Opening the chapter
Loading the text. Please wait.
Jingui Yaolue · Essentials from the Golden Cabinet
25. Taboos Concerning Fruit, Vegetables and Grain, and Their Treatments
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
Eating fruit raw produces sores.
Historical context: this chapter records the source's food taboos and poisoning remedies. Its claims and procedures are translated as historical material, not as validated food-safety advice or modern treatment instructions.
Fruit that has fallen to the ground, remained overnight, and been eaten by insects or ants is strongly forbidden as food.
Uncooked rice that has been kept for many days and has damaged portions harms people when eaten.
Eating many peaches makes a person hot. One must also not enter water to bathe afterward: the text says this causes dribbling urination and an illness of chills and fever.
Apricot lao, if not thoroughly cooked, harms people.
Eating many plums damages the teeth.
One must not eat too many li plums: they cause abdominal distention.
One must not eat too many linqin fruits: they weaken all the vessels.
Eating many oranges and pomelos impairs the mouth's sense of taste, so that one cannot distinguish the five flavors.
One must not eat too many pears: they produce cold in the middle. People with incised wounds and women who have recently given birth should also not eat them.
Eating many cherries and apricots damages the sinews and bones.
One must not eat too many pomegranates: they damage the Lung.
One must not eat too many walnuts: they stir phlegm and retained fluids.
Eating many fresh jujubes produces heat, thirst, and qi distention. Those with chills and fever who are thin and wasted should be especially careful not to eat them, for they cause harm.
A remedy for poisoning from eating fruits:
Pig bones, burned to ash.
Powder the single ingredient above and take one fangcunbi with water. It also treats poisoning from horse liver, meat exposed to dripping water, and similar substances.
Do not eat wood-ear fungi that are red or grow facing upward. Mushrooms that curl upward or are red must not be eaten.
A remedy for poisoning from mushrooms, with oppression, agitation, and impending death:
The historical text directs the person to drink one sheng of human-feces liquid, or one or two sheng of earthen water, or a concentrated decoction of soybeans. It also says that medicines that induce vomiting and purging resolve the poisoning.
For unceasing weeping after eating fengzhu mushrooms, use the preceding remedy.
For agitation and impending death after accidentally eating wild taro, use the preceding remedy.
Added note: people in Shandong call the root of this wild taro kuiyu. Cultivated taro that is left unharvested for three years also becomes wild taro; both can kill people.
Shujiao fruits whose mouths are closed are poisonous. If eaten by mistake, they stab at the throat and produce a qi disorder with impending exhaustion of breath. There may be vomiting or downward discharge of white foam, with numbness and cold of the body. An urgent remedy follows.
Decoct Rougui and drink its liquid; drink one or two sheng of cold water.
Alternatively, eat garlic or drink earthen water.
Alternatively, boil fermented soybeans into a concentrated liquid and drink it. The text says these methods all resolve the poisoning.
In the first lunar month, do not eat raw scallions: they cause wandering wind eruptions on the face.
In the second lunar month, do not eat liao: it harms the Kidney.
In the third lunar month, do not eat small garlic: it harms the will and disposition.
In the fourth and eighth lunar months, do not eat coriander: it harms the spirit.
In the fifth lunar month, do not eat Chinese chives: they deplete qi and strength.
On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, do not eat raw greens: they bring on the hundred diseases.
In the sixth and seventh lunar months, do not eat Zhuyu: it harms spirit and qi.
In the eighth and ninth lunar months, do not eat ginger: it harms the spirit.
In the tenth lunar month, do not eat jiao pepper: it damages the Heart and harms the Heart vessels.
In the eleventh and twelfth lunar months, do not eat xie: it causes excessive nasal discharge and spitting.
At the four seasonal transitions, do not eat raw kui greens: they prevent food and drink from being transformed and bring on the hundred diseases. They must not be used in medicines either, as well as not being eaten. Great care is required.
If someone has recovered from a seasonal illness but has not yet regained strength, eating raw greens will make the hands and feet swell.
Eating raw greens at night is harmful.
In the tenth lunar month, do not eat raw greens touched by frost. They make the face lose its luster and cause gritty eyes, Heart pain, and lower-back pain. They may also bring on Heart-nüe: during its attacks, the nails of all ten fingers and ten toes turn blue-green, and the person becomes exhausted and weak.
Eating scallions or chives that have just put out shoots harms Heart qi.
Drinking white wine and eating raw chives makes illness worse.
Raw scallions must not be eaten together with honey: the text says this kills people. Single-clove garlic is even more strongly forbidden in this combination.
Eating jujubes together with raw scallions causes illness.
Eating raw scallions together with the meat of a rooster, pheasant, or white dog causes bleeding from the seven orifices that continues throughout the year.
Eating raw scallions or garlic within four days after eating sugar or honey causes Heart pain.
Eating ginger, garlic, scallions, and similar foods at night harms the Heart.
Eating many turnip roots causes qi distention.
