chinese cultural history

Sep

2018

The Auspicious Gingko, Past and Present

Gingko tree in my neighborhood. Fall 2016. Photo© Wendy Brown, Lic. Ac.

Gingko tree in my neighborhood. Photo© Wendy Brown, Lic. Ac.

Until the Song dynasty [960-1279 AD] the Chinese name for Ginkgo was ‘duck foot’ 鴨腳, referring to the shape of its leaves. The kernel was called ‘duck foot seed’ 鴨腳子, which was changed to ‘Silver Apricot’ 銀杏 for the purpose of its presentation to the Imperial ruler. It was determined that ‘Silver’ was auspicious and that ‘Duck Foot’ was not. During the Ming period [1368-1644] the term for the shell-like sclerotesta and inner parts was ‘Silver Fruit’ 銀果 or Yin Guo, and White Fruit 白果, Bai Guo, which remains Ginkgo’s name in China and in Chinese medicine today.

Gingko Seeds • Photo© Wendy Brown

Pictured, are a few fetid-smelling, squishy, picture-perfect Ginkgo berries I collected from a female tree during the second week of December of 2014. The nuts have a slightly poisonous quality and thus, should not be taken in large quantities or for prolonged periods of time. The medicinal nature of Bai Guo astringes, stabilizes and binds, treating Lung and Kidney with sweet, bitter, astringent, and neutral properties. In Chinese medicine, Ginkgo is helpful in nourishing cognitive and nervous system disorders, while calming Shen and nourishing Jing.

Wellness and Best Wishes to All

May

2015

Barefoot Doctors of Rural China

The name barefoot doctor refers to farmers who would work barefoot in the rice paddies, and who, along with an idealistic young population instituted by Mao Zedong, brought rudimentary health care to Chinese living in the countryside. With only basic medical and pharmacological training, the grass-roots healthcare movement was able to tend to common illnesses, offer preventive health care, promote family planning, and basic hygiene. Over the past six decades, China has been experimenting with radically different forms of healthcare for the best ways to administer healthcare to its ever-sizable population.

Apr

2014

Some Historical Perspective on Food and Its Preparation

The history of Chinese cooking goes deep into history and is marked by both variety and change. The archeologist and scholar Zhāng Guāngzhí says “Chinese people are especially preoccupied with food,” and “food is at the center of, or at least it accompanies or symbolizes, many social interactions.” Over the course of history, he says, “continuity vastly outweighs change.” He explains basic organizing principles which go back to earliest times and give a continuity to the food tradition, principally that a normal meal is made up of fan [grains and other starches] and cai [vegetable dishes].

Chinese perspective on food and its preparation has evolved gradually over the centuries as new food sources and techniques have been introduced, discovered, or invented. Although many of the most important characteristics appeared very early, others did not appear or did not become important until relatively late. The first chopsticks, for instance, were probably used for cooking, stirring the fire, and serving bits of food and were not initially used as eating utensils. They began to take on this role during the Han dynasty, but it was not until the Ming that they became ubiquitous for both serving and eating. It was not until the Ming dynasty also that chopsticks acquired their present name [kuàizi 筷子] and their present shape. The wok may also have been introduced during the Han dynasty, but again its initial use was limited to drying grains. Its present use of stir-frying, as well as boiling, steaming, roasting, and deep-frying, and did not develop until the Ming dynasty.

Zhāng Guāngzhí 張光直 [1931–2001], Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological & Historical Perspectives, Yale University Press, 1977. [pg. 15–20]