Chapter 60 litchi

Fruits are vulgar things to satisfy the appetites of men and women after dinner.But the fruit has the beauty of both content and form, placed on a crystal clear fruit plate, the pearls are round and jade-like——Painters often use it as a still life for sketching.In the writing of literati, the fruit that came into being is also quite aura. "There are thousands of peach trees in Xuandu Temple, all of which were planted by Liu Lang after he left." According to the legend that continues, peaches have become a very humane offering on the incense table in this magical palace.There is a Peach Festival in heaven, and there is a Mountain of Flowers and Fruits in the world. No wonder the Monkey King is so homesick whenever he encounters poor mountains and rivers on his way to learn Buddhist scriptures. Like a fruit farmer leaning on a hoe looking back, he says to himself: Come back, the fields will be barren!Grapes remind me of the spring breeze that does not cross the Yumen Pass, and the white-haired soldiers who lie drunk on the battlefield and do not hesitate to laugh generously, just because it is reflected in a frontier poem that has been carefully considered for thousands of years: "The luminous cup of grape wine, if you want to drink the pipa, call it immediately." A piece of "Three Kingdoms", at least two allusions related to plums were born: looking at plums to quench thirst is a young and tender but unattainable temptation in a hurried march. The method of spiritual victory is of course superior to the loser philosophy of grapes and foxes; Wine, accompanied by a voice-over of "Heroes in the world, but the king and the ear", reveals the majesty of the two tigers fighting...

The loquat is red, and the plantain is green.A branch of pear blossoms with rain in spring.Apricot blossoms were sold in Shenxiang in the Ming Dynasty.All of this pales in comparison with litchi.Litchi first appeared in the romantic story of Concubine Yang, and became worth a hundred times because of the favor of the peerless beauty.Litchi, three thousand favorites in one. When I went to Xi'an, I first visited Huaqing Pool in the south of Lintong County.Standing among the carved railings and jade bricks left over from the old dynasties at the northern foot of Lishan Mountain, I seem to witness the ruins of a brightly lit castle in the air. I suddenly feel a feeling of crying from reading old books and worrying for the ancients: where is Jiangshan? ?Beauty, where is it?But the lychees on display in a high-end fruit shop on the adjacent street (it must have been transported long-distance from the southern country by plane), made me blindly believe that the smile of a thousand gold in the song of eternal regret is lifelike.The old things still exist, and the beauty's youthful pets are passed down from generation to generation with tenacious vitality. Back then, the swallows in front of Wang Xietang flew into the homes of ordinary people;Asking how much you can worry, it's like a river of spring water flowing eastward.

"New Book of Tang" records: "The concubine is fond of lychees, and she must want to give birth to them. She rides them and transports them. They travel thousands of miles without changing the taste, and they arrive at the capital." According to investigations, the lychees Yang Yuhuan prefers are mainly produced in today's Guangdong area. As a tribute from the South China Sea, it was presented to the palace.At that time, lychees were also produced in Sichuan and other places, but the taste was slightly inferior due to water and soil reasons.In order to please his beloved concubine, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty did not hesitate to seek far away, and ordered the post envoys to change trains along the way and speed up their horses to rush to transport this treasure in the world.This is proved in Li Zhao's "Tang Kingdom History Supplement": "Concubine Yang Guifei was born in Shu, and she likes to eat lychees. The ones produced in the South China Sea are especially better than those in Shu, so they gallop forward every year. , future generations don’t know about it.” The king of Chu is so thin-waisted, and the palace starved to death—but a noble lady greedy for lychees appeared, and the folks don’t know how many horses they would run, and how many Bole’s hearts would be broken.Ladies in the Tang Dynasty regarded fat as their beauty, and Yang Yuhuan, who was bloated and luxurious, was also plump. Do you think it has something to do with being unwilling to give up good luck?Many years later, people will still envy Tang Xuanzong and Concubine Yang's fairy life of singing and dancing, drinking and eating in the Hall of Eternal Life-the secular yearning for the world's feast will more or less dilute the censure of this romantic emperor who does not love the country and loves beauties.The music history "Yang Taizhen's Biography" describes the beautiful scenery of a good night as if it were yesterday: "(Tianbao) on June 1st in the 14th year, it was the birthday of the noble concubine. Gathering lychees from the South China Sea, because of the name of the song "Litchi Fragrance"." Piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, hops, lychees, pets of noble ladies-it is the same as the flat peach of the queen mother, and once made ordinary people who are struggling for rice and grain in the hustle and bustle all look up. .This song should only exist in the sky, but it can be heard several times in the world—Lychee, the ancient nobleman among fruits.

