There is a dish called Shih Tzu Tongue, which is made from seafood shells called sand clams. This non-clam and non-mussel shellfish is a thick triangular fan-shaped, small and compact, the shell is light yellow-brown, the tip is a little purple, and when the shell is opened, a small piece of white flesh spits out. Because when the shell is opened, the white flesh spit out is like a small tongue, which is inevitably reminiscent of a lot, hence the name "Shih Tzu tongue".

Shih Tzu tongue (sand clam)

Shih Tzu tongue (sand clams) (6 photos)

But there are many beauties in China, why not call it "Zhaojun tongue", "concubine tongue", "Diao Chan tongue", just called "Xi Shi tongue"? There is a legend here: In the Spring and Autumn Period, the Yue King Goujian with the help of the beauty Xi Shi power, exercised the beauty plan to destroy the Wu State, the overall situation is set, the Yue King is trying to take Xi Shi back to China, the queen of the Yue King is afraid that Xi Shi will be favored when he returns to China, threatening his own status. So he asked someone to tie a huge stone to Xi Shi's back and sink her at the bottom of the river. After Xi Shi's death, she turned into this shellfish "sand clam", expecting someone to find her, so she spit out her lilac tongue and complained about her grievances.

There is a saying that when men eat this "sand clam", they are not thinking about grievances, but about their own affection, and they fantasize that they are entangled with Xi Shi's fragrant tongue. When the woman is eating, she feels that this shell seems to have an unspeakable mouth, and it can only be used if it is beautiful, and there is no legend if it is not beautiful. Men will take advantage of her beauty, and women will trample on her beauty. has not turned into a "sand clam", but it can't escape the bad luck, and it has only become the joy of the public.

The origin of this Xi Shi tongue is indeed very reverie, especially for literati and ink writers, and it is quite exquisite. Yu Dafu's essay "Eating Men and Women in Fuzhou" has been discussed: Fuzhou seafood, in spring in February and March, the most popular and fatty are the mussel meat from Changle, and the many oyster houses along the seaside. The Shih Tzu tongue mentioned in "Min Xiaoji", I don't know if it refers to the mussel meat, the color is white and fat, the taste is crisp and fresh, and the chicken soup is cooked appropriately, and the long round mussel meat is really a god with good color and flavor. Here Yu Dafu mistook the Shih Tzu tongue produced in clams for mussels.

In fact, Shih Tzu tongue is produced in clams, which has been recorded as early as the Song Dynasty. Song Huzai's "Tiaoxi Yuyin Cong Words" later collection quotes the words in "Poetry Says Eternal": "There are clams in Fuzhou Lingkou, called Xi Shi tongue, extremely crisp. And quoted Lu Juren's poem of Xi Shi's tongue: All fish on the sea do not know their names, and a hundred thousand lives are worth a cup. For no reason, he called Xi Shi tongue, and he had a delirious relationship with children. It can be said that "Shih Tzu tongue" is "a fish on the sea". On closer examination, Shih Tzu tongue is not limited to Fujian, but the production of Shih Tzu tongue in the coastal area of Changle, Fujian Province is the highest. As far as I know, from the coast of eastern Liaodong to the southern coast, it is produced in all shallow seas. In the restaurants of Lushun, there is "melon slice Xi Shi tongue"; there are also in Tianjin, and there is a poem in the Qing Dynasty Zhang Tao's "Tianjin Gate Miscellaneous Records": the lantern flower tower is open, and the pity is poured into gold.

The morning is full of Xi Shi tongue, and it lives up to the drum of Jinmen. Although the poem is mediocre, it can be seen that the author is interested in using his tongue. South of the Bohai Sea, Qingdao also produces Shih Tzu tongue. Zheng Banqiao, a Qing dynasty man, wrote in "Weixian Bamboo Branches": "There are more cities to delicacies, and Xi Shi's tongue enters the jade plate." He said that "Shih Tzu tongue", a kind of seafood, was eaten by wealthy families.

