It is said that from 1861 to 1862, when Zhengxingyuan and Chen Ma po tofu made a Chengdu restaurant in full swing, it was not known that another restaurant wizard landed on the ground. The true way is that in the thirty years of Hedong and thirty years of Hexi, he is the master of the kitchen circle who will be proud of the jianghu in the future, the helmsman of Sichuan cuisine and the owner of Jufeng Garden, Li Jiuru.
Li Jiuru's real name is Li Shutong, the character Shicheng, Jiuru is the name, a native of Renhuai Township, Hejiang County, Sichuan, born in the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861), when he was a teenager, he had studied for several years in private school and could write slightly. His parents owned a small restaurant in the township, so they heard about the food industry since childhood, and from an early age they worked as a helper for their parents. In the second year of Guangxu (1876), when Li Jiuru was 15 years old, he went to a Bao Xi Guan in Hejiang County to learn to cook, and after 5 years of full school, he stayed in this Bao Xi Guan to cook. He not only mastered a full range of cooking techniques, but also learned the process of making feasts, although he was in his early 20s, he was already ambitious, and wanted to accumulate money to open his own restaurant. Two years later, his parents proposed to him, and Li Jiuru married a small-footed woman surnamed Wang, and a year later gave birth to his eldest son, Li Suqing. With a small family, Li Jiuru's determination has become firmer.
The private seat hall where Li Jiuru works often hosts banquets for the county court. Once the county official returned to Chengdu and took him as a cook, Li Jiuru entered the provincial city for the first time and opened his eyes. He found that Chengdu was a place with great achievements in running restaurants, so he secretly made up his mind to work in Chengdu in the future. In the thirteenth year of Guangxu (1887), when Li Jiuru was 26 years old, he once hosted a feast for the county official, and was favored by a friend of the county official from Beijing. The man was the younger brother of the owner of a large private mat restaurant in Beijing, and this time he came to Sichuan to find a Sichuan cuisine chef. This person claimed to be good at looking at faces, and when he saw that Li Jiuru had a round head and a large ear, quite a wealthy face, coupled with diligence and loyalty, he would make a difference in the culinary world in the future, so he invited Li Jiuru to Beijing to become a chef. He also explained that the salary treatment was three or four times higher than that of a chef in Hejiang, but because of the large cost of the trip, if he wanted to do it, he had to sign a ten-year contract at once. Young Li Jiuru is thinking of meeting the world outside to enrich his cooking skills, and more importantly, he needs a lot of money to open a restaurant in Chengdu in the future. So he immediately accepted it despite his parents' objections. Before leaving, Li Jiuru instructed his family: "Every once in a while I will send a money order to my family, in addition to the necessary expenses, the family must be careful to save, not misappropriated, and use this money to open a decent restaurant in Chengdu in the future."
Restaurant of the 1930s
After bidding farewell to his family, he took a waterway out of Sichuan with the person and landed in Wuhan to enter Beijing. The Baoxi Pavilion, where Li Jiuru was employed in Beijing, is located on a street near Tiananmen. Mainly engaged in Beijing flavor and "Manchurian full table", but also hired some provincial chefs to meet the occasional needs. Restaurants often hosted various banquets for bureaucrats, nobles, rich merchants, and bureaucrats from all over The world who came to Beijing, and the business was very good. When he held Sichuan cuisine feasts, Li Jiuru was the master chef of course; when he held other feasts, Li Jiuru served as an assistant, which greatly improved his ability to hold high-end feasts, and he also became increasingly proficient in the cooking techniques of Beijing cuisine, Lu cuisine, and Su cuisine, especially good at the production of Beijing roast duck, roast duck, stuffed duck and "Manchu Han full table". In the past 10 years, together with some masters in charge of the bag seat, he has followed some senior members on tour many times, and has gone to many areas in Zhejiang and Huguang, broadening his horizons and mastering the cooking techniques of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Huguang cuisines.
