Not only Laba porridge, but also porridge has a long history in China.
It is estimated that most people don't necessarily know why they celebrate Laba Festival, but they should all know that they want to eat Laba porridge on this day. Interestingly, Japanese people especially like to eat some solar terms, such as spring cakes in jiaozi and beginning of spring from winter to China. Speaking of Laba porridge, do you know how many years people in China have been drinking porridge?
Porridge has a long history.
The history of porridge is earlier than that of rice, because the pot-shaped pottery in front of retort can only be used to cook liquid food. The main raw material of liquid is Gu Mi, which is "porridge". At that time, the staple food and non-staple food, that is, the so-called rice and vegetables in later generations, were not cooked separately, or all kinds of food were cooked in one device, so the early porridge was probably not cooked with pure grain raw materials. In other words, porridge at that time was probably all kinds of vegetable porridge, fruit porridge, meat porridge, fish porridge and so on.
In the Longshan Cultural Site and banpo village Site in the early Neolithic Age, people found a porridge cooking tool-"reeling silk". The word porridge was originally written as "nao", which is very similar to the shape of rice cooked by pottery pot nao created during Longshan culture period. This just shows that our ancestors knew how to cook porridge thousands of years ago.
The book records: "So so, so so, paste the rest." Kong Yingda's "Seven Years of Zuo Zhao": "Thick is muddy; If it is muddy, it will be ruined. " Obviously, the thin porridge is called "South" and the thick porridge is called "Rice", which is synonymous with paste. Commentary: "Paste, too; Thick porridge. " In ancient times, porridge was also called "Mi", "Juan" and "Juan".
Xu Shen's Shu in the Han Dynasty said: "The Yellow Emperor began to teach as a teacher." Dialect, Shuowen Jiezi and Book of Beginners all have similar records: "The Yellow Emperor began to cook cereal for porridge." It can be seen that in the era of Xuanyuan Huangdi, his people have been taught to "cook the valley for porridge".
Eating porridge helps to keep healthy.
The porridge of ancient people is related to health and longevity, and many medical and health books record the most.
The earliest recorded soup book for treating diseases with drugs and rice porridge should be the Selected Works written by Sima Qian in the Han Dynasty. In the year of Bei Tang Shu Chao, Chunyu Kun, a famous doctor in the Western Han Dynasty, described Wang Qi's example of treating diseases with fire and porridge.
In many medical books unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, there are also records of porridge treatment, such as taking sorghum rice porridge to treat snake wounds; Cooking rice porridge with heated stones for oral administration can actually treat anal pruritus and others. The book "Historical Records" written by Zhang Zhongjing, a famous doctor in the Eastern Han Dynasty, also records many famous prescriptions of combining rice and medicine, such as Baihu Decoction, Peach Blossom Decoction and Bamboo Leaf Gypsum Decoction, all of which contain japonica rice.
Yu Meng in the Tang Dynasty wrote a book Historical Records. According to the remains of Dunhuang Grottoes in Gansu Province, this book contains "Ming porridge, persimmon porridge, Qin pepper porridge and Shu pepper porridge". Yin Yan's Treatise on Febrile Diseases contains 57 prescriptions of medicated diet porridge, which are divided into nine categories according to apoplexy, cold pain, five choking and seven stranguria. Sun Simiao's dietotherapy herbal dietotherapy includes cereal bran porridge for treating beriberi, sheep bone porridge for warming and nourishing yang, and windproof porridge for removing wind from limbs.
It is said that Hengli in Tang Muzong especially appreciates self-righteousness, so she gave him windproof porridge. According to Feng Zhi's "A Doctor's Mind", "Bai Juyi was in Hanlin, giving Yufeng a cup of porridge, picking out Yufeng for more than five cups, and having a good meal for seven days." That's porridge cooked with parsnip and rice. Of course, the "seven-day fragrant mouth" is somewhat exaggerated, but it also shows that people have regarded porridge as a health-preserving and nourishing food at this time.
