The concubine laughed while riding on the red earth, where did the Tianbao lychee come from? The story of Yang Guifei and lychee is very famous. However, if the lychees that the imperial concubine loved to eat were really produced in Lingnan, due to the traffic conditions at the time, they would never be kept fresh until they reached Chang'an. Mr. Yan Gengwang, a Taiwanese historian, solved this public case and drew a "Tianbao Lychee Road" - this road still exists after thousands of years. In the middle of July, lychees are on the market again. Due to the convenience of modern transportation, the best lychees sold at street fruit stalls in Beijing only cost a few yuan a pound. They have dark red shells and crystal clear white flesh. They are fragrant and sweet. I always have to eat until my throat is on fire before I can stop eating. . When I was young, I lived in the Northeast and never saw fresh lychees. I only read "Lychee Honey" by author Yang Shuo in a textbook and knew that it was a delicious southern fruit. When I read history at an older age, I learned that Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty fed Yang Guifei fresh lychees and did not hesitate to use the fast horses on the post roads during the war to deliver the food, so that the officials died of exhaustion and the post horses fell to death. This incident was exaggerated by Du Mu's poem "Passing the Huaqing Palace Quatrains" in the late Tang Dynasty, which even left the infamy of Concubine Yang's beauty as a disaster. The poem goes like this: "Looking back at Chang'an, there are piles of embroidery, and thousands of gates are opened on the top of the mountain. Riding on the red dust, the concubine laughs, and no one knows that it is lychee." There is a variety of lychee named "Concubine Smiling", which shows its deep influence. However, the poet at that time did not say where the lychees came from, and the history books did not specify the origin of the lychees. Therefore, where the lychees that Yang Guifei loved to eat came from has become a historical public case. The equestrian competition of this year's Olympic Games was held in Hong Kong. I was asked by a friend to compile the book "The Chinese History of Horses" for the local publishing house. When I was looking through historical materials and researching information, I learned that the case of the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Yang Fei, passed down the lychee by post, and was reported by a Taiwanese historian. Mr. Yan Gengwang’s textual research has already given him a new interpretation. That is the article "Tianbao Lychee Road" in the fourth volume of his six-volume academic masterpiece "Transportation Illustrations of the Tang Dynasty". ■The arrival of Lingnan lychees in Chang'an will definitely not keep them fresh. The story of Yang Guifei and lychees in history can be found in "New Book of Tang Dynasty: The Biography of Concubine Yang of Xuanzong": "The concubine was addicted to lychees and wanted to give birth to her, so she set up a post to convey them and left. After thousands of miles, the taste has not changed and it has arrived in the capital." Although it is not said where the lychees sent by Yi Chuan came from, it has been recorded in the history books of the Han Dynasty: "In the first year of Yuanxing in the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Longan lychees were offered in the old Nanhai, and they were sold every ten miles. Five miles and one hour, galloping and blocking the way, the dead follow the path" ("Book of the Later Han Dynasty·He Di"). Zhang Jiuling, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, wrote the popular "Preface to Lychee Ode" to praise Nanhai lychees: "Lychees grow out of Nanhai County. Every summer, they are actually ripe. They have a very delicate shape and a sweet taste. Among all kinds of fruits, they are the best." There is no comparison..." Since Nanhai lychees are so delicious, and Concubine Yang is so noble and fond of her, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty spared no efforts in the people's efforts and ordered a special supply from Lingnan, and ordered the post horses to gallop to deliver them to the capital, and the