In the past ten years, Li Jiuru has also been very frugal, eating nature is responsible for the Bao Xi Pavilion, wearing is also able to save money, never go out to play, and have not been contaminated with any bad habits. During this period, he also witnessed the corruption of the officialdom and society in the capital, and some powerful ministers, who today flaunt their military might, will be reduced to prisoners of the order tomorrow, and they will be beheaded by the door, and the property that has been embezzled for many years has been confiscated and confiscated. Li Jiuru gradually understood the hardships of the world and understood the difficulties of being a human being.
In the twenty-third year of Guangxu (1897), the contract expired, and the owner of the Bao Xi Pavilion hoped that Li Jiuru would sign another 10-year contract. But Li Jiuru thought that he already had a certain amount of savings and could realize the dream in his heart, coupled with the family's heart, he politely refused the boss's hospitality, and then returned to Sichuan. After spending his life in Hechuan's home, Li Jiuru couldn't wait to take his wife and 12-year-old son Li Suqing to Chengdu. He first explored the city's catering industry and the bao xi pavilion one by one, especially the four famous bao xi halls of Zhengxing Garden, Changsheng Garden, Ximing Garden and Xiuzhen Garden, from the port, business mode and service, dishes, etc. to investigate one by one, so that he had a good idea, and also chose the port to see the place. Li Jiuru has been very superstitious about feng shui since he was a child, and every time he looks at a place, he has to ask Mr. Feng Shui to test, repeatedly and five times, and finally chooses a large mansion on Huaxing Street. He rented this courtyard and used all his savings to open a large "NantangGuan" and named it "Jufeng Restaurant". The meaning of Jufeng, bringing together the world's abundant and precious dishes in one place, mainly Sichuan cuisine, choosing other cuisines to be used, and the integration of north and south is a school of its own.
In the old days, Chengdu Old Mansion
The so-called "South Hall", also known as "South Hall", is the abbreviation of "Jiangnan Guanzi". In the Qing Dynasty, due to the concept of hierarchy, officials, nobles, wealthy merchants and their status people were reluctant to eat in restaurants where ordinary people entered, and feasts were generally held at home. If the courtyard is small and there are many guests or people facing the street at home, if you need to hold a large and medium-sized feast, it is popular to rent a place to set up a banquet. In the Qing Dynasty, there were many places in and around Chengdu, such as some ancestral halls, temples, gardens, etc., equipped with tables and chairs for people to rent and feast. At that time, there were many private seat halls in Chengdu, some of which were very large, such as Zhengxing Garden. Private seating halls generally do not sell odd meals for individual customers. The main people who sell snacks are small rice shops, mainly cold vegetables and stir-fried dishes, and do not include tables. "Nantang" is a bold challenge to this traditional food custom, especially the concept of hierarchy in this custom. It is characterized by holding a variety of large and medium-sized private seats in the restaurant, but also selling retail meals, customers can eat as they go, order meals, and settle accounts and pay after meals; secondly, "Nantang" also provides services such as face wash water and tea.
Chengdu began to appear "Nantang" around the time of Tongzhi and Guangxu, initially some Jiangsu and Zhejiang people opened restaurants, the early business was not good. Li Jiuru was quite familiar with the "Nantang" restaurant in Beijing and Jiangsu and Zhejiang before, and admired its way of doing meals, so he chose the new restaurant model of "Nantang". At the same time, he also believes that in Chengdu, the old nest of Sichuan cuisine, it is difficult to make new Sichuan cuisine only, and the restaurant lacks characteristics. He wants to give full play to his own strengths and wants Sichuan cuisine, Beijing cuisine, Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine to be served together. Li Jiuru's high-end Sichuan cuisine feast, Beijing-style roast duck, roast duck, stuffed duck, sea cucumber, shark fin feast, etc. soon started in Chengdu, and its "Manchu Han full seat" was also quite popular with the middle and upper classes of the Han nationality. As a result, there was an endless stream of door-to-door table personnel and zero meals, and the business became more and more prosperous, and seven or eight apprentices were successively accepted. During this period, his wife bore him a son, named Li Suzhang. In the thirty years of Guangxu (1904), after Li Jiuru accumulated considerable funds, he renovated the restaurant and contacted the Jufuxing opened by the porcelain kiln in Chengdu East Avenue in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, ordered a full set of tableware, and asked famous teachers to use mahogany and nan wood to make a full set of antique tables and chairs, which improved the grade and influence of Jufeng Restaurant.