In the 30s, Mr. Liang Shiqiu tasted Shih Tzu tongue for the first time in Shunxing Building, Qingdao: "A bowl of clear soup, floating with a layer of sharp white things, I don't know what it is, the owner said Shih Tzu tongue, in the mouth."

The soft feeling really lives up to its reputation after trying. So far, there is such a legend in Jiaonan: Xi Shi and Fan Li were separated on the way to escape, she knew that she was lonely and easy to invite misfortune, so she deliberately bit off her tongue and spit it out in the river. The tongue happened to fall on a river mussel with its shell open, and the tongue of a beautiful woman with a fairy fetus was of course not ordinary, and it actually survived in the mussel's body. And from the river into the sea, it has become the tongue of beauty today.

It seems that this Shih Tzu tongue along the coast from south to north, is not uncommon, it can be seen that Xi Shi followed Fan Libian boat all the way, and the clouds and shadows left traces of incense. Although the story itself is a bit poignant, future generations can enjoy the delicacy and good name, and Xi Shi can be regarded as comforted. Nowadays, when I see Xi Shi tongue in the self-service hot pot restaurant in the north, the way to eat with a pot is always too arrogant, which not only spoils her deliciousness, but also lives up to her reputation. A friend once told me that the authentic way to eat is to first soak the shelled Shih Tzu tongue in boiling water, take it out and remove the internal organs and wash it, prepare some spinach hearts and blanch them with boiling water, and then put them in a soup bowl; adjust the boiling soup to taste, put in the Shih Tzu tongue, sprinkle the chives and chopped coriander after boiling, and pour it into the soup bowl. The characteristics of this dish are that the soup is clear to the bottom, the jade tongue is fluttering, the meat is white and tender, fresh and delicious. The reputation is delicious, mortals eat gods, and that's it, don't think about it.

The Fall of the State of Wu ed

When talking about Wu Yue's struggle for hegemony, we cannot fail to mention Xi Shi, and when we talk about Gou Jian's tortuous but glorious history of struggle from slave to overlord, we cannot fail to mention Xi Shi. This is not because Xi Shi offered any tricks or made great achievements for Gou Jian to destroy Wu, but because she is an important tool in Gou Jian's implementation of the Nine Techniques of Wu Death, and she is a stunning beauty who is famous all over the world and has been famous for centuries.

Xi Shi and Wang Zhaojun, Diao Chan, and Yang Yuhuan are the four beauties of ancient China, and Xi Shi is the first of the four beauties. In fact, these four girls did not leave any photos or portraits of painters, not to mention how beautiful they were, and no one had even seen what their noses, eyes and mouths looked like. Our understanding of these beauties depends entirely on the written descriptions of later generations of literati and ink writers, or the portraits of the four beauties made by some painters with their own imagination. The beauty of Xi Shi and others has actually become a symbol and a famous brand of beauty recognized by Chinese.

Xi Shi was only destroyed by the Yue State because of the Wu State, and Xi Shi was sent to the Wu State by the Yue State, she shouldered the glorious mission of making Wu Wangfu obsessed with lust and spying on the political and military secrets of the Wu State, so she was praised by later generations as a heroine and a patriotic heroine...... However, if Gou Jian's revenge was not successful, and the state of Wu was destroyed by the Jin, Qi, Lu, Chu and other states, Xi Shi may not have the above-mentioned reputation, and is likely to be beaten into the ranks of "disaster water" by orthodox historians and writers.

After Xi Shi entered Wu, the husband was fascinated by her, staying in Sutai in spring and autumn, staying in the palace in winter and summer, playing with Xi Shi all day long to enjoy the moon and singing the qin. There is a clear spring on Lingyan Mountain, and the husband often asks Xi Shi to comb the spring water, and he personally combs the hair of the beauty. He also went boating with Xi Shi to pick lotus, or traveled on a painting boat, or hunted on horseback, in short, he was intoxicated with beauty, and took Gusutai and Guanwa Palace as his home, leaving national affairs behind. Wu Zixu asked to see him, but he was often turned away, but Dazai Boyao was always around. Therefore, all he could hear was flattery. Countless historical examples have proved that once the big guy reaches this point, he is not far from his downfall.

