Xingyue gourmet Dongpo (prose)

Su Shi is a veteran of the literary world in the mid-Northern Song Dynasty and a master of food culture. The poet was born in Meishan, Sichuan, and spent his youth mainly in his hometown. Sichuan is rich in natural products, and Sichuanese have the tradition of "respecting taste". The poet's mother can read Chinese books and is especially good at cooking. Su Shi once wrote Ode to a Gourmet, calling himself a gluttonous "gourmet". After him, many literati who pursue food often call themselves "gourmets". For example, Zhang Dai and Yuan Mei, the leading figures of food culture in Ming and Qing Dynasties, publicly claimed that they tasted good.

Mind, talent and official travel experience are important subjective conditions for Su Shi to become a master of food culture. Huangzhou is a major turning point in his life. In the third year of Yuanfeng (1080), Su Shi was demoted as the assistant envoy of Huangzhou Yong ying because of Wutai poetry case. "Laughter from busy life for the mouth, the old career turned ridiculous. The Yangtze River knows the beauty of fish everywhere, and bamboo is fragrant with bamboo shoots. " Delicious fish and bamboo shoots are the strongest impressions of Huangzhou to the poet. "Busy for the mouth" is of course a pun, but political setbacks obviously have not affected the poet's enthusiasm for pursuing food at all. In the reign of Shao Shengyuan, the philosopher (1094), the poet was persecuted again and exiled to Huizhou, Guangdong, and three years later to Danzhou, Hainan, a place far from the ends of the earth. However, although fate showed him a yellow card again and again, he always maintained a comfortable, optimistic and open-minded attitude. Food may have played a role in solving and comforting.

Su Shi especially loves to eat puffer fish, and the anecdote that he "died" for it is a story that has been circulated in poetry for thousands of years. China people eat puffer fish, which can be traced back to the pre-Qin period. There is a record of "red salmon" in volume 3 of Shan Hai Jing and Bei Shan Jing, which means puffer fish. Zhang Zhongjing, a famous doctor in the Han Dynasty, recorded the contents of people eating puffer fish at that time in the synopsis of the golden chamber. But it seems that it was only in the Song Dynasty that puffer fish was really sought after by scholars, especially in Song Wudi, where eating puffer fish became a fashion.

In mid-spring, the willow blossoms fall, the Artemisia is green, and the puffer fish spawn against the river. The puffer fish at this time is the fattest and most expensive. Mei, a famous scholar in the Song Dynasty, said in Fan Raozhou Eating Pufferfish: "Buds are born in spring, and poplars fly to the spring shore. At this time, puffer fish is not expensive. " Zhang Lei's "Ming Dow Magazine" records: "Puffer fish, the strange taste of water swimming is also ... In mid-spring, Wu people receive guests at this time, without this fish, it is not prosperous." The puffer fish is even nicknamed "Xi Shi Milk" because of its sweet abdomen. Hu Zaihe's father recorded many things in his poems: "Wu's eyes are full of western milk", "Artemisia selengensis is short and fat, and its sweetness is far better than western milk when the puffer fish is about to go up, which was unknown to the king of Wu that day."

However, puffer fish is a poisonous fish. If the chef does not handle it properly and does not clean up the toxic substances, the diners may pay the price of their lives. According to Zhang Lei, one of the four bachelor's degrees in Su Men, in Ming Dow magazine, "Those who expect the beauty of the library and taste the beauty of puffer fish say,' I'm going to die.' Its beauty can be seen. "It is said that at the beginning of Yuan You, once a banquet official had a dinner in Zishantang, and everyone was curious about Dongpo's special liking for puffer fish. Among them, Lu Yuanming asked Dongpo what the puffer fish tastes like. Dongpo replied, "until that death." Even if you eat delicious puffer fish, even if you are poisoned, it is worth it. This allusion is recorded in the works of Song people, with different versions circulating. "Straight death" is of course Su Shi's joking side, an expression of puffer fish as a strange and delicious machine, and an expression of aesthetic feeling gained from eating puffer fish. Perhaps puffer fish has both taste and toxicity, which greatly increases the excitement and freshness of the eating process. The excitement and happiness of "direct death" comes not only from the feeling of taste buds, but also from the psychological process and mechanism of aesthetic feeling formation and from a spiritual exploration. Of course, this spiritual exploration, or near misses, is actually supported by strict and rigorous cooking.

