At the age of the year, the grass and trees are memorable | I don’t understand the melon less than half of the melon

Cover reporter Liu Kexin

In July of the lunar calendar, the season of eating melon is really here. The tender loofah, the bitter bitter gourd, the soft winter melon, the crisp cucumber, and the sweet pumpkin are all tied into the vegetable field for people to enjoy. Of course, there is the most popular "little sweetness" in summer, watermelon.

▲ "Watermelon Car" everywhere on the streets of Chengdu

"Sweet Sweet", "Crispy" and "Sand Sweet", hawkers have many languages ​​to describe the sweetness of their own watermelons. But no matter which kind of people who like watermelons, they can eat in Guayue. In the past ten years, China has been the world's largest watermelon producer and consumer country. Compared with other countries and regions, there are hundreds of thousands of yuan of watermelons. The watermelons in the domestic market are only seven or eight yuan a pound. It is precisely because the watermelon here is cheap, delicious, and many types that have achieved the summer of "air conditioning, wifi, watermelon".

Every summer, regardless of the supermarket and fruit stalls, even the hawkers' tricycles are piled up with "watermelon mountains". There are many common types of watermelon, and ordinary people can only be divided into shape. The oval watermelon should be cut into two halves at most, holding half of it in hand, and rushing with a spoon. The most commonly eaten Kirin King Watermelon is oval watermelon, and the rest are varieties of flower watermelon and spring mine watermelon. Another kind of oblong watermelon includes black beauty with dark black green varieties, and the legendary Ningxia watermelon that is praised by Kangxi as the "king of melon".

Don't look at watermelon is one of the most acceptable summer fruits. In fact, the origin of watermelon is not necessarily in China. According to the "Chinese Plants", the origin of watermelon should be in Africa, which is also a common point of view. Why is it "should"? Because of the study of watermelon traceability, we have not concluded that so far. And when watermelon is introduced to China, it is even more different.

It was said that Zhang Jian brought back when the Western Regions came out. It is said that Zhang Jian brought back the Western Regions and brought back grapes, walnuts, pomegranate, watermelon and other fruits and vegetables. Writer Alai once wrote in the book that how to roughly judge whether a plant is native to China, and can start with its name. Whenever the names of the names, such as apricots, peaches, Li, etc., most of them are "residents" in China. The two -character plant is higher from the probability of coming from other places, such as grapes, tomatoes, coriander and so on. The word "west" of watermelon seems to hide its life: fruits from the west. At this point, the "Book of Agricultural Political Agriculture" by Xu Guangqi, a scientist Xu Guangqi in the Ming Dynasty, also recorded: "Watermelon, planting the Western Regions, hence the name."

The other is that it was introduced to China in the fifth generation. The "Sedu" written by Hu Yan's "Sanda", which describes the geographical customs of the Khitan: "From Shangjing to forty miles, to Zhenzhuzhai, start food. Tomorrow's east ... Watermelon. Yuncadan broke back and gained this kind of cow dung, as large as Chinese winter melon and sweet. "This is the first time that" watermelon "is seen in existing ancient books. In the "Compendium of Materia Medica", Li Shizhen stated: "The recruitment of recruits is returned, and this kind of return is called watermelon. Then the watermelon has begun to enter China since the five generations, and now it is north and south. Also, "The contribution of watermelon directly into China was attributed to Hu Yan. Although watermelon is not necessarily brought by Hu Yan, according to this, it was probably introduced to China in the fifth generation.

It is also said that China has already had watermelon since the Han Dynasty. For example, in the tomb of Haiyouhou, "watermelon seeds" were discovered. "Watermelon seeds" have also been unearthed in the Han Tomb of Xijiang County, Yangzhou Province, Jiangsu Province. However, some scholars have specially inspected and wrote papers to demonstrate these "watermelon seeds". In fact, they may be all pink skins. Therefore, when the watermelon is introduced to China, it has to be discussed again.

Although watermelon is an external thing, it is a "self -familiarity" and quickly integrates into the customs of the people.

▲ Watermelon (Figure source network)

During the autumn, there was a "bite autumn". According to the customs of different places, some say watermelon, and some are cucumbers. Although the autumn, Sanfu Tian has not ended, and it is early to fade away from the summer heat. Therefore, these two kinds of heat -clearing and radicals are good things to deal with autumn dryness and refreshing heat.

The Chinese Yuan Festival also has the custom of watermelon carving. Zhongyuan Festival has the custom of putting river lights. Common river lamps are made of paper, but some areas are made of watermelon to river lights and put them into the river. In the Qing Dynasty's "Sequence and Wind Records", it was recorded: "(July) fifteenth ... saying the middle and heaven festivals. Picking round beautiful watermelon, carved flower, birds or verses, burning candles, exquisite hanging temples, which means 'Flower lights'. "In addition to being placed in the river, it can also be hung at the door of the ancestral hall. Now, watermelon lamps are also an intangible cultural heritage project in Pinghu City, Zhejiang Province.

The Mid -Autumn Festival is also related to watermelon. The watermelon is rolling, taking the fulfillment of the family; the redness of the watermelon is red, which represents the atmosphere of festiveness; watermelon homophonic "Xigua", takes auspicious meaning; Therefore, when enjoying the moon in the Mid -Autumn Festival, people not only have to eat a few moon cakes, but also have watermelon to be a complete reunion. The meaning of "multi -seed" has derived the custom of "touching autumn". In the "Hunan Tongzhi Customs" in the Qing Dynasty, the Mid -Autumn Festival was written in the Mid -Autumn Festival. '. "

▲ Watermelon (Figure source network)

"I don't understand melon, half the taste is less."Even if you choose watermelon, you must keep in mind that "the pattern is gathered in watermelon, and the lines are cooked in watermelon", but if you can still understand some of them, wouldn't this melon taste more delicious?

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