By Lisa Lim
鈥淓ating three hundred lychees every day, I would long live in Lingnan.鈥 The sentiment of Song dynasty poet Su Shi towards this popular summer fruit is echoed by many across Asia today.
From Hong Kong to Hanoi and Maoming to Muzaffarpur, mounds of dusty-pink lychees can be found in wet markets and on the sides of streets at this time of year.
Their thin leathery skin peels easily to reveal luscious translucent-white flesh that covers a shiny seed and has a heady floral flavour.
Native to southern China and northern Vietnam, lychees appear in historical records in China as far back as 200BC.
A 2022 report published in the scientific journal Nature Genetics used DNA sequencing to theorise that the first lychees appeared tens of thousands of years ago in what is today Yunnan province in southwest China.
From there, seeds travelled down the Xijiang and Pearl rivers to the Pearl River Delta, spreading into Guangdong province, Guangxi, Hainan Island and Vietnam.
The lychee was domesticated 鈥 twice 鈥 with distinct lineages in Hainan and Yunnan provinces, and has long flourished in Asia鈥檚 subtropical regions.
The fruit was taken to Jamaica and the US state of Florida in the 18th and 19th centuries.
During the Tang dynasty (618-907), Yang Guifei, the favourite consort of Emperor Xuanzong (685-762), developed an obsession with lychees.
This prompted the emperor to establish a horse-relay system to continuously transport lychees hundreds of kilometres from the south of the kingdom to the imperial court, at the greatest speed possible.
This act of indulgence is documented in the New Book of Tang 鈥 an official history of the Tang dynasty 鈥 and also in Du Mu鈥檚 famous poem Passing Huaqing Palace:
From Chang鈥檃n looking back at the brocaded city Lishan
The mountaintop鈥檚 many gates open one by one
An imperial rider kicks up red dust and the concubine smiles
No one else knows he comes to bring her lychee.
European travellers did not encounter lychees until later.
Spanish bishop, explorer and sinologist Juan Gonzalez de Mendoza is the first European known to describe the fruit, in his 1585 book The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China and the Situation Thereof, in which he wrote:
鈥淸T]hey haue a kinde of plummes, that they doo call lechias, that are of an exceeding gallant tast, and neuer hurteth any body, although they shoulde eate a great number of them.鈥
French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat scientifically described and named the lychee for the Western world in his 1782 book Voyage to the East Indies and China.
Litchi chinensis is the sole member of the genus Litchi in the soapberry family Sapindaceae.
Its appellation derives from its Chinese name 鑽旀灊. Pronounced laih j墨 in Cantonese, this is the source of its English pronunciation 鈥渓ie-chee鈥 鈥 unsurprising given the plant鈥檚 southern Chinese origins, as well as early Cantonese-speaking migration.
While the reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciation would have been lei t蓵ie (akin to 鈥渓ey-chee-eh鈥), modern-day Mandarin l矛 zh墨 supports the alternative English pronunciation 鈥渓ee-chee鈥.
English spelling variations in the 18th to 20th centuries included 鈥渓etchee鈥, 鈥渓ichee鈥, 鈥渓eechee鈥, 鈥渓i-chee鈥, settling on 鈥渓ychee鈥, with 鈥渓ichi鈥 and 鈥渓itchi鈥 as less common spelling variants.
An alternative name, 绂绘灊 meaning 鈥渓eaving the branch鈥, is suggested by Han dynasty writer Sima Xiangru (179BC-117BC) in the classic poem Shang-lin-fu, alluding to lychees鈥 swift deterioration once picked and the need for harvesting with stalks attached.
Wordplay makes the lychee an auspicious symbol in Chinese culture, a motif depicted widely in art and ceramics.
The first character is homophonous with 鍒 l矛 鈥渋ntelligent, sharp鈥, while 鑽旀灊 is a near-homophone of 鍒╁瓙 meaning 鈥渋nterest in money鈥 and 鈥渕ale heir鈥 鈥 paintings portraying lychees are a popular wedding gift.
Whether relishing lychee sodas in traditional Hong Kong-style cha chaan teng cafes or lychee martinis in trendy rooftop bars, delight in how one of the more popular of the 60 varieties of lychee bears the name Fei Tsu Hsiao 鈥 鈥渋mperial concubine鈥檚 smile鈥 鈥 and how this iconic fruit embodies the south, the summer and sumptuousness.