Why does Princess Yang Cangui eat fresh litchi?
Yang Guifei is beautiful and charming, proficient in melody and good at singing and dancing. Tang Xuanzong doted on her very much. In order to win Yang Guifei's favor, Tang Gaozong, which is over 10,000 people, always sends someone to transport fresh lychees from other places to his beloved princess every five or ten miles. Du Mu's "Crossing the Qing Palace" once described: "Chang 'an looks back and embroiders in piles, and the top of the mountain opens a thousand times. Riding the world of mortals and laughing, no one knew it was litchi. "
Every time I read Du Mu's quatrains, I always have doubts: Bai Juyi said in the Preface to Litchi that litchi "changes color on one day, becomes fragrant on the second, becomes stale on the third, loses its fragrance on the fourth and loses its fragrance on the fifth", which shows that litchi is easy to deteriorate. There were no planes and high-speed trains in the Tang Dynasty. Even fortunately, how did this perishable litchi arrive in Chang 'an, Kyoto from other places through the relay of horses? How does Yang Guifei eat fresh litchi?
According to historical records, all the dignitaries in the ancient north ate fresh fruit. That year, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty deliberately opened up the "Litchi Road" to transport litchi from south to north.
There has always been an explanation that "riding a princess in the world of mortals laughs", saying that the court had to send someone to replace the newly picked lychees with fast horses in order to let Yang Guifei eat fresh lychees with all colors and flavors, and send them to Beijing on the same day. Therefore, when Yang Guifei saw the dust from the fast horse, she knew that someone had sent her a favorite litchi, so she was all smiles.
But from common sense, Lingnan is thousands of miles away from Chang 'an, and even the fastest horse can't arrive in one day. Later generations believed that the fresh litchi that Yang Guifei ate was sent to Chang 'an by transplanting this big tree with fruit. The history book says: "When the roots of litchi are planted in containers, it goes from the south of Chu State to the Danhe River in Xiangyang in the north of Chu State, and it is transported to the places where Shangzhou and Qinling Mountains can't reach the ship. However, if the fruit is just ripe, it will be picked over the ridge and airlifted to China for customs clearance, so it can arrive within one day. "
People who hold different views think that litchi is the earliest fruit stored in low temperature and controlled atmosphere. "Guangdong Xinyu" records a method: "If the tree is harvested well, the pedicel is left one inch and sealed with wax, but after the pedicel is cut off, it is sealed with wax and soaked in honey water for several months, and the taste and color remain unchanged."
Xu Bo, who lived in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, introduced another method in his Litchi Book: "Villagers often choose bright red litchi, choose giant bamboo to cut a hole in the forest, put it in the Litchi Festival, and still seal the gap with bamboo rafts wrapped in mud. With the vitality and moisture of bamboo, they can be hidden in winter and spring, and their color and fragrance will remain unchanged. "
Since ancient times, it has been the origin of litchi, a tribute of the imperial court, and is known as Lingnan and Fuzhou. Some historians speculate that it is more reasonable for the imperial concubine to use litchi as a flying post in Fuzhou, the neighboring city of Chang 'an.
It is said that Yang Guifei was born in Shu when she was young. The Supplement to National History says that she was "born in Shu and loved litchi". Fuzhou is about 2,000 miles north to Tang Jing, which is only half the journey from Lingnan to Chang 'an. According to local chronicles, "Yang Fei was fond of litchi, which was sent from Dazhou, Xixiang and Woods Valley to Fuling and Chang 'an for only three days, but its color and fragrance remained unchanged. "This is the most possible and reasonable route to transport litchi. At this point, the fresh litchi presented to Yang Fei should be produced in Sichuan.
However, in the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Dai's Night Boat subverted the imperial concubine's statement that litchi originated in Sichuan: "In Tang Tianbao, the imperial concubine loved fresh litchi. Fuzhou was ordered to send it by mail at the age of seven, and went to Chang 'an for seven nights, killing both men and women. "In this way, it is already a rotten litchi sent to Chang 'an. From this point of view, this Yuhuan beauty may have tasted fresh litchi in Sichuan when she was a child, and it is impossible for her to eat fresh litchi after becoming a royal concubine. & gt& gt？