conclusion was reached. "Zizhi Tongjian" compiled by Sima Guang, a great historian of the Northern Song Dynasty, also mentioned that lychees came from Lingnan: "The concubine wanted to have lychees, so she traveled to Lingnan to get them. When she arrived in Chang'an, the color and taste remained unchanged" ("Tang Chronicles" Thirty-one·Xuanzong Tianbao Five Years"). But if we look into this matter carefully, we find that there is a flaw in it, that is, how to keep the lychees fresh during transportation. Bai Juyi, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, once served as the governor of Zhongzhou (today's Zhongxian County, Chongqing). Bai's "Lychee Illustration Preface" said: "Lychees grow in the Ba Gorge... ripe in summer... the shell is like red silk, the membrane is like purple silk, and the flesh is like It is as white as ice and snow, and the slurry is as sweet as cheese... If it is removed from the original branch, its color will change in one day, its fragrance will change in two days, its taste will change in three days, and its color and fragrance will disappear in four or five days. "At that time, I was in Sichuan. Bai Juyi, an official, said that there were lychees growing in the local Ba Gorge, which must be true. He also said that the fruit matured in midsummer and was extremely difficult to preserve. It could change its color, aroma and taste within three days. The real name of lychee is said to be homophonic to "Li Zhi", which means it cannot be separated from its original branch. Based on this, Mr. Yan believes that if the lychees Yang Fei likes to eat are produced in Lingnan (approximately referring to today's Guangdong and Guangxi), it is four to five thousand miles away from Chang'an. Although the post offices were developed in the Tang Dynasty, "the imperial edict travels five hundred miles a day". It is already close to the limit of horse speed (this does not refer to the daily mileage of one horse, but the total distance of multiple post horses running in rotation). Even if Yang Fei likes to speed up even more, the daily mileage will never exceed six meters. Seven hundred miles. Therefore, "Lingnan lychees cannot remain fresh when they arrive in Chang'an." ■Lychee horse transport from Shu can reach Chang'an within three days. After examining various historical materials, we found that the origin of lychees that were used as tribute to the imperial court in ancient times was said to be Lingnan and Fuzhou (located northeast of today's Chongqing). Interestingly, during the Han and Tang Dynasties, people mostly said they were from Lingnan, while after the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, people mostly said they were from Fuzhou. Mr. Yan speculated that this might be because Concubine Yang had been favored for a long time and aroused the resentment of the people at that time, so she deliberately pointed out the distant place to bring bad name to her. Su Dongpo of the Northern Song Dynasty wrote "Lychee Sigh" and said: "Lychees from Yongyuan came to Jiaozhou, and Tianbao paid tribute every year to get them from Fu." Cai Xiang's "Lychee Pu" of the Northern Song Dynasty bluntly stated that "Tang Tianbao, the concubines especially loved Fuzhou, and their fortunes were delivered every year." The teacher analyzed that from the originality of the historical data, it should of course be based on what the Tang Dynasty said, and there are also records of Lingnan's contributions in the Han Dynasty. But from the perspective of lychee preservation, this is absolutely impossible. On the other hand, it would be more reasonable and feasible to fly from Fuzhou, the Shu region adjacent to Chang'an, to Beijing. Especially because Yang Guifei lived in Shu during her childhood, "National History Supplement" said that she was "born in Shu and likes to eat lychees." Then the fruit she loved as a child is more likely to be grown locally. After researching the products of Shu, it turns out that Fuzhou lychees have long been famous because of Concubine Yang. Fan Chengda of the Song Dynasty said in the preface to "Concubine Garden": "Fuling lychees (branches) were tribute from Tianbao, and this garden was owned several miles away from the state.