Flowers of the Qingyang Palace in the 20s and 30s
In the thirty-first year of Guangxu (1905), the government held the "Imperial Council" to wish Empress Dowager Cixi's 70th birthday. Many street intersections in Chengdu require the erection of archways, and every household has to pay for it. Huaxing Street is waiting for the "Jufeng Restaurant" to bear the cost of the archway. Li Jiuru saw that he could not get away with it, so he decided to use this opportunity to create momentum for his restaurant and expand his influence. He used a large number of sea cucumber shark fins to tie a large multicolored archway, which immediately caused a sensation in the city and became a strange landscape, which was deeply appreciated by the officialdom. So Jufeng restaurant's private seat orders came pouring in, the supply was in short supply, it was necessary to book more than ten days in advance, its hot scene was staggering, and peers were also envious, Li Jiuru and Jufengyuan's reputation was famous in Western Sichuan.
In the 33rd year of Guangxu (1907), the Governor's Office of Sichuan built the "Persuasion Field" (now a commercial field) between Zongfu Street and Huaxing Street, and construction began in July of the following year, which took 8 months to complete. During this period, Zhou Shanpei (Xiao Huai), the acting director of the Sichuan Tong Province Persuasion Road General Office who advocated the construction of the "Persuasion Field", and Fan Qihong (Kong Zhou), the assistant director of the Chengdu General Chamber of Commerce who was specifically responsible for the construction affairs, often went to the "Jufeng Garden" with their entourage and others to invite banquets. At that time, Zhou Shanpei was planning the development and construction of "Shaocheng", so he invited Li Jiuru to invest in opening restaurants in "Mancheng". Li Jiuru agreed after consideration. Zhou Shanpei also contacted the Qing general Zhuo Habu in Chengdu and asked for his support. Li Jiuru immediately asked the feng shui master to enter the "Shaocheng" several times, and finally selected the open space near the Guandi Temple on the south side of the ancestral hall street. It is close to the Yingxiang Gate of Shaocheng, which is the hub between large and small cities, and the location is moderate for seating and snacking. In the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu (1908), Li Jiuru and the "Shaocheng" officials formally signed an agreement to rent most of the houses in the Guandi Temple, and used the vacant land next to the temple to build a house and open a "Jufeng Restaurant", and officially started construction in August and September of that year. After signing the agreement, Li Jiuru entrusted Jufeng Garden on Huaxing Street to the care of his wife Wang Shi and eldest son Li Suqing, and he concentrated on the preparation of the "Jufeng Restaurant" on Ancestral Hall Street. On the one hand, he ordered people to rebuild and decorate according to the layout of jiangsu and Zhejiang gardens, and on the other hand, he personally went to Beijing to hire a chef to rong.
The newly built "Jufeng Restaurant" is a Suzhou garden style, with a gate built next to the Guandi Temple, which can hold more than 200 tables at the same time, and provide nearly 2,000 people with meals at a time, making it the largest banquet hall in Chengdu. The design and layout of Jufeng Restaurant was also ingenious, and it was undoubtedly the first class in Chengdu at that time. The green brick door of the courtyard entrance is lined with vermilion paint on the doorpost with four large characters "Jufeng Restaurant". The first courtyard at the entrance is the retail hall, the second courtyard is the baoxi courtyard, the baoxi courtyard has a bridge across the banks of the Jinhe River; more than 20 private seat halls and halls are of different styles and have their own names; the largest private seat room is named "Wuliu Village" because there are five large willow trees in front of the door, and later there are yixue people who think this name is ominous, Li Jiuru ordered people to cut down the willow trees and rename it "Wufu Hall". Others are Junzixuan, Yingyuexuan, Changchun Garden, Youyuan Room, Suoyue Hall, etc., all of which have famous handwritten poems, calligraphy and painting plaques.
