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are tacked onto certain bushes and shrubs having medicinal attributes. Otherwise, it is indeed difficult for an onlooker to tell medicinal from other common plants. Villagers do distinguish, though, between the everyday medicinal plants used for poultices, infusions, decoctions, and tonics, from certain other economic simples that are collected and sold for gain.
The collection and sale of the rarer economic simples is a source of village income. The gathering of the plants is the task of women. At Fan Lau, women went early in the morning to the hillside and the ravines and returned with baskets of medicinal plants that were sunned and dried at the village. These were then taken to Tai O for sale. The locations where these simples may be found are usually regarded as village secrets, and many coastal settlements acquire reputations associated with the quality of these simples which, in contrast to the common village medicinal plants, find their way to market.
Native Chinese village medicine is divided into two classes. One is known as koon yeuk ("official medicine"), the other as shang tsoi yeuk ("fresh vegetable medicine"). The first is associated with apothecary shops that deal in traditional drugs and medicines, many of which are listed in that Chinese pharmacopoeia of the 16th century, the Poon Ts'o Kong Muk. These are the Chinese pharmacies one associates with bear paws, rhinoceros horns, ginseng, and other dried or prepared medicine.
Shang tsoi yeuk, less known, is based on gathered simples that are not sold in powdered, pill, or prepared forms. These are fresh medicaments possessing alleged tonic qualities that assist digestion and relieve "heat" (yuet hei). Some are used as styptic poultices, others to treat simple bruises. Unlike the apothecary shops that deal in koon yeuk, the shang tsoi yeuk stalls are not elaborate. The vendor of shang tsoi yeuk is usually a literate farmer turned herbalist. Many of the shang tsoi yeuk are not even listed in modern Chinese pharmaceutical works, as some of these plants are peculiar to local places, and to local tastes.
The following are just some of the shang tsoi yeuk gathered from the hillsides, the ravines, and the beaches of Tai Yu Shan (Lantau Island) during the months of July and August. All of them listed here are collected in their wild state, and none is cultivated. Their market prices vary according to availability,
NOTES ON ETHNO-BOTANY IN THE NEW TERRITORIES
127
are tacked onto certain bushes and shrubs having medicinal attributes. Otherwise it is indeed difficult for an onlooker to tell medicinal from other common plants. Villagers do distinguish, though, between the every day medicinal plants used for poul- tices, infusions, decoctions, and tonics, from certain other econo- mic simples that are collected and sold for gain.
The collection and sale of the rarer economic simples is a source of village income. The gathering of the plants is the task of women. At Fan Lau women went early in the morning to the hillside and the ravines and returned with baskets of medicinal plants that were sunned and dried at the village. These were then taken to Tai O for sale. The locations where these simples may be found are usually regarded as village secrets, and many coastal settlements acquire reputations associated with the quality of these simples which, in contrast to the common village medi- cinal plants, find their way to market.
Native Chinese village medicine is divided into two classes. One is known as koon yeuk ( "official medicine"), the other as shang tsoi yeuk (* "fresh vegetable medicine"). The first is associated with apothecary shops that deal in traditional drugs and medicines, many of which are listed in that Chinese pharma- copeia of the 16th century, the Poon Ts'o Kong Muk (†40). These are the Chinese pharmacies one associates with bear paws, rhinocero horns, ginseng, and other dried or prepared medicine.
Shang tsoi yeuk, less known, is based on gathered simples, that are not sold in powdered, pill, or prepared forms. These are fresh medicaments possessing alleged tonic qualities that assist digestion and relieve "heat" (yuet hei #). Some are used as styptic poultices, others to treat simple bruises. Unlike the apothecary shops that deal in koon yeuk, the shang tsoi yeuk stalls are not elaborate. The vendor of shang tsoi yeuk is usually a literate farmer turned herbalist. Many of the shang tsoi yeuk are not even listed in modern Chinese pharmaceutical works, as some of these plants are peculiar to local places, and to local tastes.
The following are just some of the shang tsoi yeuk gathered from the hillsides, the ravines and the beaches of Tai Yu Shan (Lantau Island) during the months of July and August. All of them listed here are collected in their wild state and none is cultivated. Their market prices vary according to availability,
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