In the late Tang Dynasty, when Du Mu visited Huaqing Palace, he dipped in the hot spring water and wrote a quatrain: "Looking back at Chang'an, there are piles of embroidery, and thousands of gates on the top of the mountain are opened for the first time. When a concubine rides on the red dust and smiles, no one knows that it is a litchi." In that square inch of land, it seems to have witnessed the court envoy riding alone for thousands of miles on the land of China day and night, and heard the thrilling whip--it's a pity that this is not a peerless hero who stands out and competes for the championship. The messenger on a fast horse has nothing more than a bag of tender fruit on his shoulders.The marathon battle was born in the ancient Greek period with strong winds, and the hurried footsteps of the messenger who strode forward to deliver the "chicken feather letter" are still echoing in the corridors of human history; A dose of jokes in a gentle and rich township-the contrast between the two time and space made me sigh deeply.Marathon is a symbol of bravery and victory in human history, but Maweipo, which is full of flowers, constitutes a beautiful misunderstanding and a gentle defeat.The war in Yuyang was not caused by lychees—just as the lychees that Yingge Yanwu pecked at could not whitewash the peace.Litchi used to be an ominous omen, casting a shadow over the life of a beauty who died, and at the same time putting a vigilant question mark on the fate of a dynasty.

In addition to being related to beauties, lychees also had an indissoluble bond with another famous literati in my impression.When I was studying, in the 1970s, Yang Shuo’s Chinese textbooks for middle schools all over the country had to be selected. I could no longer recite this popular prose praising the spirit of bees. It is still fresh in my memory: "Eating three hundred lychees a day, I will never give up to be a Lingnan native." In the rivers and lakes, by accident, you are tied to the Southern Kingdom, why are you no longer intoxicated by the rocks piercing through the sky, the stormy waves crashing on the shore, and the old man chatting about being a teenager? I have a soft spot.Could it be that he does as the Romans do, and the well-known Master Su, like any gourmet, loves to talk about this local specialty in the south; facing the irresistible temptation of delicious food in the world, he hates meeting each other late, and even is willing to risk the rest of his life?

It wasn't until I was lucky to fly from Beijing to Leizhou Peninsula, and after a long journey, I finally explained Su Dongpo's "lychee complex" 900 years ago.Southland is not only rich in red beans with the pen name of Acacia, lotus seeds as a token of affection, but also the hometown of lychees that have been famous for generations.As for Leizhou, Su Dongpo wrote "Fubo Temple Records" when he passed by: "From the end of the Han Dynasty to the Five Dynasties, there were many people who avoided chaos in the Central Plains here." —Su Dongpo himself is an example.The reason for this is that this place is located in the remotest corners of the world, and people see it as a village of smog and rain. The traffic is blocked and it is difficult to fly.But once we know who among these unkempt prisoners spurned by the state apparatus, we can't help but be shocked by the blindness of the imperial court that hangs itself as a bright mirror.In the west of Haikang County (today’s Leizhou City), there is a Temple of Ten Sages built in the 10th year of Song Duzong’s Xianchun, commemorating that since Prime Minister Kou Zhun was demoted to Leizhou Sihu to join the army in the first year of Zhenzong Qianxing’s first year, Shaosheng came to Shaoxing for seven days. In ten years, Su Shi, Su Zhe brothers, Qin Guan, Li Gang, Zhao Ding, etc. who lived in Leizhou or passed by here on the way of distribution, a total of ten patriotic scholars, poets, and senior officials.The barren land of the Leizhou Peninsula was once an open-air prison for loyal ministers—this in itself is a big ironic joke.Then the imperial court with wolves in power and shadows must have become a paradise for corrupt officials and a paradise for treacherous officials.However, the Temple of Ten Sages, built on the ground to show that "respect the virtuous as a teacher, and hate evil as a hatred", after all, marks a heavy happy event. To revise history and return history to innocence sometimes requires greater courage than simply smearing history.Wen Tianxiang, who was far away in Jishui, wrote "Leizhou Ten Sages Hall" to congratulate him happily after hearing the news.

