Chinese traditional lunar year begins with a "solar term song". This song skillfully coherently connects the twenty-four solar terms of the lunar year, and when the twenty-eight words are read in a flash, it is the time of the year: "Spring rain shocks the spring valley days, summer is full of mango and summer and summer are connected, autumn dew and autumn frost falls, winter snow and snow are small and cold in winter." ”
The first "spring" word in the "Song of Festivals" refers to Li Chun. On this day of the year, the sun reaches the ecliptic longitude of 315 °, the temperature, sunshine, rainfall have begun to rise, increase, the so-called "spring gas began to establish also", the lunar year also began at this time.
In the years when the commodity economy was not yet developed, different seasonal foods often had strong seasonal hints, such as tangyuan for the Lantern Festival, Zongzi for the Dragon Boat Festival, and mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival... In Japanese haiku, "seasons" are often used to embellish the change of time, and in the idyllic era, the seasons of Chinese are this variety of delicacies, and the spring rolls are the most delicious seasonal words of the spring season.
The memories of Li Chun in the old age
Spring rolls, as the name suggests, are more or less associated with spring. At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, Chen Yuanliang, who was known for his natural objects, recorded in his "Chronicle of the Ages" that "spring cakes, lettuce, and spring plates are eaten in the spring", a custom that was scattered in the chronicles of the dynasties and dynasties, and eventually condensed into the earliest celebration of the twenty-four solar terms.
The so-called chronicle of the years refers to the ancients' obedience to the wind and grass and the flow of water and flowers that were written in the order of the four seasons of the year. Folk folklore scholars of the past dynasties have written a lot of works on the theme of the year, and the title of the book is easy to identify, and most of them will carry the word "when they are old". For example, the "Jingchu Chronicle of the Jingchu Years" of the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the "Records of the Yanjing Chronicles" of the Qing Dynasty - the literati on the temple are still home and the world, and many customs and excursions and crafts far away from the rivers and lakes rely on these folk chronicles to be handed down.
The legend about the origin of the spring rolls stays in the Qing Dynasty, saying that there was a Kinmen man who was tricked by the emperor to write with both hands at the same time, and his wife saw that her husband could not call for rice, so she wrapped vegetables in dough and stuffed them directly into his mouth, so it became a "spring roll". "Shi Guangji" was written in the early Yuan Dynasty, and the term "spring cake" has appeared, so of course, spring rolls cannot be "accidentally" invented until the Qing Dynasty. It is true that many traditional Chinese cuisines were invented by "accident", but judging from the different names and shapes of spring rolls in different eras, it can be inferred that their development must have undergone a long evolution of fine water and long streams, rather than a temporary flash of inspiration.
Although the legend written by the Kinmen people at the same time is attached by posterity, the place of Kinmen has a strong geographical orientation. Spring rolls are popular in all provinces of China, but especially in the south, and south of the Yangtze River, they are popular in Fujian and Chaoshan Provinces. Minnan Spring Roll, Putian Spring Roll, and Chaozhou Spring Roll are all famous points in spring rolls, and each has its own taste.
The so-called "relying on the mountains to eat the mountains, relying on the water to draft water", the Spring Festival in Fujian is the most fertile season for sea oysters, so the Fujian spring rolls are also mostly based on sea oysters as the main ingredient. Of course, instead of wrapping the oysters directly in the skin, the sea oysters are fried with sweet potato flour and eggs first - this snack is widely popular in southern Fujian, Chaoshan and even Taiwan, and the spring rolls in Fujian have a strong local characteristic.
