In the vast wilderness of my hometown, there is a kind of "mother grass" that holds up bunches of purple or white flowers in the early summer Japanese wind, as if calling for children from afar to come home. Township proverb: "There is 'mother grass' at home, and children run all over the yard." "Those of us who are far away from home are her children, and when we hear a soulful call, we all have to fly back to the familiar courtyard...
The big name of the mother's grass is "motherwort", which is a genus of lip-shaped, motherwort, annual or biennial herbaceous plants, early spring seedlings such as young artemisia, spring three or four feet long, stems and leaves such as jute, knots of spikes, clusters of stems. In April and May, small flowers bloom in the ears, reddish-purple, and there are also slightly whiters, and the leaves are beautiful, attracting butterflies to fly and dance among the flower ears.
Motherwort is mostly grown in mountain wilderness, fields, grasslands, commonly used Chinese herbal medicine, in early May when the flowers are not fully bloomed, raw or boiling paste. Its taste is bitter, spicy, slightly cold, and has the effect of activating blood and regulating menstruation, diuresis and swelling.
According to the "Compendium of Materia Medica", motherwort has the effect of "activating blood and breaking blood, regulating menstruation and detoxification", and treats "fetal leakage and difficulty in childbirth, fetal clothing, blood halo, blood wind, blood pain, leakage in the collapse, urinary blood diarrhea, dysentery and hemorrhoidal disease, punching internal damage and stasis, and urinary and urinary and urinary disorders" and other symptoms.
Motherwort is a "mother's" strong herb that exudes maternal charm from the outside to the inside. Its big name and small name alias, all have a maternal flavor, the ancient name of 蓷 (tuī), 茺 (chōng) 蔚, also known as Kun grass, mica grass, yimu artemisia, yimu ai, commonly known as lantern grass, wild tianma, nine floors, safflower ai, yimu flower, etc., like a gentle woman's fang name, its posture, its soft state, flashing the light of motherhood.
Looking at the family of motherwort, it is a "lip-shaped" family with feminine charm. Look closely at its flower spikes, reddish purple or pale white flowers like a pair of lightly open pink lips, as if to confide in you, and like a desire to rest, hiding the infinite feelings in the heart.
This plant first appeared in the first collection of poetry in the mainland, the Book of Poetry, Wang Feng Zhonggu Youli Yun:
Nakatani has a lotus, and hàn (暵) its dryness.
There are female servants (pǐ) away, sighing.
Sigh, meet people hard!
There are in the middle valley, and it is repaired.
Tiao Qixuan (xiào, ancient tong "whistle") 歗矣.
It's not unladylike to meet people!
Nakatani has a cocoon, and its wetness is wet.
There are women who leave, and they cry.
Sip its weeping, ho
This is a song of self-mourning and self-mourning by abandoned women, reflecting the living conditions of some lower-class women in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. "蓷" is the motherwort, and the whole poem rises from the drying of the motherwort, and the emotions are deepened layer by layer, expressing the pain and sigh of the abandoned woman's heart. Motherwort withered through the summer, only to lament for this lonely, displaced woman! This wave is like a wave of progressive helplessness, self-harm and self-mourning, how can people not think, how can they not be moved? The term "unladylike" comes from this.
Although "Beneficial Mother" is a symbol of abandoned women in the "Book of Poetry", it is actually a good medicine for invigorating the blood and regulating menstruation and curing gynecological diseases. Chen Xianzhang, a great Confucian of the Ming Dynasty, once wrote a poem "Motherwort", praising the many wonderful features of motherwort, which is called:
There are grass people who do not know, abandon it and so on.
When the time comes to see the envoy, the mouth is thunderous.
It is also not enough, and it is good for honey and pickles.
The living are nourished, and the dead have no fetus.
Qi huang opened the materia medica, and the people of Yuzha mourned.
A week of one thing, God's work is unthinkable.
A good name is admired, and Guangji is a true genius.
The poem says that this plant, which is unknown to people in the wilderness and is equivalent to basil weed, can cure many gynecological miscellaneous diseases after filtering honey, and has many divine abilities that Chinese herbal medicines cannot reach. The poet finally said that he highly respected the name of "beneficial mother", saying that it was the medicine of "beneficial mother" for women in guangji, which was really worthy of the name!
Because of its remarkable function, successive generations of literati often included it in important Chinese medicinal herbs and sang it. The Ming Dynasty scholar Hu Yu said in "Ten Songs of The Second Medicine Name of the Drama and the Sixth Song":
Earthworms knot into lilies, and sea sheep fights with snails.
Don't recognize Xia Kui as a beneficial mother, you must know that Xuancao relieves worries.