There are also lotus ponds, rockeries, fountains, flower stands, bonsai, pavilions, water pavilions, stone houses, etc. in the garden, which are grand in scale and exquisitely arranged, just like the scenery and style of the Grand View Garden in "Dream of the Red Chamber". Li Jiuru customized a large number of Various Jingdezhen tableware of various colors, and also formulated and standardized the system of using tableware: stipulating that red glazed porcelain was used for the feast, green glazed porcelain for funerals, and yellow glazed porcelain for feasts; the tableware used for each banquet must be a color and a type of ornament; the valuable dishes should use larger utensils, and the general dishes should use smaller utensils; the plates for stir-fry dishes and the bowls for soup dishes; many dishes must also use special tableware, such as using "fish boats" to hold fish, using rectangular plates to pack "roasting squares", and using lotus porcelain plates to pack "water hibiscus". Use a box of cold dishes, etc. The chopsticks used in Jufeng Restaurant are all ivory chopsticks.
A courtyard-style restaurant with a blend of Chinese and Western styles
The management and operation mode of "Jufeng Restaurant" has opened up a new style of modern catering in Chengdu. First of all, Li Jiuru spent a lot of effort to train the hall, from the standing greeting posture to the seat arrangement, the placement of dishes and chopsticks. Li Jiuru stipulated that whether in the private seat hall or the retail hall, the tang qi should not turn their heads and ears, laugh and make trouble, stand at the end, meet the need to bow, cannot lean or stand obliquely, cannot cross their waists and legs, behave elegantly, and are not humble or profane; in order to avoid the smell of strange smells in their mouths, they also stipulate that the tang qi must not eat onions, ginger, garlic and beans before receiving the banquet; the tang qi must all wear long shirts uniformly customized by the restaurant. Jufeng Restaurant also customizes a large number of tables and chairs of different styles for different levels of table holders. For example, the official feast uses a strip table in order to distinguish the ranks; the family banquet uses a round table to symbolize reunion; the general friend covers the table with a square table... The tables and chairs used for each seat must be uniformly shaped, and the materials should be as consistent as possible. When arranging banquets, family seats should be eaten in the same room as much as possible. If there is a feast or a funeral at the same time, try to stagger it in time, and if the time is not wrong, you must set up a seat in the courtyard.
On the eve of the Spring Festival in the first year of Xuantong (1909), the "Jufeng Restaurant" on Ancestral Hall Street was officially opened. Qing generals Zhuo Habu and Zhou Shanpei personally congratulated him. Jufeng Restaurant's huge scale, novel architectural layout, exquisite tableware, uniform dress code, and fashionable service make Chengdu people refreshing and eager. Jufeng Restaurant integrates Sichuan cuisine, Beijing cuisine, Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine in one furnace, and is quite praised by Chengdu people who love to taste new and fresh. The tide of people who came to pack meals and the people who ate snacks came and went, and it was a rush of traffic and people. Jufeng Restaurant also undertakes door-to-door seat service, mainly high-end banquets, only in the more secondary business of door-to-door seats, its operating income is comparable to That Ofxingyuan, which specializes in door-to-door seats. In the years since its opening, Jufeng Restaurant has replaced Zhengxingyuan and dominated the dining landscape.
Li Haoren is a famous writer and translator in the history of modern literature in China, a famous food critic, and has personally engaged in the catering industry. In his works, he repeatedly wrote about the "Jufeng Restaurant" next to Shaocheng Park. For example, the protagonist of "Big Wave", the official gentleman Huang Lansheng's family often went to the "Jufeng Restaurant" to eat. At that time, it was a new thing for women to eat in restaurants, and enlightened women had the courage to do so, but there were many female diners in Jufeng Restaurant. At that time, the middle-level figures in Chengdu often regarded being able to go to the "Jufeng Restaurant" to invite guests as something worth showing off and showing off. Of course, the food in Jufeng restaurants is also more expensive, like Wu Fengwu, who was described in "Dabo", who was an official in the new army and acted as an "pipe belt", and in terms of economic conditions, he was "not yet qualified" to eat a light meal at Jufeng restaurant.
