There are three treasures in Guandong: ginseng, mink, and uralia.
Ginseng is the king of herbs and the first of traditional Chinese medicines.
It has always occupied the first place among the three treasures of Guandong.
In mountainous areas, ginseng is commonly known as "Bangchui", and the business of digging wild ginseng into deep mountains and old forests is called "Fangshan".
Generally, it can be planted in the mountains in spring, summer and autumn until there is frost.
In the process of harvesting wild ginseng for nearly a thousand years, Fangshan people have gradually formed a unique set of folk customs, including "code words, techniques, taboos, tools", etc.
According to the growth period of ginseng, it is divided into "three flowers, palms, two jiaozi, dengtaizi, four leaves, five leaves and six leaves", and the largest one is eight leaves.
The main stem of the eight-leaf ginseng has two layers of leaves, which is called a two-story ginseng; each layer has four forks, which are four leaves.
The two layers of four leaves add up to become "two-story eight leaves", which is extremely rare.
If there are more than five leaves, it is called a "big stick".
If you want to dig a big stick, you must first form a gang, that is, organize a gang before entering the mountain.
The "leader" is responsible for this.
The leader is the leader of a group of Fangshan people.
The person who can be the leader must have rich experience, understand the rules of the mountain, be benevolent and righteous, have the skills to dig ginseng, be able to observe the mountain scenery, be able to tell which mountain will grow ginseng, and will not get lost after entering the mountain.
Once you have a team, you can enter the mountain, but you must choose an auspicious day to enter the mountain, usually the third, sixth, ninth, or eighth, eighteenth, or twenty-eighth days of the lunar month.
The first important thing after entering the mountain is to worship the mountain god, Sun Liang.
Build an old man's house with three stones, pray in front of the old man's house and ask for blessings.
Then choose a leeward and sunny hillside to build a hut, which is a simple shack, and use wooden poles to support thatch bark to prevent rain.
Grass and dog skin are spread inside to serve as a place to stay overnight in the mountains.
At night, a fire is lit in front of the shack to drive away mosquitoes, ward off wild beasts, remove moisture to warm up, and provide directions to those who are lost.
The firewood should be placed along the way, and it is usually lit by the head of the handle.
The mountain rangers set out from here every day to dig ginseng in different mountains and forests.
The process of searching for ginseng in the mountains is called "mountain pressing" in the jargon.
It is also called mountain digging, mountain patrolling, pressing, and spreading grass.
There are many names.
Before climbing the mountain, you first "observe the mountain scenery" with your head and choose which mountain forest to go to.
This is to carefully observe the mountain topography and tree vegetation to determine where ginseng will grow.
Sometimes the boss will decide where to press the mountain based on the dreams he had at night.
At this time, everyone just follows and cannot criticize.
When climbing the mountain, the gang members must divide the work into "arrangement of sticks", with the head as the head stick, the person in the middle as the waist stick, and the outermost one as the side stick.
The side sticks must also have rich experience in climbing mountains.
The mountain guard takes the treasure sticks and arranges them horizontally in the order of arranging the sticks.
The distance between the two people is more than ten feet.
The tips of the treasure sticks can be placed together.
They pull the grass and walk slowly to find ginseng.
Pay attention to "it would be better to leave a mountain than a brick".
You are not allowed to shout anything while climbing the mountain.
If you shout something when you see it, you must hold it, even if you see a snake, for fear of being distracted and getting lost.
When pressing down the mountain, use head sticks and side sticks to "beat the sticks" while walking, breaking thin branches at 90 degrees as marks to avoid repeated searches.
Turning in the direction pointed by the head and side sticks is "beating a kid".
When the forest is too dense, you may not be able to see each other a few steps away, and you are not allowed to yell, so you have to use the soba stick to knock on the tree trunks to communicate with each other. , called "calling stick", knocking on the tree trunk, and each person knocking back in turn not only indicates his position, but also signals to continue pressing the mountain.
When taking a break to smoke, you should hold the stick in your arms and stand it upright to prevent the ginseng from escaping; you are absolutely not allowed to sit on a tree stump.
Legend has it that the tree stump is the seat of the mountain god's boss.
If your cigarette pocket is empty, you cannot say "no" for fear of being unlucky. , pat your cigarette pocket, and others will give you cigarettes; do not doze off, as dozing off can lead to "Madashan", that is, getting lost.
In addition, there is a big taboo when climbing the mountain.
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You are not allowed to poop or pee, for fear of offending the mountain god.
If you meet a snake on the way, it is a good sign, because the snake is a "string of money", which indicates that your eyes will be opened soon; if you meet a tiger, it means good luck, and the mountain herders also call the tiger the mountain god; no ginseng was found in the place you passed.
If the leader thinks that there is ginseng in this place, he will go back and look for it again, which is called "turning the trip".
The herders call dried deer antlers and dried roe deer horns "ganzhao", which is unlucky and indicates that their work has been in vain.