Since Xi Shi is inseparable from Fucha, she knows everything about Wu Guomi, and waits for the opportunity to pass on the information she has obtained to Yue Guo, so that she is called the head of Chinese history by some historians who are proficient in research today. The husband sent a sword to make Wu Zixu commit suicide, and I am afraid that she will have a share of the credit. Gou Jian's army was able to drive straight into the capital of Wu State, leaving the husband with no power to fight back, which is closely related to Miss Xi Shi's fascination of the husband and the abandonment of military politics. Therefore, it can be said that Xi Shi is one of the heroes of Gou Jian's destruction of Wu Xue's shame. The Ming Dynasty Xi Shi Temple has Yinglian Yun: "Yue Jin why should he be dressed in righteousness, and gold is only cast delicately." It is an affirmation of Xi Shi's contribution in the destruction of Wu in the Yue Kingdom.

The Mystery of the Bottom of the Sinking RiverEdit

In the winter of 473 BC, the capital of Wu, Gusu City, was breached by the attacking Yue army. The state of Wu perished. The life trajectory of Xi Shi, the great beauty of the Spring and Autumn Period and the favorite concubine of Wu Wangfucha, came to an abrupt end, and it seemed that the Wu Kingdom had disappeared into the dark history with the ashes.

The state of Wu perished, where did Xi Shi go, and how did she spend the rest of her life?

Later generations often evaluated historical figures harshly and unjustly, often focusing only on their most glorious moments and ignoring their lonely or peaceful years. Shih Tzu was "neglected" like this. The time that Xi Shi stayed on the stage of history seems to be only a few short hours, and more life trajectories have been artificially ignored. When we want to try to restore a complete Shih Tzu, we will find it extremely difficult, and we will find too many mysteries and thoughts.

Xi Shi's deepest impression on future generations is her beauty. Legend has it that when Xi Shi was in the stream, the fish in the water were attracted by her beauty, and they forgot to swim in a daze, and sank to the bottom of the water with a "flutter". As a result, later generations used "sinking fish" to describe the beauty of women, and Xi Shi was also known as the four beauties of ancient China together with Wang Zhaojun, Diao Chan, and Yang Yuhuan, becoming the embodiment and synonym of beauty. The four beauties enjoy the "appearance of a shy flower in the closed moon, and the appearance of a sinking fish and a goose". The sinking fish and the geese are shy of the moon, and the sinking fish is the first, so the four beauties, Xi Shi is the first. Now, digging deeper into history, we regret to find that among the four beauties, the other three can find evidence of their existence in the official history at that time, but Xi Shi lacks any records of faith and history. She exists only in the records and arias of posterity. Not to mention Xi Shi's whereabouts, but also important information such as her origin, life deeds, etc., we can only sift through and summarize them little by little from the intricate pile of old papers.

The Mystery of the Cause of DeathEdit

When Gou Jian destroyed the state of Wu and the husband was forced to commit suicide, Xi Shi, the first beauty in ancient China, lost her use value, and her fate was even more tragic than that of literature.

Xi Shi's heroic deeds or legendary experience are not contained in the official history, so after the Yue Kingdom destroyed Wu, Xi Shi's whereabouts can only be found from other historical books:

"Mozi Qinshi" said: "It is the death of the old Bigan, its resistance, the killing of Meng Ben, its bravery, the Shen of Xi Shi, its beauty, and the crack of Wu Qi, and its matter." ”

"Wu Yue Chunqiu Yiwen" said: "After Wu's death, Yue Fu Xi Shi Yu Jiang, so that Sui Yi ended. ”

"Wu Diji" said: "(Jiaxing) county south of a hundred miles there is a Yu'er Pavilion, Gou Jian ordered Fan Li to take Xi Shi to offer her husband