Porridge is cheap and convenient
In the eyes of ancient people in China, it is generally believed that porridge is more delicious than rice. There are two main reasons for this idea: first, eating porridge saves food than eating. At that time, the society, with immature farming technology and low grain output, was a very scarce resource necessary for survival, so it was very necessary to be frugal. Second, porridge is simpler and more convenient than rice. In ancient times, the cooking technique of cooking rice was much higher than that of cooking porridge. At that time, if you wanted to eat rice, you had to have a pot, similar to a modern steamer. So cooking is quite complicated, far from being a pot, just cook with water and grain. This is also an important reason why porridge was much higher than rice in the daily diet at that time.
Because porridge is cheap and convenient, it has not been favored by nobles for a long time. In the year of catastrophe, "giving porridge" became a charity means, so in the eyes of most elites, eating porridge is only food for poor families and victims. This situation did not ease until the Song Dynasty. In 2006, the "Food Department" had a column about "Zhou Mi", which was the first time that porridge was canonized as a national food. Let's take a look at how much literati in the Song Dynasty loved porridge.
Celebrities who loved porridge in ancient times
Speaking of eating, I have to mention Su Shi. After eating a meal cooked with soybean milk and porridge in Gong Mi, Wuxi, he wrote a poem "Save 1000 yuan for emergencies". There is a saying, "Only when the body and mind are upside down can we know the true taste of the world." He also wrote a poem related to porridge, named Yunxian Miscellaneous Notes Fangfeng Porridge, which is another kind of porridge, pea barley porridge. Dongpo's ci also mentioned that rice porridge "can bring forth the old and bring forth the new, benefiting the diaphragm and stomach." Porridge is fast and beautiful, and it is wonderful to fall asleep after drinking porridge. "
The person who is deeply obsessed with porridge is the poet Lu You, who wrote "A Scene of Peace": "Everyone in the world is an old man, but I don't believe how many years are now. I want to learn Dharma, so I only give fairy porridge. " In his eyes, "eating porridge" can be associated with longevity and longevity.
Compared with the previous generation, the porridge recorded in the Song Dynasty is more abundant, and the porridge at this time is not only for filling the stomach. Bean porridge contains 1 13 dietotherapy porridge recipes, and Tangyin pea and coix seed porridge shows Sanzi contains 129 dietotherapy porridge recipes, and eating porridge contains 43 nourishing porridge recipes for middle-aged and elderly people.
Laba porridge became popular in Song Dynasty.
Laba Festival is related to Buddhist stories. Almost everyone will eat Laba porridge on this day.
Laba porridge is to be eaten on Laba Festival, which has been popular since the Song Dynasty.
Laba Festival originated from Buddhist stories, and when it was introduced to China has not been researched in detail. At the end of the Han Dynasty, An Shigao's translation of "The General Record of Shengji" said that the Buddha advised people to stand on their own feet and set up a bath to wash the Buddha, but did not specify the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Meng Haoran mentioned in "Taiping Sheng Huifang": "Stone walls open golden statues, and Xiangshan surrounds iron fences. See Maitreya and return to your heart. Ancient bamboo and Buddhist temples, but rare buildings and terraces. The sunset glow adds color and the afterglow is brilliant. Talking about invitations and holding hands, applying bathrobes in the spring pool. I am willing to make contributions to collect water, and from then on. " This poem reflects the scene of bathing Buddha's light in a Buddhist temple on December 8 in the Tang Dynasty. However, it was not until the Song Dynasty that this activity became popular. Previously, there were few records of this matter in books.
