Grain has always been a major event involving the national economy and the people's livelihood, both ancient and modern. In ancient times, due to low productivity, the food problem was particularly important, and in the cultural relics excavated in the Beijing area, it can be seen that human beings made positive efforts to solve the problem of eating.
The ancient lotuses in the Yuanmingyuan bloom in summer
Paleolithic hunter-gatherers
500,000 years ago, Zhoukoudian found many specimens of pu tree fruit cores. Some researchers believe that natural forces and animal factors can be excluded, which are formed by the feeding of Peking apes. There is a similar record in ethnological records: North American Indians ate the pulp of the berry of the tree raw, and then crushed the core into a powder to make a seasoning for meat or corn.
Hunting is also an important way for people to obtain food, and the Beijing area has unearthed the most deer fossils, and it seems that people have a special love for venison. At least 2,000 swollen-boned bighorn deer were captured, and at least 1,000 Werech's spotted deer, the former may have been hunted in early winter, and the latter may have been hunted at the turn of summer and autumn. A large number of bird fossils have been burned, indicating that they are also included in the diet of Peking Ape Man.
The core of the simple tree excavated from Zhoukoudian
Primitive agriculture from the Neolithic era
Always relying on the sky to eat is not a long-term solution. In the late human hunter-gatherer phase, the domestication process of cultivated crops gradually arose. About 10,000 years ago, the Mentougou Donghulin site has selected complete grains of millet (millet) and millet (yellow rice) that are recognizable to the naked eye. These are the first two kinds of artificially cultivated plants in Beijing.
The Shangzhai Neolithic site in Pinggu, the second phase of the remains, dates from about 6,000 to 7,000 years ago, and is regarded by most researchers as a primitive culture whose agriculture has developed to a certain extent. One of the reasons is that there are a considerable number of stone grinding discs and stone grinding rods in the site, which are orderly; while the number of animal bones is significantly smaller, indicating that the hunting activities have been greatly reduced, and it is inferred that agriculture has developed to a certain extent at this time. The second reason is that through the analysis of spore powder, coupled with other carbonized fruit cores and excavated pottery pig heads, pottery sheep heads, etc., the primitive agriculture of the Shangzhai culture has been initially developed.
Agriculturally produced food is easy to store and can help people survive difficult environments and long food shortage seasons, thus feeding a larger population. At the same time, agriculture means a strong link between people and land. This is a new way of life that is different from hunter-gatherers.
Not only the production of food, but also the emergence of agriculture has brought about a series of economic, social and cultural chain reactions - such as the emergence of handicrafts, the establishment of settlements, and the strengthening of the level of organization and management within human society. In short, the emergence of agriculture has played a huge role in the development of human society.
Eastern Han Dynasty figurines unearthed in Tongzhou
The cultivation of agricultural products in the Spring and Autumn Han Dynasties
Carbonized millet blocks were found in bronze tablets from the Spring and Autumn period unearthed in Yanqing, which are close to the millet still sown in the Zhangjiakou area. Most of them are crushed by humans, rather than degraded in their natural state, so it can be concluded that they are raw materials for winemaking. There are also a large number of grain bran fragments in the rice, indicating that it is brewed with liquor. This is the earliest brewing ingredient seen in the Beijing area. This shows that at that time, the production of millet was surplus in addition to satisfying consumption.
Also belonging to the Fangshan Dingjiawa site in the Spring and Autumn Period, the excavated crops include three cereal crops (millet, millet, buckwheat), one bean crop (soybeans), and one economic crop (hemp). This as a whole belongs to the northern dryland farming tradition. It shows that at that time, agriculture implemented a multi-variety crop planting system based on millet cultivation, which improved the overall yield of agriculture and reduced the risk factor of single grain planting, which was a sign of the advanced nature of the level of agricultural development.
The millet grains unearthed have an absolute advantage in quantity, accounting for more than 86% of the total number of crop grains unearthed. They are spherical in shape, mostly more than 1.2 mm in diameter, with a smooth surface, a longer embryo, and a groove due to grilling. As agricultural products, there is no doubt that millet and the daily life of the Dingjiawa people are the most closely related.
Soybeans are an important way for Dingjiawa people to obtain plant proteins. Most of the soybeans unearthed are broken, oval in shape, with a swollen back and a slightly concave abdomen. The bean navel is a narrow, long strip located in the upper part of the abdomen. The whole soybean is 6.24 mm long, 5.08 mm wide and 4.24 mm thick. The seeds of pulse crops will undergo a certain degree of condensation after carbonization, and the original size of Dingjiawa soybeans should be larger. By comparing the measurement data of modern samples, the average length of wild soybeans is generally below 4 mm, and the size of cultivated soybeans is generally above 7 mm. Based on this, it can be determined that the soybeans excavated from the Dingjiawa site belong to cultivated soybeans.
