Chapter 349 350: Xu Changqing
After Zhou Huaian and the other person left, Yang Chunyan grabbed an appropriate amount of dried red pepper, Sichuan pepper, Sichuan pepper, and star anise and fried them until hot. She then poured in the salt and fried it until hot. Then she sifted out the star anise and asked Wan Xuejiao to pound it into powder using a pestle and mortar.
She went to the steps with salt and white wine, first smeared all the meat with wine, then rubbed the meat with salt to make it taste good.
After Wan Xuejiao pounded the powder, the two of them spread it evenly on the meat, rubbed it into the meat, and then carried it to the cave to marinate for two days before hanging it up to smoke the meat.
Zhou Huaian and his companion came back from the mountains, bringing some fried myrtle and a few pieces of Fritillaria cirrhosa and a few strings of Amomum villosum in their backpacks.
Yang Chunyan picked up the Amomum villosum and looked at it, then looked at him in surprise, "Where did you find it?"
Zhou Huaian pointed to the north and said, "Take the road we took up the mountain and turn north. There is a large area not far away."
"Let's go and harvest them, dry them, keep some for ourselves, and send the rest to Ning'an to sell." Yang Chunyan said as she went into the house to get a sickle.
Wan Xuejiao followed her into the house and said, "Sister-in-law, my family has planted a few of these plants. We call the flowers ginger taro flowers and the fruits grass bandits. We dry them and use them to make soup. Is this also a medicine?"
Yang Chunyan nodded. "People here call it grass bandit. Its flowers and fruits are both medicinal. My husband said that eating Amomum villosum soup is good for the spleen and stomach, but some people can't eat it."
After hearing this, Wan Xuejiao said, "It turns out that many of these things are medicines, but we just can't recognize them."
"Yes! Just like the Houttuynia cordata we dug, the wild vegetables we picked in spring, and the vegetables we usually eat, many of them have medicinal value."
“It’s amazing!”
The four of them carried their backpacks, closed the door and walked with the dog for half an hour before arriving at the place where Amomum villosum grew.
There is a large area of densely grown weeds on the slope. After digging it up and dividing it, each family can share some and plant half an acre of land.
Yang Chunyan said happily: "We have found another medicinal plant. We will go down the mountain and call my sister-in-law and the others to come up. We will dig some and plant some at home. It will be productive in less than two years."
Wan Xuejiao nodded, "Yes, ginger taro flowers are easy to grow. I planted a small patch and it grew into a large patch in just a few years."
Zhou Yiding smiled and said, "We can bring back gardenias, polygonatum, polygonatum, myrtle, and amomum to plant a few acres of land."
Seeing that they were all plants she was familiar with, Wan Xuejiao gained confidence in growing herbs. "I have never grown Polygonatum sibiricum before, but I think Gardenia and Amomum villosum are easy to grow. It will be beautiful just thinking about it when these bloom."
"Let's talk about it after the crops are grown." Zhou Yiding handed her the sickle, "Follow me, and be careful of the old shuttlecock in the grass cage."
Wan Xuejiao nodded happily, "I understand."
Amomum villosum is a perennial herbaceous plant of the Zingiberaceae family and the genus Cardamom, with a thick, brown-red rhizome. Its flowers can be used for ornamental purposes, and its fruits can be used for medicinal purposes, or as food or seasoning.
The Chinese medicine Amomum villosum is the dried fruit of Amomum villosum, which is warm in nature and spicy in taste. It has the effects of removing dampness and stimulating appetite, warming the spleen and stopping diarrhea, regulating qi and calming the fetus.
Amomum villosum flower, also known as spring sand flower, is the dried flower of Amomum villosum of the ginger family. It has the functions of removing dampness and stimulating appetite, warming the spleen and stopping diarrhea, regulating qi and calming the fetus.
The four of them worked until the sun went down before they finished harvesting the Amomum villosum. The three backpacks they brought were full, and Yang Chunyan even carried a large bundle.
After returning home, I heated up some cold meals and had some steamed buns to eat, then used vines to tie four or five bunches of Amomum villosum together and hung them on bamboo poles tied to the eaves of the steps to dry.
Zhou Huaian said to Zhou Yiding: "Let's go to the burned forest tomorrow morning and take a look. We won't go down the valley this time."
