In the early years, at the temple fair of the Spring Festival in Beijing, in the factory, I often saw a long string of Sugar-Coated Berry with a Caiqi Yang on it and a string of bamboo sticks bent by red fruits, which trembled in my hand, adding to the lively atmosphere of the festival. When it comes to the origin of sugar-coated haws, we should also talk about Song Guangzong, the emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Song Guangzong, Zhao Tingren (A.D. 1 147- 1200), is the third son of Zhao Shen, Song Xiaozong. 1 1 year, Xiaozong made him the crown prince and the magistrate of Lin 'an. 1 187, 10 was succeeded by Xiao Zong Neichan. The following year, the title was changed to Shao Xi.
Zhao Shen lived in the deep palace for a long time, and failed to get in touch with world affairs. He was 43 years old when he ascended the throne, but he was already full of white hair. I offer Polygonum multiflorum Thunb. After persuasion, my hair turned black, but he refused to accept it. He said: "My hair is white, so everyone can know that I am old." After he acceded to the throne, influenced by Li Xinyu, he dismissed Zhou Bida, Xin Qiji and other leading ministers and became prime ministers, ruling the country mainly and being manipulated by factions.
The relationship between Zhao Bei and Xiaozong has a long history. After the death of Xiaozong, the funeral could not be held, and there was chaos in Manchu Dynasty. Zhao Ruyu, who knows the Privy Council, and Han, who knows the cabinet door, are playing on it. It is suggested that the queen mother order Zhao to stop abdicating and pass it on to her son, who will preside over the funeral of Xiaozong. The Empress Dowager agreed with Zhao to stop meditating, saying that he was a great emperor and lived in Shoukang Palace. Every time he recalls his rule, he always curses himself and sometimes cries bitterly.
In the spring of A.D. 1200, Emperor Zhao Kuo came back from a ceremony in the suburbs, and the sound of drum music was introduced into the deep palace. Zhao stopped to ask what it was, and left and right replied that people in the street were playing music games. Zhao was indignant and said, "I'm so bullied by a slave!" When I went to boxing, I fell to the ground because I couldn't stop it. I can't get up. Xin Mao died in August. Yang 'an Shoukang Palace. Buried in Yong chongling (now Baoshan, 35 miles southeast of Shaoxing County, Zhejiang Province). It was during the reign of Shao Xi that Huang Guifei, the favorite of Zhao Ting, fell ill. She is sallow and emaciated, and she doesn't think about eating or drinking. The doctor used many expensive drugs, but none of them worked. When the emperor saw his beloved princess, he was sad all day. In the end, I had no choice but to post a list of medical treatment. A quack revealed the list and entered the palace. Huang Guifei took her pulse and said, "As long as you use rock sugar and red fruits (that is, hawthorn), you should take five to ten tablets before meals every time, and you will be fine within half a month." At first, everyone was dubious, but fortunately, this way of eating was also to the taste of the imperial concubine. After taking it in this way, the imperial concubine recovered as scheduled. The emperor was naturally overjoyed and began to frown.
Later, this practice spread to the people, and the people strung it together and sold it, which became a sugar-coated gourd. It turns out that hawthorn has many medicinal effects. It can help digestion, dispel blood stasis, expel tapeworms, stop dysentery, and especially help digestion. It has been an important medicine for digestion since ancient times, especially for meat accumulation. Perhaps the delicacies Huang Guifei had eaten made her sick, and the small hawthorn relieved her pain. Li Shizhen, an outstanding medical scientist in the Ming Dynasty, once said, "If you cook old chicken hard meat and plant a few pieces in the mountains, it will rot easily, and if it accumulates, it will be eliminated, and the cover can be pushed." The common people strung mandrills together. After years of production, they gradually accumulated experience and formed the following traditional practices. Making sugar-coated haws is both simple and not simple, and the key technology is boiling sugar. Rock candy is actually sugar, boiled in a big spoon of copper or brass. Pay attention to the heat when cooking. If you don't have enough calories, it will stick to your teeth when you eat it. The heat is too strong, not only the color is heavy, but also the taste is bitter. Second, we must grasp consistency. Don't dip the thick ones, and hang the thin ones. In addition, hawthorn should be pitted. A hawthorn without kernel can't be cut in half. You should turn it in the middle with a knife. Take out the core, put it on with a bamboo stick, and then roll it in the boiled hot sugar. After the hot sugar is cooled, it becomes a crystal clear sugar gourd. Because the quality of sugar, cooking technology and hawthorn are different, the quality of sugar-coated haws is naturally different. In the past, people thought that candied haws were the best in two places, one was Dongan market, and the other was the new garden village of Liulichang. As soon as October of the lunar calendar, the candied haws of these two companies began to go on the market. People who have been to Dongan market will feel a little sorry if they haven't eaten candied haws there. Xinyuanzhai's candied haws were the best in Sugar-Coated Berry at that time. Mr. Liang Shiqiu recorded in the article "Elegant Houses Talk about Eating": Sugar-coated haws "take Xinyuan Zhai as the best product, without bamboo sticks. Each hawthorn or begonia is independent, and the fruit used is huge and clean, and it is placed in a paper box lined with oil paper and taken away by the guests. " In winter, "candied haws, candied haws ..." will be heard in the streets of old Beijing. Spring Festival is the peak season for the sales of candied haws. From the first day of the first month to the fifteenth day of the first month, the Liulichang Temple Fair outside Heping Gate in Beijing was crowded with people, and candied haws shuttled through the crowd. The candied haws in Changdian Temple Fair are very big. It takes Vitex negundo as the core, and the hawthorn is covered with maltose, and the whole body is white. The small one is three feet long, and the big one is five or six feet long, with small pennants made of red paper and green paper on it. Changdian Temple Fair originated in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, with a history of more than 400 years, except for a few years. It, together with Nanjing Confucius Temple, Shanghai Chenghuang Temple and Chengdu Qingyang Palace, is called the four major temple fairs in China. The book "Dream of Spring in Beijing" records: "A trip to the old dynasty, to the factory." "If you are forced to travel in blue, you must buy relative paper flowers. They are a string of Sugar-Coated Berry cars, galloping in the city. When passers-by saw it, they knew it was back to the factory. " Sugar-coated haws became the symbol of visiting factories and shops when Beijing entered the New Year, and also became the symbol of Beijingers celebrating the Spring Festival.