Rebirth 1977 Great Era

Chapter 248 Medicinal Diet from the Eastern Han Dynasty (3K)

The word "authentic".

"Dao" was an administrative unit in ancient China equivalent to the modern province level.

"Di" refers to geography, zone, topography, and landform.

The emphasis on origin of Chinese medicine can be traced back to the Eastern Han Dynasty.

The Shennong Herbal Classic states: "Medicines are derived from the land, and their authenticity and freshness are determined..."

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Tao Hongjing said in his Annotations to the Classic of Materia Medica: "All medicines have their own realms."

By the Tang Dynasty, the understanding and application of medicinal materials had become more in-depth, and the "Newly Revised Materia Medica" emphasized the differences in the origins of medicinal materials.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, special data on "authentic medicinal materials" officially appeared in herbal medicine and literary works.

In the Ming Dynasty's official herbal medicine "Compendium of Materia Medica", an entry for "authentic" is listed under the name of each medicine, introducing the origin of the medicine and emphasizing the importance of authenticity.

The local environment and climate determine the local people. The medicinal properties of Chinese medicine vary greatly when grown in different environments.

For example, if ginseng from Northeast China is planted in Hainan, it can grow as thick as radish, but its medicinal value is almost gone.

This is just like the saying "Oranges grown in the south of the Huai River are oranges, while those grown in the north of the Huai River are tangerines."

When the Astragalus root from the north is transplanted to the banks of the Yangtze River, the root that originally had its roots downward will grow into the shape of chicken claws.

In addition to the growing area, the picking time is also important.

"Artemisia capillaris in March and Artemisia argyi in April are cut down in May and used as firewood." If the picking time is not correct, the quality of the medicinal materials will be seriously deteriorated.

For example, the growth period of chrysanthemum and Panax notoginseng is five to six years, and their medicinal properties will be greatly lost if they are picked prematurely.

Finally, the authentic medicinal materials must be prepared according to the method.

For example, the sliced ​​and dried raw aconite has the effect of breaking ice and cold, restoring yang and rescuing from adverse conditions.

The effect of roasting and simmering Tianxiong in hot soil is to restore yang and warm the body, which is warm and powerful.

When boiled together with licorice, gardenia, etc., the dried aconite root is made into a piece of dried aconite, which has the effect of warming and nourishing the kidney yang.

The Heishun tablets that have been soaked in bile have the effects of warming the yang, dispersing the cold, and restoring the yang and invigorating the pulse.

In addition, there are also similar preparation methods for Pinellia ternata, such as raw Pinellia ternata, French Pinellia ternata, clear Pinellia ternata, and water Pinellia ternata. Different preparation methods have different effects.

When Fangyan first entered college in his previous life, his teacher told him a story about authentic medicinal materials.

When Wu Jutong, a famous doctor in the Qing Dynasty, was treating patients with edema, he found that his prescription was clearly effective, but it was not very curative. After examination, he found that it was because the quality of the cinnamon twigs in the prescription was problematic.

Finally, he bought cinnamon twigs from Lingnan and had the patient take the same medicine again. As expected, the effect was as good as a drum and the patient recovered quickly.

This shows how huge the difference is between authentic medicinal materials and general medicinal materials.

After he started working, he often heard his colleagues say the classic phrase: "If the source of the medicine is unknown, the treatment will not work."

You can also see some people who have taught themselves Chinese medicine and bought medicinal materials online. After working hard for a long time, they found that they never worked. In the end, they discovered that they were greedy for cheap herbs and only bought the cheapest ones online. The quality was quite poor, and they bought all the rotten, broken, dead, and leftover ones.

This statement is also further confirmed by the fact that the source of the medicine is indeed unknown and the treatment method is ineffective.

There are many time-honored brands in the capital, and the sources of various authentic medicinal materials are quite reliable these days. The ginseng that Fangyan bought must be from a source that is not adulterated.

