The Bijia Fish Maw is the swim bladder in the belly of the Longrhinus. Why has it become a specialty of Shishou? Well, let’s talk about the long-stalked catfish first! The long-snouted catfish, commonly known as catfish (Huiyu), Jiangtuan, Feituo, etc., is a rare carnivorous freshwater fish that can be found in the Yangtze River, Pearl River, Minjiang River, and Huaihe River in my country. , Liaohe River and parts of Britain, France, Russia and the United States are also distributed. However, the strange phenomenon is that, except for the Shishou River section, no longnose fish in other waters has a fat swim bladder, a large, tender and white penholder-shaped fish maw. In fact, it’s not surprising: first, through the ages, the Yangtze River has made nine and eighteen bends, with one sharp bend reaching Shishou Bijia Mountain; second, through the ages, Shishou Bijia Mountain has stood beside the river, blocking the river from the north from flowing eastward, leaving behind a sharp bend. The gyrating flow here naturally becomes a paradise for the backflowing longshin fish, which naturally creates the unique penholder-shaped fish maw of the "returning longshin fish", which is like the reflection in the water of Shishou Bijia Mountain, thus attracting people's curiosity and association. According to the traditional Yi Jing culture, the ancients naturally thought that mountains belong to yang and water belongs to yin. Mountains have the shape of a pen stand and fish have the belly of a pen stand. This is the combination of yin and yang of the mountains and rivers, which highlights the outstanding people in the stone head, so the name pen stand fish belly came into being. This is the reason why Bijia fish maw is a specialty of Shishou and is famous throughout the ages.

It is said that there is a village between Dongyue and Nanyue mountains in Xiulin Town, Shishou County. There lived a young man named Bijia. His parents died young and his family was poor. He used reed as a pen, river sand as paper, and the moon as a lamp. He read and practiced calligraphy and worked hard to become a talent. Everyone liked him very much. Not far from Bijia, there lived a wise girl at the foot of Dongyue Mountain. She was clever and very beautiful. She admired Bijia and helped Bijia sharpen pens, fetch sand, and keep her company. People praised them as a perfect match. One day, Miss Hui went to the river to collect sand and dug out a bright and shiny pen holder, which she gave to Bi Jia to hold his pen. This thing was extraordinary, it glowed at night, and Bi Jia never read or wrote under the moon again. When news of this strange incident reached the black-hearted landowner Lai San, he came up with a vicious plan to ask Bi Jia to catch dozens of cattle to graze deep in the dense grass of Nanyue Mountain. Lai San followed and secretly took a cow away. Bi Jia came back in the evening and found a cow missing. He could not find it anywhere. Lai San insisted that the precious cow was missing, and insisted that Bi Jia use the precious pen holder as a counterweight. The treasure was given by Miss Hui, but Bi Jia refused even to death. Lai San brought people to snatch it, but Bi Jia escaped through the window with the pen holder in his arms and ran to the foot of Dongyue Mountain. The rolling Yangtze River blocked his way and could no longer run. Seeing Lai San coming, Bi Jia threw the treasure into the river in order to prevent it from falling into Lai San's hands. When Lai San saw this, he became furious and beat Bi Jia to death by the riverside. Miss Hui came and cried loudly. She cried until night, when golden light shone in the river, and the pen holder magically appeared. This news was known to Lai San again, and he hurriedly came to take a boat down the river, preparing to fish for treasure. Miss Hui hurriedly jumped into the river and grabbed the pen holder. Strangely enough, Miss Hui turned into a fish and swallowed the penholder. At this time, the sky was dark and the earth was dark, there was lightning and thunder, and the mountains collapsed and the earth cracked. The next day, the wind stopped and the thunder stopped, and a mountain grew out of the plains, shaped like a penholder, connecting the two mountains of Dongyue and Nanyue. People called it "Beacon Mountain". The Yangtze River has also gained an additional fish species. This fish is unique because its belly is shaped like a penholder, so people call it the penholder fish belly. This fish only swims fifty miles upward and fifty miles downward. When it loses sight of the Bijia Mountain, it turns back and never leaves the Bijia Mountain. From then on, people said that the fish was transformed by Miss Hui, and that the belly of the fish was transformed from the precious penholder. That day there was lightning and thunder, and Bijia turned into Bijia Mountain and pinned Laishan and his gang at the bottom. Miss Hui couldn't bear to leave Bijia's brother, so he transformed into Bijia. The fish aren’t leaving Beacon Hill either.