"The article "Fuzhou" in the lower volume of Fan's "Wu Chuan Lu" explains in detail: "From Meijia to this point, lychees are all produced. In the Tang Dynasty, Fuzhou was used as tribute. Yang Taizhen was fond of it. There was a concubine garden a few miles away from the state. "Fuzhou Historic Sites" in "Yu Di Ji Sheng" records: "The Concubine Garden is in the west of the state, fifteen miles away from the city. There are more than a hundred lychees, which are fat and meaty. Concubine Yang of the Tang Dynasty liked them." "The people of the Song Dynasty also conducted further research and found that the exact place of origin of Fuzhou lychees should be in Lewen County, more than a hundred miles northwest of the state. From here, go north to Tangjing. After Mr. Yan's research step by step, the distance is about two thousand miles, only It is half of the road from Lingnan to Chang'an. The local chronicle records, "Fei Yang was fond of lychees, so she sent a post from Fuling to Dazhou, took Xixiang, and entered Ziwu Valley. It only took three days to arrive in Chang'an, and the color and fragrance remained unchanged. "That is, from Fuling to the county, the post horse takes Xixiang County and enters Ziwu Valley to Chang'an. It can be reached within three days, and the lychees can be kept fresh. Therefore, this is the most possible and reasonable route for transporting lychees. At this point, give Yang The fresh lychees that the imperial concubine paid tribute to were produced in Sichuan and finally became known to the world. The Tianbao lychee road is still there today. Mr. Yan Gengwang also speculated on the specific route of lychees from Fuzhou to Chang'an Yi, which was generally from Lewen, Fuzhou, where it was produced, along the Rongxi River. (Today's Longxi River) valley goes northward, passing through Dianjiang County and Liangshan County (today's Liangping) to Xinning County (now also known as Kaijiang) and Dongxiang County, then north through Xuanhan, and then north over the Bashan Mountains to Xixiang County. Entering Ziwu Valley, passing Ziwu Pass, and heading south from Chang'an to the capital. He also named this route "Tianbao Lizhi Road". What is particularly surprising is that in the middle of the 20th century, a thousand years later, "Atlas of the Republic of China". The "Sichuan Humanities Map" shows that there is a motorway from Changshou County on the north bank of the Shu River to the northeast through Dianjiang, Liangshan, Kaijiang (i.e. Xinning), Xuanhan, and from Bashan in North Vietnam to Ziwu Town; and the map of southern Sichuan at the beginning of the 21st century , is also clearly marked as an ocher-yellow high-grade highway from Changshou, Dianjiang to Liangping, and to Kaijiang and Daxian in the north. This road is exactly the route passed by Tianbao Lizhi Road from Wenle in Tang Dynasty to Liangshan. When driving along this road, how would you think that you are walking on the same road that was used to deliver lychees to Concubine Yang? The nutrients contained in each 100 grams of lychees are as follows [Edit this paragraph] Calories (70.00 kcal) ·Protein ( 0.90g) ·Fat (0.20g) ·Carbohydrates (16.60g) ·Dietary fiber (0.50g) ·Vitamin A (2.00μg) ·Carotene (10.00μg) ·Thiamine (0.10mg) ·Riboflavin ( 0.04 mg) · Niacin (1.10 mg) · Vitamin C (41.00 mg) · Calcium (2.00 mg) · Phosphorus (24.00 mg) · Sodium (1.70 mg) · Magnesium (12.00 mg) · Iron (0.40 mg) · Zinc ( 0.17 mg) · Selenium (0.14 μg) · Copper (0.16 mg) · Manganese (0.09 mg) · Potassium (151.00 mg) Internet slang [edit this paragraph] Lychee: refers to the English Lich, that is, Lich (Warcraft 3) The undead hero). The other is Lich king, the Lich King.

Fans of Huang Yali If you think this entry needs to be improved and you need to add new content or correct wrong content, please edit the entry

References: 1. Chinese Food Network/Contributors (***44) ): Dongfang Mengyang, Intelligence Baozai, Global Cooperation, Zhang Zishi 9, 150887740, xmyzgysbzyl, sbfb3000, starwang1984, Zuo Xian Youyue, Mulan Xinyi, Autumn Wind Wilderness, Wen Yuxiang, 24687910, Two Horses Galloping, Yingge Silent Fall , 446230, M Peide Jinxiu International M, Xuan Zai Ai, "Midnight Street", Qi Gui more >> This entry is mentioned in the following entries: Fuzhou Shengshan Temple, Fuzhou Kaihua Temple, Xitianwei Town, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor He of the Han Dynasty, Xing Qiyi, lychee and red date porridge, Huashi Town, lychee duck porridge, marble soda, Longyang, hot fruit, Xijiao Zoo, Nanning Zoo, Wanning, Guangming New District, Cangnan County , *** Paradise, tea tree tea garden coffee cyst moth, Gong Yitu, Dongguan, medicinal plants lychee frost blight, layering, Fujian, Asia, Du Mu, orangutan, Guangdong, longan, seeds more>>