Jakarta (then known to the Japanese as the port of ジャガタラ) on the Indonesian island of Java into Nagasaki and introduced them to Japan, so in the late Middle Ages, the Japanese called potatoes ジャガタラtaro. Later, after sound change and simplification, it evolved into the word "potato" ジャガイモ in today's Japanese, and its pronunciation is still based on that place name (ジャガタラ). At the end of the 18th century, the Russians brought potatoes from the north to Hokkaido. Potatoes gradually spread in northeastern Japan and were used for ornamental purposes, to fodder, and then to vegetables and grains.
There may be two routes for the introduction of potatoes to China: north and south. In the mid-17th century, the Dutch introduced potatoes from Japan to mainland Taiwan. According to the Dutchman John Struys, he saw potato cultivation in Taiwan in 1650 (the seventh year of the Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty). Later, it was introduced from Taiwan to Fujian and Guangdong, so there is still custom in these areas to refer to potatoes as Dutch potatoes and Javanese potatoes (see Yang Hongzu, Teng Zongfan, Yifan: "Potato", "Chinese Agricultural Encyclopedia, Crop Volume", Agricultural Publishing House, 1993 edition). Around 1700, Westerners also saw the cultivation of potatoes in Dinghai County, Zhoushan Island. At present, the earliest and more accurate Chinese historical record of potatoes may be Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica(1578). "Compendium of Materia Medica" volume 27 "Cai no 2 Tu Tao" Yun: "Tu Yao, Shi name Tu Egg, Huang Du, Potato." The potato is sprawling, the leaves are like bean leaves, and the owl (referring to the cuckoo) vomits after eating, and people cannot eat it. "Potatoes are mentioned here for the first time. "Earth eggs are sprawling, like taro." ...... People cook in ash,...... White flesh and yellow skin,...... can be steamed" (ibid.). Subsequently, Xu Guangqi's "Complete Book of Agricultural Government" (written in 1628) volume 27 "Tree Art and Gongbu" also clouded: "Tuyao, one potato, one yellow du, creeping, leaves like beans (leaves), roots round like chicken eggs, flesh white skin yellow, can be boiled in gray juice, can also be steamed." and boiled taro juice to wash greasy clothes, white as jade. "Here again the potato is mentioned. I think that this fruit of crops that grow in the soil, have a round root like a chicken's egg, resemble a taro, have white flesh and yellow skin, and can be steamed and cooked, probably refers to what we call potatoes. In this way, potatoes may have been introduced to China by the end of the Ming Dynasty. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Lü Yi's "History of the Ming Palace" recorded the "treasures of the times" to be collected and tasted in the palace, including "pine nuts in Liaodong, yellow flowers and golden needles in the north of thistle, yam and potatoes in the capital, moss and bamboo shoots in the southern capital, chickpea shoots, yellow essence, and black essence in Wudang, hazel, chestnut, pear, jujube, walnut, huanglian, tea, magnolia buds, bracken, and vine in the north mountain, and there are countless of them" (Volume 4 "Good Diet and Zhengyue", Siku Quanshu, vol. 651). The potato is mentioned here again, and it is clearly stated that it is a treasure for the nobility, and the potato and yam are separated, and it is explained that it is produced in the Beijing area, from which it is inferred that the potato mentioned here should be the potato. In the initial stages of the potato's arrival in China, Chinese, like Europeans, initially suspected it was poisonous. In the early Qing Dynasty (about 1680), Kangxi's "Gifu Tongzhi Property" recorded: "A potato is a potato, and the taste of steaming is like a sweet potato", indicating that potatoes had been introduced to Hebei Province from Beilu before the 80s of the 17th century. The name of the potato was first found in the "Songxi County Records and Properties" of Fujian Province in the 39th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, which also gave a general description of its characteristics: "The vegetable grows according to the tree, digs it, has a shape, is a little like a bell, black and round, and bitter and sweet." Kangxi's "Fujian Tongzhi" volume 57 "Property Products Quanzhou Mansion" said that Quanzhou Mansion "has taro potatoes and sweet potatoes." Taro is most likely a transitional name from potato to potato. During the Daoguang period, Wu Qipu wrote the "Examination of Plant Names and Facts", and its sixth volume "Vegetables" not only detailed the various aspects of yam (potato), but also said that Shanxi "commonly called yam eggs". Therefore, the Book of Wu recorded for the first time the two common aliases of potatoes - yang (foreign) taro and yam egg, and drew its full picture. This is the first exact potato picture in China.
