- Origin: Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs
In 1973, more than 30 plant seeds were found in the Shang Dynasty ruins of Taixi Village, Gaocheng, Hebei, China. They were identified as seeds of Rosaceae plants, mainly peach kernels, and also Prunus mume kernels and apricot kernels. Among the Chinese medicine prescriptions, there is Wuren Pill, which is composed of five herbs: peach kernels, Prunus mume kernels, apricot kernels, pine nuts, and cypress nuts. The seeds found in the ruins seem to be a combination of prescriptions. The fruits of the original plants of these seeds are the source of food, indicating that the discovery of these drugs may be related to diet.
The origin of drug discovery and food is especially reflected in the story of “Shennong tasting hundreds of herbs”. The Chinese nation has a long history of farming culture. It is said that Shennong Xuanyuan is the ancestor of the Chinese nation’s farming culture. There are many records of it. Lu Jia’s “New Language·Daoji No. 1” describes: “People eat meat, drink blood, and wear fur. As for Shennong, he thought it was difficult to feed the people with insects and beasts, so he looked for edible things, tasted the fruits of hundreds of herbs, and observed the sour and bitter tastes, and taught the people to eat grains.” It can be seen that Shennong led the ancient Chinese nation from the hunting era of eating raw meat and drinking blood to the farming era of eating mainly grass. At present, anthropologists can prove that humans first ate meat and then turned to omnivorous food by studying the tooth structure of humans in different historical periods. “Yi Ji” says: Shennong “tasted the flavors of hundreds of herbs and the sweetness and bitterness of springs, so that people knew what to avoid and what to go to. At this time, he encountered seventy poisons in one day. This is because he tasted hundreds of herbs to distinguish the edible ones for the people, not to determine medicine.” This allusion of “Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs and encountered seventy poisons in one day” is also the basis for many later generations to respect Shennong as the discoverer of herbal medicine (drugs). According to the records in ancient books, there was no strict distinction between poisons and medicines at the beginning. “Zhou Li·Tianguan” states: “The physician is in charge of the medical policy, and gathers poisons and medicines for medical affairs.” Poisons can be used for medical treatment just like medicines. In this passage, the author also specifically explained that the purpose of Shennong’s tasting of hundreds of herbs was to find food rather than medicines, which also shows the connection between the discovery of medicines and food. Tao Hongjing said in the preface of “Compendium of Materia Medica” that “lotus root peel disperses blood, which started from the cook; morning glory chases water, which came from the wild old man”, which also reflects that the discovery of medicines originated from the practice of people’s lives, especially eating activities.
- Improvement: The ancients’ understanding of the principle of the same origin of medicine and food
The understanding of “the same origin of medicine and food” and the boundary between medicine and food in various dynasties in my country is a process from vague to clear. From the origin of the same origin of medicine and food, we can see the level of understanding of the functions of food by the ancients: first, it is non-toxic, edible, and provides basic nutrition; then, other functions of food are discovered: treatment and health care. There have been relevant explorations on the “principle” of food treatment for a long time. The ancients believed that food, like medicine, has the theory of nature and taste, including four qi and five flavors, meridians, rise and fall, etc.
The four Qi refer to cold, hot, warm and cool, and the five flavors include sour, bitter, sweet, pungent and salty. These may be the perceptions of the ancients in their daily life, which are endowed with the Yin-Yang and Five Elements theory, and are a summary of the theory of function. The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine is the first existing classic Chinese medicine book in my country, including the Lingshu and Suwen. It not only laid the foundation for the basic theory of Chinese medicine, but also proposed the theory related to traditional Chinese diet, forming an overall theoretical system of food and medicine, such as the four Qi, five flavors, rising and falling, smell and thickness, and toxicity. The book believes that food has five flavors like medicine, and each has its own function. For example, Lingshu·Five Flavors says “I would like to hear that the grain Qi has five flavors, which enter the five internal organs”, and Suwen·Wuchang Zhengdalun Pian repeatedly mentions the viewpoints of “food should be used in the same way”, “medicine is used to eliminate it, and food is used to follow it”, etc., to illustrate the auxiliary function of food as medicine in treating diseases. Huangdi Neijing classified food into the five elements according to its nature and flavor for the first time. For example, Lingshu Wuwei says, “Each of the five flavors goes to its favorite place. The sour taste of grain goes to the liver first; the bitter taste of grain goes to the heart first; the sweet taste of grain goes to the spleen first; the pungent taste of grain goes to the lungs first; the salty taste of grain goes to the kidneys first.” The book also proposed the idea of the taboos of the five flavors. For example, Suwen Xuanming Wuqi Lun says, “The five flavors are forbidden. Pungent tastes go to qi. People with qi diseases should not eat too much pungent food; salty tastes go to blood. People with blood diseases should not eat too much salty food; bitter tastes go to bones. People with bone diseases should not eat too much bitter food; sweet tastes go to flesh. People with flesh diseases should not eat too much sweet food; sour tastes go to tendons. People with tendon diseases should not eat too much sour food. These are the five taboos. Do not eat too much.” It emphasizes that the five flavors must be harmonized.
In the Tang Dynasty, Sun Simiao summarized and developed the theories of diet in pre-Tang doctors and Huangdi Neijing in Qianjin Yaofang Shizhi, such as “food has bias”, “diet should be moderate”, and “the five flavors should not be biased”. The subsequent “Dietary Materia Medica” mostly noted the medicinal properties under each food name, and also recorded the efficacy, taboos, single prescriptions, and application parts. In the second volume of the Yuan Dynasty’s “Yinshi Zhengyao”, the entries were introduced as “Four Seasons”, “Five Flavors”, “Taboo for Taking Medicine”, “Food Benefits and Harms”, “Food Opposites”, “Food Poisoning”, etc., emphasizing the bias and taboos of food. Therefore, the ancients’ exploration of the theory of the nature of food reflects the same origin of medicine and food, the same function of medicine and food, and the same reason for medicine and food.
- Development: The same origin of medicine and food benefits the public
“The same origin of medicine and food” is the wisdom summed up by the ancients in the discovery of food and medicine. Food has the same bias as medicine, and has four qi and five flavors. Therefore, in addition to providing basic nutrition, food also has therapeutic functions similar to medicine. As early as the Zhou Dynasty, the division of “food medicine” was produced, and later “dietary therapy” materia medica specializing in “food treatment” appeared. Modern research on the third function of food, “regulating human functions”, shows that plant secondary products that regulate human functions may be the scientific material basis for the therapeutic function of plant foods.
Although food and medicine have the same origin, there are boundaries. Food mainly provides nutrition and is non-toxic, while medicine is mainly used to treat diseases. Food is mild in nature, while medicine is relatively heavy and fierce in nature and taste. Therefore, the “therapeutic” effect of food is mainly reflected in the two aspects of “food nourishment” and “food therapy”. These items that are both medicines and foods often have a tonic effect, especially in health care and disease prevention. Based on the ancients’ understanding of the four main characteristics of medicine and food: safety, nutrition, health care and therapeutic effects, modern people have limited the concepts of food and medicine, and divided them into medicine, food, health food and “traditionally both food and medicine items”.
Ancient herbal medicine, especially food herbal medicine, not only records a large number of food medicines, but also discusses the methods of taking and taboos, reflecting the ancients’ emphasis on the safety and functionality of medicine and food, and provides a valuable reference for today’s diet therapy and health care research.