Chinese food therapy is a mode of dieting rooted in Chinese beliefs concerning the effects of food on the human organism,and centered on concepts such as seasonal eating and in moderation. Its basic precepts are a mix of Taoist Wuxing and eight principle theory that are concepts drawn from the modern representation of traditional Chinese medicine.
Root beer is a sweet North American soft drink traditionally made using the root bark of the sassafras tree Sassafras albidum or the vine of Smilax ornata as the primary flavor. Root beer is typically,but not exclusively,non-alcoholic,caffeine-free,sweet,and carbonated. Like cola,it usually has a thick and foamy head. A common use is to add vanilla ice cream to make a root beer float.
Chinese herbology is the theory of traditional Chinese herbal therapy,which accounts for the majority of treatments in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). A Nature editorial described TCM as "fraught with pseudoscience",and said that the most obvious reason why it has not delivered many cures is that the majority of its treatments have no logical mechanism of action.
Cinnamomum cassia,called Chinese cassia or Chinese cinnamon,is an evergreen tree originating in southern China and widely cultivated there and elsewhere in South and Southeast Asia. It is one of several species of Cinnamomum used primarily for its aromatic bark,which is used as a spice. The buds are also used as a spice,especially in India,and were used by the ancient Romans.
Ma'anshan,also colloquially written as Maanshan,is a prefecture-level city in the eastern part of Anhui province in Eastern China. An industrial city stretching across the Yangtze River,Ma'anshan borders Hefei to the west,Wuhu to the southwest,and Nanjing to the east. It is a satellite city in the Nanjing metropolitan area and is also a city in the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone.
The Bencao gangmu,known in English as the Compendium of Materia Medica or Great Pharmacopoeia,is an encyclopedic gathering of medicine,natural history,and Chinese herbology compiled and edited by Li Shizhen and published in the late 16th century,during the Ming dynasty. Its first draft was completed in 1578 and printed in Nanjing in 1596. The Compendium lists the materia medica of traditional Chinese medicine known at the time,including plants,animals,and minerals that were believed to have medicinal properties.
Baijiu,or shaojiu,is a colorless Chinese liquor typically coming in between 35% and 60% alcohol by volume (ABV). Each type of baijiu uses its own type of qū for fermentation to create a distinct and characteristic flavor profile.
Osmanthus fragrans,variously known as sweet osmanthus,sweet olive,tea olive,and fragrant olive,is a flowering plant species native to Asia from the Himalayas through the provinces of Guizhou,Sichuan and Yunnan in China,Taiwan,southern Japan and Southeast Asia as far south as Cambodia and Thailand.
Osmanthus is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae. Most of the species are native to eastern Asia with a few species from the Caucasus,New Caledonia,and Sumatra. Osmanthus has been known in China since ancient times with the earliest writings coming from the Warring States period;the book Sea and Mountain. South Mountain states:"Zhaoyao Mountain had a lot of Osmanthus".
Fermented tofu is a Chinese condiment consisting of a form of processed,preserved tofu used in East Asian cuisine. The ingredients typically are soybeans,salt,rice wine and sesame oil or vinegar. In mainland China the product is often freshly distributed. In overseas Chinese communities living in Southeast Asia,commercially packaged versions are often sold in jars containing blocks 2- to 4-cm square by 1 to 2 cm thick soaked in brine with select flavorings.
Snake wine is an alcoholic beverage produced by infusing whole snakes in rice wine or grain alcohol. The drink was first recorded to have been consumed in China during the Western Zhou dynasty and believed in folklore to reinvigorate a person according to Traditional Chinese medicine. It can be found in China,Hong Kong,Taiwan,North Korea,Goa (India),Vietnam,Okinawa (Japan),Laos,Thailand,Cambodia and throughout Southeast Asia.
The Penghou is a tree spirit from Chinese mythology and folklore. Two Chinese classics record similar versions of the Penghou myth.
Senna obtusifolia,known by common names including Chinese senna,American sicklepod and sicklepod,is a plant in the genus Senna,sometimes separated in the monotypic genus Diallobus. It grows wild in North,Central,and South America,Asia,Africa,and Oceania,and is considered a particularly problematic weed in many places. It has a long-standing history of confusion with Senna tora and that taxon in many sources actually refers to the present species.
Gynostemma pentaphyllum,also called jiaogulan,is a dioecious,herbaceous climbing vine of the family Cucurbitaceae widely distributed in South and East Asia as well as New Guinea.
Li Shizhen,courtesy name Dongbi,was a Chinese acupuncturist,herbalist,naturalist,pharmacologist,physician,and writer of the Ming dynasty. He is the author of a 27-year work,the Compendium of Materia Medica. He developed several methods for classifying herb components and medications for treating diseases.
Wu Gang,formerly romanized as Wu Kang and also known as Wu Zhi in some sources,is a figure in traditional Chinese folklore and religion. He is known for endlessly cutting down a self-healing osmanthus tree on the Moon,a divine punishment which has led to his description as the Chinese Sisyphus. In modern Chinese,the chengyu "Wu Gang chopping the tree" is used to describe any endless toil. The specific reason for his situation has varied in the sources,but Wu Gang's story dates back to at least the Tang dynasty.
Li Shizhen's (1597) Bencao gangmu,the classic materia medica of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM),included 35 human drugs,including organs,bodily fluids,and excreta. Crude drugs derived from the human body were commonplace in the early history of medicine. Some of these TCM human drug usages are familiar from alternative medicine,such as medicinal breast milk and urine therapy. Others are uncommon,such as the "mellified man",which was a foreign nostrum allegedly prepared from the mummy of a holy man who only ate honey during his last days and whose corpse had been immersed in honey for 100 years.
Huangjiu is a type of Chinese rice wine (mijiu) most popular in the Jiangnan area. Huangjiu is brewed by mixing steamed grains including rice,glutinous rice or millet with qū as starter culture,followed by saccharification and fermentation at around 13–18 °C (55–64 °F) for fortnights. Its alcohol content is typically 8% to 20%.
Tang Shenwei,courtesy name Shenyuan,was a Chinese physician of the Song dynasty. He compiled an influential pharmacopoeia,Zhenglei bencao (證類本草).
Ttongsul (Korean: 똥술),or stool wine,is a traditional Korean pseudoscience-based medicinal preparation with an alcohol content of 9% made from faeces,usually human and preferably from children. Most likely born out of traditional Chinese medicine,in popular belief,stool wine is said to have beneficial properties for many types of ailments:it is said to be a remedy for muscle pain,burns,inflammation,epilepsy,and bone fractures. No scientific evidence exists to support any beneficial health claims of ttongsul.
