From it, we can read about the people and things that spread among the people in ancient China.

The elaboration of various kinds of porridge in A Dream of Red Mansions is a classic folk story.

"Laba porridge" in A Dream of Red Mansions

Boiling Laba porridge is one of the popular folk customs in the twelfth lunar month in Ming and Qing Dynasties. The Chronicle of Yanjing contains: "Laba people cook rice with yellow rice, white rice, glutinous rice, millet, water chestnut rice, chestnuts, red glutinous rice and peeled jujube paste. External use of red dye, almonds, melon seeds, peanuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts and sugar, as well as grapes. "

"Laba porridge", also called "Buddha porridge", is said to have originated from Buddhist temples. The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, according to legend, is the enlightenment day of Sakyamuni, the ancestor of Buddhism. Therefore, the monks in the temple took Xianggu fruit to sacrifice to the Buddha, which was called "Laba porridge". Laba porridge is also mentioned in A Dream of Red Mansions. On the 19th time, Baoyu told Daiyu a story that a group of mice wanted to cook Laba porridge like humans, and were sent down to steal rice, beans, red dates, chestnuts, peanuts, water chestnuts, taro and other raw materials on the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month. This is Cao Xueqin's sidelights on the folk custom of eating Laba porridge in Beijing at that time. In fact, Laba porridge is not only a seasonal food in winter, but also a good recipe for medicated porridge with dietotherapy and health care functions.

Duck porridge and porridge in A Dream of Red Mansions

For the 54th time, a banquet was held in Fu Rong Lantern Festival. Jia Mu said she was a little hungry and wanted porridge. Xifeng quickly replied, "Duck porridge is ready.". Grandmother Jia said, "I'll have something light." Xifeng added, "You can use glutinous rice porridge cooked with dates." The two kinds of porridge that Xifeng said are both genuine medicinal porridge. Jia's home cooking seems to be both edible and medicinal, and the variety is evident. "Duck porridge" is recorded in books such as Doctor's Mind Mirror and Compendium of Materia Medica. Cooked with duck meat juice and japonica rice, it has the functions of nourishing yin and stomach, promoting diuresis and reducing swelling. It is suitable for post-illness fatigue, bone steaming, emaciation, edema and physical weakness. Clinically, doctors often regard this porridge as chronic nephritis, full of water, kidney-yang deficiency and unfavorable urination. Porridge was first seen in the book "The Total Record of Shengji", and it was said in a Dream of Red Mansions that it was a vegetarian diet fasted by Mrs. Wang. From the perspective of medicated porridge, porridge has the functions of strengthening the spleen and stomach, benefiting qi and promoting fluid production, nourishing the heart and calming the nerves. At the Lantern Festival banquet, Shi Taijun, who has two kinds of medicinal porridge, one meat and one vegetable, and is good at health preservation, has a light diet, far from greasy, and can be described as a moderate diet.

"Bird's Nest Porridge" in A Dream of Red Mansions

A dream of red mansions also wrote a kind of medicinal porridge, namely "bird's nest porridge". In the 45th session, Xue Baochai, a "cold beauty", advised Lin Daiyu, a "sick beauty", to eat "bird's nest porridge" to nourish yin and replenish qi and strengthen the body. She said that every morning, using one or two first-class bird's nest, five yuan of rock sugar and a silver hanger to cook porridge can nourish essence and blood, which is stronger than medicine. The most important thing is to nourish yin and replenish qi. That evening, she sent two old women with a big bag of bird's nest and clean powdered snowflake candy in the rain. Zhao Xuemin's Collection in Qing Dynasty? Poultry department? "Bird's Nest" says: "The taste is sweet and flat, which can nourish lung yin, eliminate phlegm and relieve cough, and tonify deficiency. It is a holy medicine for conditioning fatigue. " The practice of bird's nest porridge is to wash bird's nest and japonica rice first, and then add water to cook porridge. When the porridge is cooked. Add sugar or rock sugar and serve. Daiyu's illness, low fever, night sweats, hemoptysis and expectoration. Bird's nest porridge nourishes yin and stomach qi, and a porridge plus dietotherapy drugs is naturally beneficial to her recovery.

There are many kinds of porridge in A Dream of Red Mansions. Cao Xueqin listed Jia's "Porridge Spectrum" and recorded six kinds of porridge, including red rice porridge, Bijing porridge, Laba porridge, duck porridge, eight-treasure porridge and bird's nest porridge, leaving a record of China's porridge cultural life in the heyday of the Qing Dynasty. Nowadays, they have become health care recipes for ordinary people.

All kinds of porridge in a dream of red mansions say so. You are welcome to share the story with your relatives and friends!

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