Zhang Taiyan's food concept is smoking, smelly, and unique for a lifetime
Zhang Taiyan, a great thinker and scholar in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, is known as a master of modern Chinese studies. He has profound research and attainments in many fields such as classics, philosophy, literature, linguistics, philology, phonology, and logic.
He is full of peach and plum, and many well-known masters and scholars of Chinese culture are from his disciples, such as Qian Xuantong, Lu Xun, Huang Kan, etc., and his life is full of legends.
Although the young Zhang Taiyan's article requires a certain amount of professional knowledge to understand, for the general public, perhaps his eating habits are more interesting to people.
After all, even a master is inseparable from the basic needs of eating and drinking. The uniqueness of Zhang Taiyan is that he has always preferred stinky delicacies all his life, such as stinky tofu and stinky milk curd, and is very fascinated by them.
Zhang Taiyan's former residence had a difficult time back then. He was born in a ** family and received the influence of family education since he was a child. In his twenties, he participated in the Qiang Society founded by Kang Youwei and supported the reform of the law, but after the failure of the reform, he was wanted and had to go into exile in Japan.
There, he became acquainted with Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and his ideas began to become radical. In his days in Japan, he didn't have much money, so he often ate garlic fried tofu with white rice.
After returning to China, he was arrested by the Qing Dynasty for a time and worked as a tailor in prison, but his revolutionary will never wavered.
After Zhang Taiyan was released from prison for participating in the League when he was young, he lived in poverty, and often ate salt rice, that is, he used chopsticks to dip salt in rice. At that time, life was difficult, and Zhang Taiyan only ate the dishes in front of him when he ate because of myopia, and did not touch other dishes.
After a long period of exile and hardship, Zhang Taiyan did not marry the talented Tang Guoli until he was 40 years old. In 1913, the wedding of the two was held in Shanghai, and their new house was very simple, with only a white wooden square table, four long wooden benches, and all the furniture and furnishings were rented.
Zhang Taiyan is a person who is addicted to learning, his ability to live is almost zero, he is easy to get lost when he goes out, and his wife takes care of everything at home. Zhang Taiyan's only income ** is writing, he writes if he is willing, and he doesn't write if he is not happy, whether he takes orders or not depends on whether the other party meets his eyes, so his wife has become a bridge between him and the outside world.
Zhang Taiyan's calligraphy is exquisite, but he does not make a living from it. Even if someone is willing to ask for words at a low price and sell them, he doesn't care, as long as he can have a little income.
His signature is always "so-and-so" or "so-and-so", and he is never called "brother" or "sir". As a result, his calligraphy pen polishing fee was barely enough to make ends meet.
His daily diet is very simple, mainly rice, meat, vegetables, and occasionally some snacks such as mung bean cake, bean halva and local products.
Zhang Taiyan was under house arrest by Yuan Shikai, and Yuan Shikai arranged some vacant positions for him. Zhang Taiyan expected Yuan Shikai to be different at first, but the result did not go as he wished.
So Zhang Taiyan often went to Yuan Shikai, and Yuan Shikai sent people to monitor him because he was worried about his nagging, and he himself tried to avoid seeing him, and told them to be patient and tolerant of Zhang Taiyan.
This made Zhang Taiyan angry, and ran to Yuan Shikai's mansion many times**, but to no avail. In the end, Zhang Taiyan made a lot of noise in the mansion and smashed a lot of items, saying that he would smash Yuan Shikai for a day every day if he didn't see him, and in the end, Yuan Shikai had to put him under house arrest, which was two years.
Zhang Taiyan's **, including Zhu Jingzhou, Shen Jishi, Zhu Xizu, Ma Yuzao, Xu Shoushang, Zhou Zuoren, Qian Xuantong, Liu Wendian and others, during Yuan Shikai's house arrest, although the living expenses were sufficient, there were 500 oceans per month, but the stewards below deducted them privately, and Zhang Taiyan's living expenses only left 300 oceans.
What's even more infuriating is that Zhang Taiyan also suffered unfair treatment in terms of eating. The stewards put some vegetarian dishes in front of Zhang Taiyan, and put the meat dishes in the distance, and after Zhang Taiyan left, they were enjoyed by the miscellaneous servants and stewards.
Although Yuan Shikai gave Zhang Taiyan sufficient living expenses, the following stewards deducted them privately, which greatly reduced Zhang Taiyan's living expenses. This is not only unfair treatment of Zhang Taiyan, but also disrespect for his **.
