My Campus Plant Friends No. 7
After a summer rain, the moisture in the flower beds improved greatly. A clump of waterweed suddenly appeared in the green fence of the campus square. He poked his head around to spy on the busy figures of teachers and students on campus.
Butterfly is an annual herb of the Graminaceae genus. It is also called king grass, yellow grass, cockroach, cockroach, horse ear grass, etc. This is not a nasty weed. In my childhood memories, it can be seen everywhere, lush and green. In the early morning, dewdrops will sparkle on the bamboo-like grass blades - this is the heart-pounding light of life flashing!
The next time I saw it was in the Book of Songs. In "The Book of Songs, Xiaoya, Picking Green", there is a poem like "I will pick green all the time, and it will not be full. I will play the song, and I will return to the bath with thin words" (Note 1). The poem describes a troubled woman who has no intention of "picking green" because she misses her husband. The "green" in the poem refers to the grass.
Butterfly is really a common weed, but in ancient times, people often collected it and used its stems and leaves to make yellow dye (Note 2) to dye the yellow color on royal clothing. , this is the color reserved for emperors. Therefore, wormwood is also called yellow grass and king grass, and is also known as "imperial grass". In order to meet their own needs, the ancient ruling class distributed and collected wormwood from the common people. Therefore, when analyzing the poem "The end of the dynasty is spent picking green grass, and there is no harvest", some experts believe that the poem expresses the people's resistance to the emperor's corvee collection of weeds.
In modern Chinese, in addition to the word "荩草", words related to "荩" also include "荩chen", which comes from "The King of Songs·Daya·King Wen" "The King's Fenchen," "Wu Nian Erzu" means loyal minister. It is said that in ancient times, the ruling class liked to plant wormwood to seek help from loyal ministers.
"The wild fire cannot be burned out, but the spring breeze blows it again." This may be a portrayal of the character of the grass. Buttercup is deeply attached to the land where it was born and raised, and its loyalty to the earth also deeply touches mankind. Zhang Zizhong, a famous anti-Japanese general in modern times, once took the courtesy name Xinchen (later changed to Xinchen), which means serving the country with loyalty.
In addition to being used as forage and dye, fenugreek also has certain medicinal value. (Note 3) In addition, there is also the word "荩箧", which refers to a box woven with 荩草. This is another way in which wormwood benefits mankind.
Today, quince is rarely seen in people’s urban daily lives, but its economic and cultural value is still worthy of our exploration and inheritance. In particular, its cultural value still shines brightly now and deserves to be cherished forever.
Notes
1. I spent the whole morning picking watermelon, but I couldn’t even get a handful of it. My long hair was a mess, so I went back to wash it and comb it.
2. "Tang Materia Medica" says that the leaves of fennel are as thin as bamboo, and the stems are round and small. On the side of the stream, Jingxiang people boiled it to dye it yellow, and the color is very fresh and good. "
3. According to the "Compilation of National Chinese Herbal Medicine": "Cowgrass... The root and whole plant are used as medicine. Bitter and mild in nature and taste. Functions include clearing away heat, lowering inverse conditions, relieving cough and asthma, detoxifying, and removing phlegm. Rheumatism. Mainly used to treat hepatitis, chronic cough and asthma, pharyngitis, stomatitis, rhinitis, lymphadenitis, and mastitis. Used externally to treat scabies, skin itching, and carbuncle.
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