The truth that diet can both nourish and heal, though it can also cause illness and death if not done properly, has been known since barbaric times. However, it took many centuries for this knowledge to rise to the level of science. In the Tang Dynasty, scholars and writers specializing in food therapy began to appear, and a new discipline gradually took shape.
Sun Simiao, a medical scientist in the early Tang Dynasty, studied medicine when he was young because of his illness, and devoted himself to the study of medicine without seeking fame and fortune in his life. He authored Thousand Gold Formula and Thousand Gold Winged Formula, which were honored as the "King of Medicine" by later generations. Sun Simiao's two works have a special chapter on food therapy and food treatment, the development of food therapy has had a profound impact.
"Thousand gold formula" is also known as the "preparation of emergency thousand gold to be square", the whole book of thirty volumes, the twenty-sixth volume of food treatment monographs, later called "thousand gold food treatment". So the name "thousand gold", there is a side of medicine worth a thousand words of meaning. Sun's self-proclaimed "human life is the most important, more expensive than a thousand gold, a party to help, virtue over this.
The introductory part of the "Thousand Gold Food Cure" talks about the necessity of dietary therapy, Sun Simiao quoted Zhang Zhongjing, a famous doctor in the Eastern Han Dynasty, as saying, "People don't need to use medicines in normal times, otherwise it will affect the balance in the body." Sun Simiao said, "The root of a person's well-being lies in his diet; if he wants to cure diseases with quick results, he has to rely on medicines. Those who do not know the proper diet are not enough to live long; those who do not know the contraindications of medicines are not able to eradicate diseases. These two things are of vital importance, and it would be really sad if they were neglected and not learned. Diet removes evil from the body and can calm the internal organs and please the mind. If one can treat diseases with food, then one is considered a good doctor. As a doctor, you should first find out the root cause of the disease, know what part of the body it brings harm to, and then treat it with food. Only when food therapy fails to cure should medicine be used." Sun Simiao also talked about how improper diet may jeopardize human health and advocated eating fewer delicacies. He warned people that: "Where the usual diet, every order of thrift, if greedy for more meals, Lin plate people satiated, eaten and felt in the abdomen Peng Heng (belly) short gas, or lead to sudden illness, still cholera. And after the summer solstice, until the autumnal equinox, must be cautious of fat and greasy, cake meat broth, ghee of the genus, this thing and wine pulp melon and fruit, the reason is very similar. The man in the body so much disease, all from the spring and summer to take too much cold, dietary disorders. The fish and chopped fish and cold things, more damage to people, cut off the good. Cheese and pastry and other regular food, people have tendons and gall bladder dry, muscle body moisturizing, pawns eat more, but also to make abdominal distension and discharge, gradually from themselves." This not only talks about some of the meal taboos, but also talks about the relationship between diet and the seasons, especially dieting, contains a very scientific reasoning.
The "Thousand Gold Food Remedy" is divided into fruits, vegetables, grains and rice, birds and animals, etc., a detailed account of the pharmacology and function of various foods.
The chapter on fruits describes more than 20 kinds of fruits such as betel nut, cardamom, peach, raspberry, jujube, jujube, lotus root, chicken head, water chestnut, chestnuts, cherries, oranges, plums, persimmons, papayas, sugarcane, taro, apricot kernels, peach kernel, plum kernel, pears, pomegranate, loquat leaves, walnuts, etc. It advocates eating more jujube, cherries, vegetables, grains, rice, birds and beasts. Advocate eating more jujube, cherry, can make the person light as immortal. Warned not to eat more: plum, bad people's teeth; peach kernel, people heat; Li Ren, people's weakness; pomegranate, damage to the lungs; pear, people have cold; walnut, people vomit, phlegm fire. Eating almonds should be especially careful. Sun Simiao quoted the words of the magpie, "almonds can not be served for a long time, people blind, eyebrow hair fall, moving all the persistent disease, can not be careful."
Vegetables, including the leaves of wolfberry, wolfberry, melon, melon, melon, melon, early cucumber, sunflower seeds, amaranth, bitter greens, capsicum, turnip, woad, mustard, alfalfa, green onions, leeks, scallions, algae, Artemisia absinthium, patchouli, Brunellesia, garlic, ming leaf, Cynoglossum, Cornu Cervi, Sichuan peppercorns, ginger, ginger, rue, bamboo shoots, fennel, including more than 50 kinds of vegetables, wild vegetables. Sun Simiao said, Yue melon, Hu melon, early cucumber, Sichuan pepper can not be eaten, and amaranth real and small amaranth, bitter greens, alfalfa, scallion, white artemisia, ming leaves, cang eer, bamboo shoots can be a long time to eat, people's body light and more power, can slow down the aging.
Grain and rice chapter recorded more than 20 kinds of grains and their brewing products, including Job's tears, red beans, buckwheat, etc., salt is also attached to it. Sun Si said, Job's tears, caraway, white hemp seeds, syrup, barley, green sorghum rice, long food body light and powerful, people do not grow old; and red beans people skin dry; white corn and glutinous rice is annoying heat; salt loss of manpower, black skin color, these are not eaten more.
Birds and animals, including insects and fish, including more than 40 kinds of animals and dairy products, including human milk, horse, cow, sheep, pig and donkey milk, cheese, Daigo, bear meat, goat, dog brain, pork, venison, deer bones, elk fat, tiger and leopard meat, rabbit liver, chicken, stone honey, snake meat, carp, turtle, crab and so on. One of the cheese products on the people have a tonic; tiger meat can not be eaten hot, can be bad people teeth; stone honey for a long time, strong will light body, resistance to old age; abdominal snake meat soaked in wine to drink, can be treated with pain in the heart and abdomen; squid fish also has a strong strong will of the function of the qi; soft-shelled turtle meat can be eaten to cure foot fungus.
The Thousand Golden Wings Formula was written to make up for the deficiencies of the Thousand Golden Formulas, and the two books have the same purpose and similar content.
He advocated that the dinner is not full and not drunk, otherwise it is difficult to get a long life; advocated that "drunk do not eat hot, eat after the belly can remove all the diseases"; and the creation of the "after eating will be rest method. Sun Simiao also said: "hot food hurts bones, cold food hurts lungs. Hot without burning lips, cold without ice teeth."
Sun Simiao these are the voice of experience, but think of Sun Simiao enjoy more than 100 years of age, we can rest assured that his doctrine of health.
Under Sun Simiao, there is also a famous medical doctor, Monk, is also a longevity. Monk studied under Sun and wrote China's first monograph on food therapy, the Divine Nourishment Formula. Later by his disciple Zhang Ding made additions, renamed "Food Therapy Materia Medica", **** contained 227 food therapy formula, set of medicinal, food **** a book, but this book has long been scattered. Many of the contents of this book are scattered in some other Tang and Song medical books, many modern scholars have been anonymous, published a more complete collection of books.
The end of the Tang dynasty, sichuan famous doctor Zan Yin wrote a book "food medical heart", also belongs to the food therapy monograph, but there are some innovations. Some other medical works in the Tang Dynasty, sometimes also contains food therapy. Tang people pay attention to food therapy food treatment, and is not just limited to the medical scientists, in fact, it has become a relatively common discipline in the Tang Dynasty.