In recent times, perhaps the most interesting news is the new coronavirus pneumonia, and Wuhan has become the city that people pay the most attention to. At present, the epidemic prevention situation is still grim, and the number of confirmed cases every day is also increasing. The high-level expert group of the National Health Commission pointed out at the press conference on January 20 that the source of the pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan is the Huanan seafood market, and the source of the virus is likely to be wild animals.
This is reminiscent of the SARS virus 17 years ago. According to later studies, the host of sars virus is likely to be a flying organism - chrysanthemum bat, and civets have become the main carrier of sars coronavirus by preying on bats. After eating civets, people who are good at eating wild game brought the virus to humans, which led to a "SARS" epidemic prevention war that lasted for half a year.
Wild meat can be said to be the main culprit of this catastrophe.
Friends familiar with "Dream of the Red Chamber" may have noticed that there is a famous Red Chamber delicacy, called "wind pickled civet". Hundreds of years ago, Chinese, already liked such wild game.
The original text reads:
Jia Muyin asked, "Eat some porridge." "You Shi had already held a bowl and said it was red rice porridge. Jia Mu then took half a bowl and ordered, "Give this porridge to Feng Ge'er to eat," and then pointed out, "This bowl of bamboo shoots and this plate of wind pickled civets are for Ying Er and Bao Yu to eat, and the bowl of meat is for Lan Xiaozi to eat." Then he said to Youshi, "I ate it, and you just came to eat it." ”
Civets belong to the carnivorous cat family, commonly known as flower-faced beavers and so on. In the opera, there is a very famous play called "Tanuki For Prince", which is also about this animal. The civet is a national second-level protected animal and has been included in the Red List of Biodiversity in China. But in ancient China, the civet was a rare delicacy. From Jia Shu's filial piety to Jia Mu by the civet, and Jia Mu leaving the civet cat to Bao Yu and Dai Yu alone, we can see how rare this delicacy is.
Yuan Ming of the Qing Dynasty recorded in detail the practice of wind-pickled civets in the "Recipes with the Garden":
"Civets, fresh people are rare. Its pickles are brewed with honey wine, steamed and served with quick knife slices. Soak in rice swill water for a day to run out of salt. It feels tender and fatter than ham. ”
Some readers will read such details and will begin to associate with whether the civets here carry the virus. Later, when Dai Yu died of illness, all kinds of symptoms seemed to coincide with pneumonia, so Dai Yu's illness found the culprit, which was caused by Jia Fu's love of eating wild meat. Regardless of whether this view is reasonable or not, the civet is brought to the table not because Jia Fu loves wild game, but because the civet itself is a well-known dish at that time.
Civets have many aliases in different eras and different regions, including jade-faced beavers, oxtails, flower-faced foxes, incense beavers, white-fronted and so on. Its meat is delicious and fruity, and has always been considered a precious southern game.
Li Shizhen in the "Compendium of Materia Medica", there is a record of civets:
"In the south, there are white-faced and cow-like ones, who are cattle-tailed beavers, also known as jade-faced beavers. Specialize in trees to eat hundreds of fruits. The winter moon is extremely fat, and the people are spoiled as treasures, and they can sober up the wine. ”
And The Cantonese people who are famous for eating will naturally not let go of such a delicacy. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Qu Dajun recorded in the Guangdong New Language:
"The incense beaver, also known as the civet." Its food is only beautiful, so the meat is crisp and sweet. In autumn and winter, all the fruits are ripe, and the meat is especially fatty. ”
These records show that civets like to eat a hundred fruits in autumn and winter, and their flesh quality has reached a peak at this time, becoming the object of coveting by many people. Chinese the so-called mountain treasures and seafood, there is a saying that the raw materials of the sea are divided into eight treasures, such as upper, middle and lower treasures, while civets and shark fins, turtle skirts, fish lips, etc. are listed as the eight treasures.
masked palm civet
Civets, as a delicacy, also appear frequently in ancient poems.
Mei Yaochen wrote in the Xuanzhou Miscellaneous Poems:
The northern guest is more than nostalgic for the north, and the sheep hold up a jade bowl. Although my hometown is far away, the good taste is quite suitable. Sand water horseshoe turtle, snow day oxtail catfish. Sending a message to the capital country, how many people can know.
"Snow Day Oxtail Beaver" is a famous dish of the Song Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty Lin Hong's "Mountain Family Qing Offering" once recorded the practice of this dish, and pointed out that "on the side of the snowy day, on the poetry of the wine, the real strange things are also", and the name of the dish is also derived from this. Mei Yaochen, who is in a foreign land, misses the famous dish of civets in his hometown.
Su Shi also loved to eat civets and gave this dish as a gift to a friend. Su Shi once had a poem "Sending the Oxtail Beaver and Xu Jun":
The wind swept the flowers into the curtain, and a bottle of remote wanted to break the frown. Mud deep tired of listening to chicken head cranes, wine shallow delight taste oxtail beaver. The tongyinzi fish is still bone-bearing, and the yellow finch is covered with fat. Attentively send the troublesome hand, sharpen the jade muscle for me.
When the snow was falling, he sent a civet to his friend and instructed him to sharpen the knife and cut the civet meat piece by piece to make wine. There are poems and wines and delicious food, which is also a great hobby of the ancient literati.
Zeng Ji, a poet who had served as a prisoner in Zhejiang Xi, also wrote in the "Ox-tailed Beaver":
Life cannot empty the rat's nest, but it is also a cow queen.
It is better to be drunk and lying on the bottom of the hill, and judas is in the smell of fame.
This means that civets, civets, you have no meaning in living, it is better to make a delicacy and everyone can remember your taste, how good! Seeing such a poem, I can't help but mourn for the civet.
Flower-faced beaver
Many written records indicate that as early as the Song Dynasty, civets were already an indispensable dish for the nobility. And the literati bureaucracy also loves such a delicacy. This hobby continued to continue, and by the time Yuan Ming of the Qing Dynasty said, "Fresh people are rare", I am afraid that there is already very little to eat.
Therefore, the "wind pickled civet" that appears in "Dream of the Red Chamber" is more of a reflection of a noble dish favored by the noble family at that time, and it cannot be said that Jia Fu loves wild game.
As for whether the people in Jia Fuzhong have pneumonia and whether it has caused it, I am afraid that the author did not have this idea when writing, and can only be said to be the speculation of modern people. After all, if civets had carried the virus at that time and could spread it to humans and kill people, I am afraid that it would not have lasted for several dynasties. Therefore, such a "wind pickled civet" can be used as a valuable dish without too much interpretation.
In modern times, civets have been confirmed as the intermediate host of sars virus in SARS in 2003, and the source of the new coronavirus that has spread across the country now also points to the wild game market. Whether it's from protecting humans themselves or protecting wildlife themselves, it's time to say goodbye to game!
At present, I hope that friends will refuse to eat wild game, pay attention to the latest news, go out less, do a good job of protection, and protect themselves.
I hope we can win this battle against the epidemic as soon as possible!
Come on!