From: jamesou@zygote.hsc.usc.edu (James Ou)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: Re: Ma FuBo, Garlic, Small Report
Date: 16 Nov 1992 09:35:41 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: zygote.hsc.usc.edu


In <102095@bu.edu>, lix@thames.bu.edu (Xiaowen Li) writes:

>So James has access to "Shen2 Long2 Ben3 Cao3 Jing1", a good news
>for our on-net tutoring service.

No, I don't, but I surely wish I do. Does anybody know where I
can order a copy of it? I find the description of Yi4Yi3 from
another source which quoted SNBCJ.

>Thanks for checking for me.
>Is there an item of garlic in it? Do you know when garlic was
>introduced into China?

I don't, but I suspect that garlic has been in China for a long
time, after all "Cong1[green onion], Jiang1[ginger],
Suan4[garlic]" were often mentioned together.

>I disagree that Yi4Yi3 is Lian2 Zi3. Yes Yi4 alone can be the
>bitter bud in Lian2Zi3. But Yi4Yi3 can not be Lian2Zi3. Another
>netter Nelson Lu said: "is called Job's tears in English, but I am not
>totally sure." He may be right, my CiHai gives its Academic name:
>"Coix lacryma-jobi". We Sichuanese call it "Yi3 Ren", I believe.

Based on the definition "the heart of a lotus seed", it surely
sounded like "Lian2[lotus] Zi3[seed]". You can find this
definition from the Chinese-English dictionary of Liang2 Shi2
Qiu1, the only Chinese dictionary I have at home. "Lian2 Zi3" is
white and similar in size and shape to a pearl.

>Garlic is for sure good for digestion problems, James. I suggest
>you try to eat some (no cook, eat it raw with some other dishes)
>when you have slight digestion problem (hope not of course:-)

I like garlic, but I also hate to scare people around me away
with a bad breath. :-)  Lucky I don't have digestion problems.

>Garlic, before being broken into pieces, is almost round.

It is round but rough. In contrast, lotus seed is round, shiny
and smooth.  :-)

>Remember:
>Ma FuBo would unlikely pour the garlic on the wagon.

Why not?

>They were in bags.
>So when this wagon entered the capital, many observers might be
>impressed by these "pearls" of one inch diameter in those bags.

What is the length of an ancient Chinese "inch"?  :-)

BTW, Ma3 Yuan2 is one of my favorite generals, too. Nelson
mentioned that Ma said,

     Hua4 Hu3 Bu4 Cheng2 Fan3 Lei4 Quan2,

But he forgot to mention that Ma also said,

     Ke1 Yao2 Bu2 Cheng2 Shang4 Si4 Wu4.

The first verse which actually is the second sentence says that
if one tries to carve an eagle, even if it fails, it will at
worst look like a wild goose. In the second verse which was the
sentence quoted by Nelson, it says that, but if one tries to draw
a tiger, if it fails, it may look like a dog. Apparently, being a
wild goose is much better than being a dog. :-)  These two verses
form an interesting couplet. This provides another piece of
evidence that Chinese couplets have a very long history. :-)

Here is the first two verses of a song that I was once taught:

     Nan2 Er2 Li4 Zhi4 Zai4 Sa1 Chang3,
     Ma3 Ge2 Guo3 Shi1 Qi4 Hao2 Zhuang4.

(A man should be determined to devote his life in the battlefield.
 Look how glorious it will be, if our remains are wrapped in a
 piece of horse skin for burial.)

Well, you can figure out that this song was for soldiers to sing.
:-)