Ancient Chinese sunflower also has the characteristic of facing the sun. To be honest, modern foreign sunflowers, there are sunflowers in the name but they are not real sunflowers, but authentic chrysanthemums (the naming of Chinese plants is so imprecise, as long as it is a little related, it can be pulled together). It can be said that the allusions about sunflowers in Chinese literature are generally not related to sunflowers.
Because sunflowers were introduced to China very late, it is said that it was in the Age of Discovery, and it was only introduced to China in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. Because of this, flowers have the characteristics of facing the sun, so they are generally called sunflowers.
There are two types of sunflower in Chinese culture, one is winter sunflower eaten as a vegetable, which is one of the few vegetables that can be eaten fresh in winter. Kwai is listed as the top grade by the "Shennong Materia Medica", and is also known as the master of the hundred vegetables, the first of the five dishes, and the vegetable that is always prepared at the four days. This kind of vegetable was available as early as the pre-Qin era, such as the "Book of Songs: July".Cook sunflower and mushroom in July
The folk song of Han Yuefu Qingqing Garden in the sunflower, the morning dew waits for the sun, refers to the winter sunflower that is often planted in the vegetable garden of ordinary people, and the Northern Wei Dynasty agricultural book "Qi Min Yaoshu" is the first article of "Planting Sunflower" as the first article of vegetables to talk about the cultivation technology of winter sunflower, which shows its importance.
Until the Tang and Song dynasties, winter sunflower was a very widely eaten vegetable, and it also became the writing of literati to grow their own vegetables and comfort the poor, such as Wang Wei's "short brown is thin, garden sunflower is solid enough to be beautiful, white: wild drink to persuade fragrant wine, garden vegetables to cook sunflower. , Bai Juyi's poor kitchen, what is there?Cook okra with rice. 」
It's just that it is said that after the Yuan Dynasty, because of climate change, the temperature gradually became lower, and the growth of sunflower became slower and slower, and it gradually withdrew from people's tables, which was unknown to people. It's really embarrassing to think about it, the ancestors have eaten 2,000 years of home-cooked food as ordinary as onion leeks, and it has been reduced to the situation of weeds!
This sunflower also has a sun-facing property (which should be called phototaxis), but it refers to the sun-oriented leaves, not the sun-oriented flowers. "Zuo Biography" once recorded a historical event: During the Spring and Autumn Period, Bao Lian, a doctor of Qi State, was jealous of Qingke and Linggong's mother for exposing the adultery between the doctor Qingke and Linggong's mother. Linggong's mother took the opportunity to slander Linggong and framed Bao Zhuangzi, so that Bao Lian was subjected to the punishment of cutting off his feet (the punishment of cutting off his feet in ancient times). Confucius therefore criticized: Bao Zhuangzi's knowledge is not as good as Kwai and Kwai can still defend his feet. It means that Bao Zhuangzi's wisdom is not as good as that of sunflower leaves, and the leaves of sunflower still know how to tilt the leaves to the sun to protect its heels, but Bao Zhuangzi, who was born in a world of fornication, does not know how to be cautious and protect himself. Because of this allusion, hollyhock has the nickname of "Guardian Foot Flower".
Aoi was also often used in conjunction with the leaves of a legume plant because of their sun-turning properties, so they were often used by the ancients as a metaphor for the sincerity of the king or the truth. For example, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms: The Biography of Chen Siwang Zhi": If the leaves of the sunflower weed, although the sun does not return to the light, the one who is sincere to it. The Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu also had a similar sunflower weed tilting the sun, and the physical properties were incomprehensible. Verses.
In the Song Dynasty, poets sang about the attributes of sunflowers to the sun, such as: Sima Guang: There is no catkins because of the wind, only sunflowers are tilted towards the sun. , Jin Peng said: Who is comparable to the temple corridor loyal terrier?Can Zhandan's heart tilt towards the sun. , Liu Kezhuang: But it has been wet with rain and dew, and it has not changed to the sun. 」
However, after in-depth research by botanists, it was found that the sunflower in these poems is neither a traditional sunflower nor a modern sunflower, but an ornamental hollyhock. Hollyhock, is a kind of plant native to Sichuan Malvaceae, because it blooms around the Dragon Boat Festival, also known as the Dragon Boat Festival, high.
Four or five feet, when flowering, it is mostly towards the sun, and the color is gorgeous, so it is also called a zhang red, which is a flower commonly planted in the garden, and it is also one of the flowers that poets of the past dynasties often praised.
Seeing this, perhaps the traditional cultural control can't help but be angry, it turns out that there are sunflowers in China, and they were forced to be !! by this foreign chrysanthemum
However, it is not so much that the foreign chrysanthemum has taken away the name of China's original sunflower, it is better to say that Chinese culture has long been deeply rooted in the ideology of being more loyal to the sun, so whether it is a sunflower leaf or a hollyhock flower, it is an objective counterpart under this ideology. Once there is a chrysanthemum that is more worthy than sunflower leaves and hollyhock flowers, the plant is so tall, and the flower disc is so big, not only to the sun but also to the sun, what can shape the image of the sun in their minds better than this?!
The "Porridge Recipe" of the Qing Dynasty has a sunflower flower porridge, which is said to have the effect of appetizing and stagnating. Simple and flavorful, as long as a few sunflower flower plates are put into rice water and boiled together, such porridge is refreshing to drink, with a faint sunflower aroma. After the sunflower is cooked, the bright color does not change.
Sunflower discs have been found to have good curative effects and have been included in many Chinese herbal medicine classics, which have the effects of clearing heat, calming the liver, relieving pain and stopping bleeding. It is used for high blood pressure, headache, dizziness, tinnitus, abdominal pain, dysmenorrhea, uterine bleeding, sores, etc.
The only thing to note is that there is a saying in ancient books that pregnant women should avoid eating sunflower petals, so it is better for pregnant women to touch them less.