A doctor who travels through two eras

Chapter 16 Going to Broad Street Chinese Medicine Hospital

The old man continued to explain:

“In theory, cornmeal is indeed yellow in color. It is made from high-quality corn kernels that are ground into powder. The coarse particles are sifted out several times, and then some wheat flour is added. It looks delicate and soft, and the steamed cakes made from it are especially delicious.

But that kind of cornmeal can only be considered a fine grain and is no longer available.

You see the color is wrong, this is because when the corn flour is processed, the corn kernels and corn cobs are ground into powder together, and it becomes like this, which is considered a coarse grain. "

Lin Sanqi was a little surprised: "Corn cobs? Aren't they used for burning fire?"

In fact, what Lin Sanqi didn't know was that corn cobs were ground into powder in 2023, but that was all for feeding pigs, not for human consumption.

A middle-aged woman also laughed and said:

"Corn cobs are not only good for burning firewood, but also for keeping hungry. You see, one pound of corn flour can now be exchanged for four pounds of corn flour, which is enough for the family to eat for two days. In this day and age, it's good to have something to eat. Who still expects to eat white flour buns?"

Lin Sanqi scratched his head, thinking that since we have come to this era, it would be best to ask some common sense about life:
"So, what kind of food is considered coarse food?"

The middle-aged and elderly people who came to buy food probably had nothing to do, so they were happy to tease this young man from the south, so the old man continued to popularize science:

"That's a lot to say. Besides rice and flour, everything else is considered coarse grains, such as sweet potatoes, beans, pumpkin, cornmeal, sorghum rice, etc. To sum it up, they all taste bad and are hard to swallow."

Lin Sanqi thought, these ingredients would become health-preserving foods in the future, this feng shui really is changing.

An old lady added:

"If there's really not enough to eat, go to the suburbs to dig wild vegetables, such as Sophora japonica flowers, elm leaves, radish tops, and cabbage roots. These are all edible, but there's no Guanyin soil. Our city doesn't produce this stuff."

Hehehe~~~
Everyone around started laughing, obviously trying to have fun in the midst of adversity.

Lin Sanqi also smiled foolishly, and when he smiled, all he could think about was the dazzling array of ingredients in the Dong'an Market in the morning and the greedy diners.

Jin Caifeng has already come out of the grain station.

When he came out, he was holding a red book with the words "Beijing City Urban Residents Food Supply Certificate" and a bundle of food coupons written on it.

"Qizi, look, this is what you use to make a living. After you're done, let your mother put it away for you. Without this food book, you'll really go hungry in the future."

Lin Sanqi took the grain book and looked at it, then picked up the grain coupon and began to study it.

He had searched for food stamps on Baidu before, and they looked like small RMB notes, beautifully printed. However, the food stamps from 1959 were very rough.

Not only is the paper rough, but the printing is also rough. This is probably due to the relatively backward printing technology of that era.

Food coupons were divided into national food coupons and local food coupons. Ordinary people like Lin Sanqi could only get local food coupons, which were not recognized in other areas outside the city.

If you have national food coupons, plus a letter of introduction and a work permit, you can travel across the country without fear.

Looking at this rough, unskilled food stamp, Lin Sanqi suddenly had an evil thought in his mind, and he couldn't suppress it...

The mother and son of the Lin family came out of the grain station and turned a few alleys before arriving home.

Jin Caifeng put down the meat and vegetables and led her son towards Kuanjie Chinese Medicine Hospital.

Kuanjie Chinese Medicine Hospital, its official name is Capital Chinese Medicine Hospital.

It is the first public professional TCM hospital after the founding of New China. The hospital is located in the back street of the Art Museum, which is located in the northeast corner outside the imperial city of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties and close to the imperial city.

The original site of Kuanjie Chinese Medicine Hospital was the Prince Cheng's Mansion of Emperor Kangxi's 24th son, Yunmi. You can imagine how grand it was.

When Kuanjie Chinese Medicine Hospital was first established, more than 30 famous doctors who ran private clinics in the city were gathered together and became employees of the state-owned institution.

(Private transactions are not allowed, and of course private clinics are not allowed)
However, the doctors in only one city could not reflect the importance of the first traditional Chinese medicine hospital in New China.

This was a model project, so we had to do it at least once, or we had to do it the best we could. So the central government issued a call for applications from all over the country, requiring each province to send famous Chinese medicine practitioners to work in the capital.

Lin Kucan was a famous typhoid doctor in Dongguan Province, and Li Jingming was a famous Chinese medicine orthopedic surgeon in Dongguan Province, so they were selected and, with the willingness of both families, came to the north to support the capital.

The four famous doctors in Peking are Shi Jinmo, Xiao Longyou, Kong Bohua and Wang Fengchun.

Except for Mr. Wang Fengchun who died of illness in 49, the other three all entered Kuanjie Chinese Medicine Hospital.

The eight major schools of TCM all have top-notch Chinese medicine practitioners in charge, and each of them is at the level of a "great master", and each Chinese medicine practitioner even has his or her own exclusive secret.

Let me put it this way: the technical strength and clinical level of Kuanjie Chinese Medicine Hospital during this period were absolutely "unprecedented".

The development of traditional Chinese medicine in the following decades also proved that the Kuanjie Chinese Medicine Hospital in 59 was also "unprecedented".

Because by the early 1980s, almost all of those famous Chinese medicine practitioners, masters with unique skills and secret recipes, had died.

The vast majority of famous old Chinese medicine practitioners were unable to leave behind a legacy for one reason or another. In that era, either there was no one to teach or no one dared to learn, which is a pity.

The subject of Traditional Chinese Medicine is not like Western medicine, which can be taught systematically.

If you don't have a master to guide you through Chinese medicine and don't have thousands of years of experience to support you, you will never be able to fully understand it by yourself with a copy of the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine.

Walk east from Daqudeng Hutong, turn left at the exit of the alley and you will reach Kuanjie Chinese Medicine Hospital.

Lin Sanqi followed his mother with curiosity and a tourist's mentality.

Walking to the entrance of the Chinese Medicine Hospital, Lin Sanqi discovered that no matter what era, the hospital was the busiest place.

Even in 1959, the most difficult period, the Kuanjie Chinese Medicine Hospital was still bustling with people coming and going.

Jin Caifeng introduced them to her youngest son one by one:

"Look, this is the pharmacy. From here is the acupuncture department where your second brother works. Let's go to the other side. This is where the doctors work. Your father and eldest brother work here."

Lin Sanqi walked along and found that the door of every clinic was surrounded by patients.

Looking at the clothes of these patients, some of them are wearing Zhongshan suits with a pen on their chests, they should be intellectuals of the new era;

Some of them are men wearing suits and women wearing cheongsams, and they are obviously old-school intellectuals or capitalists.

Don't doubt it, there were still capitalists at that time, and it was a public-private partnership. Although the capitalists before liberation did not participate in management, they still received dividends from equity, so this group of people were not short of money.

But the real ragged poor people seem to be rare...

(End of this chapter)