When people in the mountains smoke, it is called "taking fire", when they rest, it is called "taking squats", when they eat, they are called "taking rice", when they sleep, they are called "taking sleep", and when they change their residence, they are called "taking house", all in order to get ginseng.
Those who dig out ginseng are said to have "caught the rice bag", those who have not opened their eyes are also called "the rice bag has not been grasped", and those who cook are called "the ones carrying the pot".
When you find ginseng, it's called "eye-opening", and you have to shout: "Bangchui", which is called mountain.
The leader wants to ask: "What kind of goods?"
This is called picking up the mountain.
Those who discover ginseng must answer truthfully how many leaves they have.
When the person who discovered the ginseng answered five leaves or six leaves, everyone would shout together: "Quick, quick, quick!"
This means success in Northeastern dialect, and also means congratulations.
Anyone who finds ginseng immediately knocks the tree trunk twice and inserts the stick next to the ginseng.
Because of its merit, you can take a break and smoke at this time.
You should also smoke a cigarette to calm down your head and prepare to "raise the stick".
If you are dazzled and call the mountain but find that it is not a big stick, it is called "Fake Mountain".
If you call Zhishan, you can either return the gun, or kowtow to the mountain god to apologize and continue to suppress the mountain.
Sometimes I didn't open my eyes for several days, so in order to cheer up my spirit, I would deliberately call out to the mountains, which was called "Shouting to the Empty Mountains".
The man who released the mountain had a special liking for Erjiaozi.
Two jiao is the key to the mountain, indicating that you can get a big mallet.
When I find Erjiaozi, I have to burn incense and kowtow to express my gratitude.
If Yashan opens his eyes for the first time and finds four leaves of ginseng, he can only answer "Bangchui" when picking up the mountain, because "four" does not sound good.
After digging through the mountains to find ginseng, the next step is to dig for ginseng, which is commonly known as "lifting the stick."
First, use a mallet lock to lock the red string with big money tied to both ends of the mallet.
The more auspicious the year number on the big coin, the better.
The middle of the red rope is wrapped around the main stem of ginseng.
The two ends of the big money are respectively placed on the Sobao stick and branches inserted in the ground. to prevent the mallet from escaping , because the terrain is complex, ginseng and grass are difficult to distinguish, and it disappears in the blink of an eye, sometimes it is difficult to find again.
Then everyone kneels in front of the ginseng, or builds a mansion on a tower, uses grass instead of incense, kowtows to thank the mountain god, and then lights a fire to drive away mosquitoes. , start digging for ginseng from the head.
Digging the mallet is a very complicated and delicate job.
Use your hands to remove the grass and leaves around the mallet, cut out the plate, and use a "quick saw" to cut off the roots around the mallet.
Do not use an ax to chop, as the roots are elastic and will break. wooden club.
Cut off thin roots with scissors.
Use the "quick pick" to carefully pull out the soil around the mallet until all the roots of the mallet are exposed, and no small roots can be dug out.
Every beard removed must be buried with the original soil at any time to prevent loss of moisture.
The time it takes to lift a stick is related to the size and environment in which the stick grows.
Sometimes it takes several days to lift a stick.
After digging out the ginseng, it is necessary to "make ginseng buns."
Uncover a piece of fresh moss and lay it on, put some original soil on it, wrap the ginseng, wrap it with bark, and tie it with bark kidneys.
Moss is soft, moist, and difficult to dry.
It is used to wrap ginseng and help preserve its freshness.
After taking out the mallet, you need to "cut the omen".
Continue to press the mountain and find a piece of ginseng headed by five leaves, or a piece of ginseng headed by six leaves.
You also need to cut the omen.
Use a knife or an ax on the red pine tree near the ginseng.
Cut off a piece of bark from a position high on the ground facing the ginseng.
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On the left side of the smooth trunk, a horizontal bar is carved according to the number of gang members, and on the right side, a horizontal bar is carved according to the number of ginseng lifted out.
Then "wash" the omen.
The so-called face washing is to use fire to burn away the pine oil around the omen.
In order to protect the omen so that it can be seen clearly decades later, the mountaineer can often find ginseng in front of the old omen many years ago.
The people who released the mountains consciously abide by an important rule: "Promote the big and leave the small."
If you don’t dig out small sticks, even if you encounter piles of sticks, you should keep the small ones until they grow up and leave them to future generations.
Fangshan people pay more attention to mutual help.
If they dig ginseng from Fangshan, the money from the sales will be divided equally among the gang members, regardless of age.
When you meet other gang members while carrying the mallet, you have to meet and join in the gang.
If both gangs are single, they will split half of the money when they meet.
There is no competition among the gangs, and they are all on a first-come, first-served basis.
I found that someone was already on this mountain, so I quickly moved to another mountain site.
Most of the experiences of mountain farmers are full of such legends, and scientific principles are reflected in many aspects, from the special equipment for collecting ginseng, the survey of the mountain fields, the identification of directions in the forest, to the awareness of environmental protection
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