Su Dongpo in the Northern Song Dynasty was accused of "despising the first dynasty" and was demoted to Lingnan. Because "you can't sign books and business", suddenly there is poetry and distance. When I have nothing to do, I will send my feelings to the mountains and rivers and write down endless "three hundred suns, and I will be a Lingnan person without hesitation."
But it has been estimated that 300 lychees should weigh at least 20 kilograms. If you eat them all, it's worth it. But in the eyes of Emperor Xian of Han Dynasty, Lingnan litchi has the effect of prolonging life.
Lingnan litchi was presented as a tribute to the imperial court in the Han Dynasty and the early Han Dynasty. Due to the lack of preservation technology, we can only pay tribute to dried litchi. Because litchi has "special effects", it is a great pity not to taste fresh litchi.
According to China Agricultural Heritage, during the period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, the court decided to try to transplant litchi to Chang 'an. As a result, the whole plant was not only acclimatized, but also froze to death in winter. Fresh lychees from Lingnan were transported to Beijing, and it was not until the Eastern Han Dynasty and Emperor Wudi of Han Dynasty that they were really implemented.
The Eastern Han Dynasty and Liu Zhao had a soft spot for Lingnan Guo Jia, and almost all of them were "express delivery" in the same season. According to Zhong Changtong's "Zhong Changzi Long Yan" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Today's people don't think of nectar, and their springs are overflowing. It is also embarrassing to suffer from the rot of lychee. "
Liu Zhao wanted to eat, and worried that the fruit would rot, so he ordered people to ride fast horses from Lingnan to Beijing day and night. But even so, it was rotten after arrival, and the taste and quality of the rest were greatly reduced.
Ancient Lingnan was a place of miasma, with many poisonous insects and beasts. Litchi eaten in Liu Zhao was picked and transported from Lingnan, while longan needed to be paid tribute from Jiaozhi County (now northern Vietnam). After a long journey, many people and horses were killed or injured.
Finally, some ministers couldn't stand it anymore, and wrote to Liu Zhao, demanding that the tribute of fresh litchi and longan be cancelled. "I was shocked to see seven counties offering longan and so on." In the land of Zhou Nan, there are endless insects and wild animals. As for the danger of death. These two things may not prolong life, but the emperor will follow suit. "
Great progress was made in fruit preservation technology in Tang Dynasty, and Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty restarted the transportation of Lingnan litchi to Beijing. Because Tang Xuanzong liked Yang Guifei, he loved her very much. When he knew that Yang Guifei loved fresh branches, he did not hesitate to restart the transportation of litchi from Lingnan to Chang 'an.
Some scholars in later generations believed that the litchi that Yang Guifei ate was not from Lingnan, but from Meishan, Sichuan, where she was born. But this view is like that Yang Guifei is from Rong County, Guangxi, and there is no evidence.
Although Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty transported litchi from Lingnan to Chang 'an, he took the same "expressway" as Liu Zhao in the Eastern Han Dynasty, that is, the Xijing Ancient Road built in the second year of Jianwu in the Eastern Han Dynasty, but the national strength of the Tang Dynasty was much stronger than that of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Contemporary Du Fu said in his poem "Sick Orange": "Recalling the past, envoys came from the South China Sea and rushed to offer litchi branches. One hundred horses died in the valley, which is still sad. " This poem. The preservation technology of litchi in Tang Dynasty was enough for Yang Guifei to eat fresh litchi.
When describing the arrival of branches, The Book of the New Tang Dynasty still keeps "the same color and taste". The reason is that the preservation technology of litchi in Tang Dynasty was adopted, which is a kind of can sealing technology. This method is different from the bamboo tube sealing method for transporting oranges, and the preservation effect is better.
However, its fresh-keeping time is just so much. After litchi is sent to Chang 'an, if it is not eaten immediately, it will rot after being parked for a period of time. "Tang Guo Poetry Department" clearly pointed out this point, "The imperial concubine loves litchi, and the South China Sea flies forward year after year, and the summer is ripe and the night is defeated. Later generations don't know. "
Since the Song Dynasty, litchi preservation technology has become increasingly mature.
