In "The Legend of the Archery Hero", there is a Liang Ziweng who digs ginseng in Liaodong. He was originally a tourist, who killed a predecessor, searched out a martial arts secret book and a dozen prescriptions, practiced martial arts in Changbai Mountain while collecting medicine, raising snakes to replenish his body, first-class leg techniques, and a wild fox fist that imitated the fox's predation posture in the snow, making a meridian bone nail dark weapon. "The Legend of the Archery Hero" is a matter of the Southern Song Dynasty, I always think, this brother in the Southern Song Dynasty ran to Changbai Mountain to dig ginseng as a tourist, how come he did not die?
Here's why. In the northern Song Dynasty, there was the rise and expansion of the Liao, and the northern Frontier was bordered by the present-day Jinhai River, Hebei Baxian County, and Shanxi Yanmen Pass. The main traditional ginseng producing areas such as the Northern Yanshan Mountains, Liaodong And Western Liaoning were all occupied by the Liao, and the Song had no choice but to obtain ginseng through trade, and it was impossible to send people to collect them themselves.
According to the Khitan Chronicle, Vol. 22, "Geographical Distance and Proximity to Neighboring Countries", "There are more than 10,000 households in the sub-southeast to the fifth section of the Jurchen dynasty. ...... The ginseng, white appendage, tiannanxing, poria, pine nuts, pigweed, white cloth and other substances produced are also camped by the Khitan Privy Council, and the Khitan or Bohai people are sent to charge and detain. Its land is more than 700 miles north and south, and more than 400 miles from east to west. Five hundred miles northwest to Tokyo. "The Jurchen history contains the "Tokyo", which is now Liaoyang. The range of the hundreds of miles described is the present-day Yalu River Basin, known historically as the Yalu River Jurchen or the Five Festivals of Jurchen (see Sun Jinji et al., History of The Jurchens, 1987). Obviously, the area where more than 10,000 households of the Jurchens of the Five Degrees of Maturity are distributed is the mountainous area of the southern system of the Changbai Mountains.
In 1125, Jin destroyed the Liao, and invaded the south, and in 1226, the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed. The Song Dynasty forces that retreated to the south continued to maintain their dominance, known historically as the Southern Song Dynasty. At this time, the main ginseng production areas were all lost, and the ginseng needed in the Southern Song Dynasty mainly relied on the sea route, and ginseng was imported by Goryeo at that time. Liang Ziweng, a Han Chinese, went to Changbai Mountain at this time to dig ginseng as a tourist, and was not killed by the Jin people, which was really fateful. And in the Southern Song Dynasty, it was obviously not cost-effective to dig up Liao ginseng, the risk was not to say, in the domestic market, it was not counted as a high product, and it could not be sold at a high price, so why bother.
Ginseng into medicine, began in the Warring States, prosperity, began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. In Xu Shen's "Explanation of Words and Characters", under this "薓" character, it is said: "薓, renfu, medicinal herbs, out of the party." This is the earliest record of ginseng in the literature. And it explicitly mentions that ginseng comes from the upper party. Shangdang, that is, Shangdang County. During the Warring States period, Han and Zhao each set up a county, and the county site was located in Huguan (present-day north of Changzhi City, Shanxi), and moved to Changzi (present-day Changzi West, Shanxi) to the Western Han Dynasty. The area under the jurisdiction of Shangdang County corresponded to the area south of present-day Heshun and Yushe in Shanxi Province, and east of the Qinshui River Basin. This area was renamed Luzhou during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
It was also during the Southern and Northern Dynasties that people discovered that there were also ginseng in Liaodong. During the Southern Dynasty Qi Liang, Tao Hongjing's medical treatise "Notes on the Materia Medica" recorded ginseng as follows: "Ginseng is slightly warm, non-toxic ... A divine herb, a human micro, an earth spirit, a blood ginseng, such as a humanoid person has a god. Born to the Party and Liaodong". Liaodong (辽東), the name of the county of Yan in the Warring States period, was located in Xiangping (present-day Liaoyang). During the Reign of Emperor An of the Eastern Han Dynasty, "it was divided into Liaodong. The two counties of western Liaoning were administered by the capital of the Liaodong state, and the administrative office was located in Changli (present-day Yi County), which corresponded to the middle and lower reaches of the Daling River in the western part of present-day Liaoning Province. During the Western Jin Dynasty, Liaodong was renamed liaoguo. At the end of the Sixteen Kingdoms of Later Yan, when it entered Northern Yan in Goguryeo, Liaodong Commandery was set up, with jurisdiction corresponding to the western part of present-day Liaoning Province. Obviously, the ancient so-called Liaodong and Liaodong ginseng (辽參) are fundamentally different from the concept of "Liaodong ginseng" called "Liaodong ginseng" by ginseng produced in the Changbai Mountains after the Qing Dynasty.
