What is the source of sweet potato?

Jin Zengxue was overjoyed when he heard the news. In the second year, he ordered planting all over the country to solve the problem of food shortage in Fujian. On the basis of Chen Jinglun's "Teaching Rules for Potato Planting", he wrote the first potato monograph "Overseas New Biography" in China, publicizing the advantages of improved varieties, easy growth and high yield of sweet potatoes and teaching planting methods.

Encouraged by Jin, this law was spread in all counties of Fujian. Where sweet potatoes are planted, the threat of disasters is greatly reduced.

Fujian people are very grateful for the promotion of gold, so they changed the name of sweet potato to "Golden Potato" because it was introduced from foreign countries and also called "Sweet Potato". Because the underground blocks are like melons, the north of China is also called "sweet potato". Later, Chen Zhenlong's descendants were introduced to Zhejiang, Shandong and Taiwan Province provinces. Sun Chen Shiyuan, the fifth Chen Zhenlong, also wrote "Biography of Golden Potato", which was passed down from generation to generation. In the Qing Dynasty, sweet potato cultivation spread all over the country.

In order to commemorate Chen Zhenlong's achievements in introducing potato seeds and promoting planting in Shanxi, Fujian people once established a "Gonggong Temple" in Fuqing County. He Zexian, a native of Fuzhou, built the "Shu Xian Pavilion" in Wu Shishan as a memorial during the Qing Dynasty. Chen Zhenlong is known as the "father of sweet potato" in China.

Marco Dragon introduced sweet potato into China, which improved the structure and recipes of crops in China and became one of the important foods to alleviate hunger in the old society.

According to another record, sweet potato was introduced into China in three ways: first, the Portuguese spread from America to Myanmar, and then to Yunnan, China; Second, the Portuguese were introduced into Viet Nam, and Dongguan Chen Yi or Wuchuan Lin Huailan were introduced into Guangdong. Third, the Spaniards spread from America to Luzon Island, and Chen Zhenlong from Changle was introduced to Fujian.

Anyway, Lin Huailan, Chen Zhenlong and Chen Yi can all enjoy the reputation of being the first person to introduce sweet potatoes in China. They were introduced independently, but they all made outstanding contributions to alleviating the food and clothing of China people at that time, which was of great significance in the history of agricultural development in China.

In particular, Xu Guangqi, a famous scholar and agronomist in Ming Dynasty, spared no effort to popularize sweet potato in China. He summed up the advantages of sweet potato as "thirteen wins", conducted introduction experiments by himself, and tried to solve the problem of collecting sweet potato seeds for winter.

He first transported potato seeds to the north with wooden barrels and bamboo vines, and then put forward the method of cellar storage, thus solving the problem of potato seeds wintering in the north.

Through the hard practice of farmers all over the country, the problem of the second generation of potato seeds in the north was finally solved. Sweet potato was soon widely planted in the north and south of the Yangtze River and became an important food crop in China.

Xu Guangqi also summarized and compiled the book "A Brief Introduction to Sweet Potato", but it was a pity that this book was later lost. This book's popularization of sweet potato and understanding of biological characteristics have played a very good role in improving planting techniques.

Sweet potato is just one of the exotic crop varieties introduced in Ming and Qing Dynasties. The important plants introduced in the whole Ming and Qing dynasties mainly include: sweet potato, corn and potato; Vegetable crops include tomatoes, peppers, kale and cauliflower. Cash crops include tobacco and sunflower.

The introduction of these plants was related to the social environment in Ming and Qing Dynasties. At that time, the population of China increased rapidly and famine occurred frequently. Some scholars in Ming Dynasty wrote many monographs on plants to help save the famine.

The introduction of sweet potato has solved the problem of people's eating to some extent. The introduction of corn, potatoes, tomatoes and other plants has had a great impact on the crop planting structure in China.

Corn is native to Mexico and Peru at the foot of the Andes in Latin America. Its introduction was also in the late Ming Dynasty.

During Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, scholar Tian Yiheng called corn "Yumai" in Shigatse, Liu Qing. The book wrote: "Yumai came from the west, formerly known as Fanmai, and was named Yumai because it had entered the palace."

In addition, Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica also recorded corn, and there is a sketch, which is not accurate, but generally reflects the characteristics of corn. Xu Guangqi's Encyclopedia of Agricultural Administration is also described. It is generally believed that there are three ways for corn to be introduced into China: first, it is introduced into the mainland from Southeast Asia via Fujian and Guangxi; One is from India, Myanmar to Yunnan; One is the northwest route from Persia and Central Asia to Gansu.

From the middle of18th century to the beginning of19th century, maize was widely popularized in China, which was related to its wide adaptability, barren tolerance and guaranteed yield, and was suitable for popularization in many newly reclaimed mountainous areas at that time. In addition, there has been a breakthrough in breeding, and new varieties suitable for all parts of China have appeared, because corn has become an important food crop in China after rice and wheat.

Potatoes are mainly distributed in temperate and subtropical regions of the Andes and its nearby coastal areas in South America. After it was introduced into China, there were many titles. It is called potato in Northeast China, potato in North China, potato in the northwest, potato in sunshine, potato in Guangxi, potato in Holland in Guangdong and potato in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Potatoes had been introduced to China before Xu Guangqi, because there was a record of "potato" in Xu Guangqi's "Agricultural Administration Complete Book". The following passage is recorded in Volume 28 of the Encyclopedia of Agricultural Management:

Yu Tu, a potato and a yellow belly. The trailing leaves are like beans, the roots are round like eggs, and the inside is white and yellow ... It can be boiled or steamed. Boil taro juice and wash greasy clothes, as white as jade.

It can be seen that the introduction of potatoes was undoubtedly before 1633. More precisely, potatoes were introduced into China before 1628, which was widely known and planted, because 1628 was the approximate time for the publication of "The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration".

The time when potato was introduced into China is controversial, and there is a big gap between different opinions. This cultural mystery needs new materials to discover and scholars to further study.

Tomatoes are native to Central America and South America. The name of origin is "Tomato", which was introduced to China in the Ming Dynasty. It has been used as an ornamental plant for a long time. At that time, it was called "Fan Persimmon", and it was named "Tomato" because it was shaped like persimmon and red in color and came from the west. Wang, an official of the Ming Dynasty, wrote in 162 1 year's Qunfangpu:

Fan persimmon, June persimmon, stems such as Artemisia, four or five feet high, leaves such as Artemisia, flowers such as durian, one branch bears 534 fruits, counting twenty or thirty. Destined to be a framework, the most impressive. It comes from Xifan, hence its name.

In the late Qing Dynasty, China people began to eat tomatoes.