In the Song Dynasty, the preservation methods of litchi began to change from the Tang Dynasty, and two preservation technologies appeared. One is the method of spreading a thick layer of litchi leaves in bamboo cages for long-distance transportation described by Cai Xiang in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the other is "? The method of sealing its branches.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, various preservation methods appeared one after another, such as cutting bananas, rooting, sealing mud with live bamboo or wrapping rice leaves.
Conclusion: In ancient times, there were no advanced means of transportation, but the ancients were still able to create various preservation technologies with their own wisdom, which is really commendable.
Introduction: "Chang 'an looks back at the embroidered pile, and the top of the mountain opens a thousand times. "Riding the world of mortals and laughing, who knows that it is litchi." This is "Crossing the Qing Palace" written by Du Mu, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty. Its core idea is to satirize Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty who spared no expense to satisfy Yang Guifei's desire to eat litchi.
Su Shi, a famous poet in the Song Dynasty, once wrote in Eat Litchi that "300 Litchi a day, I will grow up to be a Lingnan person". After this poem, many people combined the poems of Du Mu and Su Shi to form a kind of litchi that Yang Guifei ate, which was shipped from Lingnan.
Analysis In ancient times, if the food provided to the palace could not be guaranteed, it was in danger of being beheaded. However, the technology at that time could not transport litchi from Lingnan to Chang 'an to ensure the quality. But there is a clear record in history that Yang Guifei likes to eat litchi:
What the hell is going on here?
This can be done because the litchi that Yang Guifei ate did not arrive in Chang 'an from Lingnan.
Lingnan in Su Shi's works is the generation of Guangxi and Guangdong today. According to today's conversion standard, the distance between Guangdong and Guangxi and Chang 'an is also more than 1.500 km.
1500 km, that is, 3,000 Li, and there are expressways today. However, it is impossible for the Tang Dynasty to build a bridge when it meets water as it is today. Therefore, the distance from Lingnan to Chang 'an is far more than 3000 miles. Even the fastest horse and the advanced preservation technology, litchi has gone bad on the way from Lingnan to Chang 'an.
So Yang Guifei's litchi is not Lingnan litchi, but Fuzhou litchi:
Fuzhou is today's Chongqing generation, while Yang Guifei grew up in Zhou Shu and is today's Sichuan generation. Geographically speaking, Yang Guifei should have eaten lychee in Fuzhou when she was a child, but she continued her diet hobby after entering the palace. This is in line with human physiological and psychological development needs.
Let's take a look at the distance from Fuzhou to Chang 'an. According to today's calculation dimension, the distance from Fuzhou, Chongqing to Chang 'an should be about 700 kilometers, which is 1400 Li. The distance from Lingnan to Chang 'an is more than half.
During the Tang Dynasty, Sichuan and Sichuan had close communication with the capital, and this traffic line was relatively developed. It is much less difficult to transport litchi from Fuzhou to Chang 'an than from Lingnan to Chang 'an, and it is easier to complete under the background of productivity at that time.
So, let me give the first conclusion first. The litchi that Yang Guifei ate was not from Lingnan to Chang 'an, but from Fuzhou to Chang 'an.
A song about Yang Guifei given by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty is really "Love you with my whole world". First, the princes of Zhou Youwang bonfire were full of praise and smiling. Later, in order to satisfy the imperial concubine's appetite, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty developed the Litchi Road. The ancient emperors really did whatever it took to please women.
In order to make Yang Guifei eat litchi the fastest and best, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty made some changes on the basis of the original post station and developed a litchi road.
The so-called Litchi Road was not named by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, but was named Litchi Road by later generations, which was an ancient land trade route connecting Sichuan, Shaanxi and Hubei from Wanzhou to Kaizhou, Xuanhan County of Tongzhou and Yangzhou Road to Chang 'an for 2,240 miles. The name was chosen because Xuanzong's original intention was to send litchi to Yang Guifei.
On the litchi road developed by the state, how long does it take to transport litchi to Chang 'an?
I arrived in Chang 'an in seven days, which is recorded in many materials. However, I have some doubts about this. Seven days, litchi is difficult to keep fresh under the ancient technical level, and the ancient fast horse in 2200 miles is less than seven days.
