What important role does fire play in human life?

Fire is the basis of diet and cooking. It should be said that with fire, there is a food culture. Before being able to skillfully use fire, the ancestors could only live a primitive and animal-like life. The so-called "eating the food of vegetation, the meat of birds and beasts, drinking their blood, like their hair." For example, Han Feizi said: "People eat fruits and clams, and the stench hurts the stomach and leads to many diseases." However, after human beings can skillfully use fire, the diet of human beings has undergone earth-shaking changes, which is the so-called "cannon cooking, which makes people have no abdominal diseases and is different from animals." According to the legend of China, Suiren was the earliest ancient ancestor of China who could use fire. Archaeologists preliminarily speculated from the stone tools used by Peking man in Zhoukoudian that Chinese man began to use fire consciously about 500,000 years ago.

The Dead Body says, "A man looks up at the stars and down at five trees, thinking it is a fire." There is a similar record in the History of Taoism, which says, "An embarrassed person is watching a dry elephant, and when he looks at it, he gets angry and makes an embarrassment." The "Chen Xin" in the second sentence is what the ancients called "Xinsu", that is, "Big Mars". The so-called "five wood" refers to five kinds of wood that are considered suitable for fire at the right time. That is, "Yu; Liu Qing, so bring it in spring; Jujube: apricot red, so eat it in summer; Sang: Huang Zhe, so I took it at the end of summer; Tussah: (Mukui) white, so take autumn; Sophora japonica; Suntanned, so bring it in winter. "

After the Sui trainer made drills to make fire, his wooden drilling tools were called Sui, and later generations invented using metal to make fire to get the sun, so there were two kinds of "Mu Sui" and "Yang Sui". "Huainanzi" notes: "Yang Sui sees the sun and burns into a fire. Yang Xiang, Jin Ye. The sun is three or four feet high, and if you cling to the sun, you will be angry for a moment. " "Notes on Ancient and Modern Times": "The pith of yang is copper, which is shaped like a mirror. When you look at things, the scenery falls and you light a fire at the sun. "

Before the Han Dynasty, it was called "open fire" to make a fire with incense, and "national fire" to make a fire with wood. According to the "Great Wish" and "Great Reconnaissance" in Zhou Li, the yang marrow is taken from the sun and close to the sky, so it is used for divination and sacrifice. Wood is taken from five trees and is close to people, so it is used for cooking. After the Han Dynasty, people found that metal can be rubbed into fire when it hits a stone, so a simple piece of iron can be turned into a yang sui. When people go out, they usually wear Yang Xiang and Mu Xiang on the left side of their waist to make a fire at any time. In addition, there are tinder made of wormwood and salt water. When the spark falls on the tinder and burns due to friction, the fire is ignited by "lighting a candle". The so-called "hair candle" is a small piece made of peeled hemp stalks, which is five or six inches long. It is soaked in sulfur and burns when it meets fire.

After people can use fire, they have stoves. The stove maker said it was Emperor Yan: Huainanzi: "Emperor Yan died with fire as the stove." Note: "Yan Di Shennong ruled the world with fire and died in the kitchen god." One is the Yellow Emperor: "Continued Beginning": "The Yellow Emperor sets the stove." Therefore, "Everything must be the original" said: "The Yellow Emperor cooked and died as a kitchen god." And Vulcan, according to China's general view, is Zhu Rong. Huainanzi? Note: "Zhu Rong Ng Wui, for the fire of Gao Xin, died as Vulcan, put his hand on the stove." Historical records? Chu family: "Li Dong lived in the fire for Di Ku Gaoxin and made great contributions. He can blend in with the world, and Di Ku called him' Zhu Rong'. " "The Book of Rites and the Moon Order": "The moon exists, its emperor, its god Zhu Rong and its sacrificial furnace are sacrificed to the teacher." The original shape of the stove was to dig holes in the ground. Today, the furnace excavated from Xi 'an Banpo site is a kind of double furnace, that is, two fire pits are dug on the surface. These two pits are separated on the ground, but they are connected underground. A pit is where firewood enters, a pit is where people leave, and the hole connected with the two pits is the stove door. Banpo in Xi 'an has a history of six or seven thousand years, and its inventor should be Emperor Yan rather than Yellow Emperor. It is estimated that the Yellow Emperor was in power about 4600 years ago. Emperor Yan passed down seventy generations before the Yellow Emperor, about six or seven thousand years ago. By the Warring States period, the production of stoves had been perfect. "Zeng Lianzi" notes: "There are five protrusions (protrusions: chimneys) in one furnace, and there are many people who distribute cigarettes, and it is cooked for ten times."

