From: jamesou@zygote.hsc.usc.edu (James Ou)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: Re: Ma FuBo, Garlic, Small Report
Date: 15 Nov 1992 15:24:57 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: zygote.hsc.usc.edu

Looks like the battle between Mr. H.A. and Sanyee is not going to
end soon. Oh, well, I have tried my best.

In <101996@bu.edu>, lix@thames.bu.edu (Xiaowen Li) writes:

>Gen. Ma Yuan, or Ma FuBo, is one of the greatest generals in Chinese history,
>IMHO.

Ma Fu2 Bo1 was the person who said that men should die in the battle
field and not in the bed (Ma3[horse] Ge2[skin] Guo3[wrap]
Shi1[corpse]).  He did die the way he wanted.

>One thing I admire him very much, is the introduction of gallic into China
>from Vietnam. Well, is it gallic? This is my question for knowledgeable netters.
>
>According to history book, when he was in Vietnam, his soliders had some
>problems with local food/weather and many got ill. By advice from some local
>folks, he found eating "Yi4 Yi3" was helpful to make his troops healthy.

I don't think garlic helped me to recover when I was sick. Does
it really help the health of people? I know many people think
that garlic is anti-cancer. There is yet solid scientific proof
for this, though. :-)

>Now, we use the word "Yi4Yi3" for another plants. But I always think "Yi4Yi3"
>which Ma FuBo used is gallic.
>(reasoning and the story of the "small report" deleted)
>Knowledgeable netters, do you agree with me that "Yi4Yi3" in Ma FuBo's
>story is in fact gallic?

I think the answer is "No". :-)  I did a small research for you
and this is what was written in "Shen2 Long2 Ben3 Cao3 Jing1", an
ancient Chinese book of herbal medicine:

     "Yi4 Yi3" Wei4 Gan1, Wei2 Han2, Zhu3 Feng1 Shi1 Bi4, Xia4 Qi4,
     Chu2 Jin1 Gu3 Xie2 Qi4, Jiu3 Fu2 Qing1 Shen1 Yi4 Qi4.

     Yi4Yi3 is tasty and slightly "cold". It is used primarily
     for arthritic paralysis. It is also decongestive and can
     remove tendon and skeletal sprains. Long term medication can
     lighten "body" and help "spiritual feeling".

It is difficult to translate Chinese medical terms. "Gan1" is
close to "sweet". "Han2" (cold) is like what Chinese say "Xia4
Huo3". It is a "cold" medicine. "Xia4[down] Qi4 [gas]", I am not
really sure that the term means and I tentatively translated it
into decongestion. "Jin1[tendon] Gu3[skeleton] Xie2[devil]
Qi4[gas]", I guess it means helping the sprained muscle.
"Qing1[lighten] Shen1[body]" does not really mean reducing the
body weight but means giving people the feeling that one can fly.
"Yi4[help] Qi4[gas]" again is difficult to translate. I think
netters can figure out all the characters. Maybe someone else
will be able to provide a better translation?

I don't agree that Yi4Yi3 was garlic because: first, garlic does
not taste "gan". In fact, garlic tastes "Xin1 La4". Second,
garlic is a "warm" medicine. It "Shang4 Huo3" instead of "Xia4
Huo3". Third, I don't think garlic help the "Qi4" (breath). We
all know that one gets a bad breath after taking garlic. :-) And
fourth, I have doubt with what you said that the contempary
meaning of YiYi is different from the ancient one. Based on my
dictionary, Yi4 is "the heart of lotus seed". In that case, Yi4
is "Lian2 Zi3". I am sure you have had some "Lian2 Zi3" before,
it surely looks like pearls. This will fit better with the "small
report" about the "corruption" of General Ma3.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.china,talk.politics.china