Half-month talk on Chinese medicine | Coix seed

· Interesting stories ·

The slander of Coix comes from "The Biography of Ma Yuan" in Volume 24 of "Book of the Later Han".

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, General Ma Yuan, under the order of Emperor Guangwu of Han, Liu Xiu, led his troops on an expedition to Jiaozhi (equivalent to most of Guangdong, Guangxi and northern and central Vietnam today) to quell the rebellion in southern Xinjiang. Jiaozhi had a humid climate and severe miasma. Many soldiers were unable to adapt to the local environment and suffered from "beriberi". The sick people showed numbness in their hands and feet, edema in their lower limbs, and then developed into swelling all over the body. General Ma was very anxious. At this time, an old local farmer told him that this was miasma, and eating coix seed could detoxify and remove dampness. So General Ma asked someone to find coix seed and boil it into porridge for the soldiers to drink. Sure enough, the sick soldiers recovered quickly after drinking it.

When General Ma returned to the court after pacifying southern Xinjiang, he brought a cart of coix seeds to plant in the north. At that time, General Ma was favored by the emperor and envied by others. When someone saw him pulling back a cart of something that looked like pearls, they spread rumors that Ma Yuan had looted a cart of precious pearls in the south and kept them at home. After General Ma died, a busybody falsely accused him of hiding pearls and asked the emperor to punish him. The emperor was very angry, which led to Ma Yuan's funeral being hastily handled and no one dared to go to mourn. General Ma's wife wrote to the emperor six times to express her grievances, and the emperor believed that the cart of "rare treasures" was just coix seeds. Therefore, later generations used "coix pearls" and "coix slander" to describe being slandered and wronged.

Photo: Yuan Li

Xin Qiji, a poet and general of the Southern Song Dynasty, was suspected and slandered by the ministers of the court because of his establishment of the Flying Tiger Army. He was impeached for crimes such as "treacherous, greedy, violent, and cruel when he led Hunan, and abused the farmers". So he expressed his aspirations by presenting a poem to his friend, "Farewell to Hunan Troops": "A green shirt and a horse, cheered by thousands of people, the shogunate was in a hurry. I am ashamed that my pearl turned into coix, and I let you down with my bare hands and tied to a rabbit. My eyes are as clear as a mirror when I read books, and I am full of courage when I talk about things. I will send you off to the sky, even if the wind and rain break my house."

This poem not only expresses Xin Qiji's indignation at being slandered for his unfulfilled ambitions, but also shows his enthusiasm to encourage bravery and make him loyal to his country. Among them, "I am ashamed that my pearl has turned into coix, and I have failed you and tied you to a rabbit with my bare hands" is a reference to this story of General Ma Yuan.

· Source of medicinal materials ·

The dried mature seed kernels of Coix lacryma-jobi L. var. ma-yuen (Roman.) Stapf, a Poaceae plant.

· Nature and flavor ·

Sweet, light and cool.

It enters the spleen, stomach and lung meridians.

· Efficacy and indications·

It can promote diuresis and eliminate dampness, strengthen the spleen and stop diarrhea, eliminate arthralgia, discharge pus, detoxify and resolve stagnation.

It is used for diarrhea, dampness, muscle spasm, flexion and extension problems, edema, beriberi, pulmonary emphysema, lung abscess, intestinal abscess, stranguria, and leucorrhea.

For internal use: decoction, 9-30g.

· Diet therapy recommendation ·

Barley, Winter Melon and Crucian Carp Soup

Ingredients: coix seed, wax gourd, crucian carp, cooking wine, scallion, ginger, salt. Method: Wash coix seed and soak for 1 hour. Put clean water in the pot, put crucian carp and coix seed into the pot and boil over high heat. After boiling, add scallion and ginger, pour in a little cooking wine, and simmer for 50 minutes. Add wax gourd and stew for 10 minutes, add appropriate amount of salt, drizzle with sesame oil, and serve. Efficacy: tonifies the spleen and replenishes qi, promotes diuresis and reduces swelling. It is suitable for people with obesity, edema, difficulty urinating, and other spleen deficiency and dampness.

Job's tears and Poria cocos porridge

Ingredients: 30g coix seed, 15g tuckahoe, 30g polished rice. Method: Wash coix seed, tuckahoe and polished rice, put them in a pot, add appropriate amount of water and cook into porridge. Efficacy: Strengthen the spleen and replenish the middle, penetrate dampness and reduce swelling. "Journey to the West" records "Crush tuckahoe and coix seed, cook the soup in a stone pot over a low fire. Even if there are delicacies in the world, how can it be more peaceful than the joy of mountain monkeys?" Dietary adjustment can be carried out for symptoms such as spleen deficiency, diarrhea, urination problems, and edema.