Cannabis use in Ancient China

Hey guys, welcome to Learn Feng Shui, where you'll learn Feng Shui from a classical point of view taken out the myth and superstition. If you like weekly tips as well as fun folklore tales, you'll enjoy learning Feng Shui with me. Hey guys, welcome to today's episode. Hey guys, a little bit of information before I start the show. So this show is actually two different episodes that I did that are piece together to make one long episode when I was doing podcast prior to 2020, 2020-ish.

I was doing biweekly episodes and so I would do a short Feng Shui episode and then I was doing a short folklore Friday episode. And so it just kind of combined together to create one longer episode, right? And so this audio is from two different weeks and so you may hear a reference like I talked about something I talked about last week or something like that, but that is actually, that's what that's in reference to anyhow today we're going to talk about, you know, cannabis, you should make sure China and then the segment, folklore Friday segment is going to be about the father Chinese medicine. And so it'll kind of go together backwards, I suppose, but anyhow, so don't get confused if you hear me referencing a book. It's referenced in the folklore Friday segment.

Hey guys, I'm pretty excited to put together this episode. It was actually very interesting, a very enlightening. So one of the things that, you know, I thought that we would be more open to looking at is this use of cannabis and hemp in ancient China. I'm here in the United States. I know I have a lot of international listeners and I know some countries that's completely illegal.

They, you know, very much frown upon it and stuff like that. But here in the US, many, many states have legalized medicinal use of medical marijuana or cannabis and a lot more states are now are looking at their recreational use and letting it just be open. I think a lot of misunderstanding surrounds the use of cannabis. And it does have a lot of medical properties to it. And even the ancient Chinese knew this as you know, the basis of Chinese medicine really is herbs and bouncing out the key in your body.

And they discovered cannabis to be a useful herb in ancient China. So today I want to focus on how they used it not only cannabis, but also hemp products and, you know, focus on how they used it in different ways. The earliest recordings of cannabis being used for medical properties is of course the book I mentioned last week, which is that farmer's classic of medical material. But it also states here on from Wikipedia, it says that early Chinese surgeon is accredited with being a first recorded person to use cannabis as an anesthetic. He reduced the plant to powder and mixed it with wine for administration prior to conducting surgery.

The Chinese term for anesthetic also literally translates to cannabis and intoxication. And they proved a strong knowledge of narcotic properties of cannabis, at least from the first millennia BC when Ma, which is what they called cannabis was already used in these purposes. It also meant numb or senseless. And they stated here that it was such a strong drug. However, that the Chinese pharmacist had obtained from different regions, I suppose, to try to test out different strains of it to find one that would knock you out for surgery.

And it says that they would use the cannabis indica because it was so strong and knock-chial cold. And I would not know, but perhaps you may know that if you have, in some of your problems, you can use the indica strains of cannabis to help you go to sleep. So they use it differently for medical purposes. I think as we think about it today, we think about, just smoking it, I suppose, for medical reasons because that's kind of the societal picture of marijuana. You just smoke it, right?

But here it says that medical use was highlighted in the pharmapedia of tang, which prescribed the root of a plant to remove a blood clot will deduce from the leaves could be ingested to combat taparms. The seeds of cannabis reduced a powder and mixed with rice wine was recommended for different material medica against several ailments, arranging from constipation to hair loss. So the Ming dynasty provided detailed instructions on harvesting the heads of cannabis to Tiva plants. And while the few authors who acknowledged him in various pharmapedias seemed to agree that the resinous female flowering heads were the source of dreams and revelations after copious consumptions, according to the ancient shinyong, who we talked about last week, one could see demons and walk like a madman even becoming a tetris spurious over time. Other medical writers warn that ghosts could be seen after ingesting the potion based on Rossi's blended with some different herbs.

So I will say if you're going to mix some different hymns seeds with wine, I probably wouldn't be surprised if you start hallucinating. It also states here that every part of the hemp is used in medicine. So flowers are recommended in 120 different forms of disease. Minstration disorders, wounds, it says here, I don't know what part this is, but a chenia, which is considered to be poisonous, stimulate the nervous system and if he's in access, we'll produce hallucinations and staggering gate. So you'll be walking funny.