The price of consumer-grade Changbai Mountain ginseng is not expensive, and Fangyan can afford to buy it to occasionally stew black chicken soup.

When he arrived at the vegetable market, Fangyan selected two black chickens, a male and a female, and bought some other ingredients. Then he rode his bike home.

When I got home, I started killing chickens and making medicinal food.

Black chicken actually doesn't have much meat, its main purpose is to be used for its medicinal value.

The "Compendium of Materia Medica" mentions: "Chicken is a yang bird, belonging to the wood element and responding to the wind; in the hexagram, it is Xun, and its colors are red, white, yellow, and black. None of them is as good as the white hair and black bones, emerald ears and golden chest, which are the best."

The Qing Dynasty's "Compendium of Materia Medica" records: "Chicken belongs to the wood element, while black-bone chickens belong to the water element. They have the essence of water and wood, so they can benefit the liver and kidneys, reduce fever and replenish deficiency, and treat fatigue and thirst. Males are used for men and males for women."

Black chicken stewed with ginseng is a very authentic medicinal food.

The famous doctor Hua Tuo also has a story about it.

According to legend, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, Hua Tuo was studying and practicing medicine in Xuzhou. One day, his cousin suddenly brought Hua Tuo's mother to Xuzhou to find him.

Upon asking, I found out that Hua Tuo's mother was seriously ill at home and wanted to see her son for the last time.

After Hua Tuo took his mother's pulse, he found that it was slow and weak, so he immediately used ginseng soup to treat her, and her condition improved a lot afterwards.

But it did not last long, as Hua Tuo's mother became seriously ill again, and this time Hua Tuo was unable to treat her. Finally, his mother wanted Hua Tuo to send her back home with the idea of ​​"returning to one's roots".

However, Hua Tuo had too many patients and he couldn't get away, so he had to ask his cousin to help send them back.

After Hua Tuo finished treating the patients in Xuzhou, he immediately set out to return to attend the funeral.

But when I returned home, I found that my mother's condition had improved.

After examining his mother's body, he was very surprised, so he asked his cousin who had saved his mother.

Even the disease that I couldn't cure was cured by someone else.

My cousin said that in fact no one helped to rescue them. It was just that on the way home, when they stayed in a small village one night, Hua Tuo's mother suddenly said that she wanted to drink some chicken soup. However, only one of the nine households in the village raised roosters, and the rest of the households were reluctant to sell their hens.

So the cousin took a lot of effort to buy the rooster from that family. That night, he mixed the remaining ginseng with other medicinal herbs and stewed the rooster. After drinking the soup, he took a nap. Unexpectedly, when Hua Tuo's mother woke up the next morning, she felt much more energetic.

After returning home, I felt better and better, and recovered day by day.

After hearing this, Hua Tuo immediately asked what kind of rooster they had bought. His cousin replied that it had white feathers, black skin, and black meat.

So Hua Tuo found a similar chicken and bought it, then stewed it with ginseng and gave it to his mother. After a few days, his mother's illness was cured.

Later, Hua Tuo used this medicinal food to treat many patients with similar diseases. He named the soup "Jiuhu Chicken Soup" and recorded it in the "Qing Nang Jing".

Although the medical book was lost, this medicinal diet recipe was so famous that it was passed down from the Eastern Han Dynasty.

……

After slaughtering the black chicken, remove the feathers, claws, head and internal organs, then put the chicken legs into the stomach and blanch them in cold water.

During this time, use the warm water in the bottle to wash the ginseng, and then prepare the slices of green onion and ginger.

Use a large casserole and put the two blanched chickens into the casserole.

Be sure to add hot water at this time to prevent the chicken from becoming tough after blanching.

Then add the scallion and ginger slices and start stewing over high heat.

After boiling for a while and when chopsticks can be inserted into the chicken, add ginseng and start simmering on low heat.

After a while, the fragrance of ginseng and black chicken came out.

Next, Fangyan cleaned the chicken's innards at the faucet. The innards of two chickens were enough to make a plate of fried chicken offal.

