In the hot summer, when we take a sip of iced drinks, many people will sigh: "In ancient times, even the emperors were not treated like this." However, the real situation is not as imagined by modern people. So unbearable. In addition to tea and wine, the drinks of the ancients also included many "special drinks" that we have never heard of. In order to relieve the heat, the ancients even had unique ice-making techniques.
1. What kind of magical drink is the Perilla Drink in "Meng Hua Lu"?
In "Meng Hua Lu", the new "Perilla Drink" produced by the shopkeeper of Meng Hua Lu Zhao's Tea Shop had its original name in ancient times. It should be "perilla cooked water". Cooked water is an ancient drink. Although it is said to be introduced by the shopkeeper in the play, in fact "Zisu Yinzi" was one of the most popular drinks in the Song Dynasty, similar to modern Coke and Sprite.
The tea product "Perilla Yinzi" that first appeared in the play is the popular drink of Zhao's Teahouse. I saw Zhao Pan'er holding the pot with her right hand and her left hand behind her back. The teapot was three feet away from the tea cup. The tea was poured into the cup as soon as it fell. The whole set of movements was smooth and graceful. It looked so pleasing to the eye that all the tea drinkers present couldn't help it. Extremely complimentary. "Perilla yinzi" was also called "perilla cooked water" in ancient times, and cooked water was an ancient drink.
According to the records in "Guangqun Fangpu", "Renzong ordered Hanlin to fix the cooked water" with Perilla as the top, Agarwood as the second, and Ophiopogon japonicus as the second. It means that when Emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty ordered the Hanlin Academy to evaluate the quality of soup drinks, the Hanlin Academy organized the imperial doctors and imperial chefs to evaluate and rank the cooked water with various natural materials and various tastes and effects. After the evaluation, Cooked water made from the traditional Chinese medicine perilla ranked first.
You must know that perilla has the effect of relieving summer heat. It is one of the best drinks in summer. Fang Hui, a poet of the Yuan Dynasty, once said in a poem, "There is no need for summer medicine. Cooked water has the fragrance of perilla." Poet Yang Wujiu of the Song Dynasty once wrote "Dian Crimson Lips·Perilla Cooked Water" "Bao Le returned hoarsely, leaving lightly without teaching the guests. My brother-in-law was a rat. He smiled and listened to the different dialects. Clear into the ileum and help the end. Poetry is bitter. "
We can see the figure of perilla cooked water not only in books, but also in paintings. Zhang Zeduan's " Along the River During the Qingming Festival " there are several drink stalls, with the signs of "Yinzi" and "Xiangyinzi" hanging under the round umbrellas
It is not difficult to tell how to do it. In the Ming Dynasty Gao Lian introduces the method of cooked perilla water in " Zunsheng Eight Notes ": "Take the leaves, bake them over fire with paper, do not turn them, trim them and put them away. After each use, wash them with boiling soup and soak them once. , pour it out, pour the soaked perilla into a pot, and pour it into boiling water. "
It can be seen that in the Ming Dynasty, when people prepared cooked perilla water, they also used more perilla leaves. Use fire to force out its fragrance. Its brewing and drinking are basically similar to tea, and both emphasize hot drinks.
2. Ancient cold drinks
There was no word "beverage" in ancient my country, but as early as "Zhou Li Tianguan", it was recorded that there was a profession belonging to the wine official - "Jiu Ren", who was responsible for the "six drinks". drink".
From this point of view, at least in the matter of "drinking", the ancients formed a tradition very early, and in different eras, the ancients had clever tricks, and the "drinks" they produced had their own merits. Each "drink" has its own characteristics. With unique information of the times.
△Every drink carries the mark of the times.
Medicinal scientist Ge Hong during the Eastern Jin period invented herbal tea , which could not only cool down and relieve heat, but also reduce internal heat, so it became a summer drink.
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, people called "drinks" "yinzi". "Yinzi" is made from fruits or herbs, which can not only quench thirst, but also clear away heat and detoxify. However, although cold drinks were sold among the public at this time, they were expensive.
