I don't know much about the Chinese character for "ai".
I remember that there was a worker surnamed Ai in the factory, with a single name and a national character. I know him very well, and I have joked with him in person: your brother must be called Ai Dang, and there is a younger brother named Ai Jun. Look at this brother, the party and the state army are all in line. In fact, his family may not really have it. Just like I once met a sales lady surnamed Guo with a single name and a song word, there can be no brothers and sisters such as Guo Qi and Guo Hui in the family of an only child.
On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, I got up early in the morning, went to the morning market two miles away, bought a large bundle of fresh wormwood, and when I returned home, I put a few branches at the front door and the north and south balconies to ward off evil spirits and drive away mosquitoes and flies. This has been a tradition for many years. "Ai" this original ecological thing, the city usually rarely see this thing, many people have needs, a little later can not buy.
However, more understanding of "Ai" comes from the old Uncle Peng who lives downstairs.
Uncle Peng is in his eighties this year, and he is a contemporary of my parents. The old two live above the bottom business, I live above his house, the same building entrance, up and down the stairs relationship has been more than 20 years.
In their generation, Uncle Peng was a well-known craftsman, who could do anything, and people gave him the nickname "Peng Gaozhao".
However, I don't know much about his "tricks". I feel that the old man has some hunchbacks, a little ear back, always walking unhurriedly, and with an arm on his side. The old two are more than eighty years old, every day before and after the foot walk a few miles uphill, pull a two-wheeled car, rush to the morning market to buy vegetables, actually do not use the pillar turn, which is still rare among the elderly in the community.
I think there should be a lot of health care secrets for those two old people, but "smoked wormwood" must be a very important part of it.
Wormwood, also known as mugwort, wormwood, is a common plant in the mainland, mostly wild, can be harvested once a year. Wormwood is more adaptable, but grows better in moist and fertile sandy loam soils. Many times, at the edge of ponds, villages, and small bridges, you will often see clusters of wild wormwood.
Mugwort has a high medical value. The "Compendium of Materia Medica" records: "The roots of mugwort in February grow into clusters, and their stems are straight, white, and four or five feet high. Received moxibustion disease, even tested. Ai is used in the medicine with leaves, and has the effects of temperature, pure yang, tong twelve meridians, huiyang, rational qi and blood, wet cold, hemostasis and fetal safety. Therefore, it is also called herbal medicine".
Modern medical pharmacology has long proved that wormwood is an antibacterial and antiviral drug, which has the effect of inhibiting and killing bacteria, and also has the effect of preventing and treating respiratory diseases. It is said that the plant pesticide developed by using mugwort resources has low toxicity, high efficiency, high choice, and low residue safety, and is a "green pesticide". Nowadays, under the incubation of modern high technology, mugwort has become one of the preferred objects of pure green pesticides, coupled with the characteristics of good planting, easy survival, high yield and low price, making the mugwort industry chain more and more vigorous vitality.
In the 2018 Dragon Boat Festival, when the new crown epidemic had not yet broken out, Uncle Peng bought several large bundles of fresh wormwood, spread out mats at the entrance of the corridor, spread out the floor, and busied himself with the fine work of "pounding the fleece".
I happened to be off work that day and observed for a while. His method of making mugwort is very unique, taking the new mugwort leaves of the year after fully drying, removing the sharp chips and impurities of the coarse stem, and the mallet is crushed and then sieved. Sometimes, it is rolled many times with a wooden hammer until it is kneaded like cotton, that is, it becomes mugwort. Then, with both hands, squeeze the appropriate amount of moxa into a soft and hard moderately long strip, placed on a cotton paper about 5 cm wide and about 25 cm long, rolled into a cylindrical shape, and finally glued the paper edges with a batter, and compacted the paper heads at both ends to make a mugwort roll with a length of about 20 cm and a diameter of about 1.5 cm.
It is said that it is not so troublesome to make velvet from aged mugwort, because the mugwort leaves have been left for 1 year and are completely air-dried. "Ai Ke is a treasure, and it is indispensable in the family." I don't know how many times I have said this, and I keep telling me the details.
According to him, like dry plants soaked in water fumigation can be disinfected and antipruritic, wormwood soaking feet not only warm the lungs, but also improve lung function, which is very beneficial for people with chronic bronchitis and easy to cough up white sputum. The dried mugwort leaves are placed on the stomach of the patient, which can significantly alleviate the symptoms of wheezing and cough, and have a good effect on asthmatic bronchitis.
In my spare time, I have also asked Du Niang on the Internet for advice. Wormwood extract also has therapeutic and preventive effects on diabetes and cancer diseases, inhibiting the occurrence of cellular inflammation and apoptosis, anti-platelet production and promoting vasodilation. The mugwort oil extracted from mugwort leaves can be used as raw materials for a variety of perfumes and cosmetics, making people's skin smooth and delicate, and has the effect of delaying aging. At the same time, it is also a natural and inexpensive insecticide, which can also be used for animal feed, cigarettes, health care products, perfumes, regulatory fresheners and so on.