The poem lists the names of earthworms, lilies, sea sheep, snails, summer kuai, yimu, xuancao and other medicinal names, of which xia kui grass and motherwort are similar, but the efficacy is slightly different. The Southern Song Dynasty poet Yang Wanli wrote in the poem "Summer Solstice Rain Ji and Chen Lu Chang Twilight On the Creek":
The western mountain has been darkly separated from the golden plutonium, just like the eastern mountain.
The film time to make the mountain color, yellow and purple suddenly all blue.
It is said that the summer dry grass is collected during the summer solstice.
Because of its ability to adjust blood and tonify yin, motherwort was often used as a medicine for ordinary people to seek children and heirs in ancient times. Li Zhen, a Ming Dynasty official, went out to enjoy the scenery in the third month of the lunar calendar, and saw a cluster of beautiful mother flowers in Ruoxia, and he felt it:
Suddenly, spring will be twilight, and it will be the third of March.
Grass who pity the mother, flowers from the beauty of the male.
- "Scene on March 4th"
Spring is about to pass, the flowers are in full bloom, the farmers are going to harvest them as medicine, to feed the women in the family, and the poet seems to hear the bright laughter of the children in the purple flowers. Li Yuzuo, a great scholar of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, had an enlightenment book on battles, rhymes, and phrases, "Kasa Weng Pair Rhymes", which had the pair of "Yi Male Grass, Yi Mother Flower", which shows the importance of the position of Yi Mother Grass in ancient times.
Motherwort was written by Zhao Jinshu, a poet and physician in the Qing Dynasty, and its use was more extensive. He compiled a Materia Medica poem, which is easy to catch and tastes the truth, in which "Yimu" is written like this:
Fei Wei He is the name of the mother, and the female department is dedicated to self-differentiation.
The nipples are covered with carbuncles, and the surface is coated with thorns.
The production can be reduced quickly on time, and the adjustment can be carried out slowly after months.
If you still ask for heirs to take it regularly, the cotyledon flowers and roots and use the essence.
This poem describes the function of motherwort is relatively comprehensive, it can heal cradle carbuncle, can cure acne, can adjust the fertility of menstruation, women who want to have heirs need to take it often, and the whole herb is a usable material.
The combination of beneficial mother and angelica is more miraculous. Southern Song Dynasty official and poet Zhu Yi was ill for many years, and his health deteriorated, so he tried yimu and angelica conditioning, and achieved great results.
Many diseases have lamented premature aging over the years, and tried to rely on grass and trees to help the micro.
Care about how much the medicine wrap knows, and the elbow is written about right and wrong.
Zeng Ziding should pity his mother, and Cao Gongduan sent Angelica.
From now on, the face is shiny, and the flesh and qi are still full of old belts.
- "The Beneficial Mother And Angelica"
Two allusions are used in the poem, the Three Kingdoms Wu scholar Lu Jie's "Poetry Shu" said that in ancient times, he had consulted his mother Zhixiao, and the name of this grass was "Yimu", so it was said that "Zengzi saw Yimu and felt"; Cao Cao, a powerful minister of the Eastern Han Dynasty, sent a book to Taishi Ci to send Angelica in order to "return". After taking yimu and angelica to nourish the body, after a few months, the poet's face is rosy and shiny, and the qi and blood are full of energy.
Motherwort contains a variety of trace elements, can be antioxidant, anti-aging, anti-fatigue, as early as the Tang Dynasty, there is a motherwort-based, modulated beauty and beauty care techniques. Wu Zetian is the best at using motherwort to nourish her face, and among the beauty secret recipes developed for her by the imperial doctors, the most famous is the "Motherwort Ze Noodle Formula".
After the use of this formula, the skin will gradually lubricate and soften, the luster is bright, such as long-term use, women in their forties and fifties will be as young as sixteen-year-old girls. Because Wu Zetian has long used this secret recipe for beauty, she still maintains a beautiful appearance at the age of eighty, and it is no wonder that the New Book of Tang says that she "although she is high in spring and autumn, she is good at self-painting, although she does not understand its decline around her." This secret recipe of the court was widely circulated, first included in the pharmacopoeia "New Cultivation Materia Medica" organized by the Tang Dynasty government, and then reprinted by books such as "Near Effect Fang", and the "Outer Stage Secret Essentials" was transcribed from "Near Effect Fang", titled "Then the Great Saint Empress of Heaven Refining Mother Herb Left Beauty Fang", the Yuan Dynasty also had the name of "Immortal Jade Female Powder", the effect is good, has been followed to this day.
Small herbs are weak, and for "mothers" they are rigid. A motherwort that grows haphazardly in the wilderness, in the early summer lavender and wind, brings a little bit of beauty and warmth, full of tranquility and beauty of maternal brilliance!
-Author-
Liu Qirui, male, a native of Tancheng, Shandong, a veteran literature lover, published the essay collection "The Song of that year", "Nostalgia is a Curved Blue Moon" and the short story collection "Hedong Hexi".