In modern times, potato cultivation has spread throughout China. In modern times, with the progress of production and the improvement of living standards, potatoes are increasingly playing the role of side dishes of common dishes, such as braised pork with potatoes, steamed pork with potatoes, fried shredded potatoes, braised potato puree, etc. Today, various fried, puffed (potato chips) fries processed by modern industrial methods are also popular. In 2008, China's potato cultivation area was more than 88 million mu, making it the world's largest producer and consumer of potatoes. Since modern times, the saying "hot potato" has been popular in China, which shows its profound impact on Chinese life.
Sweet potato: a food and fodder crop that can be eaten both raw and cooked
Sweet potatoes are annual or perennial herbaceous root plants in the family Ipomoeabatatas L., English name Sweetpotato. Commonly known as sweet potatoes, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, also known as vermilion potatoes, sweet potatoes, red moss, etc. The roots of sweet potatoes can be eaten both cooked and raw when used as food, and can also be used as feed, sugar and alcohol, etc., and their stems and leaves can also be used as feed, which is a relatively important food and multi-purpose crop.
German scholar Elsholz painted a picture of a sweet potato in the mid-to-late 17th century. Profile picture
The cultivation of sweet potatoes originated in Central and South America. In the late 60s of the 20th century, sweet potato tuber relics were excavated from caves in the Chilca Canyon in Peru, South America, and were determined to be tens of thousands of years old. In Mesoamerica, sweet potatoes were domesticated and cultivated by Indians at least 5,000 years ago. The center of origin of sweet potatoes is set between the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and the mouth of the Orinoco River in Venezuela. Sweet potato cultivation was first domesticated in this area, and spread to the Caribbean and South America by local Indians 4,500 years ago. By the near-Columbian era, sweet potatoes were widely cultivated by many tribes such as the Indian Aztecs in the rainforests of the Amazon and Orinoco river basins, the Chibcha people and the Maya in the Bogotá (city) valley of Colombia.
Around the end of the 15th century, sweet potatoes were brought back to Spain and Europe by Columbus and then by the historian G.F. de Oviedo. But they brought back potato cubes and did not cultivate them. In 1526, sweet potatoes were introduced to Spain from the West Indies by the Spaniards for cultivation and from there to European countries. The spread and spread of sweet potatoes in Europe has been relatively slow. It was misunderstood for some time, like potatoes, and was considered to contain substances that were harmful to the human body. This situation also suggests that European medicinists and botanists are first and foremost interested in new crops, and their motivation may be more to find new medicines. In the 17th century, sweet potatoes expanded their cultivation in Spain, but in Europe due to dietary habits and geographical conditions, the influence of sweet potatoes was limited.
There are also relatively few documentary and pictorial depictions of sweet potatoes during this period. In the mid-to-late 16th century, the Spanish historian and missionary Sargon examined the sweet potato fields of the Aztecs and wrote informative information about sweet potatoes in the General History of Things in New Spain (1577): they "had other edible roots, formed like turnips in the ground, called kamotelli: these were local sweet potatoes, which were cooked, eaten raw and fried". In the middle and late 17th century, the German scholar Elsholz drew a more realistic and complete picture of the tubers of sweet potato vine leaves.
In the 16th century, slave ships traveling between the Americas and Africa used sweet potatoes as food for slaves. Sweet potatoes were thus introduced to the coasts of West Africa and gradually spread throughout Africa. Sweet potatoes were then introduced from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean and into India. In the first half of the 16th century, the Spaniards brought sweet potatoes to the South Sea-Malay Archipelago, first in Manila in the Philippines and Moluccas, Indonesia, and from this archipelago to countries on the Asian continent.
In 1769, British navigator Captain Cook, accompanying botanists Buenquez and Solander discovered the indigenous people growing sweet potatoes in Tahiti in the Polynesian Islands. Although the sweet potato is thought to have originated in the Americas, it was definitively brought to Tahiti long before any European visits, including the earliest crossing of the Pacific by Magellan, and was also confirmed to have been brought to New Zealand, where no European had visited before. Ancient relics of sweet potatoes (tubers) have been found in the Cook Islands around the area, dating to 1000 AD by radiocarbon dating, and it is thought that sweet potatoes reached the central Polynesian archipelago probably in 700 AD, and it is speculated that Polynesians may have sailed to South America and brought back sweet potatoes, which in turn spread to Easter Island, Hawaii and New Zealand.
Considering that Magellan's fleet crossed the Pacific Ocean to the Philippines in 1521, it is estimated that sweet potatoes slowly came to the Philippines from the Americas in the mid-16th century. It was introduced to the Ryukyu Islands by the Portuguese in the early 17th century.
In 1615, the Englishman Richard Cox introduced sweet potatoes to Japan. In his diary on June 4, 1615, he wrote: Today we transplanted "this potato to the Nagasaki area." This is the first documented introduction of sweet potatoes to the interior of Japan.
