Historical materials
The development of the food culture of the river bream is related to Nanjing, the capital of the Six Dynasties. According to historical records, from the 3rd century A.D. to the end of the 6th century, the three kingdoms, namely, Dongwu, Dongjin, Song, Qi, Liang and Chen, successively established their capitals in Jiankang (now Nanjing), which was the most active era in China's ideological circle after the Warring States Period. Nanjing was the capital of the Six Dynasties, and the flow of people and logistics promoted the development of social economy, so it was possible for the food culture of other fish to rise in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In the Song Dynasty in the 1th ~ 12th century, literati wrote poems and lyrics in succession, which led to many wonderful descriptions of Hefu.
According to Shan Hai Jing Bei Shan Jing, as early as 4, years ago in Dayu's flood control era, people along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River tasted the crab and knew that it was poisonous. More than 2, years ago, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River belonged to wuyue during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and wuyue was rich in river crabs. After the success of Wu Wang, the river crabs were regarded as the best food. Compared with beauty Xi Shi, Wu Wang even called the liver of the river crabs "Xi Shi Gan" and the testis of the river crabs "Xi Shi Ru". People's custom of tasting fugu is even worse than that of today's Japanese. Especially when tasting fugu's testis, I don't know how to describe its white as milk, plump and delicious, instant in the mouth and wonderful. Some people think of the beauty of Yue, Xi Shi, so "Xi Shi Ru" spread among the people. In the fifth year of Jingyou in the Song Dynasty (AD 138), the famous poet Mei Yaochen was at Fan Zhongyan's table, and when his colleagues vividly told about the river bream, he could not help but improvise a poem: "Buds are born in the spring state, and flowers are flying on the spring shore. Li Shizhen also mentioned that Yan Youyi, a poet of the Song Dynasty, said in A Collection of Materia Medica that "the river crab, the peculiar taste of the aquarium, has been passed down from generation to generation to kill people, and the rest is in Danyang and Xuancheng, which is eaten by the natives. However, no one was found dead when it was cooked with three things: shepherd's purse, Artemisia selengensis, and Zizania latifolia. "
Li Shizhen (1518 ~ 1593), a Ming Dynasty pharmacologist, spent 3 years searching for more than 6 masterpieces from the ancient Yan Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, and comprehensively summarized the achievements of China's pharmacology from the 21st century to the 16th century BC. In his masterpiece Compendium of Materia Medica, he said, "According to Shan Hai Jing, an ancient book which was first written in Dayu, completed in Xia and perfected in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Ma Zhi, a native of the Song Dynasty (about 968), said in his "Kaibao Materia Medica" that there are fishes in the Yangtze River, Huaihe River, Yellow River and the sea.
Nowadays, Hai 'an is the earliest place to eat puffer fish, and Qingdun witnessed the delicacy of puffer fish more than 3, years ago.
Throughout the ages, with the changes of ecological environment, the rivers and estuaries of the Huaihe River and the Yellow River have changed many times, and the old course of the Yellow River is still left in Lianshui, Jiangsu Province. Hongze, Huaiyin, Huai 'an, Jinhu and Funing in Jiangsu are all located in the lower reaches of the Huaihe River, but people have never seen any other fish in the Yellow River and Huaihe River. According to the author's investigation, at present, neither the Yellow River nor the banks of the Huaihe River know nor eat river crabs at all. However, people in the coastal areas of northern Jiangsu and on both sides of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River are generally familiar with and addicted to the fish, and the food culture of the fish inherited so far is completely in tune with the descriptions of Su Dongpo and Mei Yaochen. According to the description of the ancient people on the distribution, ecological habits, external morphology and behavior of the fugu, the fugu in the "desperate to eat the fugu" should refer to the fugu obscurus, which entered the Yangtze River from the ocean in spring for reproductive migration.
Yan Song's story about eating river bream
The goby fish is a poisonous fish, and its blood, viscera and ovaries are all highly toxic. People who eat goby fish by mistake sometimes die, even those who rely on themselves for the sea are often poisoned to death due to carelessness and improper handling. Many folk legends have also been deduced because of the poison of the boat fish.
In the Ming Dynasty, Yan Song, a greedy and treacherous power minister, took a fisherman's girl as his concubine from Penglai, Shandong Province when she was over 8 years old. Tired of eating delicacies and delicacies, Yan Song's subordinates planned a boat banquet for his wedding banquet to show their flattery and get Yan Song's approval, so they took the boat fish with them and rushed to Beijing with the chef hired from Shandong. Just in case, go with the young father-in-law as a guarantee.
On the wedding day, guests of the dynasty, dignitaries, local dignitaries and so on gathered to congratulate and be very lively. When the last delicious stewed fish was served on the table, the drooling guests scrambled for food, and in a blink of an eye, a large plate of fish was already in the mouth.
Just as everyone was not fully appreciating the delicious taste of the boat-fish, a young man in a robe and scholar-like appearance fell to the ground in vain, foaming at the mouth, convulsing and unconscious. "Someone is poisoned!" The wedding reception was an uproar and chaos. Yan Song's minions went straight to the kitchen to catch the cook, but none of them were found, and neither was the "father-in-law".
In his panic, Yan Song flew into a rage and asked the concubine, "How to detoxify?"
The concubine said, "Only yellow soup."
Yan Song asked, "What is yellow soup?"
The concubine said, "That's dung."
Yan Song immediately ordered to go to the toilet to carry manure.
In order to detoxify and survive, the guests had no respect for their faces. Everyone picked up their bowls, raised their necks, closed their eyes and drank the manure. They vomited all the food such as fish and fish that had been robbed of food, and even poured out their insides. The wedding banquet was stinking, messy and moaning.
It's said that the villagers who came to Beijing for the first time, after finishing the dish of boat and fish, all ran to the street to see the scenery and slipped away. They were captured alive. Just as he was about to plead guilty, the man who fell to the ground woke up and told the truth. It turned out that the scholar went out to urinate during the dinner, and when he came back, the boat and the fish were swept away, and suddenly the atmosphere was born, and the old illness of epilepsy recurred ... At this time, people suddenly realized.
This is the story of "Huangtang" to relieve fish poison (there is a similar story in the novel "Three Heroes and Five Righteousness", that is, the forty-third time the jade bottle polluted sheep fat and jade, and the beautiful concubine died of bad breath).
the toxic component of fugu fish is fugu toxin, which is a neurotoxin, and people can die if they eat .5 ~ 3 mg of dolphin toxin. The liver, spleen, kidney, ovary, testis, eyeball, skin and blood are all toxic. Eggs, ovaries and liver are the most poisonous, followed by kidneys, blood, eyes and skin. The toxin is heat-resistant, and can not be destroyed at 1℃ for 8 hours, and can only be destroyed at 12℃ for 1 hour, nor can it be destroyed by salting and sun exposure.
Every spring is the spawning season of freshwater fish, when the fish is the most toxic, so spring is the high-incidence season of freshwater fish poisoning. China's Measures for the Hygienic Management of Aquatic Products clearly stipulates: "The fish of river bream are highly toxic and shall not enter the market. Captured toxic fish, such as fugu fish, should be picked out, boxed and specially stored. Therefore, fugu fish should not be eaten. Only a few people are desperate to eat river bream, but most people are poisoned because they don't know the river bream fish and accidentally eat it.