Shops specializing in selling cold drinks appeared in the Song Dynasty. In "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" created by Northern Song Dynasty painter Zhang Zeduan, some stalls specializing in selling "drinks" are depicted.In a sense, shops selling "yinzi" are similar to the dazzling array of milk tea shops on the market today.
According to the records in the "Zhouqiao Night Market" section of " Tokyo Menghualu ", Bianliang, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty at that time, had "Ice and Snow Leng Yuanzi" and "Licorice Ice and Snow Liangshui". As soon as you hear the name, you will know it. A refreshing iced snack. "It's the time of the month. Everything is sold at alley intersections and bridge gate markets... ice, snow, cold water, and lychee ointment are all sold with clear cloth umbrellas and stacked on beds and benches in the street... Often there are wind pavilions and waterside pavilions, tall buildings, and snow-covered sills. The melons and plums are floating on the plate, the cups are floating in the winding marsh, the fresh lotus is blooming, and the songs are played from far and near, all through the night." This is enough to show how popular ice food is.
The Southern Song Dynasty poet Yang Wanli once described the scene of selling ice to cool down in June in midsummer: "On June 1st in the imperial city, noon stopped, and the people in the city were cooking and sweating like rain. The sound of selling ice came across the water, and the pedestrians were not satisfied." Jinren Yuan Haowen also recorded a kind of ice food called "Pearl Ice" in " Xu Yi Jian Zhi ", " Lin Tao outside the city of Taoshui, the winter moon forms small ice cubes like gorgon seeds... The rich people in Taocheng collect and store it. In midsummer, they mix it with honey syrup, and it becomes as pure as pearls."
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, delicious cold drinks emerged in endlessly. In the Qing Dynasty, in addition to common drinks such as sour plum soup and watermelon juice, a drink called "Dutch Water" appeared, which was similar to lemon soda.
Ancient "Internet celebrity" ice cream - Sushan
The so-called "Su" is a dairy product passed down from the northern nomads, similar to today's cream and butter.
Tang Dynasty To make "Sushan", you must first heat the "Sushan" (cream) until it is almost melted, and you can add honey, fermented rice, etc. in the middle. Then pour it on a vessel such as a plate, making a mountain shape while pouring it, then put it in an ice cellar to freeze, and finally add flowers, colorful trees and other decorations.
In addition to the white "Sushan", later there were also red or green "Sushan" dyed with "Guifeihong" or "Meidaiqing". Yang Wanli, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, once described the refreshing feeling of eating Sushan in "Ode to Su": "It seems greasy yet refreshing, just condensed and ready to float. The jade is broken at the bottom of the plate, and the snow is sold at the edge of the mouth."
According to records, our country In ancient times, there were "six drinks", namely water, pulp (rice, cheese), fermented glutinous rice (mash), liang (cold porridge), medicine (plum pulp), and elixir (millet wine). In line with the political and economic status of ancient society, the arrangement of the "six drinks" is also hierarchical. For example, in "The Book of Songs·Xiaoya·Dadong", "It is better to drink wine, not to drink pulp", and in "Book of Han·Bao Xiangguan", "from guests to drink wine and buy meat", it can be seen that "drinking pulp" is a common practice for common people. The life of the royal family was normal, while the royal family drank wine and ate meat.
During the Warring States Period , people who had the conditions usually drank "honey water" mixed with honey in the summer. Until the Three Kingdoms period, some people still loved drinking honey water. It is said that Yuan Shu wanted to drink a bowl of honey water before he died, but there was no honey in the army, so he could only sigh and swallow blood.
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, a health drink called "Yinzi" made from fruits or herbs became popular among the people. This drink was called "the earliest Wanglaoji".
At that time, "yinzi" stalls could be seen everywhere in Chang'an Market, and they were prepared and cooked freshly. We can also see the "Xiangyinzi" shop in "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", which depicts the prosperous scene of the Song Dynasty. It can be seen that the name "Yinzi" was still used until the Song Dynasty.
△The drink stall in the picture Along the River During the Qingming Festival. /Beijing Youth Daily
At the same time, a drink called "cooked water" also appeared in the Song Dynasty, that is, adding tea or Chinese medicine to boiled water, which was used to treat spleen dampness. It was called "ancient red cow" ". The famous female poet Li Qingzhao suffered from spleen and stomach deficiency due to summer heat, so she created her own "white cardamom cooked water" to drink as water in the hot summer.
