What is the sesame seed cake in Water Margin?

Anyone who has seen Water Margin may have forgotten other details, and he must be impressed by Wu Dalang's selling of baked wheat cakes. Before leaving yanggu county for Tokyo on business, Song Wu said to his brother, "You have never been a coward. I am not at home and I am afraid of being bullied by outsiders. " . If you sell ten cages of sesame cakes every day, you will only sell five cages from tomorrow; Go out late and come back early every day, and don't eat wine with people. If someone bullies you, don't argue with him until I come back.

Nowadays, thin-slice dried noodles are generally called cakes. But in the Song Dynasty, as "Jing Kang Su Su Miscellaneous Notes" pointed out: "Anyone who uses noodles as a utensil is called a cake: therefore, those who use fire to eat are called sesame cakes; Those who drink water are called soup cakes; Those who eat in the cage are called steamed cakes. " Sesame cakes are still called. They are also called big cakes in the south and pancakes or Hu cakes in ancient times. Soup cake was also called boiled cake at that time, but it was being transformed into noodles in the Song Dynasty, also called Suo cake or Wei Jia. Before the world appeared, noodles were used to refer to noodle soup.

Xuancheng) The rebels are preparing for foreign cooperation on 25th. A steamed cake vendor said, "An average of 25 miles away." On the surface, it is said that "one sells 25 yuan, and it is all white flour inside and outside", but it is actually a code word to remind the public to avoid chaos. This cry proves that steamed cakes and boiled cakes are just different names for solid steamed bread. Song Dynasty oral book "Song Sigong makes trouble to ban the soul Zhang" describes the justice of Song Sigong;

Looking at the ferry, I can't wait for the other side. I'm hungry. I sit on the ground, put a soft bag in front of me, take apart the roast meat, break off a steamed cake, dip it in four or five pieces of fat-bottomed roast meat with more salt and pepper, roll it into a roll and chew it two times.

Song Sigong ate steamed cakes, which were obviously solid and without stuffing, and the way of eating them was similar to that of meat buns in the north now. Sesame cakes are also called cage cakes because they are steamed in cages. In Wu Dalang, Song Wu also calculated the cooking cakes in terms of fan cages.

Pan Jinlian in Guo Chuan said that at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Guo Tai had a friend who came to "cut leeks to make cakes" in the rain all night. This story shows that this kind of pasta existed in the Han and Wei Dynasties, and it was stuffed. In the Tang Dynasty, Jia said in Zhou Li's Note: "Eating" means "taking wine as a cake, and if we start to make cakes today". In Song Dynasty, Huang Tingjian pointed out in Fu Weng's Miscellanies that "rubber cakes are today's cooked cakes", which shows that all cooked cakes at that time were fermented. In fact, the baked wheat cake sold in Wu Dalang is now steamed bread. Compared with steamed bread, it has stuffing, while sesame seed cake is solid and has no stuffing. This can also be proved by the story described in "Study on Old Learning".

Although Wang Yi, a poet in the Song Dynasty, said in "The Record of Swallow Wings": "Today's people, those who have crumbs in fermentation, those who have stuffing and those who have no stuffing, are all called steamed buns", at that time, it was still customary to call those who have no stuffing as sesame cakes and those who have stuffing as steamed buns. There are many kinds of steamed bread in Song Dynasty. As far as fillings are concerned, there are sugar steamed buns, fake steamed buns, mutton steamed buns, bamboo shoots steamed buns, fish steamed buns, crab yellow steamed buns, crab meat steamed buns, sugar stuffed steamed buns, spicy stuffed steamed buns and so on. According to Shang, on the day of the third and eighth classes, the canteens in imperial academy and imperial academy added meals as usual, cooking cakes in the spring and autumn, washing in Xia Han and steaming steamed buns in winter. Cold scouring is cold noodles, but it is cold cakes. Not to mention this, Shandong's food list puts the baked wheat cake in spring and autumn and the Taixue steamed bread in winter together at the same time, which shows that there is a clear difference between the two. Taixue steamed bread is well known, and students often pass it on to relatives and friends for them to taste in advance. Later, even the market in Lin 'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, put up the signboard of Taixue Steamed Bread. There is a poem by York, which is devoted to the study of steamed bread: after several years of study, the scholar has been satisfied with Confucianism, and the rest of the skills are still passed on to bamboo shoots and ferns.