"Yes." Zhou Yiding said with a smile, "Do we go this way or that way?"
Zhou Huaian looked at Yang Chunyan and said, "We will go wherever your sister-in-law wants to go."
Yang Chunyan thought for a moment, "The tree ganoderma that we left in the forest last time should have grown a bit bigger. Let's go over here and take a look, and then come back to pick the asparagus seeds."
The two nodded in agreement, and Zhou Yiding said to Wan Xuejiao, "There is a big rock over there. We found a lot of old honey there last time."
Wan Xuejiao looked at him curiously, "Really? I want to see what a wild beehive looks like?"
Zhou Yiding smiled and shook his head. "You won't be able to see it tomorrow. After we emptied the beehive, there won't be honey combs until at least next year. I'll take you to see it next year."
Wan Xuejiao nodded, "We can watch it next year!"
After discussing it, they tied up the Amomum villosum and hung it up, then went to wash up and return to the house to rest.
The next morning, at daybreak, they got up, cooked and ate, then went out with dry food, three pieces of marinated bear meat, household items and the dog.
After walking for a while, Zhou Yiding pointed to the sparse woods ahead and said, "I walked diagonally through here last time and saved half an hour."
Zhou Huaian nodded, "Then let's go this way!"
The two dogs ran into the woods first, and the others followed and saw a few mushrooms that had just emerged. Wan Xuejiao ran over cheering, picked them up and put them in the basket.
Zhou Yiding smiled and patted her, "Poor kid, even a few leather strips are so happy."
Wan Xuejiao glared at him and said, "How many more? Can you pick up a few more for me to see?"
Zhou Yiding smiled and said, "I still don't believe it. Why don't you ask my sister-in-law if we were too lazy to pick it up when we saw it before?"
Yang Chunyan: "We were so busy collecting herbs before that we didn't pay attention to mushrooms. Sometimes we saw them already opening their umbrellas."
Wan Xuejiao: "There may be a lot of them. I have to look for them carefully."
"I'll help you look." Yang Chunyan also started to look seriously. When she saw the weeds in the bushes ahead that looked like willow leaves, she stopped and said, "Hey, Xu Changqing!"
Zhou Huaian and the others looked around but didn't see anyone. They were so scared that they grabbed her and asked, "Who is Xu Changqing? Where is he?"
Seeing his anxious look, Yang Chunyan couldn't help laughing and pointed at the weeds, "Xu Changqing is not a person, he's a herb, right there." After saying that, she couldn't help laughing.
Zhou Huaian patted his chest and said, "Oh my god, you scared us!"
Wan Xuejiao also nodded, "That's right, we thought..."
Zhou Yiding scratched his head and looked at the herbs in silence, "Why are they named after people?"
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "Its name was given by the emperor, so let's call it Xu Changqing!"
Wan Xuejiao pulled her curiously and said, "Sister-in-law, why did the emperor give herbs human names? Tell me about it."
Yang Chunyan recalled, "It is said that during the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin went out hunting and was accidentally bitten by a poisonous snake, and his condition became very serious.
The imperial physicians in the palace used many precious medicinal materials but were unable to cure the disease, so they had no choice but to post a notice to recruit talented doctors.
A folk doctor named Xu Changqing saw the notice and went to the palace to treat the emperor.
He took three liang of "snake dysentery grass" he had picked, boiled it, and had Li Shimin take it twice a day, and used the remaining part of the medicine to clean the affected area.
The condition improved the next day, and he recovered after taking the medicine for three days.
The emperor was so happy that he asked him what herbs he used.
Xu Changqing hesitated and dared not say anything, because the emperor issued an imperial decree after being bitten by a snake, that anything with the word "snake" should be avoided, and anyone who said anything with the word "snake" would be punished.
At that time, the name of this grass happened to contain the word "snake", so it was called "snake dysentery grass".
Seeing that he was hesitant and didn't dare to say anything, Prime Minister Wei Zheng, who was standing by, suddenly had an idea and asked him if this grass had no name yet.
Xu Changqing immediately understood what he meant and asked the emperor to give him a name.
To express his appreciation to the doctor, Li Shimin named the "snake dysentery grass" Xu Changqing.
The emperor's words spread the name of Xu Changqing, and few people knew its original name, "Snake Digestive Grass."
(End of this chapter)
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