Botanicon Sinicum: notes on Chinese botany from native and Western sources. Part 3, Botanical investigations into the materia medica of the ancient Chinese / [E. Bretschneider].

Emil Bretschneider

Date:: 1895

Credit: Botanicon Sinicum: notes on Chinese botany from native and Western sources. Part 3, Botanical investigations into the materia medica of the ancient Chinese / [E. Bretschneider]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$ami dried in the sun. The mountain people make a preserve of it for sale which is very sweet and pleasant. They gather also the young plants to use them for food. It is a very palatable dish ; they call it Ifl pi ts‘ai. Li Shi-chen :—The huang tsiug grows wild in the mountains. It is also cultivated. Its leaves resemble bam- boo-leaves but are not pointed. They are arranged in a whorl from three to five around the joints of the stem. The root grows in a horizontal direction, resembles that of the wet jui. The people gather the plant (stem and leaves) to use it for food. The bitter taste disappears after macerating and cooking. This is the lp£ fff ^ pi kuan ts‘ai (pencil-holder vegetable). The Po wu-ehi [3rd cent.] relates the following legend :—Emperor Huang Ti once asked one of his sages whether he knew a plant which when eaten gives im- mortality. The sage replied : There is the plant of the great male (or bright) principle (^ |^) which is called w huang tsing (yellow ethereal essence). When eaten it pro- longs life. There is also the plant of the great female (or dark) principle (>{Cp§i) which is called ${ij kou wen. When it enters the mouth, it kills man. The huang tsing is also called chhii chu (beads hanging down), which name refers to its drooping flowers and berries. An author of the lGtli ceuturv states that its root resembles young ginger, whence the popular name jgjf Ak ye sheng kiang (wild ginger). 1?y partly steaming and drying it is prepared for food and used as a substitute for corn. Another name is mi pu. Kiu huang [LIII, 2] and Ch. [VIII, 13--21, also X, 43] sub huang tsing, representations of various species of Polygonal am. The above Chinese descriptions of the huang tsing agree in a general way. 6$