薤菜 염교 (해채)

Original, read line by line 東醫寶鑑 · Tangaek — Decoctions vol. 2

1. 性溫, 味辛苦, 無毒.

   Chinese chive bulb is warm in nature, pungent and bitter in taste, and free of toxicity, warming the body without burdening it.

2. 調中, 止久痢冷瀉.

   It harmonizes the middle burner and stops chronic dysentery and cold-induced diarrhea, suiting those whose bellies easily turn upset from cold.

3. 除寒熱, 去水氣, 肥健人.

   It dispels alternating chills and fever, drains excess water from the body, and builds strength, helping those prone to puffiness.

4. 薤性溫補, 仙方及服食家, 皆須之.

   Being warm and tonifying, the bulb was prized by Daoist immortalist recipes and by ascetic dietitians, long valued among those who cultivated the body.

5. 歸於骨. 菜芝也.

   Its energy is said to home to the bones, strengthening them, and the ancients called it the lingzhi mushroom among vegetables.

6. 生圃中.

   It grows in kitchen gardens, an easy crop to keep going in a small home plot once planted.

7. 似韭而葉闊, 多白無實.

   It resembles garlic chives but with broader leaves, abundant white bulbs and no fruit—the white bulbs being the part most often eaten.

8. 雖辛而不葷五藏, 故道家常餌之.

   Though pungent, it does not foul the five organs the way garlic or scallion can, so Daoist practitioners who shunned strong-smelling foods kept it in their daily diet.

9. 補虛最宜人.

   For replenishing depletion it suits the human constitution best, making it an easy food to reach for when strength runs low.

10. 作羹粥食之, 煠作虀葅, 幷得.

    Cooked into soups or porridges, or briefly blanched and pickled into kimchi or relish, it gives up its benefits either way.

11. 薤葉闊而更光.

    The leaves are broad yet exceptionally glossy, so smooth that dewdrops slide right off them.

12. 故古人言薤露者, 以其光滑難竚之義也. 《本草》

    This is why the ancients sang of life's brevity as the dew on the chive bulb's leaf, seeing in that drop unable to linger the fleeting span of a human life. 《Bencao》