It is worth mentioning the Putian Spring Roll. Putian Xianyou had a celebrity during the Northern Song Dynasty, that is, Cai Xiang, who ranked among the "Four Houses of the Song Dynasty" with calligraphy. Putian has been known as a "famous state of literature" since ancient times, and Cai Xiang is one of the more than a thousand jinshi who have entered and left the Sui Dynasty; and when celebrities meet snacks, pen and ink will naturally be stained with "fragrance". Cai Xiang once wrote a poem "Ren Hitachi Chunzhou Xing Sends Fuzhou Yan Er Si Feng", which mentions the predecessor of the spring scroll:
"Send off the boat on the tide of Qingxi, and look back at the high city across the smoke." The scenery is like looking at the famous painting exhibition, and the drunken soul still remembers the legend of the shou cup. Spring plate food dish thinking three nine, people day book recitation hundred thousand. The southern kingdom is only the old, and then where to laugh this year. ”
Judging from the title of the poem, this year's spring is on the day of the people, which is also the seventh day of the first lunar month, which is also a good season for "all things to grow". The ancients would eat a bowl of "pulling soul noodles" in the afternoon of this day to prepare for spring ploughing, which complemented the meaning of spring rolls to dispel evil and eliminate disasters.
Teochew spring rolls are similar to the spring rolls in Huaiyang cuisine, rectangular in shape, fried in oil to form a yellow crisp color, and the taste can be described as crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. During the Qianlong dynasty, Fan Laizong once confronted a friend with a "Wing Chun Cake Couplet", which included "Evenly flat frost snow white, ironing and burning stove red." The description of the thin book cut full moon, soft roll thin barrel", Fan Laizong is a Suzhou native, the description is about the Huaiyang area of the spring roll, so its shape and Chaozhou spring roll is very similar.
The pyrotechnic smell of Shanghai spring rolls
Eating spring rolls is one of the most important folk customs in Lichun, such as "a roll is not spring, ten thousand rolls of spring is drunk" and other proverbs are popular in all corners of the world, Huaiyang naturally does not fall - among them, Shanghai spring rolls are not necessarily the most representative, but must be the most contaminated with fireworks.
Spring rolls are the seasonal delicacies of Lichun, but Shanghainese have already begun to eat large pieces during the Lunar New Year. At this time, the most common appearance in the film is the leek meat shredded spring roll: the meat is fried until it is seven minutes cooked, sprinkled with thick mustard, cut into three long leeks, rolled up with a pie crust, folded flour sealed at both ends and fried in a frying pan until golden brown, when fished out, you can see its crispy outside and crispy inside. "Impatient to eat hot tofu", this sentence also applies to Shanghai spring rolls - the spring rolls that have just come out of the pot, although fragrant, but also accumulate too much heat, not suitable for the Kansai Han copper pipa iron plate to sing "the great river to the east", only in line with the "willow bank, Xiaofeng remnant moon" like the gang style.
In addition to the "Xiaofeng Remnant Moon", Shanghainese also gave Chun roll a more "urban" nickname, called "gold bars" - I don't know if this is related to the Tradition of Shanghainese Careful Calculation. However, from the appearance point of view, the golden and crystalline spring rolls really have some gold bar sense of sight, in addition to the fresh and crispy between the lips and teeth, it seems that a lot of wealth and good luck have also been eaten into the stomach, perhaps, this is also the food hidden in the sustenance and humor?
Huaiyang cuisine has been known as "literati cuisine" since ancient times, but the bengang cuisine under it has a touch of earthly flavor. Grilled, raw fried, small wontons, green and white balls, all of which are popular delicacies. Shanghai is different from Beijing pieces, ordinary tea houses, old friends talk for a long time, most of the chat will not be the lofty picture of Xiu Qi Zhiping, the "vulgar taste" of Shanghai spring rolls, flowing with The serious attitude of Shanghainese people to life.
Remove the word "Shanghai" from the final word of the Shanghai Spring Roll, and only the Spring Roll remains. Don't underestimate this one definite word, without these two words, the history of this small piece of cuisine can be traced back to more than a thousand years, and the scene of Lichun in traditional China will also be embodied in the small spring roll.
Chinese delicious, but in the Customs of Lichun, in addition to eating spring rolls, there are too many plots worth counting. The plan of the year lies in the spring, and Lichun is the beginning of Mengchun, from the emperor to the people of Li min, they all value the meaning of this renewal of Vientiane, so they pile up complicated celebrations and customs in the passage of time. On this day, tianzi will lead the eastern suburbs to pray for a good harvest in the spring, which is complementary to the mid-spring hai day to perform the ritual of farming and "personally ploughing" the acre and three parts of the land. However, the latter sacrifices the first farmer, and the Lichun festival is The Sentence Mang, that is, the spring god - in the sacrifice ceremony and the New Year painting, this is the image of a cow-riding shepherd boy. In addition, there are also such customs as divination, whipping spring cattle, and worshipping tai nian, and one of the customs with a very interesting name is called biting spring.
