When I was a child, every winter, every household would buy and store Chinese cabbage. The lively scene of this almost became a major spectacle in mainland Chinese cities. Back then, there were no plastic greenhouses, and during the lean winter months, cabbage became the main vegetable for the Chinese people. Nowadays, all kinds of vegetables are available year-round, and the scene of storing cabbage for the winter is long gone, but Chinese cabbage is still favored by many.
On my family's dinner table, Chinese cabbage is also a frequent sight. My grandmother moved from Zhejiang to the Central Plains, and she often said, "Winter cabbage is better than bamboo shoots." Her stir-fried cabbage with shredded pork was exceptionally delicious; my father also has a special fondness for cabbage, and his favorite is the cold and sour spicy cabbage.
Chinese cabbage, belonging to the cruciferous family, is a true "product of China." Archaeological excavations of pottery jars unearthed from the Banpo site in Xi'an have even revealed cabbage seeds, which shows that the history of cultivating cabbage in China is at least 6,000 years old. In ancient China, cabbage was called "song," commonly known as baocai or huayacai, and it was praised by the people as the "king of all vegetables." Literati throughout the ages have praised cabbage highly. The Song Dynasty poet Fan Chengda wrote in his "Rural Miscellanies": "Digging up cabbage through the snow, its taste is like sweet lotus root, even richer and more mellow." Su Dongpo also wrote a poem: "White cabbage is like lamb and pork, emerging from the ground like bear's paw," comparing cabbage to the delicious lamb, pork, and bear's paw. The ancient cabbage was originally a loose-leaf type, and it was not改良 into a heading type until the Song Dynasty; by the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, a solid-hearted large-headed cabbage appeared, and the largest heads could weigh over ten jin, earning it the reputation of a "divine grade" among vegetables. During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese cabbage produced in Jiaozhou, Shandong, was even shipped across the ocean to be exhibited at the Tokyo Exposition in Japan, and from then on, cabbage was introduced to Japan.
The ancients believed that Chinese cabbage had high health and wellness benefits. As early as the Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhongjing's "Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases" recorded the nutritional value of cabbage. The famous Ming Dynasty physician Li Shizhen wrote in his "Compendium of Materia Medica": "Song is late to wither, common in all four seasons, possessing the character of a pine, hence it is called Song." Traditional Chinese medicine believes that cabbage is slightly cold and sweet in taste, and has functions such as nourishing the stomach, promoting body fluids, relieving vexation and thirst, promoting urination and bowel movements, clearing heat and detoxifying. It is an excellent vegetable for supplementing nutrition, purifying the blood, cleansing the intestines, preventing disease, and promoting metabolism, suitable for the general population. There is a folk saying: "Fish causes fire, meat causes phlegm, cabbage and tofu ensure peace."
Modern science also holds a high opinion of the medicinal functions of cabbage. Researchers at the New York Hormone Research Institute in the United States found that the incidence of breast cancer among Chinese and Japanese women is much lower than that of Western women, and eating cabbage regularly should be a significant factor. Studies have found that trace elements in cabbage can help break down estrogen linked to breast cancer. The fiber in cabbage not only has the effect of moisturizing the intestines and promoting detoxification but also promotes the human body's absorption of animal protein. In winter, the climate in the north is dry, and the biting cold wind is very harmful to the skin, while cabbage is rich in vitamins C and E, and eating more of it is beneficial for skin care and beauty. Cabbage contains very little sodium, so it won't cause the body to retain excess water, which can reduce the burden on the heart. For middle-aged and elderly people and the obese, eating more cabbage is beneficial for weight loss. The pectin contained in cabbage can also help the body eliminate excess cholesterol.
Mr. Qi Baishi, a master of traditional Chinese painting famous for painting shrimp, also loved to paint cabbage. He is very famous for his freehand brushwork painting of a large cabbage. On the painting, he inscribed the verse: "The peony is the king of flowers, the lychee is the first of all fruits, yet no one mentions the cabbage as the king of vegetables, why?" The reputation of cabbage as the "king of all vegetables" became widely known because of this. The Taipei Palace Museum displays thousands of national treasures daily, and the two most popular treasures of the museum are the Jade Cabbage and the Dongpo Pork Stone. There are many ways to cook cabbage, such as vinegar-braised cabbage, cabbage stewed with tofu, cabbage hearts in juice, braised cabbage with large intestine, shrimp and cabbage, mushroom and cabbage, crab roe braised cabbage, twice-cooked pork with cabbage, cabbage and vermicelli stewed with meat, and sea mi cabbage soup, cabbage tofu soup, cabbage and sliced pork soup, etc. Pork and cabbage dumplings and cabbage-filled buns are also good choices. Sichuan pickles and Korean kimchi are indispensable to cabbage. The Chongqing hot pot is spicy and numbing, and adding Chinese cabbage to the hot pot helps to reduce internal heat and clear the lungs. Cabbage is abundantly produced all over China, it is delicious and cheap, healthy and good for the skin. As the cold winter arrives and heavy snow falls, why not eat more cabbage.