When the fire became controllable, the ancients immediately noticed the importance of heat for cooking. In ancient China, the importance of temperature to cooking was first mentioned. This flavor article. " Among them, Yi Yin told Shang Tang: "Water is the beginning of all tastes. Five flavors and three ingredients, nine boiling and nine changes, fire is the discipline. If you are sick, you will be slow. If you use it, you will win. Reconciliation must be bittersweet. How many times, its gas is extremely small, and there are changes, subtle and micro-fiber, plausible, plausible. If you shoot the slightest, Yin and Yang will transform, and the number of four seasons will be counted. It is harmless for a long time, ripe but not rotten, sweet but not tasted, sour but not cold, undiminished in work, pungent but not strong, light but not thin, fat but not [month]. "The general idea of this passage translated into modern Chinese is that the root of taste is water. Cooking is based on sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and salty flavors and Shui Mu fire. There will be nine changes when the pot is boiled for nine times, and it is up to the fire to explore and adjust. Sometimes with strong fire, sometimes with slow fire, the key to removing fishy smell and shame is to master the heat. Only by mastering the law of using fire can the odor be turned into fragrance. Seasoning must use five flavors of sweet, sour, spicy and salty, but the order of seasoning and the amount of materials used are very subtle. The change of Ding is subtle, subtle and indescribable, even if it is known, it is hard to say clearly. Just like putting an arrow on a horse, you should practice your cooking skillfully. Such as the natural combination of yin and yang, such as the natural changes of the four seasons, cooking skills can be cooked for a long time, cooked but not rotten, sweet but not strong, sour but not astringent, spicy but not irritating, light but not tasteless, fat but not greasy.

Yuan Mei later wrote a section on temperature in Suiyuan Food List. He thinks that the key to cooking food is to master the heat. Stir-frying must use strong fire, and if the firepower is insufficient, the fried things will be weak; You must stew it with warm fire. When the fire is big, the stew will dry. If you want to collect soup, use strong fire first, then warm fire. If you are impatient, keep using fierce fire, and the food will be tender outside. He thinks that kidneys and eggs are more tender when cooked; Fresh fish and clams will not be tender if they are cooked for a while. When the pork is cooked, it will be out of the pot, so that the color is rosy and will turn black after a while. If the fish is cooked late, the live meat will die. When cooking, the more times you open the lid, the more fragrant the dish will be. If the fire is put out and burned again, the food will lose its oil and taste. Yuan Mei said that it is rumored that Taoist priests have to undergo nine cycles of metamorphosis before they can be refined into a true elixir, while Confucianism is based on not being excessive and working hard to get home. A chef must master cooking correctly and operate carefully in order to master cooking basically. The fish cooked by a chef who is proficient in cooking should taste as white as jade and the meat will not come loose. This kind of meat is live. If the color is as white as powder, loose and not sticky, it is dead meat. It can be seen that the ancient people's use of fire has been constantly innovating and deepening.

The ancients thought that fire was divided into new fire and old fire, and charcoal fire, bamboo fire, grass fire and hemp (gāi) fire used in cook the meat with warm wine had different smells. In Fire, various kinds of fires cooked with various foods are listed: "Sangchai: Cooking food is good for people. Boiling old ducks and meat can make them extremely rotten and can solve all kinds of poisons. Dirty firewood is not suitable for food. Rice ear fire: when cooking, people's five internal organs are fascinated. Wheat ear fire: cooking, quenching thirst, moistening throat and facilitating urination. Loose firewood: cooking, strengthening bones and muscles, not cooking tea. Oak wood: boiled pork, no wind, cooked chickens, ducks and geese, bad smell and other things. Mao Qiao: the cook eats and drinks, and tomorrow he will detoxify. Luhuo and Zhuhuo: All tonics should be fried. Charcoal fire: it is advisable to fry tea, which is delicious but not turbid. Bran fire: rice bran fire is used for cooking and dietotherapy, and it can support two pots with a supporting ground stove. Southerners use it more, and its cost is half that of firewood. When I was in spring, there were people and insects in the chaff, which killed me. "

However, Jia Ming of Yuan Dynasty told me in "Dietary Instructions": "It's better to use the fire beads of Yang years old, take the real fire of the sun in the morning, and stick a locust tree to get the fire." He believes that "it is impossible to strike a stone with gold (that is, strike a flint with iron to make a fire) and drill a fire of eight trees." Yagami people: pine is difficult to heal (epidemic disease refers to: pine fire is difficult to heal), cypress fire hurts the spirit and sweat, mulberry fire hurts the tendons, zhe fire hurts the qi, jujube fire hurts the blood, orange fire hurts the meridians, elm fire hurts the bones and muscles, and bamboo fire hurts the bones and muscles. "