Xie must not be cooked into soup with beef and eaten: it produces jia masses. The same applies to Chinese chives.
Chun brings many illnesses and stirs hemorrhoidal disease.
Wild lettuce must not be eaten together with honey: it produces internal hemorrhoids.
White lettuce must not be eaten together with lao: it produces ni worms.
Eating cucumber brings on febrile illness.
The heart of kui greens must not be eaten, for it causes harm. The leaves are especially cold. Do not eat those with yellow undersides and red stems.
Eating coriander for a long time makes a person forgetful.
Sick people must not eat coriander or huanghuacai.
One must not eat too much taro: it stirs illness.
The text claims that a pregnant woman's eating ginger causes the child to have an extra finger.
Eating much liao brings on Heart pain.
Eating liao together with raw fish depletes qi and causes genital-region discomfort and pain. The supplied wording of the final symptom is obscure.
Mustard greens must not be eaten together with rabbit meat: they produce a severe harmful disorder.
Eating much small garlic damages the strength of the Heart.
A remedy introduced by the unclear heading printed as 'Shi zao huo zao':
Boil fermented soybeans into a concentrated liquid and drink it.
Gouwen resembles celery. Eating it by mistake kills people. A remedy follows.
The added note from Zhouhou supplies another comparison, printed as 'Zhuyu Huangshi Jie'; the names and their division are uncertain in this wording.
Jini, eight liang.
Boil this single ingredient in six sheng of water until two sheng remain. Divide into two warm doses. The text says Gouwen grows where no other grass grows beside it, and that a hairy stem is a distinguishing feature.
Shui Langdang can occur among greens. Its leaves are round and glossy, and it is poisonous. Eating it by mistake causes frenzy and confusion resembling wind-strike, or vomiting of blood. A remedy follows:
Decoct Gancao and take the liquid; the text says the poisoning is then resolved.
In spring and autumn, the text says that dragons carry their essence into celery. A person who happens to eat it becomes ill: during attacks, the hands turn blue-green and the abdomen becomes distended with unbearable pain. This is called jiaolong disease. A remedy follows:
Hard sugar, two or three sheng.
Take this single ingredient twice daily. The text reports that three to five things resembling lizards are vomited up, after which the person recovers.
A remedy for poisoning from eating bitter bottle gourd:
Boil li stalks and drink the liquid several times; the text says this resolves it.
Those with chills and fever must not eat flat beans.
Eating small beans for a long time makes a person dry and withered.
When eating soybeans and similar foods, avoid pork.
Eating barley for a long time causes jie skin disease.
White shu millet must not be eaten together with malt sugar or honey, nor together with kui greens.
Eating much buckwheat flour causes the hair to fall out.
Eating much salt harms the Lung.
Eating cold things chills the teeth. When eating hot things, do not drink cold water.
Drinking wine and eating raw Cang'er causes Heart pain.
In summer, when very drunk and sweating freely, one must not wash the body with cold water or have it fanned: illness immediately results.
When drinking wine, moxibustion of the abdomen and back is strongly forbidden: it causes binding of the intestines.
Do not eat to fullness after becoming drunk: it brings on chills and fever.
Drinking wine, eating pork, and lying among the stalks of glutinous millet or rice brings on jaundice.
Eating malt sugar and drinking much wine together is strongly forbidden.
Water or wine in which a person's reflected image appears to move must not be drunk.
Eating vinegar together with lao causes blood-jia masses.
When eating white-rice porridge, do not eat raw Cang'er: it produces wandering zhu disease.
Eating salt after eating sweet porridge causes immediate vomiting.
If stirring food or drink with rhinoceros-horn chopsticks brings out foam, or pouring it onto the ground makes the ground rise in a mound, the text says that eating it will kill.
A remedy for poisoning from food or drink, with agitation and fullness:
Kushen, three liang; bitter wine or vinegar, one and a half sheng.
Boil the two ingredients above to three boils, raising and lowering the vessel three times, and take the liquid. The text says that vomiting out the food brings recovery. Boiling them in water is also acceptable.
Another remedy:
Xijiao Tang is also good.
A remedy for greedily eating too much, with undigested food and hard fullness and pain in the Heart region and abdomen:
Salt, one sheng; water, three sheng.
Boil the two ingredients above until the salt dissolves and divide into three doses. The text says the food should be vomited out, bringing recovery.
If raw Fanshi enters the abdomen, it damages the Heart and Liver. Water is also forbidden.
Shanglu taken with water kills people.
If Tinglizi is applied to sores on the head and the medicine enters the brain, it kills the person.
If mercury enters the ear of a person or of any of the six domestic animals, the text says all will die. It directs placing gold or silver beside the ear, saying that the mercury will then come out.
Kujian with no seeds kills people.
The text associates many poisonings with poison administered to someone. When the nature of the poison is unknown, it directs boiling Gancao and Jini and drinking their liquid, saying that this generally removes poisonous substances.
Use ← / → or swipe left or right to change chapters