Apples are one of the most common fruits in our daily life, and now the output of apples in our country is very large, and there are many varieties, according to different types of taste is also very different, ** aspect is only high and not low.
Nowadays, most of the apples grown in China are imported from abroad, although ancient China also has a history of planting apples, but it is not the same variety as what we can eat now, so what kind of changes have apples experienced along the way?
In addition to updates and iterations such as varieties, the name of Apple has also undergone many changes. In the beginning, apples were not called "apples", but they have a very beautiful name in many ancient documents, and today the only one that uses this name is Japan.
In the impression of many people, apples can be eaten but also given other meanings, such as foreign Christmas Eve like to send apples to symbolize peace;Under the influence of foreign countries, Apple also has the meaning of peace, auspiciousness and well-being in the Chinese.
Of all the apples that exist in China, Xinjiang is the oldest and is known as the "ancestor" of Chinese apples, but the origin of apples is not in China but in Central and West Asia.
The reason why Xinjiang apples have a long history is precisely because the origin of apples is in Kazakhstan in Central Asia, and later they were transmitted to Xinjiang through the Silk Road. Of course, there is no way to verify this statement, but it is certain that the earliest record of apples in Chinese literature was in the Han Dynasty.
Apples have been cultivated in China for more than 2,000 years, and their variety, taste, morphology, and name have also undergone several changes. Nowadays we see that sand fruit and begonia have largely evolved from ancient apples, but in ancient times they represented the same fruit.
In an ancient tomb during the Warring States Period, scholars found apples and their seeds, which were small apples such as sand fruits and begonias produced in early China. In the beginning, apples were not grown to be eaten, but used as spices.
At that time, apples were very small, had no flesh, and tasted very sour, so no one liked to eat them at all. But it has the advantage of being so fragrant that people in the court liked to make it into spices or put the fruit in their sleeves.
Around the time of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, apples were more widely cultivated, and new varieties appeared, making apples a true fruit.
Since then, people have divided apples into two categories: small apples and cotton apples, cotton apples are mostly produced in the northwest of China, especially in Gansu and Zhangye, so what we call Xinjiang apples now belong to the cotton apples at that time.
Although apples have been widely cultivated in some areas in ancient times, due to transportation problems caused by underdeveloped transportation, apples are still a scarce fruit for many people in the Central Plains, and generally only nobles are eligible to enjoy them.
The name of Apple was only formalized after the Ming Dynasty, so what was the name of Apple before that?It actually has a very beautiful name.
In the classics of the Han Dynasty, it was recorded that there was a fruit called "柰", which is the earliest name recorded for apples in the literature. Ma Xiangru's "Shanglin Fu" has "Pavilion Magnolia", and "柰" is actually another name for sand fruit and flower red.
The sand fruit is described as a small deciduous tree with oval or oval leaves, the fruit is spherical in shape, and the flowers are pale red. These descriptions are very close to the characteristics of apples, so it is assumed that "柰" refers to apples.
In the Jin Dynasty's "Guangzhi", the title of "柰" continued to be used, and later the "Qi Min Yaoshu" quoted the record in the "Guangzhi" and changed the name to "Lin Yi", and also pointed out that Lin Ye looked very much like a 柰子. When the fruit is ripe, it attracts many birds to stop on the branches, so it is named "Ringo".
Since then, the apple has also had a rather graphic and beautiful name, after the Tang Dynasty, people have been using "Lin Yi" to call the apple, and it has also appeared in many poems, such as Bai Juyi's "the most reminiscent of the east slope of the red rotten, wild peach mountain apricot water Lin Ye".
During the Tang Dynasty, another name was derived from apples. It is recorded in the "Qia Wen Ji" that Wang Fangyan, a person from Wei County in the Tang Dynasty, once tried to plant a forest tree, and the fruit was very large when it was ripe, and the skin was red and white, and then he offered the fruit to Tang Gaozong.
After tasting it, the emperor felt that it was very sweet, so he rewarded him with the title of Wenlin Lang, and the apples he grew were also called "Wenlin Fruit".
During the Tang Dynasty, there was a grand occasion of pilgrimages from various countries, especially Japan, which admired the oriental civilization very much, so it sent many groups of envoys to study and exchange. The envoys brought Ringo back to Japan for cultivation, and the apple has been called "Ringo" ever since, and it is still used today.
Since the Tang Dynasty, there have been exchanges and communication in many aspects, especially Buddhism. There are also many plants and flowers from the Western Regions recorded in those **, among which there is a fruit called "Xuanpo" that appears in the Buddhist scripture "Yinsheng Heavenly King Prajna Sutra Volume VII".
The Tang Dynasty monk Shi Xuanying found through comparison that this "Po" has a great similarity with China's Lin Yi, and later generations believe that this is the earliest prototype of the apple. However, at that time, China did not introduce the "frequent woman" of the Western Regions, and this understanding continued until the Song Dynasty.
In the Yuan Dynasty, due to the large number of fruits from Central Asia being paid tribute to the country, apples were officially introduced and cultivated. Since this fruit came from the Western Regions, the people of the Yuan Dynasty followed the records in the Buddhist scriptures of the Tang Dynasty and called them "Pingbo".
At this point, we can see that this name is very close to today's name. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the word "apple" appeared for the first time in an agricultural book and fruit book.
Because the apples produced at that time were very different from "Pingbo" in terms of appearance and taste, people named this new fruit after "apple", and "Pingbo" refers to a different plant.
From the evolution of the name, it can be seen that the apple has a very long history of development, although the development of the apple may no longer be the same as in the ancient records, but its status in the fruit is the same.
Two thousand years ago, apples already had three colors: white, red and green, and although it is not known whether the taste is the same, they all serve similar purposes. At that time, many people made apples into preserved fruits, and then kept them like red dates, and took them out to eat when they wanted to.
Some people pick ripe apples and put them in the ice cellar, and they still taste delicious in the summer, and they can also be sliced and dried in the fall, and it is also good to keep them for the New Year.
It can be seen that in that era of material scarcity, apples really brought a lot of delicious food to people's lives. Nowadays, there are more ways to eat apples, and the way to make apples into juice and sauce or snacks is also more flexible.
Now there are quite a lot of types of apples on the market, Red Fuji, Yellow Marshal, Red Star, Guoguang, Gala and Red Snake Fruit are more common, these are basically imported varieties from abroad, some have been planted for hundreds of years, which one do you like the most?