Soon after the opening of the Jufeng Restaurant on Ancestral Hall Street, the government began to build the "Shaocheng Park", and relevant personnel and technicians often went to the Jufeng Restaurant to pack seats. The park had just been repaired, and Li Jiuru took the lead in opening a small restaurant in the park, called "Yongju Restaurant", which mainly sold retail meals; soon after, a large tea hall "Yongju Tea House" was opened next to it to gather guests for the Jufeng Restaurant.
Although Jufeng Restaurant is in full swing, Li Jiuru attaches great importance to the continuous publicity of its reputation, and today's words are advertising. He actively participated in various large-scale social events in Chengdu, such as lantern festivals, flower markets and various large-scale temple fairs, and sent people to set up snacks and snacks to expand their influence. Chen Kuan's "Bamboo Branch Words in Xinhai Flower Market" once recorded: "The 'Four Springs' Elegant Seat is good and warm, and has raced through the peer 'Wuliu Village'; the duck stuffing is the fattest and the largest oil, and the South Hall is 'Jufeng Garden'." "In the autumn of the first year of Xuan reunification, after the Qing general Yu Kun took office, on the first and fifteenth day of each month, he would take several retinues from the general Yamen to the Guandi Temple in a small boat to sacrifice. After the sacrifice, they go to the Jufeng Restaurant for dinner. Yu Kun eats dishes very elaborately, first, to "fill the whole table", and second, Li Jiuru must personally cook and control the stove, otherwise he will not eat. After the dish was served, Yu Kunsheng invited Li Jiuru to sit next to him and eat together. Generally speaking, in the late Qing Dynasty, due to the protection and business care of the official government, Jufengyuan Restaurant did not encounter major troubles and completely recovered its investment.
The famous Sichuan dish of Sichuan cuisine, the fairy duck, originated from Lu cuisine
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, after experiencing the great turmoil of the war and mutiny, the catering industry in Chengdu underwent great changes. Some of the large-scale banquet halls that had influence in the past and were close to the Manchu upper-class rulers either closed their doors or went bankrupt, or plummeted because of the loss of patrons and customers. Such as "Zhengxing Garden", "A Family Spring" and so on. This provides an opportunity for the development of Jufeng Restaurant. Li Jiuru seized this opportunity, gave full play to the business advantages of the Nantang Pavilion, and took the lead in launching a new-style wedding banquet and various birthday banquets in Chengdu. At that time, some enlightened people in the intellectual and cultural circles advocated a new style of marriage. The so-called "new style" means not taking a flower car; the second is to go to the "South Hall" restaurant to hold a banquet (in the past, it was usually done at home). The latter was in Chengdu at that time, and Jufeng Restaurant was the most upscale. At that time, cars in Chengdu were still extremely rare, and a small number of young people from upper-class families got married and could take a car to Jufeng Restaurant to eat a private meal, which was simply regarded as quite fancy. On the other hand, Li Jiuru also vigorously carried out the door-to-door seating business. Mr. Lan Yuncui, the son of Blu-ray Jian, the founder of "Rong Paradise", once wrote: "In the early years of the Republic of China, there were many baoxi restaurants in Chengdu, the largest of which was Jufeng Garden in Wuliu Village. Most of the business of the Grand Banquet is what it does. Other private banquet restaurants can only do a little banquet business, and cannot compete with it. It can be seen that at that time, Jufeng Restaurant was the dominant position in Chengdu's catering industry.