"First mash the mugwort leaves into a velvet flocculent shape, make it the size of a broad bean, knead the more solid the better, and then make the mugwort stick."
I know that uncle Peng is saying that he is preparing for future moxibustion, or more precisely, moxibustion therapy. The so-called moxibustion, that is, chinese medicine moxibustion therapy, is to use moxibustion as the main material, in the meridians, acupuncture points or pain parts of the human body for smoking and moxibustion, with the help of the heat of the moxibustion fire to the human body to treat some common diseases, to achieve a method of disease prevention and health care, with meridian vitality, qi and blood, dispel dampness and cold, regulate yin and yang, disease prevention and health care several major effects.
It is this warmth that makes the local skin congested, vasodilation, enhances local blood circulation and lymphatic circulation, slowly and eliminates smooth muscle, strengthens the metabolic capacity of local skin tissue, promotes inflammation, adhesions, exudates, hematomas and other pathological products dissipate and absorb, and can also cause the diffusion of inhibitory substances in the cerebral cortex, reduce the excitability of the nervous system, exert analgesia, and promote the absorption of drugs while the damp heat effect can also promote the absorption of drugs. No wonder some people on the Internet have said that using wormwood has also saved lives.
There are many methods of moxibustion, such as moxibustion, moxibustion, septum moxibustion, etc. Moxibustion can treat hyperlipidemia, improve blood lipid metabolism and glucose metabolism, reduce the content of HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol, adjust insulin secretion function, improve insulin resistance, thereby achieving lipid-lowering and hypoglycemic effects. Treatment of arthritis can alleviate the symptoms, reduce swelling and relieve pain, improve joint morning stiffness, and control the development of the disease.
"Where the pain is, where is the smoke!" Disperse cold and relieve pain, warm qi and blood! If it is aged and mature, the curative effect is the best" has long become the mantra of Old Uncle Peng.
The old couple often take turns to sit in the building and smoke the wormwood. The summer was better, and after the cold weather, especially when his eldest daughter came from Luoyang to visit, he also joined the ranks of smoked wormwood after tea and dinner. "Peng Gaozhao" homemade three small ovens, always make the corridor full of a strong smell of smoking and moxibustion, for a long time can not disperse, causing my wife who is not accustomed to smelling that strong aroma to close the doors and windows in a complaint, hiding in the room and refusing to go downstairs.
One day in the middle of summer, after dinner, I walked to the intersection of the three forks, and the two sisters came to the front, and it turned out that they had just come down from the second floor of the Biological Age Ai Ji Pavilion. In the cold noise between my wife and them, I vaguely heard that it was physiotherapy or something, and I didn't ask any more questions. The two men continued to move forward, and found the street shops of the newly developed building, and they did not know when there was more of this "Ai Yang Xuan" signboard. It is only affected by the Delta virus that the museum was closed during the epidemic, and the situation inside is unknown.
Since the beginning of the summer of the Ugly Year, I have inexplicably itched all over my body, initially limited to the sides of the ears and neck, and later developed to the shoulders, chest and limbs. Sometimes it was so itchy that I had to scratch it, but the skin became darker and darker, and even the forehead was scratched, and the symptoms became more serious. After seeing several hospitals, eating a lot of Chinese and Western medicines, and applying a few tubes of ointment around the body, the unjust money was not spent less, but it did not get better.
In mid-August, a highly respected female elderly Chinese medicine doctor in the municipal hospital prescribed a prescription, and even oral external coating and lotion were used. When I was frying Chinese medicine, I accidentally found that in addition to the cicadas, there were also clusters of moxa floating on the surface of the water! After cooking and frying, the yellow-brown potion has as many as half a washbasin, and the heart still counts: even this thin soup can stop the itch?
What is even more amazing is that the six pairs of Chinese medicines have not yet been used up, and several ulcers on the most serious left arm have begun to scab, and the symptoms of itching are much lighter, and there is no need to click and scratch hard at night. It turns out that "bathing with wormwood water can prevent and treat a variety of skin diseases", and it really has antipruritic effects! --- this "Ai" is really loved!
In this way, I can't help but secretly lament the good name of this shop: in this cozy cottage, in the poetry of calligraphy, let the magical traditional medicine of the motherland give people warmth and health like the sun! There will inevitably be a disease in life, after all, I am also a 60-year-old person, and perhaps, in the near future, I will also taste the grace of medical herbs.
Some people say that the taste of ai is the taste of love, and this is not unreasonable. Guarding two professional Ai medical halls seems to be a kind of blessing for repair.
Source: Henan Provincial Health Publicity and Education Center
Author: Shi Yongliang
Editor: Yu Kunpeng