Zhang Taiyan and his two mothers were placed under house arrest for a long time and could not leave. In order to cope with this unpleasant situation, Zhang Taiyan began to put on a score, recruited more than a dozen cooks and handymen, set strict rules, and fined violators and signed them in writing as a sign of solemnity.
As for the diet, Zhang Taiyan insisted on cooking by himself, and the daily menu was fixed with steamed eggs and steamed ham, and other dishes would only be added when guests came.
Huang Kan was expelled for exposing his greed for food expenses, and he was in an unusually low mood during this hunger strike. However, when Huang Kan came to visit him, his mood improved slightly, because they could learn together.
However, this short-lived joy of Zhang Taiyan was soon shattered, as he knew that no one else could come to see him anymore, which made him furious. So, he decided to go on a hunger strike in order to die a quick death.
During this period of hunger strike, Zhang Taiyan only smoked and drank water, even if Yuan Shikai sent someone to persuade him, he did not eat. However, his health began to deteriorate, and someone even prepared a coffin.
In the end, Yuan Shikai sent Wang Jitang as a lobbyist, but Zhang Taiyan didn't want to cheap Yuan Shikai, so he started eating and drinking again. Zhang Taiyan was placed under house arrest by Yuan Shikai for more than two years, and it was not until Yuan Shikai died of illness that he regained his freedom.
Although he hated Yuan Shikai very much, whenever he ate tangyuan during the Lantern Festival, he always hated to say that the tangyuan was a Lantern Festival, homophonic "Yuan Xiao", and then ate it hard.
In his later years, Zhang Taiyan was obsessed with stinky food, especially stinky marinated products, such as stinky tofu and stinky bean curd. For him, the stench is just a delicious taste, especially stinky bean curd, which can be used both as a staple food and as a condiment.
It is rumored that in order to obtain Zhang Taiyan's words, some people deliberately brought some smelly foods that he liked, such as stinky duck eggs, stinky amaranth, stinky peanuts, stinky dried tofu, stinky winter melon, etc.
Whenever this happens, Zhang Taiyan will be very happy to write for them, and he is willing to sign his name.
Ningbo's unique stinky delicacies, such as stinky winter melon, stinky pickles, stinky edamame, stinky tofu and stinky amaranth stems, deeply attracted Zhang Taiyan, a native of Zhejiang, making him a loyal fan of stinky food.
His love for the cuisine of his hometown led him to taste these unique delicacies without hesitation.
Zhang Taiyan is a smoker, not only likes to eat stinky food, but also loves tobacco. His cigarette case is always filled with all kinds of cigarettes, including "Golden Rat" brand cigarettes from the ** period, as well as "Big Hero" brand cigarettes used to entertain guests.
In addition, he also likes to smoke shisha, and it is said that when he was young, he could smoke about 100 cigarettes a day, and he was really addicted to smoking.
In Zhang Taiyan's life, cigarettes are his indispensable companions. Whether it was during his exile in Japan, or lecturing at Peking University, or even at home, he couldn't do without cigarettes.
Even if he doesn't have money to eat, he must smoke. In order to buy cigarettes, he even borrowed money from Wang Yunzong. He could smoke for three or four hours a day, and before he finished one cigarette, he lit the other.
When many people ask for words, they will use cigarettes as a pen fee, which also allows Zhang Taiyan to have enough cigarettes. When he was lecturing at Peking University, he held a cigarette in one hand and chalk in the other, often confusing cigarette butts with chalk heads, and sometimes even smoking chalk heads or writing cigarette butts as chalk heads, which also made a lot of jokes.
Zhang Taiyan at home is mostly hookah, and there are often small black spots on the floor that have been burned off by smoke stains, which are dense, and his wife can only arrange for servants to clean them. Zhang Taiyan, who died of illness in Suzhou in his later years, was once asked to give lectures in Suzhou for a long time, but due to the trouble of going back and forth, he finally decided to move to Suzhou.
In 1934, Zhang Taiyan opened the "Zhang's Sinology Seminar" in Suzhou Garden, and used unlimited paper cigarettes as entertainment facilities during the lecture, so that the audience could smoke while enjoying knowledge, which attracted many audiences.
The love legend of Zhang Taiyan and Tang Guoli: life and death depend on each other, never separated.