The route and time of sweet potatoes' entry into China are also not clearly defined. We speculate that sweet potatoes were introduced to China roughly by land and sea in the seventies and eighties of the 16th century. In the "Yunnan Tongzhi" of the fourth year of the Wanli Ming Dynasty (1576), there is a record of the cultivation of "sweet potatoes" in the four provinces of Lin'an, Yao'an, Jingdong and Shunning (volume 27 "Goods and Vegetables"), and it is arranged between the potato (yam) and the cloud plate potato, but there is no description and shape depiction. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Qi Biaojia (1602-1645) "Yushan Note Feng Pu" Yun: "He also obtained sweet potato heterogeneous species from overseas, each copy, can plant two or three acres, and each mu can harvest one or two carts of potatoes, to replace the grain, enough to wrap the belly of a hundred people." (Xie Guozhen, ed. "Selected Socio-economic Historical Materials of the Ming Dynasty", Fujian People's Publishing House, 1980 edition) Combining these two records, the "sweet potato" recorded in the "Yunnan Tongzhi" is most likely the imported American sweet potato. In addition, according to the Qing Xuantong's "Dongguan County Record" volume 14 "Public Opinion Land and Property", in the eighth year of the Wanli Ming Dynasty (1580), Chen Yi, a native of Fenggang, Guangdong, took a boat to Annam (Vietnam), and the local chief entertained him with a local product called sweet potato, which tasted sweet. Chen brought it back. Since this object comes from the "fanbang" in the eyes of Akito, it is called sweet potato. Then, Chen Zhenlong, a native of Changle, Fujian, introduced sweet potatoes to Fujian. "In Wanli, the Min people have foreign countries. ...... Gai crossed the Fujian Sea to the south, and there was the Luzon state,...... For trade, the Min people are more ja and Luzon Yan. Its state-owned vermilion, is wildly mountained. ...... Nothing but not Chinese. Chinese intercepted his vines and took Xiao Gaizhong to him, so he entered Fujian for more than ten years. (Book of Min, vol. 150, Nanchanzhi Sweet Potato) Xu Guangqi's account of the introduction of sweet potatoes is even more interesting: "In recent years, some people have obtained this kind of overseas food. Foreigners are also prohibited from leaving the country. This person took the potato vine, twisted it into the rope of water, and then crossed the sea. Therefore, the transplantation is slightly through the vast realm of Fujian. (The Complete Book of Agricultural Affairs, vol. 27, Arboriculture)
Compared with the previous transmission speed in other countries, sweet potatoes have spread more rapidly and comprehensively in China. At the end of the 16th century, when a famine occurred in Fujian, Governor Jin Xuezeng vigorously promoted the cultivation of sweet potatoes, and the starving people were able to overcome the famine. He Qiaoyuan wrote in the Book of Min around 1600 that due to the extensive cultivation of sweet potatoes, in Quanzhou it was "not worth one pound, but two catties and can be full." Therefore, the elderly and children can eat porridge and beggars. Xu Guangqi concluded that sweet potatoes have "thirteen victories" (advantages), including high yield and beneficial to people, white and sweet, rapid reproduction, disaster prevention and hunger relief, can be filled with grain (sacrificial products), can make wine, can be stored for a long time, can be used as cake bait, raw and cooked, may not be able to farm and avoid locusts, etc. (The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration, vol. 27, "Arboriculture, Shobu").
Sweet potato itself has the characteristics of waterlogging resistance, drought resistance and barren resistance, and is especially suitable for China's topographic soil climatic conditions and Chinese taste. So far, China has become the number one country in the production and consumption of sweet potatoes. The planting area remains at 75 million to 80 million mu all year round, accounting for about 60% of the world's planting area, and the annual output accounts for about 80% of the world's total output. In addition to boiling and steaming sweet potatoes, Chinese has also developed many eating methods such as roasted sweet potatoes (white potatoes), boiled red porridge, sweet potato tamales, as well as drying, stir-frying, and fried dried red moss, which has the nature of snacks. In addition, in China, a very popular saying such as "it is better to go home and sell sweet potatoes than to be the master of the people" has been born.
brief summary
The three major grain crops of corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes introduced by us can be widely spread around the world because they have many advantages such as high yield, fast growth, low requirements for soil and fertilizer water, strong adaptability to climate, long sowing period, less labor, less affected by diseases and pests, and easy storage and processing.
At the same time, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc. can also be used as fodder (including fruits and stems and leaves), which can significantly promote the development of animal husbandry to produce more meat, eggs and milk, which has a lasting impact on improving lives.
With the popularization of corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes around the world, the cultures of various countries have also been quite affected, all of which illustrate the importance of the spread of corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes in the history of agriculture.
Guang Ming Daily(Version 10, May 13, 2023)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily