中谷有蓷

　　毛诗品物图考辗转从好色那里传到我手上，简直高兴死了。随手点两下，‘参差荇菜’原来是西湖莼菜汤，然后就看到这个蓷是益母草。兴奋得不行，脑子里乱哄哄的，有许多杂七杂八的头绪。
　　总得来说，我不学无术，书哪个也没读通过。象毛诗品物这样，不说诗经里原来写什么，而是认真追究里面那些名目古怪的东东都是什么，实在太好了。当然这个图考肯定和我不是一个境界，人家是读完了，不需要多说那些众所周知的废话了。:(

　　这让我想起不久前和Denise胡扯益母草的事来，Denise太好了，她有一盒子植物图谱，旧书摊上掏的，在她家看得羡慕不已。谁想后来Sebastian再来，她刻了张盘带给我。真是好看啊,太好看了，每次翻两三张，到现在都没看完。
　　有趣的是名字也差不多，英文名是Motherwort.
　　那时扯到了屈大人的离骚，扯到这个也全不是因为文学修养，而是从端午的艾叶（也是修竹的贴图），然后说到潇洒的屈大人，然后说他的诗歌全是古代植物的记录。而且还居然找到了个屈大人的英文站点：Qu Yuan, 有英文版的酒歌，离骚，山鬼！光那些香草名就够让人翻得眼冒金星了，不一般啊。
　　Goergia说，你喜欢和老外讲中文常识，肯定是小学时语文没学好，所以现在特别有成就感。她说得太对了。:)

　　
　　
中谷有蓷
疑惑的是，这个仳离之女，遇人不淑，把益母草湿了晒，晒了湿，泪涟涟的，这些周朝的女子，在公元前1122-256，晒这些益母草，做什么呢？
也熬药喝吗？

Hi Denise, do you remember last time we talked about Qu Yuan?
Actually there are more poems about plants before Qu Yuan, very interesting. This picture is a explanation of the herb mentioned in one old poem, the motherwort. At that time, it is called Tui.
The poem collection is named Shi Jin, the folk songs collection of Zhou Dynasty (1122-256 BC, just after the bronze age)
In this short poem, an abandoned woman is weeping while working, drying the motherwort in sun. The herb goes wet again after dry, she's so sad. The peom said, sigh, poor woman, it's hard to meet a right gentleman.
Well, my translation is not so nice.
Sometimes you can get the exact same heart broken hurt from the old old poem. It's quite a magic. I will recommend an essay from Hao Se about another old poem, it is so nice. Em, maybe I will try to translate it later.
And also magic, we still see the same herb, the motherwort, although named differently.
I wonder, why she dried motherwort, use it as herb at that time?

　　
Heinrich Schroeder
© Nattermann （published in 1962）

Notes by Denise:
Leonurus cardiaca, Motherwort
Family: Lamiaceae
Drug: Herba Leonuri cardiacae (herb)

Use: Treatment of deseases of the central nervous system, heart and blood vessels

Motherwort

　　
修竹的益母草，修竹要是出本书就好了，出张碟更好，好当参考书。本来想把原来的帖子链上，可惜不知为什么打不开了。只好就这样盗用，看来要把修竹的每日课程都存下来才好。
对了，修竹最近捡了个非常漂亮的猫头鹰，看得我羡慕得不行，要也能捡个猫头鹰玩几天就好了。修竹的猫头鹰

Mr. Bamboo's motherwort
By the way, Mr. Bamboo recently pickup a wurded owl from forest, feed it until it comes well. Then set it back to nature. It is so cute. I'd like to meet such a owl...
see pictures in Mr. Bamboo's wild owl


参差荇菜
嗯，那个君子好逑的窈窕淑女原来做了一手好莼菜汤的说。:-D
Brasenia Schreberi Gmel.(Brasenia peltata Purtata;Brasenia purpurca Casp.)
Water-shield
This the mentioned in the other poem in that collection.
Sebastian has tasted the nice soup, remember?


西湖莼菜汤
The West Lake Chun Cai soup


总算搜到张不是汤的莼菜, :)
Before it becomes a nice soup. :)


--------------

　　errr.. actually i do not remember exactly.
　　but i DO remember that there was only one dish that seemed not quite fantastic to me, and that was something different (jellyfish).
　　:-)
　　(long nose smiley)
　　sebastian
　　(featuring a long nose)
评论人：dropin 评论日期：2004-12-9 22:48


　　 欧后～～原来那是莼菜！ 指那张自然图片。我一直以为是个荷叶浮萍的。
　　家里有本中草药实物彩色图谱，找出来了，3cm厚的小册子。
　　
　　那个好逑君子没准儿是个美食家也有可能的说。睹物思人， 一锅子端，充分验证 食色之说
评论人：linz 评论日期：2004-12-10 11:40


　　太好了，还有这本书！
　　
　　我也觉得莼菜看着很诡异，和汤完全两样。不过照片看不出到底多大
　　下次要把它拉起来看看。莼菜的主要特征是叶背面都是粘液
评论人：乱看 评论日期：2004-12-10 13:53


　　I just wrote a long comment about motherwort, water shield and owls, but then my browser broke down. :'(
　　Sorry, I have to go to work now. I try to catch my thoughts later.
　　
　　Denise
　　
评论人：dropin 评论日期：2004-12-10 17:23


　　Poor Denise.//comfirt
　　I hit such unlucky case before, too.
　　That's really annoying... I wish I could always remember to copy the content in text box before click submit, or write on a notepad first...
　　Frequently it is caused by the digit check code is timed out... :(
评论人：乱看 评论日期：2004-12-10 20:50


　　Hi, I'm back. Thanks for your comfort :)
　　Now I'm wiser, I write my comment in the text editor first befor transferring it to my browser.
　　
　　Yes, I remember our conversation about Qu Yuan very well. I like how he introduces herbs and flowers in his poems.
　　
　　It is amazing if motherwort was known in Zhou Dynasty already. Probably it was used in the same way as you describe it - e.g. treatment of women's problems,
　　strengthening of mothers after giving birth.
　　Perhaps the motherwort in the poem is an allegory for this woman's situation? (The herb was almost dry and usable but became wet again - the woman had a husband, but he left her...) Risky theory, but who knows..?
　　
　　Brasenia shreberi: in Europe it is used in garden ponds as a somehow rare and exotic water flower.
　　It has a funny German name: 'Froschblatt' (frog leaf). Here are pictures of the flowers:



　　Water Shield
　　Searching for its origine I found both North America and China. In ancient times it must have had a much wider range:
　　"World-wide, Brasenia schreberi subfossil remains show it to be far more widespread there than at present (Map: from Hultén 1961)."
　　(NYMPHAEALES)
　　
　　Mr. Bamboo's owl is so cute, it made me laugh when I first saw it. I like owls, they are beautiful and fascinating birds, somehow mysterious.
　　Some weeks ago I saw owls in much too little bird cages in a park. I felt very sorry for those usually impressing, now miserable birds in captivity.
　　
　　Denise
评论人：dropin 评论日期：2004-12-11 0:23


　　Thank you, Denise.
　　I never see the water shield flower. Actually I always confuse water shield with other lotus like pond plants...
　　
　　Yes, the owl is so cute. Especially the big black eye. And it's so cool, a wild one. It can catch mice at night and lives honorable on its own. So good.
　　
　　About motherwort, maybe it's just used as the same as you said.
　　Sometimes it is really interesting. It seems long time passed. But who knows, in some aspect the old age people don't have so big difference as we imagined. Something probably is exact the same.
　　This confuses my sense of time. Is it long ago or just yesterday?
　　Unbelievable.
评论人：乱看 评论日期：2004-12-15 22:07


　　Yes, it is amazing.
　　Ancient knowledges must have been documented much better in China than in Middle Europe, for China had a high developed culture and civilization earlier.
　　People in ancient Middle Europe handed down their knowledges by oral tradition only. Maybe we could benefit from their herbology today although there was a lot of superstition among it. In times of the Roman empire some of it was documented, but it was only a part and from Romans' point of view.
评论人：dropin 评论日期：2004-12-16 17:43


　　I don't know. But it seems Chinese likes to document things, write down their ideas or something they are insterested in. But on the other hand, Chinese also likes to burn out books. In my memory of history lessions, seems anybody rebels, wins some war, conquers a city, he will run into library and burn all the books, or just burn out the whole palace (Chinese palaces are all made of beatiful woods), or the king just ordered to burn all the books because he didn't like the different ideas and that's not good for controlling the country.
　　
　　So, so many many books are burnt and never never passed down.... And those writers once worked so hard to document or express themselves.
　　
　　Em, China is not the earliest one.
　　Last week, I tried to see the documentary DVD for Mesopotamia culture. It's a very good one produced by NHK.
　　It's a culture in 2300 BC. See, 2300 BC! Too early time, so unavoidable, I fell into sleep. I tried first with English subtitle, fell asleep. Then the second run, I restart with Chinese, again, asleep.
　　Well, 2300 BC is too early for me. :))
　　(By the way, it says, the first blue gate found that reveals the Mesopotamia culture is in Belin Museum)

　　I still can remember we fell asleep when trying hard to recite the long history textbooks before the final exam (6 books, faint! and that's just the most important events and simple sumary that everybody should know. Ah, it's nothing good to study in a country with a long history).
　　Now I feel better about history, it's kind of interesting. It helps to understand the world, and helps to see how we ourselves come into this way. But, still, I can't help falling into sleep. :)
　　
评论人：乱看 评论日期：2004-12-19 13:07