In addition to "cooked water", there was also a drink called "cool water" in the Song Dynasty. "Cold water" did not literally mean "cool", but belonged to the "juice" category. Meng Yuanlao recorded the lively scene of Zhouqiao Night Market in Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, in "Tokyo Menghua Lu", in which he mentioned "licorice ice and snow cold water", "lychee paste" and other cold juice drinks.
In the Southern Song Dynasty, a new drink called "Shutpi Yin" emerged. This drink was made by mincing processed shrunken Amomum villosum, black plum meat, grass fruit , licorice, white lentils, etc. and mixed them together. , then decoct it with water to make a thick juice, and then sink it into a well to cool down. It is very suitable for drinking in summer.
Xue Bu Shupi Drink
During the Yuan Dynasty, it is said that the Mongols drank a sweet and sour "Limu Thirst Water" during their western expedition to Central Asia. The drink is so popular that it has even become Kublai Khan's favorite drink.
"Thirsty water" in Mongolian means "relic"; and "limu" actually means "lemon". The so-called "limu thirsty water" is a "lemonade drink". In order to be able to drink this "thirsty water" all the time, the people of the Yuan Dynasty also specially set up an "Imperial Orchard" in Litchi Bay, Guangzhou, and planted 800 trees of various sizes.
△Sour and sweet lemonade is also a favorite of modern people.
In this regard, Wu Lai gave a vivid description in his poem: "The garden officials in Guangzhou enter the thirsty water, the sky wind and summer ripeness are suitable for Mengzi. Hundreds of flowers brew nectar slurry, and the southern country cooks red dragon marrow." By the Ming Dynasty, The culture of thirsty water can be said to be quite mature, with the emergence of "five-flavor thirsty water" that combines meat and beans, "grape thirsty water" with the seeds removed, and "gum thirsty water" made by boiling high-quality pine sugar over low heat. etc.
Nowadays, many ancient drinks have been lost, but there is one drink that is still active on the market, and that is "sour plum soup". "Tugong Plum Jian" recorded in ancient books is the oldest sour plum soup. The "braised plum water" mentioned in "Old Martial Arts" of the Southern Song Dynasty is also a refreshing drink similar to sour plum soup.
When the ancients made sour plum soup, they added an appropriate amount of rock sugar and then chilled it. It even became a special drink specially made for the emperor in the imperial kitchen of the Qing Dynasty to relieve summer heat and quench thirst. Because the ingredients are very common, sour plum soup slowly spread to the people and has been passed down to this day.
△Sour plum soup, a summer heat-relieving tool
3. How did ancient people make ice in the hot summer?
Even in ancient times, "ice" was the soul of drinks.
Cooling is indispensable for relieving the summer heat. Of course, the ancients also understood this truth. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty even built a cool palace for himself. "The water behind the seat fanned the carriage, and the wind hunted the skirts of the clothes." Eat "ice chip sesame drink".
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there were not many records about cold drinks in the literature. Instead, Du Fu 's poems described the scene of "the young master mixing ice water, and the beautiful lady snowing in lotus root silk".
The beverages at that time had expanded from fruits to other plants. For example, Du Fu's poem "Sophora Leaf Lengtao" records that locust leaf juice and chamomile juice were placed in ice water. After cooling, it tasted "as cold as snow through the teeth". It can be seen that even in ancient times, "ice" was the soul of drinks.
Speaking of the history of ice storage, it can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty . "Zhou Li·Tianguan" says: "The Ling people hold the ice, and in the first twelve months of the year, they order the ice to be cut, and the third is to Ling." Obviously, as early as the pre-Qin period, there had been corresponding institutions to manage ice politics. The person in charge is called "Ling Ren", and Ling Ren's work is divided into two parts: "cutting the ice" (dividing the ice) and "three Qiling" (storing the ice).
In 1976, the Yongcheng archaeological team of Shaanxi Province discovered the remains of an ice cellar from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to the Qin Dynasty in Yaojiagang. The ice cellar could store more than 190 cubic meters of ice. Of course, at that time, only the princes and nobles could enjoy ice cubes in the summer. Ice cubes were not affordable for ordinary people because the cost of using ice was too high.