What I approve of is the following records:
I chose this record for two reasons.
From the geographical environment, three days is more reasonable than seven days, and it is more in line with the requirements of Tang Xuanzong. On the other hand, the book "Ji Sheng Yu Di" recorded for three days was written earlier than the book "Fu Zhou Zhi" recorded for seven days, and the historical materials are more credible.
In this case, we can know that it should take three days for litchi to be transported from its place of origin to Chang 'an. This time is not long, and it may be fresh according to the productivity at that time.
Litchi, a kind of fruit, has been recorded since the Han Dynasty. In Shang, it is written as a branch. Later, Bai Juyi once explained:
It can be seen from this that the ancients have found that litchi can't be preserved without this branch. So when we eat litchi today, we often see that it still needs to be picked with this branch. The purpose of this should be to keep fresh.
According to Bai Juyi's writing and my interpretation of litchi transportation route, we should be able to find a problem. If litchi arrives in Chang 'an from Fuzhou within three days, it is not as difficult to keep fresh as we thought.
But after all, it is a tribute of the royal family, and it is still necessary to use your brains in preservation.
In fact, the ancients have long been involved in food preservation. According to an article in the Book of Songs, we can see that in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties,
The ancients had a sense of preservation.
According to Sui Shu:
When keeping litchi fresh, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty probably borrowed the method of keeping oranges fresh from Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty.
In addition to wax sealing, the ancients also had one of the most commonly used preservation methods, that is, using "ice" to keep fresh. The history of keeping fresh with "ice" can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty. By the Tang Dynasty, ice had been widely used, and even "ice" was used in commerce:
In today's archaeological discoveries, people have found many iron boxes with interlayers. There are signs of storing "ice" between the compartments of this iron box. Many people regard this compartment iron box for storing ice as the early prototype of refrigerator.
It can be speculated that during the preservation of litchi in Xuanzong period of Tang Dynasty, Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty should adopt the method of wax sealing and the refrigerator with sandwich iron box for preservation.
Ps: I also want to say that the taste of ancient fruits is very different from today's. Because of the gap in planting technology, neither sweetness nor moisture can reach today.
An important reason for keeping fruits fresh is to keep their moisture. If the fruit itself is not so rich in water, the difficulty of preservation will be reduced.
Conclusion Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty was originally a wise king of the early generation. It is not impossible to become a generation of saints if we continue to carry forward. However, the appearance of Yang Guifei made Tang Xuanzong sink. Just eating litchi, Tang Xuanzong wasted people and money, just to satisfy Yang Guifei's appetite.
In this way, the wisdom of the ancients was exploited and utilized by the ruling class, but it was only a lifelong sigh when thinking about it.
Thank you for inviting me. It is said that many post stations need to be built along the way, which is less than a few kilometers away. The courier arrived at once, and the princess smiled [covering her face]. Brother express, the horse has sacrificed [tears] [tears]
China has many ancient capitals, including Xianyang, Xi, Luoyang, Beijing, Kaifeng, Nanjing and Hangzhou. Which capital did you say? Only Yang Guifei likes litchi best in history. Speaking of sending litchi from Lingnan to Beijing, the capital at that time was Xi 'an now. You said it would take a few days at the earliest. Even if litchi was sent from Guangzhou to Chang 'an, the only way to go north that year was Meiguan. The distance from Guangzhou to Chang 'an is over 2500 kilometers. Even the fastest horse will run 1 week, and all the lychees will be dried before Yang Guifei. Su Dongpo also questioned this matter in those days. He thought that Lingnan litchi could not be sent to Chang 'an because it was too far away! But Yang Guifei likes litchi very much. Yang Guifei was born in Meixian County, Sichuan Province. When she was 8 years old, her uncle took her to Luoyang. Yang Guifei likes litchi, which proves that she had eaten litchi before she was 8 years old. I believe that she has never seen anything except litchi in Chang 'an. In fact, there are lychees in Meixian County and Luzhou, Sichuan Province, and Meixian County is only 700 kilometers away from Chang 'an, and it can be delivered in two days by express horse, so I think the lychee that Yang Guifei ate is from Sichuan.
