peanuts, also known as peanuts , lemon fruit , lemon fruit , lemon bean , lemon fruit, etc., are native to the Americas and were introduced from the Southeast coast of my country from the South China Sea in the late Ming Dynasty. Although China may be one of the origins of peanuts, it does not clearly record crops with the same characteristics as cultivated peanuts in the historical classics before the Ming Dynasty. It was not until the introduction of peanut varieties in South America in the early 16th century that cultivated peanuts began to spread in China.
Source: Visual China
First of all, small-grained dragon-born peanuts introduced in the early 16th century. It was first seen in Volume 1 of Changshu County Chronicles in the 16th year of Hongzhi (1503) "Properties": "The fallen peanuts are planted in March, and the vines do not grow very long. The common sayings are flowers falling on the ground, and the seeds are born in the soil, so they are named. They are cooked after frost and can be eaten, and the taste is very fragrant and beautiful." This kind of peanuts is creeping and varied, and the variety is not very good, and they are not spread rapidly at the beginning of their introduction. Even monographs such as " Agricultural Affairs Complete Book " and "Compendium of Materia Medica" are not recorded. Before 1673, the distribution area of peanuts in China was still limited to southern provinces, such as Jiangsu, Fujian, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Guangdong and other places, so it is still called "Southern Fruit". During the Kangxi period, a peanut variety called "Maitreya's large species of land pine" was introduced from Japan. This peanut is full of vines, with large fruits, high yield, strong adaptability and high oil content. Therefore, while the introduction of "leach pine", people also learned that "leach pine is a mashed bean, which can be used as oil" ( Kangxi "Taiwan Prefecture Chronicle"), "fried fruits can be used as fruits, oil can be pressed, oil color is yellow and turbid, and cakes can be used to fatten the fields" ("San Rural Journal"), peanuts can be used to press oil. This first discovery has opened up a new prospect for the widespread planting of peanuts. However, before the late Qing Dynasty, peanuts were mainly cultivated in China, including dragon-type and pearl-type.
The interpretation of peanuts in "Yuheng Zhi of the Dianhai" involves multiple aspects: "Fallen peanuts are the first among southern fruits, and the most widely used by the people... Guangdong estimates that they get their seeds from various countries on the sea and plant them... Gao, Lei, Lian, Qiong, etc. The big ox cart is transported with Shanghai ships, and the goods are in China to fill the sack, and then paper is wrapped with red marks. To accompany the swallow mat, the beans are piled with white shells, and ordinary cups and ladles must be used for peanuts, so from Chaozhou to the night market, it is full of stars. If it grows on the coast, oil is the best, so all from Fujian and Guangdong eat peanut oil. And the paste is used as a lamp for night production. Now it has spread to the coastal provinces, and the benefits are very great." It emphasizes that after peanuts were introduced from overseas, it has flourished in coastal provinces, and has already achieved large-scale commercial production and transportation, which has driven the change of food culture. By the late Qing Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty, except for a few provinces such as Tibet and Qinghai, other provinces were distributed.
has the greatest impact on peanut cultivation in China. The "Virginia species" (ordinary type) introduced from the United States, that is, American large peanuts. This new variety is available in upright type and translucent type. It has a slightly worse oil content than the varieties introduced in my country before, but it has stronger adaptability, especially large particles, and high yield. After the American missionary Meilis was brought to Penglai, Shandong in 1962 for trial planting, this new variety spread rapidly to the mainland and spread throughout the country in a short period of time. The Guangxu "Cixi County Chronicles" reflected this reality very early: "The fallen peanuts are the most widely planted by county areas. Recently, there is a type that comes from the East, with larger grains and more firm and crispy." This has caused an unprecedentedly sharp increase in the planting area and yield of peanuts in my country. Especially the large-scale planting in the Yellow River Basin, Northeast and North China, which is largely directly related to the introduction of the new variety.
The early introduction of varieties dragon-type small-grain peanuts is "optimal sandy land, and it is resistant to water flooding, and will not die for several days" (Yuheng Zhi of Yunnan Sea). Because of its strong adaptability to the natural environment, in Fujian, where it was first introduced, peanuts were planted in barren hilly sandy soil, which had a nitrogen fixation effect of nodules. Therefore, the "New Book of Planting" records: "The land does not need to be fat, but the roots and leaves will be lush and have less fruit." However, in terms of seed collection and sowing, "I am afraid of coldness. From mid-December, I use a cattail to cover the warm place. When planting in mid-March, I must hoe the soil and pine trees" ("Jie'an Lao Ren Fan Bi"); in terms of cultivation and management, "take the horizontal branches to press them, and the vines bloom, and the filaments fall into the soil to form a solid" (" Physical Knowledge "), " Press the horizontal branches with sand, and the vines bloom" (" Guangdong New Language ").When harvesting, you should "digging out the roots, sifting out the seeds, washing and drying" ("Combined Chinese and Foreign Agriculture"). According to this cultivation method, it is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and it is not easy to plant peanuts on a large scale. Because the scale of peanut planting cannot be expanded, the planting technology has not been greatly improved for a long time.
After the introduction of large peanuts in the United States, the plant characteristics of the vines were changed and upright clustered peanuts were introduced. This plant-shaped peanut cultivation method is simple and easy to harvest. Therefore, it began to be widely planted in the hilly areas of Shandong where the farming site was introduced, and gradually became the most concentrated large peanut cultivation area, and later gradually promoted to most peanut cultivation areas in the country. While peanuts spread rapidly, peanut cultivation technology is also constantly improving. Long Rizhao Plant Peanuts only harvest one season a year, and it is not suitable for continuous crops every year, but they are suitable for rotation of various grain crops, which can achieve a win-win situation. In fact, the yield of peanuts is higher than that of most grain crops. It is a good product for saving wasteland and oil extraction. The oil yield rate is "a hundred kilograms of peanuts, and 32 kilograms of oil extraction" ("Fujun Agricultural Production Brief").
Li Xinsheng
【The author of this article is a professor in the Department of History, School of Humanities, Southeast University, and author of "History of Chinese Pumpkins" and so on】
Proofreading Tao Shangong