Wu's Book of Endowment and Family Offering once recorded: "On the 8th of this month, the temple number was Laba, Dasha Temple and so on. There are five kinds of porridge, called Laba porridge. " He also said: "On the eighth day of the eighth lunar month, there are three or five monks and nuns in the street, forming a group to recite the Buddha and bathing with silver and copper chives or fine poplar branches to educate them. The temple will be used for bathing Buddha. "
In the Tang Dynasty, the custom of bathing Buddha and giving porridge in Buddhist temples had a great influence on the people. According to records, the temple "sent Qibao Wuwei porridge and its disciples, named Laba porridge. Everyone is Japanese, and everyone eats fruit porridge. "
February 8, 65438+ is the day when Buddha Sakyamuni became a Buddha. According to Indian Buddhist scriptures, before becoming a Buddha, Sakyamuni had become a monk, but after experiencing the ascetic life of ideas, he still did not get rid of all kinds of troubles in his life mentally. At this time, he was very hungry and exhausted to the extreme. At this time, a shepherd girl brought chyme, and he recovered his strength after drinking it. Therefore, Sakyamuni vowed: "If you eat and drink today, you will have the power to expand, so as to protect your wisdom and longevity and serve all beings." Since then, he has been fed crushed milk by the shepherdess every day. A month later, when he was strong, he took a bath in the river, washed away his dirt, meditated under the bodhi tree for seven days and seven nights, and finally became a Buddha. Therefore, Buddhists regard 65438+February 8, the day when the Buddha became a Taoist, as a Taoist festival to commemorate the Buddha.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism had a great influence on the people, and even its introduction affected the customs of some people. Among them, the behavior of Buddhist children sending porridge on Laba Buddha's Enlightenment Day has gradually evolved into the custom of eating Laba porridge on Laba Festival in China.
The custom of eating Laba porridge in Ming and Qing Dynasties
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the custom of eating Laba porridge further developed. "Warm House Classic" compiled in Jiajing years records that "millet, rice and rice are mixed with beans, and porridge is cooked with dates, chestnuts and walnuts." In the Ming Dynasty, Liu Min's "Buddha Ceremony of Shicheng Temple in Badan County of the twelfth lunar month" also recorded that "Laba porridge is on December 8, and the benevolent helps the poor". Liang Lumeng in the Qing Dynasty also mentioned: "On December 8, Guan Bai porridge was given, and Laba porridge was also made by the people. It is made of rice and fruit. The more products, the better. This covers the story of the Song Dynasty. "
Laba porridge is found in palaces, yamen, temples and people's homes. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of drinking Laba porridge became more popular. In court, emperors, queens, princes, etc. Send laba porridge to civil and military ministers and attendants, and distribute rice and fruit to temples for monks to eat. It is also the common people who make laba porridge to worship their ancestors. At the same time, families get together for dinner and give gifts to relatives and friends.
How particular is Bazhou?
There are many kinds of Laba porridge all over the country, especially in Beiping. White rice is mixed with many items, including red dates, lotus seeds, walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, pine nuts, longan, hazelnuts, grapes, ginkgo, water chestnut, roses, red beans and peanuts. Generally, people start to be busy on the night of the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, washing rice, soaking fruits, peeling, coring and sorting, and then start cooking in the middle of the night and stew until the next morning. Laba porridge is well cooked.
Some picky families must carve fruits into human shapes, animals and patterns before cooking. Some Laba porridge will be accompanied by a "fruit lion", which is a lion made of several fruits. Crispy dates with core removed and dried are used as lion's body, half walnut kernel as lion's head, peach kernel as lion's foot and sweet almond as lion's tail. Then stick them together with sugar and put them in a porridge bowl, like a little lion. In a bigger bowl, you can put two lions or four little lions. In addition, the images of Eight Immortals, Shouxing and Luohan are made of jujube paste, bean paste, yam and hawthorn cake.
After the eight-treasure porridge is ready, it should be offered to the gods and ancestors first, then to relatives and friends, and it must be delivered before noon, so that the whole family can eat it at last. The leftover Laba porridge should be preserved. If you can eat for a few days, it is a good sign that "there is still more than one year." In the northeast, there is also a proverb "Laba Laba, frozen chin", which means Laba is particularly cold on this day. Eating Laba porridge can keep people warm and resist the cold. "Laba porridge, endless, has a good harvest after eating Laba porridge." On this day in Guanzhong area, every household will cook a pot of Laba porridge and have a full meal. Not only adults and children, but also animals, chickens and dogs. Rub some on doors, walls and trees for good luck.
History of Zhu Yuan, Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty
All right, let's move on to A.
