Historical legends of hairy crabs in Yangcheng Lake

According to legend, in 2283 BC, when Emperor Yao appointed Dayu to control water, an official named Plo was in charge of controlling water in Yangcheng Lake. He listened to Dayu's advice, dredged rivers, opened canals and drained water, and relied on the people for more than ten years to introduce floods into the eastern ocean. So a large area of cultivated land was exposed and farmers planted crops.

With the shrinking of the water area and the expansion of the land area, a large number of "Octopus" originally living in the water climbed onto the land to prey, especially in September and1October, when the crops were ripe, these "Octopus" ran wild in the farmland like locusts, destroying crops and endangering the fields.

Farmers tried to catch them or drive them away, but they were hurt by these strong bugs. Their toes pierced people's skin and their big claws killed them. People are afraid of these reckless guys, but they can't help it.

At this time, the PLO was worried when it saw that people had just experienced floods and insect disasters. In order to save the people in dire straits, he thought day and night and finally came up with a way of "preying on big bugs to help the victims". He dared to take the lead in the world and personally caught it and tasted it. Unexpectedly, he found that this insect was "not only fleshy, but also delicious."

When local people saw the official taking the lead in predation, they enjoyed themselves and followed suit. Sure enough, bugs are not only delicious, but also can satisfy hunger. Within a few years, those "eight-legged" pests became "eight-legged" meals.

In 226 1 year BC, Dayu traveled to twelve states and came to Yangcheng Lake in the south of the Yangtze River. He saw that the PLO turned the white lake water town into an oasis, turned the "eight-claw worm" into treasure, and became a favorite delicacy for everyone, which was greatly appreciated. So Dayu made the PLO king, lived here and continued to manage the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River.

In order to commemorate this hero who made great contributions to water control and dared to eat insects, later generations built a city named Bacheng in the northeast corner of Yangcheng Lake where Plo first ate crabs. At the same time, they used its name "Xie" to make the original unknown "Octopus" crouch under the word "worm" and named it crab.

Extended data

Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs, also known as golden claw crabs, are produced in Yangcheng Lake, Suzhou. The crab body is not stained with mud, commonly known as the clear water hairy crab. It is big and fat, with a green shell and a white belly, yellow fur and golden claws, and greasy meat. The female crab and the male crab 10 in September of the lunar calendar have the best gonad development. Cooked and concentrated, the female turns golden yellow, and the male is like white jade, which tastes delicious.

Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs have four remarkable characteristics: first, the green back, the Yangcheng Lake crab shell is blue-gray, smooth and shiny; The second is a white belly with a muddy belly and crystal white; The third kind is yellow hair, and the foot hair is long and yellow. The fourth is the golden claw. Yangcheng Lake crab claws are golden and strong. It can stand upright on the glass and its claws can fly.

Name source

Bao once wrote a short article about the history of hairy crabs, saying that the word "hairy crabs" came from a crab seller in Suzhou. People always like to eat crabs before meals or on their own initiative. Therefore, these crab sellers always carry the burden and shout along the street in the afternoon: "Crabs come to hairy crabs." "The word" brake "sounds like" fried ".Crabs are boiled and eaten, called" fried crabs ". This explanation is not satisfactory.

One day, he made a crab feast at Wu Ne's poem (Wu Ne's poem is an article in the Sail of the Lake). There was a Mr. Zhang Weiyi whose home was near Yangcheng Lake. I don't know why. Zhang Wei is Fang Fang, a good friend of Wu Neshi, and a frequent visitor of the Wu family with Wang. Gu's manuscript "Diseases of the Country under the World" has been lost for more than 200 years. It was bought by Wu Shinan, discovered by Fang Fang and Wang of the Wu family, and generously accepted gifts to welcome them back to Kunshan, which became a much-told story in the book forest.

It happened that the Wu family hosted a crab feast and the parties were present. Bao explained the name of "hairy crab": "The gate is good. Anyone who catches crabs must set up a gate in the harbor, which is made of bamboo. Put a lamp on the gate at night, and the crab will climb the bamboo gate when it sees the fire, which is very convenient to catch at the gate, so it is called the crab's name. "

The bamboo door is a bamboo hairpin. The crabs caught on the bamboo poles are called door crabs, and the big ones are called hairy crabs. Because it is produced in Yangcheng Lake, it is named Yangcheng Lake Hairy Crab.

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