In Huizhou, Guangzhou, Su Shi ate litchi for the first time and was overjoyed. He wrote the poem "Eating Litchi Branches at the Beginning of April 11th": "What on earth is not a dream? Come to Wan Li in the south, good picture. " He completely forgot his demotion. "300 lychees a day, he is willing to grow up to be a Lingnan person." (Eat Litchi) As Liang Shiqiu said in Talking about Eating in Elegant Rooms, "People who eat and drink will never forget their appetite wherever they go." Since then, the taste beauty of litchi has always occupied an important position in his taste memory. "It's like smelling the river and making a jade column, washing the puffer fish and boiling the belly." Litchi, like puffer fish, will always be remembered by poets. Litchi growing in the south is rare in the north. The disasters in Gong Li during the Han and Tang Dynasties reflected the arrogance and extravagance of the ruling class, and poets often reflected it in their own poems. Litchi Tan is one of the representative articles, which is particularly eye-catching. The first twelve sentences in the poem can be regarded as the first part, which is a historical narrative of Gong Li's disaster in the Han and Tang Dynasties. From "Didn't you see" to realistic political criticism, from satirizing the past to stabbing the present. While exposing and criticizing the extravagant eating habits of the ruling class and the despicable behavior of the powerful officials at that time, the poet expressed deep sympathy for the eating life of the bottom people. He prayed loudly: "I hope God will have mercy on this child, and I won't get sores." Rain and wind adjust gold, and the people are not hungry and cold. "It expresses the poet's anxiety and concern about people's livelihood. Poets are placed in a position of dignity and integrity. Thousands of years have passed, and we are still moved by it.

The happiness of eating lies not only in what you eat, but also in how you eat. Su Shi's attitude towards tea is also his attitude towards all foods, that is, "tea is always beautiful". He treats food with no distinction between high and low, and is rich and frugal. Poets often experience and create aesthetic happiness from ordinary dishes and home-cooked flavors. He is so interested in the new aroma of baked sweet potato "Cow dung burning taro". In his opinion, extremely common garden vegetables, such as kohlrabi, kohlrabi, bitter radish, etc., are also "honest and beautiful, but reluctant to part with them", and "together with the five pots" ("Tang Fu") is mellow and sweet, which is the first delicious food in the world. In his diet life and brilliant writing style, pork, which Yuan Mei called "the master", as well as ordinary aquatic products, rice cakes, cold scouring, vegetable soup, bean porridge, etc., appeared frequently and played the leading role. Many scholars, including Su Shi, advocated the simple and light concept of diet, which contributed to the change of diet in Song Dynasty.

Su Shi is not only good at cooking, but also collects and records recipes anytime and anywhere in his daily life and cooking practice. He recorded about 30 kinds of cooking methods of Yaozhuan, involving meat, fish, vegetables, tofu, porridge and pasta. There are countless famous dishes named after poets, such as Dongpo pork, Dongpo elbow, Dongpo fish, Dongpo tofu, Dongpo Yuman soup and so on. When Su Shi was demoted to Huangzhou, the local pork price was cheap. The rich refuse to eat, and the poor don't know how to cook. He wrote "Ode to Pork" to introduce cooking methods, and people competed to imitate it. The poet "likes to cook fish by himself" wrote the article "How to cook fish" and introduced its method in detail: "Treat carp with fresh crucian carp or carp and put it under cold water. Add salt in the conventional way, and the loose vegetables are still muddy. Scallion stalks, uncovered, boiled. Ginger, radish juice, wine, each a little, the three equal, mix well. When it is ripe, you can eat orange slices. " This method of cooking fish is similar to today's "boiled fish" As a cultural master with great talent as the sea, the poet's recipes are recorded, and the taste of food is integrated with poetry. His famous food prose "Fu on Vegetable Soup" is full of interest, full of wit, which expounds the washing of raw materials, the cooking of dishes and the mastery of cooking temperature.

Su Shi has been in a sinister political whirlpool almost all his life, but he can be vain and unyielding, remain naive and simple, and never change. His poems on diet not only broadened the territory of China's ancient poetics, but also left a valuable food cultural heritage for future generations as a master of food culture.

(Editor in charge: Deputy Editor-in-Chief)