The so-called "five grains" are common in ancient Chinese literature. The term "five grains" was first used in the Analects of the Micron: "The four bodies are not diligent, and the five grains are not divided." The interpretation of which grain crops refers specifically to "five grains" is not consistent in later generations, and there are two main views. The Eastern Han Dynasty classicist Zhao Qi proposed in the commentary on "Five Grains of Trees" in mencius Teng Wen Gongshang: "Five grains are rice, millet, millet, wheat, and millet." Another scribe of the same period, Zheng Xuan, in the note "Zhou Li Tianguan" "nourishing his disease with five tastes, five grains, and five medicines", believes that "five grains, hemp, millet, wheat, beans also." The difference between the two theories is mainly in the presence or absence of rice and hemp. The reason for this disagreement should be related to the preference of the crop varieties grown and eaten by people in different regions at that time. Ruo Yi Zheng Xuan said that the Ding Jiawa site was already full of grain.
In the Western Han Dynasty, in addition to the excavation of Zheng's five grains, the ruins of Tongzhou Road City also added rice and red beans. The phenomenon of so many grain varieties in the same site is very rare, which is crucial for studying the diet structure of the residents of the Two Han Dynasties in the Beijing area.
As for rice, the Book of later Han Records that during the Eastern Han Dynasty, Yuyang Taishou Zhang Kan opened more than 8,000 hectares of rice fields in Hunu (present-day Shunyi) and introduced rice cultivation techniques from Shu County (Sichuan) to the Beijing area. Rice yields are much higher than dry crops, and as a result people's harvests are greatly increased,
To become rich, this measure is called "Yuyang Huizheng" by historians. At that time, the people of Yuyang County had a song: "Mulberry has no branches, wheat ears are two differences, Zhang Jun is the government, and the joy is unbearable." "After harvesting, grain should also be processed such as dehulling and dehulling. Huan Tan of the Eastern Han Dynasty's "New Treatise and Departure": "Because Yan Li borrowed his body to practice the weight, and the benefit was ten times as good as the pestle." "Using foot levers to lift the pillar, this kind of pillar is called "stepping", which can also be seen from the large number of stepping figurines unearthed in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Two people work together, one in front of them stepping on the pillar, one end of the lever is equipped with a pestle head, the other end is stepped on the foot, the other person cooperates, and the two hands clasp the left and right railings. The excavation of the pottery mill shows that the use of stone grinding to grind wheat at that time has greatly improved the degree of refinement of grain.
In the Western Han tombs of Fengtai Dabaotai, jujubes, chestnuts and other fruits were found. Chestnut is a chestnut of the genus Beech family, jujube is a common jujube of the family Rhamnobiaceae, I don't know how to compare with the famous Huairou chestnut and Langjiayuan jujube in Beijing?
Cooking in the Tomb of Liao Dynasty Murals (Copying)
Buns in Liao Dynasty mural tombs (copying)
"Miscellaneous grains" in the Liaojin period
In the Liaojin ruins of Daxing, in addition to the "five grains" of rice, millet, millet, wheat and millet, as well as "miscellaneous grains" such as mung beans and sesame seeds, especially sorghum and weeds, which were the first large-scale excavations in China. This phenomenon suggests that the Beijing area may have been a key node in the spread of sorghum from the north to the Central Plains during the Liao-Jin Dynasty. Daxing's Liao Dynasty pottery barn is filled with sesame seeds. I wonder if the ancients used it to make tahini, sesame paste, or to squeeze sesame oil?
Interestingly, the murals of Zhao Dejun's tomb in the Liao Dynasty's Lulong Jiedu tell us how pasta was made at that time. In the kitchen drawing, a woman kneads the dough hard in front of the case, and the way the dough is kneaded is almost the same as today; in the other pallet drawing, a woman holds a disc in her hand, and the food on the plate is pleated, which should be two buns.
Ancient lotus blooms in the Qing Dynasty
"What is this?!" In 2017, archaeologists issued such an exclamation in the Jingxiang Pond of the Yuanmingyuan Ruyuan Ruins. Eleven ancient seeds were found here and brought to professional institutions for identification, and these seeds turned out to be ancient lotus seeds from the Qing Dynasty.
People have come up with a bold idea: through modern technological means, can ancient lotus seeds sprout and blossom? Ancient lotus seeds germinate longer than ordinary lotus seeds and are more difficult to cultivate, because of their long burial time, coupled with the quality factors of the seeds themselves, which reduces the survival rate. After expert monitoring and careful cultivation, 6 ancient lotus seeds successfully sprouted and grew leaves to form lotus roots. After overwintering in the greenhouse, it is moved out of the greenhouse for planting the following year.
The reason why the ancient lotus seed can survive for a long time is because it has been buried in peat soil with low temperature, low humidity and little microbial interference, living a long-term dormant life, the metabolism has almost stopped, and it does not have the conditions to take root and sprout. Ancient lotus seeds also contain very little moisture, only 12%, and it has a hard shell on the outside, which can prevent moisture leakage. There is also a small air chamber in the ancient lotus, which stores about 0.2 cubic millimeters of air to maintain its life. It is precisely because of so many coincidences that ancient lotus seeds can miraculously sprout, take root and blossom after a hundred years.
Sleeping for a hundred years, ancient lotuses bloom. Shu huang has a certificate, and ten thousand years meet.
(Original title: Shu Huang has a certificate of ten thousand years to meet)
Source: Beijing Daily Author: Guo Jingning (Author Affilications: Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage)
Process Editor: L019
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