They're prescribed in nervous disorders, especially those marked by local anesthesia, I guess nerve damage. The seeds are considered to be a tonic and a laxative, diuretic and corrective. I'm not sure what the corrective thing means, it's some ancient talk here. It's prescribed internally for fluxes, plus paramedicalties, different sorts of poisoning, constipation and for vomiting. And I have also heard that it does, I know that's one of the medical properties that it's said to help with cancer patients that it does also help with that nausea and to give you a little bit more of an appetite.

Here it says externally, it's used for eruptions, ulcers, wounds, falling out hair. The hair is used, I'm sorry, the oil is used for falling hair, sulfur poisoning and dryness in the throat. The leaves are considered to be poisonous, but are freshly expressed juice act as it says here in some different ways. It says it stifes your hair from turning gray. The stalk or the bark is considered to be a diuretic and the juice of the root is thought to have a beneficial action when in retained placenta and used for postpartum hemorrhaging.

So an effusion of hemp is a decrement drink for quenching thirst and relieving fluxes. So I guess it's supposed to be good for heartburn. So cannabis or malt was a unique drug because it actually was said to contain both feminine or yannin masculine properties. Here in psychology today it says here that yann represented the weak passive or negative female influence in nature while the yann represents a strong active or positive male force. I don't necessarily agree with this interpretation of yannin yang.

To me, yann is just a more inactive side. It's the quiet, it's the calm, it might be a little bit the darker shadow, you know, like the moon, you know. But I don't believe it's negative. Whereas the gang is the sun and it's out there in the open, it's bright, it's active. And so I don't agree with this interpretation.

But again, it's from psychology today. So I don't know how a person was or the article in Chinese concepts. But anyway, it says here when the yannin yang were in balance, the body was in harmony and healthy. When the yannin yang were out of balance, the body was in a state of disequilibrium and ill, which is true. Realizing that the female plant produced more medicine that Chinese cultivated it instead of the male plant.

Mal was used to treat substances of yann such as female weaknesses in menstruation, gout, rheumatism, malaria, and constipation. It says here even absinindinous. But in my interpretation or my knowledge of cannabis, I think it probably sometimes might make you more absininded. I do have a friend on Facebook that I remember a few years ago, she moved to somewhere in Mexico and she became really, really sick with a tropical disease. And so when she went to the local doctor there, there was a large vat in just a glass jar in the set in the sun, steeping in the sun of cannabis leafs.

And she kind of talked about how he explained her they use them for analgesic purposes. So it's not exactly what we think. And there are a bunch of different medical properties that can be taken from all the different parts of the plant. So now let's look a little bit more at the different properties and not so much the medical use, but a little bit more of the practical use of it. So it was not just used for medicinal purposes, but also for the fibers.

And it says here that cannabis the TIVA is the old plant with a long history. And this is coming from psychology today. The words the TIVA comes from the Latin word sonar cultivated. And in fact the hemp plant or cannabis the TIVA has been cultivated by humans for thousands of years, which we know cultivated primarily for its strength and fiber and of course medicinal uses. And of course in some places even grown for some food.

So the earliest archaeological hemp evidence was around 10,000 BC, which comes from rope imprints from broken Chinese pottery fragments of hemp cloth have also been found in Chinese burial chambers. And in addition to archaeological evidence written documents refer to hemp sources for clothing. So for example the shoe king of book dating to about 2050 BC refers to the soil in this area being rich with silk and hemp. While ancient pottery mentions young girls leaving hemp into clothing. It also says that the Chinese relied on hemp for warfare due to its strength and durability Chinese archers made both strings from hemp because the hemp both strings are stronger than the enemy's bamboo ones.

