Chapter 16 Going to Kuanjie Chinese Medicine Hospital

The old man continued to explain:

“In theory, cornmeal is indeed yellow. It is made from high-quality corn kernels ground into powder, which is then sifted several times to remove coarse particles. Then some wheat flour is added to it, making it look delicate and soft. The steamed pancakes made from it are especially delicious.

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

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

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

In fact, what Lin Sanqi didn't know was that corn cobs were ground into flour as early as 2013, but that was used to feed pigs and was not for human consumption.

A middle-aged woman also laughed and said:

"Corn cobs are not only good for burning firewood, they can also help keep you hungry. Just look at what used to be a pound of cornmeal. Now we can exchange it for four pounds of cornmeal, enough for the family to eat for two days. These days, 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 were in this era, it would be best to ask some common sense:

"So, what kind of grains are considered coarse grains?"

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 a coarse grain, like sweet potatoes, beans, pumpkin, cornmeal, sorghum rice. To sum it up, they're all unpalatable and hard to swallow."

Lin Sanqi thought, these ingredients will become health-preserving foods in the future. Feng shui really does change.

An old lady added:

"If there's really not enough to eat, go to the suburbs and dig up wild vegetables, like locust flowers, elm leaves, radish tops, and cabbage roots. These are all edible, but there's no Guanyin soil. We don't even produce that stuff in this city."

Hehehe~~~

Everyone around started laughing, obviously trying to find joy 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 that 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" written on it, and a bundle of food coupons.

"Qizi, look, this is what you use to eat. After you're done, let your mom 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 coupons and studied them.

He had searched for food stamps on Baidu before. They looked like small RMB notes, beautifully printed, but 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 all over the country without fear.

Looking at these crude, unsophisticated food coupons, a sinister thought suddenly crossed Lin Sanqi's mind, one he couldn't suppress...

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 traditional Chinese medicine hospital after the founding of New China.

The institute 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 is 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 its scale 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 a state-owned institution.

(Private transactions are not allowed, and of course private clinics are not allowed)

However, having only doctors in the old 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 its best. So the central government issued a call for applications from all over the country, requiring each province to send a famous Chinese medicine doctor 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 came to the north to support the capital on the premise of the two families' willingness.

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

Except for Mr. Wang Fengchun who passed away in 1949, the other three were all admitted to Kuanjie Chinese Medicine Hospital.

The eight major schools of Traditional Chinese Medicine all have top-notch Chinese medicine practitioners in charge, and each of them is at the level of a "great master". 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 1959 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 their legacy for various reasons. In that era, either there was no one to teach or no one dared to learn, which is a great pity.

The discipline 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 Internal Classic".

Walk east from Daqudeng Hutong, turn left at the entrance 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 is always the busiest place.

Even in the most difficult period of 1959, 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. These are the doctors' clinics. Your father and eldest brother work here."

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

Judging from the clothes of these patients, some of them are wearing Zhongshan suits with pens pinned to their chests. They must 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. 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 was not short of money.

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

(End of this chapter)