Peng Shenghong, the son, has a piece of meat, and the general has a white lotus skin iron bar.

Among them, white lotus skin refers to steamed bread skin, and red wisp of meat clearly refers to steamed bread stuffing. In the Water Margin, a strict distinction is also made between the two. Wu Dalang is called sesame seed cake, and Sun Erniang, a demon woman, is called human flesh steamed bread. Song Wu said that her family's "steamed bread stuffing has a few hairs, just like human urine."

Compared with steamed bread, it has stuffing, while sesame seed cake is solid and has no stuffing. This can also be proved by the story described in "Study on Old Learning". The story tells that during the Southern Song Dynasty, a woman, accompanied by her husband, came to Dongyang County to accuse a rich boy of raping her and biting her nipples. Magistrate Langmou summoned the rich man, who denied it. The princess ordered three baked wheat cakes, so that three people could bite one each, and they were not allowed to bite off. Then compare it with the scar on the woman's nipple. It turned out to be her husband's tooth marks. Obviously, only the solid steamed bread without stuffing will leave a clear tooth mark when bitten halfway. About this difference between baked wheat cake and steamed bread, Shuihu is also unambiguous. When describing Song Wu's arrival at the Crossslope Hotel, he said:

The woman giggled and went in, took a cage of steamed bread from the stove and put it on the table. Two workers picked it up and ate it. Song Wu took one, opened it and shouted, "Restaurant, is this steamed bread human flesh?"? Is it dog meat? "

The novel is called Wu Dalang's sesame seed cake, and the human flesh steamed buns in Shizipo Black Shop are called steamed buns, which reflects the customary name in the Song Dynasty.

Steamed bread may be more valuable than making cakes, so there is a story in Summer Tale: a poor scholar doesn't know what steamed bread is, but he has no plan. One day, when I saw the food stalls lined up above the mall, I suddenly collapsed to the ground. The stall owner was surprised and replied, "I'm afraid of steamed bread." The stall owner thought it was outrageous, so he put more than 100 steamed buns and put the scholar in. Just quietly, the stall owner peeped through the cracks in the wall and saw that the scholar put a lot of steamed bread "by hand", and more than half of the people ate it.

Of course, I was also eating steamed buns. On the day when Song Zhenzong was born in Injong, "the palace gave the courtiers steamed bread, all of which were golden beads", which shows that the palace and the powerful family have regarded steamed bread as delicious. According to He Lu, a scholar sold a concubine, claiming to have worked in the steamed bread room of a teacher in Cai Jing. One day, she was asked to make steamed buns, and she replied that she would not make them. She asked her, "Since you are from the steamed bun kitchen, why can't you make steamed buns?" The answer said, I am specially responsible for taking care of shredded onion. This story may show that steamed buns are more delicate than steamed buns, and the difference between them lies in their shape and connotation. Making cakes became the favorite of many poets in the Song Dynasty. Huang Tingjian said in a letter to comfort his sick friend: "Sick people can eat if they want to wake up gradually. Home-cooked cakes are good, I wonder if they are comparable? "

In the Song Dynasty, making cakes was the main food for people. According to "Dream in Tokyo", when Tomb-Sweeping Day travels, Kaifeng citizens bring jujube porridge, baked wheat cakes and duck eggs, which is called "the land outside the door". According to Dream of Liang Lu, in the Southern Song Dynasty, Lin 'an not only sold snacks such as sugar porridge, sesame seed cake, baked steamed bread, sesame seed cake, spicy vegetable cake and spring cake in the afternoon market, but also cooked cakes in the street. The 53rd chapter of Water Margin describes jy's trick on Li Kui, and making cakes has become a prop:

Li Kui jy's legs can hold up, but it seems that someone is pushing them below. He just walked away without touching the ground. When you see the wine and meat restaurant, you can't go in to buy food. Dai Zong came from behind and called, "Brother Li, why don't you buy some snacks?" Li Kui jy replied, "Brother, help me. I'll kill an iron cow when I'm hungry! " Dai zhong took some cakes from the kitchen to eat. Li Kui jy cried, "I can't stay to buy food. You and I can satisfy our hunger. " Dai Zong said, "Brother, come up and eat with you." Li Kui jy stretched out his hand, only ten feet away, but he couldn't pick it up.