The Chinese arrows could fly further and it was a large advantage in war. In fact, hemp was so important to the Chinese monarchs that they allocated large portions of land specifically for growing hemp and it was called the first war crop. So paper is another invention of the Chinese and guess what they used to make it out of hemp. So papers probably the one of the most significant Chinese inventions fragments of paper containing hemp fibers have found in Chinese graves dating to the first century BC. The Chinese made paper by crushing the hemp fibers in mulberry tree bark until pulp and putting that mixture into the tank of water.

The tangle fibers then rose to the top and were removed and placed in a mul after drying the fibers form sheets that could be written on. So the Chinese kept this paper making secret to themselves from many centuries but eventually the secret became known to the Japanese during the 5th century AD and then finally to the Arabs through Chinese prisoners in the 9th century. In ancient China the Taoist monks actually also used to use cannabis and incense burners believing that the smoke could serve as means of achieving immortality. They sometimes also consumed cannabis with ginseng believing that the combination had the ability to set time forward thus revealing future events. Just a little bit of a fun fact for the word marijuana it said to have actually originated from these Chinese American immigrants who were calling marijuana ma rhan hua and expression literally translated to hemp seed flower.

So they don't know if that's the exact origin of the word but it's the possible explanation for the common use of the word marijuana. Hey guys just a little weaker reminder to go learn Feng Shui.com to check out the blog post look at that newsletter and you know keep up with all things at learn Feng Shui. Also if you're enjoying this episode consider leaving a review on the platform you're listening on it really does help kind of get the show out there. Alright let's get to folklore friday and shinyang father of Chinese medicine. Going to you from toxapedia.com which I'll link to of course in the show notes talks about shinyang here and of course the father of Chinese medicine noted for tasting 365 different herbs.

According to the legend shinyang was a father of Chinese medicine and pharmacology he sought out and investigated hundreds of herbs documenting many of them in his aforementioned book and is still worshiped today by Chinese medicine men. Shinyang was the ancient Chinese emperor believed to have lived 5000 years ago. He's often referred to as the young emperor and the literal meaning of his name translates to the divine farmer because he was credited to bringing agriculture to ancient China. He is widely respected in Chinese mythology also and is accredited as being the ancestor to the Vietnamese people as well as the Chinese. So it is debated as with the many different ancient Chinese figures ancient Chinese kind of deity these mythological people the emperor was there really one person named shinyang well that's a little bit debate debate it is this here on Wikipedia various various translates to divine farmer or divine husband men.

And it does state that he was a mythological ruler who became a deity in Chinese and Vietnamese folk regions. He is venerated as a cultural hero in China and in Vietnam. Shinyang has at times been counted amongst the three sovereigns or known as the three kings who was an ancient group of deities or deified kings in prehistoric China. Shinyang has been thought to have taught the ancient Chinese not only the practices of agriculture but also the uses of herbal drugs. So he's accredited with various inventions which I thought was pretty interesting not only did they say he document this use and created the use of herbs and created the book about the herbal use.

But he also said to have invented the whole the plow the axe credit it to digging wells creating irrigation preserving stored seeds and just all kinds of different stuff he said he created the weekly farmers market the Chinese calendar which is the 24 gt which I talk about a lot you know the 24 solar term so it said that this person this enlightened defined being brought all these things to him. So he's really venerated and really I'm thought highly of for helping the ancient Chinese learn more about agriculture and farming. So having transitioned from being a culture of hunting and gathering they were able to now you know the plow their fields are able to cultivate and have modern agriculture and it said that this actually helped the people transition from a diet of meat, clams and wild fruit to one based on grains and vegetables and of course this also helped in the development of herbal medicine because they were then able to plant and cultivate this herbs that they needed for medicinal purposes. And also with ancient Chinese tales there's usually some sort of divine this divine being when they're small when they're newborn babies or when they're very young they're said to possess different gifts and she and young was no different it says here on the Britannica calm that tells you relate that he spoke after three days walked within a week and he could plow the field of age three so it was said even from his very young. Very being very young he was very gifted also and so they knew who's going to be something special so the book itself is actually broken down in three different sort of chapters or volumes and it's such represent the herbs that represent heaven earth and man which is of course a concept we see in Feng Shui in Chinese metaphysics so the first volume it is included includes 120 drugs that are harmless to humans and that is said to be the heaven.

