Wu rice, also known as "Qingjing rice", should have been passed down from the Tang Dynasty, and it is said that it originated in Taoism and was eaten by Daoist disciples and disciples when they cultivated in the valley. Du Fu once wrote in "Gifting Li Bai": "It is better to have green rice, so that my color is good." "It's quite a bit of a Taoist immortal. Around the time of the Song Dynasty, qingjing rice expanded to the Buddhist community and became the fasting food of monks. On the eighth day of the buddha's birthday in the first month of April, the monastery will make black rice for the Buddha, and after making offerings, the black rice will be distributed to good men and women to pray for the elimination of disasters and diseases, so it is also called "Ami rice". From then on, the practice of Xiǎng and Wu Rice, which was shared by the Two Religions of Taoism and Buddhism, continued until the Ming and Qing dynasties, and also expanded into a secular food, gradually developing into a very seasonal and regional food.
The She's eating black rice is more like the remnants of the original crop cult. The sacrifice of the rice god must be colored for the rice grain, which seems to have some inspiration from the remnants of the original farming people's valley sacrifice ceremony. Many ethnic minorities in the southwest have the custom of soaking the land with blood to sacrifice to the heavens, and then gradually replacing the blood with plant dyes to soak the grain rice for coloring, and the five-color rice of the Miao people in Guizhou and the Zhuang people in Guangxi has continued this. She's black rice is black and red, shiny and shiny, and it seems to be stained with blood, presumably the same vein. To this day, after a long period of historical evolution, She's black rice has gradually become popular among ordinary people and has become an important food that is widely popular in the seasonal season.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > tradition</h1>
The third day of march is the day when the She people eat black rice, and it is also the birthday of the rice valley that the She people believe, on this day, the people pick the rice leaves and dye the rice grain, symbolizing the new clothes for the rice valley, implying that the agricultural affairs of the year are about to start, and wishing the grain abundance.
The black rice eaten by the Shes "March 3" is often prepared in advance on the first and second days of March, first, in order to allow time to soak glutinous rice; second, the leaves of the black rice in those days are particularly tender, and the food cooked is also particularly medicinal.
In the early spring and March, when everything recovered, it was the time when the snakes, insects, rats and ants were doing a great job, and the original mountain people who were wandering were accompanied by Yu Si, and they were also afraid of this, so it is said that after eating black rice on the third day of the first three days of March, you can go up and down the mountain without invading the earth, and the work is also particularly powerful.
Photography / Li Suren
In terms of the climatic and geographical environment of Jingning, at the beginning of March, it is the time when the grass and trees germinate, and the raw material for making black rice, the black rice leaves, are also the most tender time, so it is the most seasonal to choose to pick and make in early March. At this time, it is also the last agricultural leisure time of the year, and the farmers rarely have a few days to spend leisurely. The women and children in the village will choose an early morning, three or five companions, carry bamboo baskets at the waist, and go to the back hill of the village to pick black rice leaves, which is the most suitable activity.
The wu rice tree is born to grow, but it is often found on the mountain of every She's village; the black rice tree is not tall, and it is in the shape of a swollen branching shrub, as if it was born to facilitate the picking and serving of wu rice. The old and weak women and children can reach it with their hands, and after a pause, they can put it into the bamboo basket around their waists. And just between this pick and a meal, the anecdotes and gossip in the village and the time of the village also rippled in the people's songs and laughter. However, the leaves of the rice must be picked on a sunny day, and the leaves wet by the rain are not good; if the spring rain is coming, it indicates that the field will begin, and the year's agricultural work will begin.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > fee</h1>
Wu rice came to pray for this year's good year, and in order to reduce last year's old rice. The Shes were originally a rice-eating ethnic group, and the traditional Shexiang Five Glutinous Are: Mingguo, Zongzi, Mochi, Huang kuang and sugar cake. In the early years, the glutinous rice obtained in the past year should be allocated to the needs of various cakes throughout the year, and the corresponding share should be reserved for the "March 3rd", Qingming and Dragon Boat Festival. And what belongs to the "third of March" is black rice.
In the past, the yield of rice under traditional farming was small, and there was a native species called "sake lees glutinous" in Jingning, which was planted on terraces and between fields, which was even rarer, and the She family especially valued it. In the 1950s and 1960s, during the period of collectivization, every household could not keep any surplus grain on its own, and even in the "third of March", there were fewer people making black rice. Later, hybrid rice began to spread and popularize, and the yield went up, but it seemed to be less of the original taste. However, the past cannot be left behind, and the taste of the present cannot be forced, which is the foundation of those who work between heaven and earth.