The Yuan Dynasty also attached great importance to porridge. There are many porridge recipes in Tokyo Dream edited by doctor Hu Sihui, which can nourish and strengthen the body, prolong life and prevent diseases. For example, the beggar-horse porridge of "invigorating the spleen and stomach and benefiting qi" is actually porridge made of mutton and sorghum rice; In addition, there is medlar and sheep kidney porridge, "treating yang deficiency, five strains and seven injuries"; There are yam porridge, pockmarked porridge and purslane porridge. It can cure fatigue and keep bones steamed for a long time. In addition, in the book "Chinese Dream" in Tokyo, 28 most commonly used porridge recipes such as mung bean porridge, Poria porridge, sesame porridge, perilla porridge and bamboo leaf green porridge are also introduced. Porridge was greatly developed at that time.
In the Ming dynasty, porridge had a greater development. Long Qingzhi, edited by Li Shizhen, a famous medical scientist, contains a lot of porridge prescriptions. It is the largest cookbook since the Han and Tang Dynasties. It has collected 180 kinds of porridge recipes, and made a comprehensive and detailed discussion on each recipe. In addition, Liu Bowen's Li Cheng, Textual Research on Old News of Sun, Zhu Quan, Wang and others also have porridge prescriptions. It can be seen that in the Ming Dynasty, it was very common to treat diseases with porridge.
The porridge spectrum of the Qing Dynasty is even more dazzling. Cao Tingdong collected 102 diet porridge recipes in his book Diet. He divided medicinal porridge into three categories: top grade, middle grade and low grade. Compendium of Materia Medica was written in the Guangxu period of Huangyungu, which is the earliest monograph on medicated porridge in China. It contains 247 porridge recipes, including grains, vegetables, nuts, medicinal plants, herbs, animals and so on. The variety can be seen.
There is a great difference between north and south porridge.
Due to the different ingredients planted, the characteristics of porridge vary from place to place. Although they are all porridge, there are great differences in the choice of ingredients between the north and the south. The hinterland of ancient north was the main grain producing area. In addition to millet, millet, sorghum and wheat, there are miscellaneous grains such as red beans, mung beans, red beans and black beans. In addition, the Central Plains region is also rich in various dried fruits, such as our common red dates, peanuts, walnuts, pine nuts, almonds and so on. Mainly produced in the northern region. These ingredients can be used as the main raw materials of porridge, so porridge in the north is mostly composed of miscellaneous grains, beans, dried fruits and other ingredients. A few will be mixed with vegetables, fruits and even preserves. Generally, it tastes light and has little oil and meat.
The porridge in the south is different from the porridge in the north. In terms of ingredients, the porridge in the south is more fierce, especially in coastal areas. Almost any creature, chop suey and leftovers can be put into porridge and cooked together. No matter all kinds of seafood, pigs, cows, sheep, abalone wings or cattle and sheep, they can't cook porridge. The porridge in the north pays more attention to self-cultivation and is mainly vegetarian, while the porridge in the south has strong nourishing function and features meat.
As for cooking porridge, the ancients were also particular about it. Yuan Mei's "Compendium of Materia Medica" China people "see water and see rice is not porridge; Seeing rice without water is not porridge. It will make rice and water blend, soft and greasy, and then call it porridge. " At the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, Li Yu discussed porridge in Pu Ji Fang Chronicle. He believes that "the serious disease of porridge lies in its precipitation in supernatant, such as paste, which is the cause of uneven temperature." This is uncooked porridge, and to make porridge well, the ratio of rice to water, cooking time and temperature should be accurate. He described porridge like this: "When dipping in water, it must be limited to a few, so that the spoon can't get bigger and the water drops can't be reduced. Then, the porridge is heated and stirred evenly, so that the porridge is rice, not seeking common ground while reserving differences, which is extraordinary."
In prosperous times, porridge is a kind of enjoyment for tasting and preserving health, but in times of war and famine, Li people are more enthusiastic about porridge. No matter how chaotic the world is, as long as they have porridge in their hands, their hearts will be at ease. There is an allusion to porridge in history, which is called "sipping porridge". It's about Zhou Xuanwang. There was a famine in 2000.