According to historical records, in the eighth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1580), Chen Yi sailed from Humen to Annan with a merchant ship, where he ate a sweet and slippery "sweet potato", thinking that he could bring it back. 1 Years later, Chen Yi learned about the growth habits and cultivation methods of "sweet potato", risked his life to bribe the chief, hid potato seeds in bronze drums and successfully brought them back to Humen. Later, when Chen Yigang planted potatoes at the Flower Pier, he was framed and imprisoned. After coming out, the sweet potato has grown up, smooth and fragrant.

Later, Chen Yi spent all his money, bought 35 mu of land in front of his grandfather Chen Lianfeng's grave, planted a lot of sweet potatoes, and chose his longevity spot in the potato field. Later generations also worshipped him with a pair of sweet potatoes in spring and autumn every year according to his last words. Until the early liberation, Chen Yi's descendants still used red-skinned sweet potatoes as sacrifices when they sacrificed graves every year.

Botanical history

After sweet potato was introduced into China, it showed the excellent characteristics of strong adaptability and no occupation of land, and its yield was high, "the yield per mu was dozens of stones, which was 20 times better than that of seed grain". Coupled with "moist and edible, or boiled or ground into powder, raw food such as pueraria lobata, cooked food such as honey, taste like water chestnut", it can quickly spread to the mainland. At the beginning of the 17th century, serious floods occurred in the south of the Yangtze River, resulting in crop failure and displacement of hungry people.

At that time, scientist Xu Guangqi was living in his home in Shanghai because of his father's death. He learned that the sweet potato planted in Fujian and other places is a good crop to save the famine, so he introduced it from Fujian to Shanghai and then to Jiangsu, and the harvest was good.