The materials used for the selection of black rice have also changed several times. The so-called "black rice", when the stem and leaf of the black rice tree is pounded and crushed, the glutinous rice is soaked with its stained juice, so that it is colored black, and then steamed into rice with this kind of black rice, so it is called black rice. However, what exactly is the "black rice tree" is also a matter of opinion. As far as Jingning is concerned, "black rice tree" should refer to "south candle tree", also known as black rice grass, black twister, etc., is an evergreen shrub of the rhododendron family, with fine branches, alternate leaves, stems and leaves contain rich sap, black color, widely distributed in the south of Jianghuai in China. The taste of the southern candle tree is bitter, the qi is flat, beneficial to the essence, strengthen the bones, the blindness, the function of anti-leakage, so most of the qingjing rice made by the ancients is used as a dye. However, one side of the water and soil to support the other side of the people, the local material is the best bearer of a place of people and things. Throughout the ages, all over the world also use the sap of Yangtong, Wuqi, maple, birch and other plants to make black rice, according to the different local wind specialties, as long as it is a plant raw material that can be dipped and colored, and has some medicinal value, it can be used to make "black rice".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > method</h1>
The preparation of black rice is a process of simplifying from complexity to simplicity, removing the sense of form and gradually secularization.
The earliest Tang Dynasty Chen Tibetan vessel recorded in the "Materia Medica Collection": "The wu rice method takes the stem and leaf of the southern candle and mashes it, the juice is soaked in japonica rice, nine soaks and nine steaming and nine exposures, the rice grains are tight and small, black as beads, and the bags are full, which can be suitable for far away." This kind of "nine immersion, nine steaming and nine exposure" of the black rice system should be very complicated, and easy to preserve and carry long distances, this method of production and consumption, until the early years of the Republic of China is still popular in southern Jiangsu.
To the Southern Song Dynasty Lin Hong's "Mountain Family Qing Offering": "Southern candle wood, that is, Qingjingye." Take branches, leaves, mash the juice, soak in white japonica rice, no matter how much, wait for one or two, steam rice, expose dry, firm and green, storage. If you use it, first use boiling water, measure the number of rice, cook a roll, that is, become a meal. "Nowadays, this is the simplest and most commonly used way of cooking in the folk.
The fresh branches and leaves of the southern candle tree are crushed, kneaded and soaked in water for 3 hours, then filtered with gauze to only the remaining juice, then poured in the rinsed glutinous rice and soaked for half a day or overnight. The shade of black color mainly lies in the concentration of the green essence juice, if the amount of picking is small, it can be soaked for more time, and finally the glutinous rice is filtered into the water and steamed through the cage.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > taste</h1>
Shexiang's black rice is often used for cooking on the fire, and it is best to use an earthen stove, for no other reason than it - it is heated evenly. Simmer slowly over medium heat, the steamed black rice particles are full and the rice grains are divergent; after more than forty minutes, the wooden lid of the koshiki is lifted, and the ears listen to the boiling water and the steam is filled, and the black rice at the bottom of the barrel is seen, lying quietly like an ink-colored rock. Can't wait to pick up a small ball, take a closer look, and suddenly understand why it is also called "wujing rice", slightly long and round rice grains, black and translucent, glowing with a little dark red oil, with the texture of gold stone. A few chews in the mouth, the breath is fresh and light, dense and full and granular, the taste is slightly sweet, with a plant-like green and spicy atmosphere, and it is like a mineral-attached taste.
Photography / Jia Yizhen
Stay slightly cool, clip up a small ball, with earthen porcelain blue and white bowls, glutinous rice gradually cooled and solidified, on the one hand to remove the clouds, on the other side of the layers of mountains and mountains, just like a painting of ink landscape; and accompanied by a few plates of shexiang characteristics of pickles, dried bamboo shoots, fern claws, eggplants, cucumbers, that is another small scene of the vegetable garden sketch; if you brew a cup of Jingning Huiming tea, the mountains and waters are beautiful, the blue water and flowers, complement the ink-colored rice, a summer scene of Shexiang that is far away from the mountains and trees, and the return of the people.
Nowadays, when walking through the villages, black rice is no longer simply served in a thick porcelain blue and white bowl. The black rice sold on the street is kneaded into small balls and placed in a small bamboo basket that is also a local specialty, and it is decorated with a red date, black and red contrasting colors, and it is hot and red. The black rice eaten at home has also become rich and diverse, and there are also sweet and salty parts, some mixed with honey, dipped in sugar, and also wrapped in diced bamboo shoots, mushroom mushrooms and mixed with minced meat, all of which are local products.
Taste is a flowing process, distant national memory, condensed into the current way of life, presumably the best inheritance and continuation.
- END -
Written by 丨Gong Zi Meng
Edited by 丨 Song Pengfei
The original text is taken from "Wind and Material China Chronicle Jingning" with additions, subtractions and changes
Book "Fengwu China Zhi Jingning"
The unsigned pictures in this article are from "IC photo" or "Figureworm Creative", and any website, newspaper, television station, company, organization, or individual may not be used in part or in whole without the permission of IC photo or Figureworm Creative.