During the Tang Dynasty, the price of ice in Chang'an was once so high that it was "equal to the Golden Wall". It is said that at the end of the Tang Dynasty, people mined a large amount of saltpeter when producing gunpowder and gunpowder. Research has found that when saltpeter is dissolved in water, it absorbs a large amount of heat, causing the water to cool to the point of freezing. From then on, people could make ice in the summer.Because of this discovery, the price of ice began to drop in the summer, and traders began to add sugar to the ice to attract customers.
△In ancient times, not everyone could afford it.
As the demand for ice increased, people began to store ice. In the Song Dynasty, there were professional ice storage households who made a living by selling ice in the summer. Yang Wanli's "Lychee Song" vividly describes the situation of selling ice in the Song Dynasty: "People in the north make a living on ice and snow, and a cellar of ice and snow makes a family happy. In the imperial city at noon in June, people in the city are cooking and sweating like rain. The sound of selling ice is heard across the street. When the water comes, pedestrians will be happy after eating it. The sweet frost and snow are as sweet as sugarcane, and they are grown under the Nanshan Mountain every year. "
Although "drinking tea" and "drinking" played an important role in people's lives in the Song Dynasty, "cold drinks" still played an important role. An integral part of the summer market.
The popularity of "cold drinks" even played a connecting role in the development of ancient beverages. This is an important reason why "beverages" flourished among the people in the Song Dynasty. Of course, this is also inseparable from the royal family's advocacy of cooling off in the summer heat. It is said that Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty suffered from gastrointestinal problems because he ate too much ice.
△Although cold drinks are delicious, don’t be greedy.
Cold drinks in the Yuan Dynasty were comparable to those in the Song Dynasty. "Analysis of Jin Zhi" records that in the distiller's grain shop in Dadu in the Yuan Dynasty, "large chunks of ice were carried in the summer months and entered the large feldspar." This chilled drink is available in large quantities and on tap.
" Diet and Diet is " also specifically mentions among the taboo foods for pregnant women that "eating ice syrup will prevent pregnancy". In addition, from the "residents like to eat milk ice" written in "Marco Polo's Travels", it can be seen that iced dairy products have also become popular among the people. However, after all, milk was not the staple food of the ancients, so it has been stagnant in the "milk ice" stage. It did not develop forward, but ice cheese was spread to Italy during Marco Polo's travels.
△Cold drinks made of milk are also very popular.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the content of beverages was further developed into fruits, vegetables, and medicines. The purpose of cold drinks also expanded from simply cooling and relieving heat to health care. More than 40 kinds of cold drinks were recorded in the "Eight Notes of Zunsheng". Of course, Among them, there are also “exported drinks” imported through the integration with world cultures.
There is a place in Beijing called Bingjiakou, where the royal family of the Ming and Qing dynasties used to store ice. The ice is collected by professionals. In winter they go to the pool to get ice. It was hauled underground to cool ground and supplied to various officials during the summer. In ancient times, there were people who took care of this and built "ice wells", and people put things in the wells to cool down. Song Gaocheng said in "Era of Things": "In "Zhou Li" there are ice men, palms to cut ice, and ice cream. Note: Ling, ice room too. This is what I said. You can mention that as an ancient Chinese In my country, Japan has adopted the method of storing ice cubes in cellars in ancient times. Today's Nara Hiroshima Shrine was built to worship ice cubes.
During the war years, ordinary people had no leisure to cook a pot of "drinks". " Or make a pot of "cooked water". Looking back at history, "yinzi" appeared in the Tang Dynasty, perhaps precisely because of the "Reign of Zhenguan". The popularity of "cooked water" is also related to the "suppressing martial arts and promoting prose" in the Song Dynasty . "Co-governance by monarchs and ministers" is inseparable. Behind the "thirsty water" is the huge territory spanning the Eurasian continent, and behind the popular "Dutch Water", there is also the prosperous country created by Kangxi and Qianlong.
by From this point of view, perhaps "drinks" became popular among the people only during the economic prosperity of ancient times. The secret history of "drinks" is hidden in the life of the ancients.
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