The Song Dynasty Tang Shenwei's "Historical Evidence Class Beiqiu Materia Medica" quotes Tao Hongjing's comment on ginseng: "Shangdang County is in the southwest of Jizhou, and the present Wei State is dedicated, long and yellow, shaped like a windproof, more moist and sweet. The common use is not obedient, but the baekje is heavy, the shape is thin and solid, and the smell is thinner than that of the shangdang. Secondary to Goryeo, Goryeo is Liaodong. Large and weak, not as big as Baekje. Baekje is now a vassal of Goryeo, and there are two kinds of goryeo offerings, which should be chosen. It is not as practical as the party, it is a medicine cut, and it also works with licorice, and it is easy to moth. However, the sealed head in the inner apparatus can not be damaged over the years. Ginseng grows a stem straight up, four or five leaves relatively raw, the flowers are purple, and the Koryo people are human counselors: 'Three trees and five leaves, the back of the sun is bright, want to come to me, linden trees look for each other. 'The leaves of the linden tree are very large, and the yin is wide, and it is more yin, and there is a method of harvesting. There are also mountains near this day, but they are not good. ”
Explain that in the concept at this time, Liaodong, that is, Baekje ginseng is not as effective as Shangdang ginseng, Korean ginseng is not as good as Baekje ginseng, and licorice is almost the same, but also easy to break, there are Shangdang ginseng who will use Goryeo ginseng, Liang Ziweng even if he runs to dig up Changbai Mountain wild ginseng, I am afraid he can't sell it, who will be stupid to this extent?
When did the use of Changbai Mountain Wild Ginseng begin to rise? After the Ming Dynasty. Li Shizhen in the "Compendium of Materia Medica" attaches great importance to the argument that "ginseng is born on the party and Liaodong", in the ginseng side, there are three places where the name of "Shangdang ginseng" appears, one of which is "Li Daibing's Hand Collection", which cures nausea and vomiting, vomiting in the mouth of the diet, being weak and weak, dying, using the party ginseng three big two beats broken, water a big liter, boiling four, hot clothes, day again. The second is the Yulu soup of "Miracle Cure", which uses three dollars each of the dang ginseng silver and Yinchuan chaihu, one jujube and three pieces of ginger, which are used to treat fatigue fever. The third is "Ten Poop Recipe", using one or two of the party ginseng, deer antlers peeled and fried for five dollars, for the end, each serving square inch dagger, the treatment of the elderly dysentery can not be, can not eat.
But at this time, the Shangdang ginseng has basically been dug up, "Shangdang, now Luzhou also." The people take ginseng as a local harm and do not take it again. Those who use it today are all Liao ginseng. Its three kingdoms, Goryeo, Baekje, and Silla, all belong to Korea today, and their participation in the Mutual Market of China. At this time, Liao Was again under the control of the Jurchens. According to the "Jurchen Horse City" record in the "History of the Jurchens", at the beginning of Yongle, the Ming Dynasty set up a horse market in Kaiyuan, and after the orthodoxy, another Fushun horse city was established.
By the beginning of the Wanli Calendar, the Jurchen tribes even "wished to take their sons as hostages" and asked the Ming Dynasty to open up border trade. The Ming court also decided to set up mutual market offices such as Qinghe, Kuandian, and Ruyang. But when the Jurchens discovered the economic value of Liao ginseng and Korean ginseng, the situation was different, relying on the ginseng trade, the annual profit of the eight flags reached 2.5 million taels, which was "rich and strong is not a day". This land of "no grain, no cloth" has become a powerful country.
Ginseng has great added value, strategic value, and is an important strategic resource, so the Jurchen Ministry is very strict in the management of Liao ginseng, let alone private procurement. In the early days, the flags subcontracted the mountain, and the flag owners could also collect their own ginseng, but the respective mountains were quickly hollowed out, and since then they have become more and more bureaucratic, through a series of institutions, the royal direct operation, the whole process of monitoring, the pro-nobles also have no right to buy and sell.
The Qing Dynasty regarded Changbai Mountain and its branches as the "land of longxing" and regarded the mountains as "sacred", in order to ensure that the wild ginseng in the Changbai Mountains could be supplied to the royal family for a long time, in order to prevent the depletion of ginseng resources, after seizing the world, the Eight Banners built a wicker edge and strictly prohibited immigration to the guanwai. The Changbai Mountains were once subjected to a "ban" policy; later, in order to tighten control, the "ticketing and participation system" and the "investment promotion system" were also implemented, until the fifteenth year of Qianlong (1750) set up the ginseng monopoly institution "Official Participation Bureau", and implemented various policies and systems for management and monopoly of ginseng.
But the management is not good, Liao ginseng is finally digging less and less, the price of ginseng is also soaring, Kangxi, ordinary people can still afford to eat, to the middle of the Qianlong, the price soared dozens of times, became the patent of large households. Ginseng has medicinal value, but it is not necessarily more magical than radish (ginseng and radish are close relatives), Ming Dynasty doctors rarely use it, the dosage is also very small, in the early Qing Dynasty, Kangxi did not take ginseng, when Cao Yin was ill, ask the royal family to give ginseng, Kangxi only gave a little, and reminded that ginseng should not be eaten indiscriminately, effective again. After that, the efficacy of ginseng gradually mythologized, the sick often ate several pounds, Qianlong in his later years with the amount of parameters is very amazing, an average of two and a half pounds a year to eat. The Qing Dynasty even formed the custom of letting the dying eat ginseng to "hang their lives" to complete the will. As a result, today, Liaodong wild ginseng is also rare to see.
Throughout the dynasties and dynasties that have used ginseng, Comrade Liang Ziweng cannot go to the edge of Changbai Mountain to dig up ginseng medicine and practice martial arts without trouble, and we must be careful with such comrades of unknown origin.