Around the fourth year of the Republic of China, initiated by Li Jiuru, more than 100 owners of the "Nantang Hall" in Chengdu, such as Sanhe Garden, Pillow River Tower, RongYuan Garden, Yishi And Yuzhen Garden, were invited to meet at his Yongju Tea House in Shaocheng Park and established a non-governmental gang organization in Chengdu's catering industry - "Chengdu Yan Steaming Gang". Since it was Liu Jiuru who led the call, and it was he who did the east, coupled with the unparalleled business and fame of Jufeng Garden, li Jiuru was publicly elected as the first president at the meeting. "Yan Steaming Gang" is a very loose industry organization, mainly to prevent unfair competition among peers, mediate contradictions and disputes within the industry, etc. The gang uses the method of "eat transfer" to meet (that is, take turns to hold monthly meetings or committees at major restaurants and eat there), and daily disputes are mediated by the parties to Jufeng Restaurant. The daily affairs of the "Yan Steaming Gang" were taken care of by his son Li Suqing, and Li Jiuru did not take care of much.
Around the 8th year of the Republic of China, Jufeng Restaurant took the lead in launching Western food in Chengdu, introducing a series of fresh foreign gadgets such as ice cream and sorbet making machine, which was quite sought after by Chengdu people. At that time, the foreign consulates in Rong also invited Jufeng Restaurant to run the banquet. Li Jiuru created a sour and spicy beef tail soup, nine pounds of yellow chicken six to eat, that is, the chicken is divided into parts to make, dry sautéed, cold mixed, burned, stewed, opened a chicken a few to eat a precedent, attracting the praise of diners. In the spring of the 12th year of the Republic of China, during the Qingyang Palace Flower Market, Li Jiuru ordered Jufeng Restaurant and Yongju Tea House to set up points in Qingyang Palace. At that time, Liu Shiliang, a famous geek in Chengdu, once wrote: "Jufeng Restaurant is set up in The East and west, and the food is well arranged; if you sneak into the glass window and look inside, who leans on the table and is drunk as mud?" When the road tea garden has "green sky", "crane ming" and "yongju" are closely linked, ask him how much money each bowl is, and sell it according to Junping. ”
Fresh air for dining
In the 10th year of the Republic of China, when Li Jiuru was 61 years old, his wife Wang Shi passed away. The Wang clan bore him a total of 4 sons. A year later, Li Jiuru married another wife, Liu Shi, who bore him a daughter. At this time, in order to concentrate on doing a good job in the Ancestral Hall Street Jufeng Restaurant, Li Jiuru gave the top of the Jufeng Garden on Huaxing Street to his apprentices. Between 1933 and 1937, Jufeng Restaurant reached its peak in business scale and revenue. During this period, warlords in the province competed for territory and fought one after another, but most of them were carried out outside Chengdu; at the same time, a large number of "Central Army" entered Sichuan, and the business of high-end restaurants such as Jufeng Restaurant in Chengdu suddenly became particularly good, and many military and political officials came and went in and out of it every day. But the competition is also intensifying. Around the Shaocheng Jufeng Restaurant, there are also new high-end restaurants opened, and only in Shaocheng Park, the Jingning Hotel and Taohuayuan were newly opened. Several new tea houses have been opened in Shaocheng Park, and sometimes disputes have arisen with each other over customers. In order to avoid disputes, Li Jiuru successively transferred the Yongju Restaurant and the Yongju Tea House opened in Shaocheng Park to others. After 1938, the consciousness of "new culture and new life" has formed the mainstream in Chengdu, and new forms and trends have emerged in many aspects such as food, clothing, housing and transportation. But Li Jiuru still holds some old ideas, insisting that the guys in Jufeng Restaurant continue to wear long shirts and melon skin hats, so they seem to be unpopular, inappropriate, and even become a laughingstock, and the business will gradually snub.
As the saying goes, once you are lucky, the wind can't blow away; when a person is unlucky, the leaves fall on their heads and they have to make a bag. Jufeng's declining business has left Li Jiu as helpless. At a regular meeting of the Yan Steaming Gang, its eldest son, Li Suqing, suffered diarrhea from gluttony and died. Li Jiuru suffered such a blow, and he collapsed at once, and his spirit was decadent. In the years that followed, Jufeng Restaurant continued its daily business. However, since Li Jiuru was 70 years old, due to his old age, coupled with obesity and bloated mobility, he wanted to work. But his second and third sons grew up in honey and were spoiled, lazy and lazy, and had no interest in the food industry. What's more, these two sons have been lured into the smoke and can't extricate themselves. The fourth son, Li Su, will only be more than ten years old next year, and it will be difficult for him to take on the heavy responsibility of supporting the family business.