Don't underestimate the wisdom of the ancients, who had many ways to keep fresh:
First, move the whole tree.
When litchi is about to mature, dig up the whole tree and take protective measures. If it belongs to Lingnan, it should be transported by water first. In southern Shaanxi, the fruit is almost ripe and can be sent to the palace in one day.
Second, bamboo tube preservation
First, wrap lychee in branches with bamboo papyrus and wet it. Then put it in a big bamboo tube and seal it with wax. This preservation time is about a week, and it can be sent to the palace from Guangdong or Sichuan. This has been verified today and can be done.
Litchi is also called off-branch, but you can't leave the branch. Bai Juyi has a saying: If you leave the branch, it will change color in one day ... The fragrance will disappear in four days and five days, so the core of this preservation is not pruning, and the other is sealing the branch.
Third, pruning wax sealing method
Cut it off first, leave some pedicle, wax it, and then cut the pedicle. Then soak it in honey. It is said that this can keep fresh for several months. Although there is no textual research, this method belongs to isolating air and preventing oxidation, and there is still a scientific basis.
So, don't find it difficult to keep fresh. The difficulty is the inconvenient transportation in ancient times. Riders who send lychees over mountains and mountains are inevitably dangerous and costly. Therefore, Du Mu sneered: "When the world of mortals rode the princess, no one knew it was litchi."
There is a variety called Feizixiao in Gaozhou, Guangdong. According to legend, Yang Guifei loved lychee in the Tang Dynasty, so she sent it thousands of miles away.
The capital of the Tang Dynasty is in Xi 'an, about 2000 kilometers from Guangdong. Only the official post office, post office, hurry up. Every time you go to the post office, you have to change horses. Send it by relay immediately. Therefore, the concubine laughed at this litchi variety, even if it is mature, it will still be green. Litchi like this should be picked under the condition of undercooked. Packed and sent to Beijing in 2-3 days. Litchi can still be eaten!
Bamboo tube, with ice, and horse rest.
I wonder why I have to write so many words to answer such a simple question.
I have read too much in the field of history. Did the subjects really read every word?
One: deal with the whole tree
Two: Keep the branches and leaves in bamboo tubes.
Three: wax seal
The above is purely a personal opinion.
I have a little research on this. The ancients had this technology of transporting fresh fruits and seafood, and it was often recorded in history books. Really, don't underestimate our ancestors. Let's talk about the ancient express delivery industry.
Ancient express delivery was an escort agency.
The "dart" industry developed most rapidly in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Just like weeds, many famous dart clubs have sprung up in the north and south of the Yangtze River. Most of them are located in the north, and northerners do more work. Similar to today's live broadcast industry, southerners are generally the first employers of dart institutions because of their weak body, complicated speech and unqualified hardware facilities. There are many ruins of ancient escort agencies in Pingyao ancient city, Shanxi province, and many office spaces are still there. South Street also has the China Escort Museum, which displays the ecology and pattern of ancient escort agencies in a panoramic way, including daily life, apprentices, martial arts, escort agency regulations and so on.
In the museum, you can also see all kinds of interesting things about the most famous escort agencies and escort agencies in China in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, including how to resolve risks. For example, I planted this tree and opened this mountain. If you want to pass by, you have to pay the toll. You have to pay for this. Now on the highway, checkpoints should be set up from time to time. If you are not allowed to go, you can't get through.
However, the escort agency is not an ordinary express delivery, which is somewhat similar to the escort of armored vehicles, arms escorts, prisoners, chemical transport vehicles, drug dealers and so on. Those who can afford it are dignitaries, or state-owned enterprises and government departments. Because "escorts" are mostly valuables (people), there are three "hard" things in doing escort agency business: first, there must be a hard backer in the government; Second, there is a hard relationship in the green forest; That is to say, both black and white should be taken into account. You see Yang Zhi, who escorted the birth procedure in the water margin, failed to handle the relationship with the underworld and was beheaded by a strongman. Third, you must have hard work (the main employment direction of many martial arts practitioners, so you always have to stumble when you have to make moves). Without all three, business will be unsustainable. Now, you must also speak with your fists.
