Xinzhuang Zuili

Xinzhuang Zuili

　　Xinzhuang—Hometown of Zuili

　　 Whenever people talk about the rare and renowned fruit Zuili, or the story of the beautiful Xi Shi tasting Zuili on her way to Wu via Jiaxing, their faces light up with excitement as if they had witnessed the scene of the beauty using her crystal-clear, jade-like nails to pierce the fruit’s skin and greedily sipping the sweet and fragrant juice of each Zuili. The beautiful fruit, the beautiful lady, and this millennia-old tale are deeply engraved in historical memory and on the land of Jiahe, leaving people to savor and recount the story across the ages.

　　 But where is the origin of Zuili? Opinions have long been divided. In fact, the birthplace of Zuili is in the countryside of Xinzhuang Township, Nanhu District, Jiaxing City. The very place where China’s first ancient beauty, Xi Shi, tasted Zuili is just two li north of Xinzhuang Township, by the side of Liren Bridge.

　　 Xi Shi casually tossed the pits of the Zuili she had eaten into a vegetable patch. Before long, many Zuili saplings sprouted. Strangely, these ripe fruits all bore a fingernail mark near the stem—a feature never seen in the original Zuili. People suddenly realized this was caused by Xi Shi’s nail puncture. The fruits with the nail marks were even more delicious than the others. From then on, these fruits came to be called “Xi Shi Zuili,” becoming the most prestigious variety.

　　 Later, the “Xi Shi Zuili” was planted in Jingxiang Temple by its monks. This famous fruit was taken by visiting eminent monks to various parts of the country, and thus Jingxiang Zuili became widely renowned, captivating people everywhere.

　　 Around the time of the Jiaqing Emperor, every year when the Zuili ripened, government officials would frequently send people to Jingxiang Temple to demand the fine fruits. Local tycoons, ruffians, and hooligans also often came to the temple to ask for the fruits, greatly annoying the monks. To preserve the tranquility of the temple, the monks angrily cut down the precious old Zuili trees.

　　 At that time, Li Quanshi, a renowned physician from Qicheng in Xinzhuang, learned of the news and hurried to the temple. Fortunately, a few small trees had not been chopped down. Li Quanshi, who was a good friend of the temple’s abbot, explained to him that he wanted to take a few of the small trees to plant by Longhu Lake. The abbot readily agreed. And so, the famous Zuili variety from Jingxiang Temple was preserved and transplanted to the shores of Longhu Lake in Qicheng Village, Xinzhuang.

　　 After three generations of careful cultivation by the Li family, the Longhu Zuili had grown into an orchard with over two hundred mature trees. The Zuili trees were uniquely shaped, with gnarled trunks as majestic as thousand-year-old plum trees. Every April when the flowers bloomed, the area would be covered in glistening white blossoms exuding a faint fragrance, attracting swarms of bees and butterflies. Literary figures from Jiahe were often invited to admire the flowers and would frequently be inspired to compose poetry in praise. Especially during the fruit-ripening season, crowds would flock to the site to taste the fruit, compose poems, and create paintings to document the event. They even published a collection called Longhu Zuili Ci (Poems of Longhu Zuili), which became widely circulated. In the 29th year of the Guangxu Emperor’s reign (1903), Li Quanshi’s great-grandson, Li Huanzhang, reprinted Longhu Zuili Ci. The famous scholar Yu Yue gladly contributed a poem to it, including the lines “Bought from the temple, almost priceless; moved to your home, a gesture full of feeling,” praising the Li family for preserving the renowned Jingxiang Zuili variety. “Longhu Zuili” became famous across Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou. Yu Yue must have tasted the exquisite fruit and been enchanted by its deliciousness, inspiring him to write such affectionate verse.

　　 During the War of Resistance, a tragic event occurred—the over two hundred Zuili trees in the Longhu Zuili Orchard of Qicheng were cut down by the Wang puppet army for firewood to cook and keep warm. This was another major catastrophe following the painful decision by the monks of Jingxiang Temple to cut down their Zuili trees. The two-thousand-year-old home of this famous fruit was nearly severed at its roots. Fortunately, a relative of the Li family had secretly clipped a few branches from the orchard and managed to grow a dozen or so saplings, unexpectedly preserving the true variety of this famous fruit. Later, these dozen or so saplings were scattered and planted across the countryside of Xinzhuang and remained largely unknown. It wasn’t until the 1980s that Zuili, the famous fruit, showed signs of revival, with new batches being cultivated in areas like Zhulin and Xinzhuang. Recently, after ten years of cultivation, local fruit farmer Lu Jianmin from Sanxing Village in Fengqiao finally achieved initial success. His “Luyuan Zuili” is of exceptional quality and has begun to gain recognition. It is very possible that, following Qicheng’s “Longhu Zuili,” it will once again bring the Jiaxing-famous Zuili fruit back to its enchanting glory.