On the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, the Song Dynasty began to call it the Tianzhao Festival, which comes from the story of the arrival of the Book of Heaven when Emperor Zhenzong of Song came.
On this day, there are festivals such as drying clothes, dyeing cloth and exposing them, drying books, and bathing. At this time, it is a summer day, but the weather is hot, and people are also busy putting summer grains into storage and harvesting a variety of agricultural products on the market.
Folk have "June 6, open taro house" and "June 6, taste the new festival" folk proverb, refers to this time there are a lot of newly harvested wheat, rice, taro, melon and fruit, etc., people want to take it to taste the new, but also made into a variety of cool and lubricated food. Not only delicious, but also healthy to relieve the heat. Taro, melons and fruits have also become aesthetic objects, and there have been poems and paintings throughout the ages.
Zhang Daqian,"Sweet Potato"
Qi Baishi "Vegetable Fragrance Map"
According to the Ming Dynasty's "Zhi Zhongzhi", the court ate the water on the sixth day of the first month of June and chewed silver seedlings, that is, the newly tender lotus root. Folk stir-fried wheat noodles are mixed with cold water and molasses, called sweet wheat porridge; fried barley noodles and sugar, ice water, called fried noodles primer. They are cool and slippery foods that can dispel the heat.
In June, the goji berries are ripe and the red fruits are clustered and can be appreciated. Qing Dynasty poet Huang Enxi's "Zhongwei Bamboo Branch Words" said that the wolfberry fruit of Ningxia Zhongwei on the yellow river side of the Yellow River is ripe with red trees, the scene is gratifying, the quality is also excellent nationwide, and it can be well priced: "In June, the trees in the berry garden are red, and the Ning'an medicinal fruits are good at it." A thousand dollars and a bucket of timely prices, decisive victory in the field of early abundance. ”
The Qing Dynasty painter Yun Shouping has "Dantai Purple Qi Diagram", painting the branches of goji berries full of purple flowers and red fruits.
Yun Shouping of the Qing Dynasty "Dantai Purple Gas Map"
Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangxi and other places in the south produce a variety of jasmine, frangipani, Jianlan, gardenia, pearl orchid, white orchid (that is, white Burmese gui, huangju orchid), yellow orchid (huang burmese gui) and other fragrant flowers, known as south flowers, often transported to Suzhou, Beijing and other places in the summer, for people to make tea for flower tea, girls to wear, make various flower baskets, flower arrangements and so on.
For example, one of the Qing Dynasty female painter Xi Peilan's "Flowers, Birds, Grasses and Insects" album, there are paintings of jasmine, orchid, cui chrysanthemum, ganoderma lucidum, bamboo leaves stored in a blue glazed flower dish.
One of The Books of Sciplan's Flowers, Birds, Grasses and Insects
The Qing Dynasty anonymity "Twelve Beauties of the Deep Willow Reading Hall" of the "Summer Butterfly" frame, painting the summer court, outdoor grass blossoms, indoor girls holding small gourds, leaning on the case; the desk has a white gardenia flower and orchid branches inserted in a white glazed red cockroach pattern garlic head vase. Gardenias, orchids, grasses, and gourds all have the meaning of praying for the birth of heirs.
Qing Dynasty Anon. "Butterfly Chart of Summer Consumption"
In the area of Suzhou Tiger Hill and Shantang, there are Pearl Orchid and Jasmine Flower Markets in summer. Not only local flowers, but also flowers from Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi. On Tiger Hill Street, the sound of flowers is sold, and flower farmers sell jacquard baskets and flower bearers, or row painting boats in the Shantang River to carry flowers for sale.
The poet Jiang Baoling's "Wumen Bamboo Branches" has a chant: "The wind at the end of the ping is cool in June, and the painting of the boat is moored in the mountain pond." Quang Nam flowers are sold in Gangnam, and the pearl orchid jasmine inside the curtain. "Fragrant flowers flourish and can decorate the living environment; the rich floral fragrance spreads with the wind, and it is enough to drive away the heat."
Qing Dynasty Jiang Shu's "Zhulan Tu"
(Written by Ma Dayong)
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