Vegetable Category, Volume 28

Seeing how this plant has crossed the Ru and Huai rivers. The Ru and Huai are major rivers in central China; in Chinese literature, crossing these rivers often symbolizes a plant's adaptation to new climates or its widespread success.

The Farmer of Yuelou original: "Yuelou Nong," a scholarly pseudonym for the author or commentator says: Between the North and the South, the qualities of hardness and softness, or dryness and moisture, create different conditions for the people living there. However, every few hundred years, there must be migration and intermixing before extraordinary individuals emerge. When the Han Dynasty burned the courts of the Loushang The headquarters of the Xiongnu nomads, Jin Midi term: Jin Midi (134–86 BCE), a Xiongnu prince who became a highly honored official and advisor to the Han Emperor and his descendants came to wear the sable-tail hats of high office in the capital of Chang’an. When the Jin Dynasty moved its capital to the East, the Wang and Xie clans The most prestigious aristocratic families of the period flourished in the regions south of the Yangtze River. Is it not that without such shifts, one cannot transform their innate nature or cause their lineage to prosper?

The grains, vegetables, and plants of the Middle Kingdom are already too numerous to eat or use entirely. Alfalfa, Grapes, and the "Heavenly Horses" A legendary breed of Central Asian horses sought by the Han Emperor were brought to us from afar. Sesame and Cucumbers are said to have been carried back by the Envoy who Opened the Void term: "Zaokong zhi shi," a title for the explorer Zhang Qian, who opened the Silk Road in the 2nd century BCE. In recent times, Cotton and the Sweet Potato have crossed the seas and scaled the ridges, reaching the reaches of the Yangtze, the Huai, and the Yellow River, spreading through the northern provinces of Qi, Qin, Yan, and Zhao. Like the warmth of the sun in winter or the shade in summer, they arrived unbidden—and with such speed!

As for those things that feed and clothe the people, why did the Creator not cause them to grow naturally in the Middle Kingdom? Why must we wait to cross dangerous chasms and enter tiger dens A metaphor for undertaking perilous journeys to foreign lands before they can live and thrive here? Is it perhaps because things are only recognized as treasures when their origins are difficult to reach? Or is it...