As the saying goes: extravagance and miserliness can be a loser, and mediocrity and shrewdness can do things. What made Li Jiuru even more sad and sad was that his second and third sons were soon kidnapped by robbers. Because the price was too high, Li Jiuru refused to pay the money, and the kidnappers took Li Suzhang to Zhongba, Jiangyou and other places, and detained him for up to two or three years. After this, Li Jiuru was like a changed person, he handed over the daily management of the Jufeng restaurant to Mr. Jufeng and his apprentice, but when the two saw this situation, they took the opportunity to change the method to pack money to their own bags, and also publicly smoked a lot of cigarettes in the restaurant, some police and secret agents also took the opportunity to extort and extort, the influence of the Jufeng restaurant was like the autumn wind sweeping away the dead leaves, the reputation of the plummeting was getting worse and worse, and the business slipped to the end. The original group of first-class chefs, such as Xia Zenghui, who was famous for running side dishes and chefs, Zhou Tingsong, who was famous for his barbecue, Tang Wenxin, who was famous for his white case, and Lin Si'an, who was famous for his knife technique, were all dug up by Jingning Hotel and Taohuayuan.
Jufengyuan has survived in the memory of history
Around 1942, Jufeng Restaurant was already unable to make ends meet and suffered serious losses. After his second son, Li Suzhang, was released by the kidnappers, he tried to take over his father's rescue of Jufeng Restaurant, but he soon admitted that he was powerless to return to Heaven. In order to maintain face, Li Jiuru borrowed a lot of money from a wealthy businessman, Liu Jinru. After a short time, after running out of money, he borrowed a large amount of money from Wang Neem, a rich man of Xinfan, but it was still difficult to sustain. In 1943, Liu Jinru and Wang Neem repeatedly demanded debts, and Li Jiuru, unable to repay the money, divided the property of Jufeng Restaurant into three shares, one for Li, Liu and One for Wang, and replaced the sign of "Jufeng Restaurant" with "Quan Ji Jufeng Garden". It continued to operate for a period of time, but it was still unable to sustain it due to losses. At the end of 1944, Jufeng Restaurant sadly closed down after 40 years of operation, and Jufengyuan on Ancestral Hall Street was also dismal after 35 years of operation.
Although Li Jiuru is a well-known rich man in Chengdu, he has never bought a house in the city. He was 82 years old when he moved out of the Ancestral Hall Street Jufeng Restaurant. He didn't want to be with those indisputable babies. First, he went with his accountant Zou Pucheng for many years to live in the eastern suburbs of Damian Fort for some days, and then returned to Shahe Fort to beat his mouth. His sons first rented a yard in Red Wall Lane, and after living there for a long time, they went their separate ways because they had no place to live. Li Suzhang once opened a small restaurant called Jufeng Garden, but it didn't take long before it collapsed. In his later years, Li Jiuru was mainly raised by his son Li Suming, who was in his twenties at this time, read some books, and worked in a consignment store. In 1946, Li Jiuru died in Shahe Fort at the age of 85. Li Suming relied on the "comma meeting" to raise money to bury his father. In this regard, the legendary myth of a restaurant wizard has also been buried and turned into a cloud of history. To know how the catering industry in Chengdu has changed after Li Jiuru, and look at the next decomposition.
Sichuan Cuisine Culture Scholar "Sichuan Province Zhi • Sichuan Cuisine Chronicle" Deputy Editor-in-Chief Sichuan Cuisine "Old Stubborn Family Professor Tang" Consultant "A Hundred Years of Sichuan Cuisine Legend", "Roadside Sichuan Cuisine History", "Spicy Hemp Temptation 300 Years" Author Original • Jianghu Gluttony East 2020.01.22 Chengdu