The aspect of you know heavenly properties of these drugs they're heavenly influences so it includes ginseng orange cinnamon licorice and cannabis which I was interested in and we'll talk about and devote a full episode to all and of its own and these of course known as the heaven herbs the second volume or chapter is the earth herbs or that I'm sorry at the man herbs I apologize and it's 120 therapeutic substances that are in. It's intended to treat sick but have toxic or potentially toxic properties of varying degrees so in this category we find ginger, peonies and cucumber of course that's the man aspect of it and of course here we have the earth so in the last volume there are 125 entries course wanting to substances which have a stronger violent action or psychological functions and are often poisonous. Rubarb and pitot fruits, peaches which I'm assuming is probably the pits from those those fruits because as we all know they can contain some substances that we can't you know we're not supposed to consume so these are known as lower herbs or the earth herbs including the book are very beautiful drawings that they're you know depicting each of the herbs that it's talking about and it's a very interesting book and I noticed that it is a transliterated into English and I hope to score me a copy they do have them on Amazon I noticed so this is something I'm pretty interested in if not just to have a copy for the resource or just to look at. The original shinyang herbal is long gone but a version that has four chapters was used by another writer called Tao Hongyang I believe I pronounced that correctly to produce what is called the shinyang bin kao jian which is the published work that we actually see today so if you go look at the classic of the farmer's classic of medic of material this is the one you'll actually find. Here it says the text has twice as many herbs the original and arranged by type material so it's actually I kind of looked through it online and again I kind of want to buy it just for fun but it is broken down really into minerals trees herbs and the categories or of course the upper middle and lower which I just talked about sections copied from the original were in red ink and while new material in commentary of various herbal authorities were written in black ink.

This preserving their original version so I guess there's you know all the annotated versions that way you can see the original and then you can see probably the authors notes which is not very uncommon a lot of books in ancient China and really throughout history even the eging has different commentary from different philosophers and stuff like that. Unfortunately it is said that shinyang had an unfortunate ending indulging a little bit too much in his work and actually poisoning himself and so all the accounts that I've read online kind of attribute his death to poisoning which is very unfortunate and but he's again very honored amongst the Chinese people and of course in addition to having a book name after him it says here shinyang has been honored by having a region rich and plant resources named after him as well. So shinyang ja or it's called really literally translates into shinyang's bookshelf or shinyang's lever which is the legendary story about him says that he carried out his investigation of herbs in this area and it's not actually far from his birthplace. Shinyang ja is a high plateau in central China which mountains ridges in rivers criss-crossing in this area it has a main forest area and lies it says here between the ganks e river and Han River the area has become famous today as a place where the bare man which is a big footer yet he sometimes said to reside instead of sightings of him. There's six mountain peaks that are about 3,000 meters high with the highest peak being about 3,100 meters a large stream runs through and is called the shinyang stream or shinyang river.

What's much of this area the shinyang ja is now a natural preserve and there are numerous rare plants there and it's known for its ginkgo trees it's different lilies, funguses and it says altogether there are about 3,000 plant species in the area with 34 endangered species that are under government protection. So even though of course he had this into his life he's very honored again and has this beautiful area named after him. I'm looking at a picture here online and man it's just amazing you can look in this lush green area and a little fun Feng Shui fact. It's said that when you have mountains the greener they are they're called green dragons the greener they are the more fertile and lush and you know better the better Feng Shui is said to be in the green mountains. So if you ever go to a region that has a super green mountains you'll know that has a really good Feng Shui.

Alright guys we'll hope you enjoy today's episode remember I won't be here next week usually take the last week of the month off to get things prepped for the next month. So I'll be back on May 3rd with May Energy Update month of the snake so let's see what it has in store for you I'll catch you guys then. For free wonder of consultation or energy mapping of your space follow the link in the show notes to support the podcast share with your family and friends leave a review or go to learn Feng Shui.com.