In the Han dynasty, the palace also asked the South China Sea to attack longan and litchi in Chang 'an all the year round. Many couriers are harmed by tigers and wolves in the middle, which requires couriers to have certain martial arts, practice their families, and lose a dragon and tiger on the way. Song Wu is the representative of this kind of hero. Yang Guifei of the Tang Dynasty likes to eat litchi, and it is estimated that there are also a number of fresh e-commerce companies to serve her. In order to make Bomei people laugh, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty also set up a special traffic passage-Litchi Road. In order to send litchi fresh to Chang 'an, the courier brother at that time also racked his brains to package litchi. According to the Lychee Book, the postmen will take a hollow piece of bamboo, peel off the bamboo tube, put lychee into the bamboo seam, tie the bamboo tube tightly with iron wire, coat the opening with yellow mud, and then transport it away after the yellow mud solidifies. Litchi stored in bamboo joints is like being placed in a sealed box, which retains the fresh taste to the maximum extent. It belongs to fresh-keeping technology and takes great pains. My wife likes fresh fruit, and my husband likes crabs. The couple's taste was sharp enough, so Tang Xuanzong sent them from the coast of Shandong to Xi 'an, sealed them with felt, and tied them on a post horse to express them to Beijing. It is said that they are still alive after receiving it. That's great. Think that year, Xingtai Dune Palace after the death of Qin Shihuang, if it was also delivered to Xianyang by express delivery, it is estimated that the bones will return to their hometown before they are cold, and they are too lazy to look for salted fish everywhere in Hu Hai, Zhao Gou to cover up the bad smell. I really don't care about people. In the Ming Dynasty, some people sent shad by express in June, and even used refrigeration technology. Three thousand miles to Chang 'an, fish is still a "timely help in the snow", which is probably the earliest cold chain transportation in the world. To achieve the effect of air transportation now, horses can outrun planes.
Apart from fresh fruits and aquatic products, the ancients could express much more than we thought. According to the Book of Jin, the post office is often used to transport cars, and beautiful women are also selected from all over the country to load them into the palace. It must be alive to transport them to their destination. Genius. I don't know what to do if I stay overnight. After all, it can't be sooner or later, can it?
It's hard to say. Look at another Tang poem:
After a post, the post rides like a meteor. Pingming hair Xianyang, dusk and Longshantou
-Don Cen Can's Judge on Longshan Road
It's amazing, right? This belongs to the category of sooner or later. It seems that SF has this business and can deliver goods regularly. You can recommend it to Sima Yan for a try. You can audition in the morning and inspect the goods at night. But it is estimated that it is not far from Xianyang to Longshan. Besides, even if the horse runs dead, how many miles can it walk?
It is said that the highest level of express delivery is called "800-mile express", and the courier doesn't have to rest all the way. When he arrives at the station, he will change horses and continue to run. Although exaggerated, during the Anshi Rebellion, Tang Xuanzong, who was three thousand miles away, really knew the news within six days, which shows that it is really a cinch to travel five hundred miles a day.
The Tang government set an industry standard for the express delivery industry: express delivery should be delivered to 180 Ali at least one day, and if it is an important document, it should be delivered to 300 Li. If it is an imperial decree issued by the emperor, it must be 500 days. They belong to ordinary parts, express mail and urgent parts respectively.
Five hundred miles is not much in modern times, but it is already a flying speed for people in the Tang Dynasty. After all, during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Emperor Xuan Di's imperial horse was only 300 miles a day.
In order to meet this demanding assessment requirements, people in the Tang Dynasty also adopted many methods, but the horse speed will not be broken for a while, but we can find a way from the road. For example, the road taken by couriers in the Tang Dynasty was inherited from the Qin and Han Dynasties, and after finishing, a private version of the expressway was built appropriately.
Moreover, eight such expressways have been built with Chang 'an as the center, which are radial. It is said that all roads lead to mules and horses, and mules and horses are all means of express delivery, and there are also passages between counties outside Chang 'an. The improvement of these foundations has greatly improved the efficiency of express delivery.
That's great, right? As long as the mind does not decline, the method is always more difficult than it is.
So for the ancient courier brother, it is just a piece of cake to transport a fruit or something.
Transport trees together.