From the taste of five spices to the custom of biting spring
The word "biting spring" seems ambiguous at first, but it actually refers to eating some fresh vegetables from spring on this day, especially radishes. The earliest spring bite has nothing to do with pasta, eating raw vegetables, which can be seen in Cui Yuan's "Four People's Moon Order": "Li Chun eclipse lettuce, take the meaning of welcoming the new." By the Jin Dynasty, raw vegetables had been specifically defined to the "Five Xins", and there was a detailed record of this in the Zhou's "Record of Customs and Soil":
"Yuan Ri made five xin pan ... Wu Xin so the five visceral qi, namely onion, garlic, leeks, brassica, coriander is also. ”
It can be seen that the five spices are indeed spicy foods, and the ancients used this to kill bacteria to drive away the cold, which is quite in line with the way of health. However, this "Terroir" has another highlight, I don't know if you can see it?
That's right. The author's Zhou, that is, the Zhou place where the white-fronted beast of nanshan and the dragon under the long bridge were removed, and this section was compiled by Liu Yiqing into the "New Language of the World", called "Removing the Three Harms in the Zhou Place". After the zhou changed the evil and returned to the right, it became a generation of great Confucians, and this "Record of Customs" has become an important classic for posterity to study folk festivals such as the Dragon Boat Festival, Tanabata, and Chongyang, and we can learn so much about the customs and people of Lichun today, which is indispensable to his credit.
The five spices eaten in the spring are all placed on the plate, which is the five spices plate. After the Tang and Song dynasties, the Five Xin Plate was gradually combined with pancakes, and when eaten, it was rolled with cakes, so it gradually evolved into a spring plate, and the Tang Dynasty's "Four Hours Treasure Mirror" first appeared in the record of "Li Chun, Eating Reeds, Spring Cakes, Lettuce, Number 'Vegetable Plate'", and those famous poets (eating) people (goods) in the Tang Dynasty were of course indispensable to this mouthful - Cen Shan's "Send Yang Qian to Runan County to Get Married in Yao Province" There is "Runan's remote reclining, early and spring plate", Du Fu's "Li Chun" has: "Spring Spring Plate Fine Lettuce, Suddenly Remembering the Two Beijing Meifa Time", a border poet , a "poetic history", counting on eating and eating, is really in step.
The combination of raw vegetables and cakes continued until the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the "Yandu Tour Chronicle" written by Sun Guoshu at the end of the Yuan Dynasty said: "On the spring day of Fan Li, (the emperor) gave hundred officials spring cakes at noon. The Qing people even had a special poem "Biting Spring Poem":
"Warm rhythm submerged in the spring of Ladi, and the feast lettuce remembered Fangchen." The linggen soil is crisp with ice, and the fine strands are stacked and cut evenly. Accompanied by wine dark fragrant raw dagger, add food clear sound moving teeth lips, imperial city festival of the country garden flavor, take care of the white hair new. ”
Look, feasts, lettuce, stacking, wine, meals... At the end of the day, it's a return to eating. From wuxin pan to biting spring plate to spring plate to spring roll, the people of traditional China have been sprinkled for thousands of years in such a rhythm of "moving their teeth and lips". With the regional integration of people, the spring rolls have gradually formed different characteristics of various places, and the Shanghai spring rolls, which are called gold bars, are also the most natural footnotes for this fusion.
From the recipes of Wuxin to the custom of biting spring, spring rolls and Lichun have long been quietly integrated into the trivial daily life of Chinese. In any case, the plan of the year lies in the spring, and the new day has begun after all. Occasionally, when you open the calendar, you can also print the ancient sentence on the page of Lichun:
"At the beginning, the east wind thaws; the sun and the strong condensation disperse also."
The taste of spring rolls is roughly the same.
Author: Jiang Yinlong
Editor: Wang Xiaoli