The history of chili peppers in China

Chili peppers were introduced to China from the Americas in the late Ming Dynasty, but at first they were only used as ornamental crops and medicines. The earliest record of chili peppers was written by Gao Lian in the Ming Dynasty "Zun Sheng Ba Jian" (1591) has a description: "The peppers are thick with white flowers, and the fruit looks like a bald pen tip. It tastes spicy and is red in color, which is very impressive." According to this record, it is generally believed that chili pepper was introduced to China in the late Ming Dynasty. In the early Qing Dynasty, Guizhou and its adjacent areas were the first to start eating chili peppers. In Guizhou, where salt is scarce, "soil seedlings were used to replace salt" during the Kangxi period (1662-1722). Chili peppers played the role of replacing salt, which shows their close connection with life. Starting from the Qianlong period (1736-1795), chili peppers were consumed in large quantities in Guizhou. During the Qianlong period, Zhenxiong in Yunnan, which is adjacent to Guizhou, and Chenzhou in Hunan in eastern Guizhou also began to eat spicy food. After the Jiaqing period (1796-1820), pepper cultivation became common in Guizhou, Hunan, Sichuan and Jiangxi provinces. During the Jiaqing period, it was recorded that Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou, Sichuan and other places had begun to "grow them as vegetables".

During the Daoguang period (1821-1850), in northern Guizhou, "everything must be eaten with pepper". During the Tongzhi period, the popular rice-stuffed rice dish mostly used bean curds, which were soaked in salt cubes. Add sea pepper and use it for dipping, a bit like today’s sea pepper dipping in Fushun Douhua in Sichuan.

Eating spicy food was not very common in some areas of Hunan during the Jiaqing period, but between Daoguang, Xianfeng, Tongzhi and Guangxu, eating chili peppers was more common in Hunan. According to the "Qing Ye Lei Chao" written in the late Qing Dynasty: "People from Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan, and Shu are fond of spicy food", "(Hunan and Hubei people) like spicy food", "You can't make chopsticks without pepper and mustard, and there are many soups with it." ", which shows that in the late Qing Dynasty, people in Hunan and Hubei had become accustomed to eating spicy food, and even the soups included chili peppers.

The consumption of chili peppers in Sichuan is recorded later. Neither Yongzheng's "Sichuan Annals" nor Jiaqing's "Sichuan Annals" have records of growing and eating peppers. The earliest recorded records may be during the Jiaqing period. Judging from the areas where peppers were grown and eaten during the Jiaqing period of Sichuan, they were mainly in the Chengdu Plain and the Daba Mountains at the junction of southern and southwestern Sichuan and Sichuan, Hubei and Shaanxi. After Daoguang, Xianfeng, and Tongzhi, edible peppers became common in Sichuan, so much so that peppers were "planted all over the mountains and fields" in Sichuan. After Guangxu, eating chili peppers became more common in Sichuan. In addition to being widely eaten among the people, there are already a large number of records of eating chili peppers in classic recipes. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Fu Chongju's "Chengdu Survey" recorded that there were as many as 1,328 kinds of dishes in Chengdu at that time. Chili peppers have become one of the main ingredients in Sichuan cuisine, including hot oil sea peppers, sea pepper noodles, etc., especially the twice-cooked pork in Sichuan cuisine. It was recorded in writing. In the late Qing Dynasty, eating peppers had become an important feature of Sichuan people's diet. Xu Xinyu's "History of Sichuan Travels" records: "When Sichuan people eat peppers, they must choose the extremely spicy ones, and every meal and dish must be spicy." "

When did Yunnan start eating spicy food? Zhenxiong, Yunnan, adjacent to Guizhou, ate chili peppers during the Qianlong period, but eating chili peppers was not very common in Yunnan during the Qianlong and Jiayuan dynasties. There is no record of chili peppers in the "Yunnan General Chronicles" of the Guangxu period, but people began to eat a large amount of chili peppers as early as the Guangxu period. According to Xu Xinyu's "History of Sichuan Travels" recorded in the late Qing Dynasty, his father discovered in Ya'an that the peppers shipped to Yunnan every year through Ya'an, Sichuan, "are worth nearly hundreds of thousands, and the amount of peppers eaten by Yunnan people is no less than that of Sichuan people." ". Therefore, Xu Ke's "Qing Ye Lei Chao" in the late Qing Dynasty said: "Dian, Guizhou, Hunan, and Shu are addicted to spicy food." According to the "Illustrated Research on Plant Names and Facts" records, edible peppers were already grown in Jiangxi during the Jiaqing period. During the Guangxu period, food in Jiangxi was Chili peppers have become more common, and now Jiangxi Nankang chili sauce is very famous.