"Ben Xin Zhai Cai Fang" records a kind of sesame cake called jade brick, which is "cut into squares and marinated with pepper". There is a compliment: "cut into circles, cut into square bricks, use fresh pepper and sprinkle salt thinly". From this point of view, there are different ways to make cakes and eat them. In the fifty-sixth chapter of The Water Margin, it was said that the golden gun described Xu Ning's breakfast as "the servant girl arranged a meat boiled cake". Perhaps this kind of meat boiled cake is similar to the later Chinese hamburger in Shaanxi.

Making cakes became the favorite of many poets in the Song Dynasty. Huang Tingjian said in a letter to comfort his sick friend: "Sick people can eat if they want to wake up gradually. Home-cooked cakes are good, I wonder if they are comparable? " In another letter to a friend, there was a great autumn wind: "I will make a cake tomorrow, and I will be lucky to give three pounds", which shows his love for making cakes. The famous poet Yang Wanli has a poem "Eat Steamed Cake". The first four sentences say: He Jia's cage cake will pass, and Xiao Jia's cooking cake will break four.

I can't be hungry, just swallow one.

During the great turning point of the collapse of the Northern Song Dynasty and the reconstruction of the Southern Song Dynasty, cooking cakes was closely related to a political history. According to legend, before Song Gaozong acceded to the throne, the marshal went north from Xiangzhou with his military forces and got lost on the way. Fortunately, Wang Boyan got him mutton soup and baked wheat cakes, and he just got through the storm. At the beginning of Dunan, it was also "frying meat to make cakes every day"; Soon, in order to avoid the pursuit of 8 jin j, he went into exile by boat to Zhang 'an Town, Linhai County. In desperation, he only found five baked wheat cakes in the local Xiangfu Temple. Later, Emperor Gaozong claimed that he only ate noodles, biscuits and fried meat in the morning and evening, which did not seem to be nonsense. Considering that the emperor loves to make cakes, when Zhang Jun entertained the emperor at home, he gave the emperor a baked cake and a non-baked cake at a point called vegetable insertion. Non-scones should be ordinary cooking cakes, and scones are probably baked steamed bread. However, due to the existence of Emperor Gaozong, Zhang Junguang was a piece of cake for Emperor Gaozong's Royal Guard, and he spent 20,000 yuan.

Compared with Emperor Gaozong, although he ate the same cooking cake, his father Song Huizong was very worried. After the change of Jingkang, he became a prisoner. When he was escorted to Zhuozhou by the Jin army, he asked the accompanying veteran to exchange 100,000 taels of silver for some food. The vegetable seller knows that it is Hui Zong, "making cakes and lotus root vegetables has made progress", and he doesn't accept money from Weimin. Perhaps I don't know, Chen, the minister he exiled to the south, once wrote a book to answer his friends in the capital, but he still said with concern, "What's the matter? It snows well this year, and the biscuits will be big next year. " Chen is concerned that good snow can bring big cakes to the people, but he is indifferent to his exile, which is really commendable. Huizong has such a direct minister, who can't use it, but trusts the six thieves. What happened later was all of his own making.

Bread is the pillar of life. In the Song Dynasty, making cakes was directly related to the lives of ordinary people. At the end of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty, due to the renewed war in Jin and Song Dynasties, prices soared. "A cook's cake is worth tens of dollars," while the frontline soldiers worked hard and only got a dozen taels of money. No wonder they threw their tips on the ground and said angrily, "Life is not worth a cook's cake!" " . According to Berberis Collection, in the mid-Southern Song Dynasty, there was a spontaneous organization similar to a guild in the cooking cake industry in Jiankang Prefecture (now Nanjing, Jiangsu Province), which was then called "Hangyuan". If someone is new to selling baked wheat cakes and has no business place and capital, then the whole city "sells baked wheat cakes, borrows the market, gives cookers, borrows cloth and wants everything" and "is not jealous" of each other. In this way, the foreign boy who sells baked wheat cakes has a place to support his family. After seeing this phenomenon, Liu Tsai praised "such a lovely custom".

During the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, making cakes was still very popular among the people. Shortly after Zhu Yuanzhang's war, Guo Zixing suspected him and put him in solitary confinement. He is not allowed to be given food. In the Ming Dynasty, it was said that Ma Huanghou "stole the sesame seed cake and got pregnant", and the freshly steamed sesame seed cake burned her chest. After entering the Ming Dynasty, the name of cooking cake gradually faded out of common spoken language, and the original solid cooking cake was directly called steamed bread.