Half-month talk on Chinese medicine | Pepper

· Interesting stories ·

The tentacles of traditional Chinese medicine have penetrated into every aspect of Chinese people's lives.

In history, there was a Chinese herbal medicine that was as precious as gold, which made a corrupt official crazy about it. That was "pepper", which was known as black gold! Poems such as "Tian's family had 3,000 guests, and Yuan's family had 800 hu of pepper" (Bai Yuchan's "Zhizuxuan" in the Song Dynasty), "800 hu of pepper after death, you are both laughable and pitiful" (Zhao Bingwen's "Ti Dongpo and Foyin Tie" in the Jin Dynasty), "Yuan Zai was executed, and 800 hu of pepper" (Huang Jie's "Reading Tang History·Part 4" in the Yuan Dynasty) all point to the precious pepper and this corrupt official in history.

Yuan Zai, prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, is one of the four most corrupt officials in history (Yuan Zai of Tang, Cai Jing of Song, Yan Song of Ming, and Heshen of Qing).

Yuan Zai, courtesy name Gongfu, was born in poverty but eventually rose to the position of prime minister, presiding over the chaotic Tang Dynasty for 15 years and becoming an influential minister in the reigns of Emperor Suzong Li Heng and Emperor Daizong Li Yu. With power second only to one person and above millions of people, his personal desires expanded to an extreme degree and he became extremely corrupt.

On March 28, 777, Emperor Daizong of Tang ordered the arrest of Yuan Zai in front of court officials and confiscated his property. The next day, Yuan Zai and his family were beheaded in public. Yuan Zai built many houses in Chang'an. When his house was searched, gold, silver, jewelry, diamonds, agates, antiques and curios were confiscated. The most amazing and unbelievable thing was that there were 800 stones of pepper (New Book of Tang, Volume 145, Biography No. 70: "When his house was confiscated, ······800 stones of pepper were confiscated.").

According to the bronze weight of the first year of Wude, which is now in the collection of the Museum of Chinese History, it can be calculated that one stone of pepper in the Tang Dynasty is equivalent to 79,320 grams today, nearly 80 kilograms. The 800 stones of pepper that Yuan Zai greedily took were equivalent to 64 tons.

When Yuan Zai came to the end of his life, the executioner did not want to hear his dying cry, so he took off his smelly socks and stuffed them into his mouth. Luo Dajing of the Song Dynasty used the two lines of poetry "Smelly socks must be used to stuff his mouth, and eight hundred bushels of pepper were collected in vain" to summarize this domineering minister.

Why did he embezzle pepper? Because pepper was extremely precious at that time, its value was equivalent to hard currency, and storing pepper was equivalent to storing money. Therefore, corruption in pepper has also been a trend in history. Qian Ning, a treacherous minister in the Ming Dynasty, was a close eunuch of Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao. According to the "Records of Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty", Qian Ning's corruption included "3,500 stones of pepper, 30 dan of fragrant pepper, 72 dan of sumac, and two pots of agarwood" in addition to numerous gold, silver and jewelry.

From the 800 dan of pepper produced by Yuan Zai in the Tang Dynasty to the 3,500 dan of pepper produced by Qian Ning in the Ming Dynasty, it also reflects the large amount of pepper imported from overseas in history. Looking back at the Silk Road that connected the East and the West in the Tang Dynasty, camels carrying silk to the west and camels carrying pepper to the east may have passed by each other on this trade route. In the Song and Yuan Dynasties and after, pepper was mainly imported into China by sea.

Pepper is a typical tropical plant, belonging to the woody vine. The pepper used by Chinese people has always been an imported product. The pepper you see in abundance in Hainan and other places today has a history of less than a hundred years of being introduced from abroad.

Peppercorns are both edible and medicinal. In cold weather, a bowl of spicy soup warms the whole body. The most prominent flavor of peppercorns is what ordinary people call spicy. Chinese medicine believes that peppercorns are pungent and hot, and they are classified as warming medicines. Ordinary people are also familiar with their ability to warm the stomach and dispel cold, relieve gas and eliminate phlegm, and stimulate appetite.

Making the best use of things, using things in moderation, and not being greedy are the treasures. These things are surprisingly in line with what we are saying when using pepper.

Li Shizhen recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica that he had been fond of eating pepper since he was a child, and suffered from eye disease every year. He did not suspect that it was caused by excessive consumption of pepper before, but later he gradually realized that this was the disadvantage of pepper - "eating too much pepper will cause eye disease". So he made up his mind to change his preference for pepper, and his eye disease was cured.

· Source of medicinal materials ·

The dried nearly mature or mature fruit of the pepper plant of the Piperaceae family. Black and white pepper come from the same plant: the fruit is harvested when it is dark green from late autumn to early spring and dried in the sun to become black pepper; the fruit is harvested when it turns red, soaked in water for several days, the pulp is wiped off, and dried in the sun to become white pepper.

· Nature and flavor ·

Pungent in taste, hot in nature. Enters the stomach and large intestine meridians.

· Efficacy and indications·

Warms the middle and dispels cold, relieves qi, and eliminates phlegm.

It is suitable for vomiting due to stomach cold, abdominal pain and diarrhea, loss of appetite, epilepsy and excessive sputum.

· Usage and Dosage·

Oral administration: 0.6-1.5g, grind into powder and swallow, or make into pills, powders, etc. External use: appropriate amount.

· Diet therapy recommendation ·

Pepper Beef Soup

Ingredients: About 800 grams of beef, preferably fat and lean.

Seasoning: 15 grams of pepper, 10 grams of star anise, and appropriate amount of salt.

Method: Remove the fascia from the beef, wash it, and cut it into large pieces. Put the beef pieces into a pot, boil it over high heat, and remove the foam. Then simmer it over low heat for about 2 hours, add pepper, star anise, and salt to taste, and you can eat the meat and drink the soup.

Usage: Can be eaten frequently as a side dish.

Efficacy: This pepper beef soup is a good meat with warming and tonic effects. It is especially suitable for people with weak constitutions, especially for tonic in cold seasons. Beef itself is rich in nutrition, and pepper can warm the middle and dispel cold, regulate qi and harmonize the stomach. It is more suitable for people with cold stagnation in the spleen and stomach, such as cold pain in the abdomen, poor appetite and vomiting, or cold body and limbs, and indigestion.

· Kind tips·

Pepper is hot in nature. Eating too much pepper can easily cause hemorrhoids, tooth or throat pain, or dizziness. People with yin deficiency and internal heat should use it with caution.