I just learned to cook and I don’t know how to cook. Sometimes the food will be burnt. It’s a pity to throw it away. If I don’t throw it away, there will be an unpleasant burning smell and it will make people unable to swallow it.
Later, my mother taught me a method. She said: "The rice is done, don't worry. Put a few pieces of scallions in, then cover the pot and simmer for a while, the burnt smell will be gone."
Rice
The "爰" in my mother's mouth is a very commonly used spoken word in Shanxi dialect. It not only refers to the burnt food in the pot or on the spatula, but also refers to burning firewood, burning mugwort to smoke mosquitoes, and burning cypress branches on New Year's Day.
How to pronounce the word "爰"
The pronunciation of "爰", " Jiyun " of the Song Dynasty, is marked as "Wuhouqie, sound 讴". "Ji Yun" is an ancient phonology work compiled in the Song Dynasty and arranged according to the rhymes of Chinese characters. It uses various phonetic notation methods to intuitively give phonetic notations or explanations to single characters, roughly similar to today's "Xinhua Dictionary".
簰, pronounced as ǒu (pronounced the same as "vomit")
There was no pinyin in ancient China. In order to help people read, the ancients invented many phonetic notation methods, such as the Duruo method, the Zhiyin method, the fanqie method, etc. Among them, the "fanqie method" has the greatest influence and is the most widely used.
The so-called fanqie, simply put, is to put two easily identifiable and very common words together. The first word takes its initial consonant, the second word takes its final and tone, and then the two are tangent, and the pronunciation of the new word is spelled out.
For example, the "Wuhouqie" mentioned above is the fanqie phonetic notation. The initial consonant of the word "Wu" is w, and the final consonant of the word "Hou" is ou. The tone is falling. The two are tangential. In modern Mandarin, the onomatopoeic sound should be ǒu (same sound as "vomit").
Ancient classics
However, in some local dialects, the pronunciation of the word "爰" is quite different from that in Mandarin.
For example, in the Pingding dialect of Shanxi, the word "爰" is pronounced with the pronunciation tone, and the pronunciation is roughly the same as the consonant sound of the two characters "妰". If you pinyin it, it's probably eouk. The -k here is the ending of a stop, which is an unaspirated sound. You don't need to make a sound when pronouncing it. You just need to place your tongue in the correct position and help your throat "eat" the ending sound.
Shanxi folk residences
In modern Mandarin, and even in most Mandarin dialects, the entering tone has disappeared. It is difficult for people in the Mandarin area to distinguish the rhyme characters without training, so if you want to pronounce the character "爰" accurately, you have to be from Shanxi.
What does the word "爰" mean?
"爰" is a pictophonetic character, from fire, with a distinct sound. The " jade chapter " written in the Southern and Northern Dynasties is interpreted as "Pao Xiye", which refers to a method of treating items with fire, that is, roasting them with fire.
The word "爰" in the "Kangxi Dictionary"
The original meaning of the word "爰" is to put objects on the fire to smoke and roast them. On this basis, it also extends to the meaning of "the weather is dry and hot".
There is such a record in "Guanzi·Xi Mi Pian": "In ancient times, sacrifices were made with stars, sometimes with stars, and sometimes with seals." Tang Dynasty Yin Zhizhang's note: "熰 means hot. It means that there is a drought and heat and even sacrifices." "This sentence means that when offers sacrifices to , it is necessary to observe the changes in the celestial phenomena. Sometimes it is necessary to offer sacrifices when the weather is sunny, sometimes it is necessary to offer sacrifices when the sun is shining, and sometimes it is necessary to offer sacrifices when it is dry and hot.
Even today, in some places there are still sayings like "It's really hot" and "It's raining". For example, the Henan Luoyang dialect believes that "Xianyu" refers to sultry or sudden weather changes, indicating that heavy rain is coming.
"Jade Food Patch" photocopy
爰, which was a cooking method in ancient times. The existing document is titled "The Jade Food Batch Given to the Prince" and was signed by someone from the Shan family. It records the names of more than 30 kinds of delicacies that the emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty gave to the prince every day. Among them is "Mixed Squid with Clear Sauce".
The book does not record the specific preparation method of this delicacy. According to research by some scholars, it is estimated that it was simmered slowly over a slow fire, similar to the "simmer" and "bao" we use today.
Food
Anyone who knows how to cook knows that this slow and careful cooking method can easily make people relax their vigilance. If the rice is cooked for a long time and the "clear juice" in the pot, that is, the water, is boiled out, the fish will be mushy and inedible. This is what we often call today when the rice is burnt, and it is called "cooked".
In ancient classics, in addition to cooking delicacies, "熰" is also commonly used in "熰sui" to welcome the spring and pray for blessings.
What is the Year of the Year
"Chenzhou Chronicles" in the 17th year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty records: "On New Year's Day, Chenzhou set up a court to burn the roots of elm and willow trees, which is called the Year of the Year."
"Imperial Capital" of the Ming Dynasty "Scenery Brief" records in more detail: "Insert sesame straw on the door eaves and window sills, saying to hide ghosts in the straw and prevent them from coming out. Stick red paper gourds on the doors and windows, saying to collect plague ghosts. At night, use pines and cypress branches to burn firewood in the courtyard. It is said to burn pine basins, Years old. The image of the deceased is hung, and the lion fairy fights with sugar twists and sticks, and the five-color reed frame is covered with bamboo. The old and the young have paid their respects and bowed to each other, saying farewell to the new year. We have gathered together to eat and drink, saying to watch the New Year's Eve. "
On the New Year's Eve, also called "Wolf Smoke"
On the New Year's Eve, on the morning of New Year's Eve, insert sesame straw prepared in advance on the door frame and window sill, and say "hide the ghost straw and don't let it out". This custom later changed to scattering sesame straw from the door of the main house to the main street door, and the family trampled it back and forth, which was called " trampling on the new year " (broken).
We were supposed to step on sesame straw, but wherever we could get sesame straw in this city, the adults scattered some peanut and melon seed peels in the yard and let the children step out, but the effect was the same.
Ancient Chinese New Year Pictures
To "collect plague ghosts" is to stick red paper gourds on the windows. The gourd is often described as a treasure gourd. It has a wide range of magical powers, a small mouth but a big belly but a tight mouth. It is suitable for "receiving the god of plague".
After dark on the thirtieth night, a copper basin is placed in the courtyard, some pine and cypress branches are piled in it and the smoke is burned. It is called "burning the pine basin to make the year old", just to make it smoke, and the smoke is the year old.
In order to make the fire burn vigorously and for a long time, tree roots, chopped grass, chaff, and slightly moist firewood are generally used. Dry and flammable firewood cannot be burned and will burn quickly. A strong fire without smoke can only be called burning, not burning.
In ancient times, "Ting Liao" means that after entering the house after smoking cigarettes at the end of the year, the younger generation kowtows to the elders and then bows to each other in order of seniority, which is called "farewell to the New Year". After that, they sit around a table and have dinner. "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital" calls this New Year's Eve dinner "Shou Sui".
Nowadays, watching the New Year's Eve has become watching TV, the sound of crunching and stepping on the New Year's Eve has become the clatter of mahjong, and eating has been changed to a restaurant. It is lively, but I always feel that something is missing. (Zhang Wenping)
