Song Jiaxiang ancient litchi tree

Song Jiaxiang ancient litchi tree

Songjiaxiang ancient Lishu is located in the ruins of the song clan ancestral hall in Yinglong street, Licheng District, Putian City. There is an ancient Lishu planted in the Tianbao period of Tang Dynasty, which has been about 1200 years ago. It is a rare old fruit tree in the world and is known as "songjiaxiang".

Plant characteristics

According to Cai Xiang's lychee Genealogy (1059), which was written in the fourth year of Jiayou of Song Dynasty, it is recorded that the lychee tree of song Gong is very tall, and it is said that the tree is 300 years old. It can be seen that the age of trees is high. "Song Gong litchi" and "Song Jiaxiang" have been living tenaciously in the long years, through the heat, cold, typhoon and war. Their vitality is extremely strong.

At present, the height of the tree is more than 6 meters, the circumference of the trunk is 7.1 meters, and the crown coverage area is 65 square meters. She is green and luxuriant, and bears great fruits every year. The annual yield of litchi is as high as 352 Jin. The fruit is oval in shape, red in color, thin in shell, thick in flesh, juicy, crisp and smooth without residue, sweet and refreshing. It is praised as "the queen of fruits" and "the first of products". It is said that when Huang Chao Yibing passed Putian in the Tang Dynasty, one of the soldiers wanted to cut down the "Song Jiaxiang" Li tree for firewood. The tree owner Wang Yi begged bitterly, but the Li tree survived and stayed.

At the beginning of this century, Western missionaries brought litchi trees from Putian to Florida, and finally succeeded. Nowadays, litchi trees are found in the south of the United States, Cuba, Brazil and other countries.

It is said that why Putian is called "Licheng" has something to do with "Song Gong litchi" and "Song Jiaxiang".

Related Legends

In Tianbao period of Tang Dynasty, a carpenter surnamed song planted a litchi in his courtyard in this place called Yinglong street. A few years later, the lush litchi trees were covered with red fruits. When the host first tasted one, his eyes lit up; another one was put into his mouth, and he finally exclaimed, "my litchi is so sweet! Don't believe it? You try, you try! " Sweet is the duty of litchi, where is the duty of fragrance? Disapproving neighbors peeled off the Lichee of the Song family, and a burst of exclamation rang out one after another: "Song Jiaxiang, song Jiaxiang, the Lichee of the Song family is really fragrant!"

Then, call it song Jiaxiang. A lychee tree named after the family name is absolutely unprecedented, perhaps unprecedented. Thousands of years later, when I recite this name, I still feel very kind and full of saliva. It's good to beat a knot and strangle one's wrist. The feeling of our ancestors' cheering and cheering seems to be in our eyes. In the winding lane, there is often a surge of fresh air. On both sides of the narrow passage, there are many uneven dwellings with scattered external walls and mottled doors and windows. In front of the courtyard and behind the courtyard, there are often one or several lychee trees standing safely, drinking wind and dew in the narrow space, and growing simply. A hospitable host warmly invited, stepping into one of the courtyards, two lychee trees suddenly show up, luxuriant and luxuriant, the thick green brown main pole holding up not thick shade. The host said that the two litchi trees are hundreds of years old, and the fruit is sweet and fragrant. It is after Song Jiaxiang.

According to the records of Qi Min Yao Shu, fruit trees were grafted in Northern Wei Dynasty. If only bitter fruit can grow on the branch of a litchi tree, it will be cut off by the host, and a new branch will be inserted, so that it will be reborn.

When walking in the alleys, I sometimes guess privately that quite a few of these old trees, which are still living peacefully, must be the descendants of song Jiaxiang. Under the rough skin, there are also precious genes in the mother's body. There must have been such a process: at the beginning of spring, some solid branches bid farewell to song Jiaxiang's crown, and then came to other litchi trees. A few months later, the branches pulled out fresh green leaves.

One day in the three years of song Zhihe, song Jiaxiang's host's house welcomed a distinguished guest. After tasting litchi, he was really excited. He said with a loud sigh: "now that you are old, it is beneficial for you to be rich and fragrant. It's really a good tree." Yi Xingfei wrote a poem on the spot. This guest is Cai Xiang, a Jinshi in the eighth year of emperor Tiansheng of Song Dynasty and a Bachelor of Duanming palace. Cai Xiangshan is an expert in litchi. He is good at poetry and calligraphy, and he wrote his masterpiece litchi genealogy. To get his approval, song Jiaxiang is undoubtedly fragrant. Many years later, when he was an official in Fuzhou, he received a basket of lychees from the military officer of Xinghua. His greedy colleagues gathered around him and raved about it. "Even though there are thousands of trees in minzhou, they don't smell like home." Cai Xiang, who has always been gentle and elegant, is elated: the litchi in my hometown is fragrant. The litchi in my hometown is as good as 1000 or 10000 in Fuzhou! So once again, he wrote down "sending litchi by Cheng of Xinghua JUNCAO Dian". The litchi in the basket is so fragrant that even if it is not song Jiaxiang, it should be his offspring.

During the Wanli reign of emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty, song Jue, another talented man, was born in Yinglong street, where song Jiaxiang grew up. He was also a master of poetry, a leader of calligraphy, and even a leader of painting. Like the sage Cai Xiang, he also has a special preference for litchi: "litchi is to fruit, immortal and Buddha, there is really nothing to imitate." So he called himself litchi fairy and became a friend of the "litchi society". After tasting countless lychees, he finally felt that song Jiaxiang was the best. In reading Yu Zhongmao's lychee CI opera in Jinling, he sincerely praised: "every family has its own garden, and song flavor is the most wonderful.".

If you leave your hometown, the litchi of your hometown is good; if you are in your hometown, the litchi of the Song family is fragrant! In the long years, Putian poetry has left many poems based on litchi. When you walk into the historical Grand View Garden of famous literature nation, one of the flowers is on the branch of song Jiaxiang. The breeze is fragrant.

There is also a legend about song Jiaxiang: at the end of the Tang Dynasty, Huang Chao set up troops to pass Putian, and a soldier wanted to cut down song Jiaxiang as a firewood. The host pleaded. The tree had been preserved, but the main pole had been axed, so that there was a scar on the stone. Many legends scattered in the folk, whether true or false, all prove the people's admiration for song Jiaxiang. For thousands of years, the scarred song Jiaxiang has been able to continue and become the oldest of all litchi trees in China. It can only be the result of careful care from generation to generation.

Longitude: 119.01973724365

Latitude: 25.43609046936

Chinese PinYin : Song Jia Xiang Gu Li Shu