Chicken gizzard, also called chicken gizzard, is actually the chicken's stomach.

The yellow inner layer inside, after peeling it off, wash it clean, and then dry it, is the traditional Chinese medicine chicken gizzard lining.

It can be used to strengthen the stomach and aid digestion, relieve stranguria and dissolve stones, and stop nocturnal emission.

It can also be used to treat children's indigestion and malnutrition.

It was first recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica.

……

Chicken offal needs to be stir-fried and eaten while hot, so Fangyan plans to do it last.

Then he made a few other dishes.

When the people outside started to finish work, Fangyan gave them a circle of cigarettes and then saw the workers out the door.

The more gifts you give, the less blame you will get, even if you have been paid.

But Fangyan was not stingy with cigarettes, tea leaves, and boiled water.

There was a faucet in the front yard, so Fangyan got them a coal stove and a kettle to boil water for tea.

In addition, the tea is jasmine tea, and it is not high in foam or powder, but normal first-class quality.

As for cigarettes, the dialect means to send them out when you see them.

A large bag can be given out every day.

These days you still need a ticket to buy cigarettes. Smokers don’t have enough tickets for a month, so they have to buy them on the black market.

For example, if you want to buy my father-in-law’s cigarette coupons, you need to buy them from other colleagues.

So most people can only smoke handmade cigarettes that they roll themselves, or smoke leaf tobacco.

Fangyan was able to get cigarettes for them to smoke, which made the workers praise him highly.

The purpose of doing this is to let them pay more attention to the craftsmanship.

In my previous life, I heard that you shouldn’t be too nice to workers, otherwise they will mess with you.

It's different these days. The dialect is good to them. They work with empathy and do their work very carefully.

At least for now it seems that the cigarettes and tea leaves that Fangyan sent out were not wasted.

After seeing off the workers who were off work, people at home started to return one after another.

The first one to come back was my wife. As she is still an intern, she will not leave work until a certain time unless there is something special. Then came my mother and mother-in-law. They both came back at about the same time.

The Institute of Health is right next to the Union Hospital, and sometimes my mother-in-law comes back before me.

Then came the two professors who came by bus.

Daddy should bring the new little girl here today, so this dinner tonight is not only to nourish my brother, but also to celebrate the addition of a new member to the Fang family.

Speaking of which, the name my dad gave to the little girl today was really a bit hasty.

It was named Fang Xia because it was summer when it was picked up.

If it was a boy, he would probably be named Fang Xie because he was picked up at the gate of Union Hospital.

I was very dissatisfied with this, but I couldn't find a good name at the moment, so I accepted it for the time being.

When Zhu Lin came back, he saw Fang Yan was already busy in the kitchen, so he immediately joined in.

Fangyan of course wanted to give his wife a chance to grow, so he immediately told her that there were still some cold dishes to be prepared.

Just let her do it. The queen was satisfied after hearing this.

Fangyan was also very satisfied with this. See, his praise had taken effect, and now the queen had no choice but to work.

After a while, the father-in-law and Fang Xia's father also came.

As soon as he entered the room, Professor Zhu exclaimed:
"Wow, what's this delicious stew? Is Fangyan coming up with a new dish?"

The dialect responded:
"This is an old medicinal food from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Hua Tuo's selection, Jiuhu Chicken Soup."

Hearing Fangyan's words, the father-in-law's eyes lit up:
"Medicinal food handed down from the Eastern Han Dynasty?"

"Then I have to come over and pay my respects!"

As he said that, he came to the kitchen.

When he opened the lid and saw the black chicken soup and ginseng soup bubbling in the casserole, my father-in-law was almost dizzy from the aroma.

He asked in surprise:

"Linlin's mom has also made this soup, but why isn't it as fragrant as yours?"

Fangyan smiled and said, "This local would stew a male and a female black-bone chicken. How could it not taste delicious?"

(End of this chapter)