The bleak and rainy Leizhou Peninsula once provided a safe place for batch after batch of heroes in distress.There is no way to serve the country, and the sword is drawn and the heart is at a loss.When I feel the time, the flowers splash tears, and the bird hates the farewell.The great wall is empty and I promise myself, the temples in the mirror are already stained.But they exchanged ten thousand characters for Rong Ce in exchange for the owner's tree planting book... I imagined that they were imprisoned by mountains and moons, risks and evils, and pictures of grievances or anger, loneliness or desolation appeared in front of my eyes. With a haggard face, there emerged a bitter smile of a nation's history.Fortunately, there are still lychees here!When these hungry and tired exiles from the Central Plains were rejected by the whole world, the lychees in the most marginal area of ​​the territory welcomed them as the most enthusiastic hosts in the local area.In the north, lychee has always been the exclusive tribute for emperors and concubines, but in its hometown, it has been washed away and used as a commoner to get close to these exiled exiles-this is the only fair treatment they can afford.Lu Yun and Yue spent the eight thousand miles in shame and the disgust of passers-by. Only the lychee at the final camp never rejected them, and only the lychee, which was as delicious and clear as the sound from outside the sky, brought their burdened hearts brief satisfaction.

Su Dongpo was demoted from Huizhou to Hainan in the late summer of the fourth year of Song Zhezong's Shaosheng (1097), passing through Leizhou.He and his younger brother Su Zhe lived together on the Luohu Lake in the west of Haikang City, boating day and night, forgetting the pain of leaving home and dreaming of breaking the road while singing poems and wine.The local aborigines changed the name of Luohu Lake to West Lake, and imitated the construction of Su Causeway and Bai Causeway.Strange to say, Luohu is not without similarities with West Lake in Hangzhou. The Haikang county magistrate of the Qing Dynasty once wrote a poem "Wanli officials come to Haiguo, and the general scenery is like Hangzhou", and sent it to an honored guest many generations ago in the local area. .It can be seen that this barren land shows rich feelings for those virtuous and exiles. Like taking out its own heart, it holds out a water area similar to the south of the Yangtze River, and holds out a round of carefully polished mirrors. A noble soul can often stroll through it with ease, and forget the sorrow and pain of falling into the end of the world in the scenery like hometown.

This is the hometown of lychees, and this is the place where lychees and consciences are contributed. No wonder Su Dongpo wants to "be a native of Lingnan without hesitation".I can't verify whether Su Dongpo's poem "eating three hundred lychees a day" was written in Leizhou—as a gratitude and return for his generous commitment?But Su Dongpo must have received litchi hospitality in Leizhou.Leizhou's lychees are famous far and wide.I can literally see the old man Dongpo, who has been freed from fame and reputation, stretch out his thin fingers with ease—not to grab the dice that all beings compete for in Vanity Fair, nor to escape into Buddhism to count the prayer beads that are all hopeless, but just Reaching out to the mountains of lychees in the thick porcelain fruit plate (probably newly picked from the back mountain by the illiterate landlord), count the number of food eaten during the day's homework: one, two... three hundred!This is simply a back-to-basics gesture that can shake the history of Chinese culture, a poetic mathematics: a great writer with white hair and troubled by fame and fortune for a long time, recovered his innocent childlike innocence in the dialogue with Lizhi , and discovered that the most important thing in the world is beauty, and insisted on the simplest and most primitive beauty in life!He turns a deaf ear to thunder and lightning, blows his ears to fame and falsehood like the wind, and turns a blind eye to jewels. He has cut off contact with the whole world, but he has reached a communication with the fruits hanging in the aesthetic space, and is closely connected.In other words, on the balance of truth, just three hundred lychees and three hundred exquisitely carved pocket weights make the other side lose their weight!What kind of oblique sorrow is this, and what kind of stubborn and firm pride is this.

When I ate lychees in Leizhou, my lips and teeth were fragrant and beautiful.But after a careful aftertaste, it more or less chews out a hint of bitterness beyond the mellowness.That is the bitterness of culture, the bitterness of five thousand years of history.I am a man of letters.When I was writing, when I was writing lyrics on the grid paper, I couldn't get rid of the relationship between Su Dongpo and Lizhi in the previous life, and I couldn't get rid of a transparent idealistic spider web.One, two... three hundred!I gradually felt that the lychee displayed on the poet's lips, which symbolizes priceless beauty, is as heavy as Mount Tai; the poet's movements and physical strength to just pick up and weigh a crystal of ultimate beauty from the world of mortals are as heavy as Mount Tai.I ruminated and began to understand Su Dongpo's lychee complex in his later years.I can't wait to collect all the three hundred lychee pits he has experienced, and plant them on the pure grid manuscript paper as ancient seeds. I ask myself to keep my childlike innocence and purity in front of literature and art, and in front of beauty. , kindness, single-mindedness, and a love that is so fanatical that it is almost hungry...