Author: Laura Kiniry / Source: Atlas Obscura
In Suzhou, China, hundreds of ancient canals run parallel to the city’s streets, intersecting them beneath arched stone bridges. It’s what’s earned the city the nickname “Venice of the East.
” But Suzhou is also part of a larger area south of the Yangtze River, and is known by another moniker: “The Land of Fish and Rice.” “Neither fish nor rice can live without water,” says “Cathy” Chen, a Suzhou tour guide who was born and raised in the Yangtze River Region. “So Suzhou is a water city.”Suzhou owes its existence to these waterways, and particularly to the availability of fish. While fish gave life to Suzhou’s cuisine, it was also responsible for the death of the former king more than 2,500 years ago.
Back during ancient China’s Spring and Autumn Period (approximately 771 to 476 B.C.), Prince Guang of Wu wanted to usurp the throne of his uncle, King Liao. So he recruited an assassin named Zhuan Zhu for assistance. Knowing that his uncle was both a fan of seafood and not an easy target, Guang decided to disguise Zhuan Zhu as a chef. “Guang first sent the assassin to nearby Lake Taihu, where he spent three full months learning the art of cooking and dressing large lake fish,” says Chen. “The fish he prepared would then conceal a tiny sword in its innards.” That culinary process involved learning techniques such as smoking and roasting, as well as cleaning and filleting fish properly—which also gave the assassin the perfect opportunity to hide a weapon inside.
After King Liao won a skirmish against a neighboring state, Prince Guang offered to host a celebratory banquet for him. Liao accepted. “With appropriate fanfare, Zhuan Zhu brought the meal’s pièce de résistance to the table,” Chen says. By some accounts, a thick sauce covered the boned fish. It disguised the dagger that Zhu slipped inside, and instead called Liao’s attention to the fine dish’s presentation. “The assassin-chef quickly withdrew its hidden sword and stabbed Liao twice, fatally, before himself being killed by the king’s bodyguard,” Chen says. “Prince Guang’s own soldiers, hidden nearby, made quick work of Liao’s loyal guard.”
Following the assassination, Prince Guang seized the throne and became known as King Helü. “It was Helü who ordered that a new capital city be built for the Wu State,” says Stephen L. Koss, the author of Beautiful Su: A Social and Cultural History of Suzhou, China. “And thus in 514 B.C., the city of Suzhou was born.”
From there Suzhou developed as a cultural center, with cuisine as one of its main pillars (the others being Suzhou silk, gardens, and handicrafts). Lake Taihu—an 869-square-mile freshwater lake (China’s third-largest) that sits on the…
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