The Legend of Bijia Fish Maw II

There is a mountain in the north of Shishou City, shaped like a Bijia, with the Yangtze River flowing under the mountain. With Bijia Mountain as the center, up to Jiangling Haoxue, down to the mouth of Dongting Lake, with a distance of 50 kilometers, the river flows like nine ileum. There is a rare fish growing in this section of the river. There are two peculiarities about this fish. First, it only grows in this 50-kilometer-long river and nowhere else; second, its belly is large and plump, like a peach, with a thick rib in the middle, which looks like a local pen holder. Mountain, hence the name "Bi Jia Fish Maw".

Legend Three

Lu Ban was traveling to Dongting Lake and passed through Shishou County when he happened to catch up with the wealthy man's family building a building. Dissatisfied with the stinginess and harshness of the rich, the craftsmen deliberately thinned the sides of the upper beams and column heads. Unexpectedly, the rich discovered this and demanded compensation from the craftsmen. It happened that Lu Ban saw this, so he picked some shaved grain juice and asked his companion Shuan Bao to knead it. He wiped it on his mouth and applied it to the stigma. He also tore off his own rags and put them on the tenon of the stigma to make the process very easy. Close it quickly. Seeing Lu Ban's superb skills, the rich man insisted that Lu Ban stay and build a house for him, teach his son crafts, and entertain him with good meals and dishes.

Lu Ban learned about the rich man's usual behavior, so he spit into the rice and said to the rich man: "Eat this rice first, and I will stay and teach the craftsmanship to your son." The rich man refused to eat and said He raised his hand and threw the rice into the Yangtze River at the foot of Bijia Mountain. Because the turtles at the bottom of the river swallowed this meal, their belly grew thick and transparent. From then on, this kind of fish maw was called "bijian fish maw".

There is neither this fish nor "penholder fish maw" in other waters of the Yangtze River. Local folklore: There is a fish palace at the foot of Bijia Mountain, and there lives a long-nose king fish in the palace. All long-nose fishes who come here to worship him will get a big fish maw in the shape of Bijia Mountain. Fish maw, also known as "isinglass", is an animal glue or gelatin made from fish scales, skin, bones and swim bladders. The swim bladder glue of large yellow croaker and other fish is directly dried and isinglass. In addition to being used as industrial raw materials, the edible fish maw is called "fish maw". Shishou Bijia fish maw is a precious food made from the swim bladder of the longnose catfish produced in the Shishou section of the Yangtze River. The long-snouted catfish, also known as the "catfish", is a large fish, about one meter long, and generally weighs seven or eight kilograms, with the largest weighing more than twenty kilograms. The back is off-white and the belly is white. The swim bladder of the longnose fish is large, plump and rich in nutrients. The shape of the swim bladder and the red texture embedded in the swim bladder resemble the Bijia Mountain, a stone head towering on the bank of the Yangtze River, hence the name "Bijia Fish Maw". The fish belly of the pen holder is exquisite in appearance, white with green color, crystal clear and lovely. The dried fish maw looks like a jade carving. Generally, a fish belly weighs about two taels, and the larger one can weigh up to half a catty. Cooking masters can use the penholder fish maw to cook a variety of delicacies such as "chicken minced fish maw", "shrimp fish maw", "sea cucumber fish maw", "braised fish maw", etc., all of which are delicious and have high nutritional value.