Chapter 62: Gathering Herbs in the Snow

“Then why cut so much?” Shaoyang asked. “The back of your house is piled with it.”

Peilan smiled.

“Who wants to cut wood in winter? We need it for our own fire. It has to dry before it burns well. Green wood smokes too much. Besides, there’s little else to do in deep winter. A pile of wood won’t spoil, and there’s no time to cut it when the fields are busy. If I don’t do it now, when will I?”

He understood at last. Much of the wood was stored for their own later use. She could not sell so much. Her earnings were far below what he had imagined.

“Still, helping me would take time from your work. What do the men at the canal works earn? Brother Li, Auntie Li’s son, for instance?”

“It depends on how much they do.”

“How much does he make?”

“I hear three wen a day, with two meals.”

“Only three? That’s so little!”

“He earns more than some. Others make only one wen. But two meals save a person’s share of the household food. That’s already quite good.”

“True. Then help me clear land and grow herbs, and I’ll pay you at Brother Li’s rate: three wen a day and two meals.”

“I don’t want money. I’ll just help.”

“No. If I use your labour, I must pay. Otherwise forget it. I’ll dig slowly by myself. I’m idle enough.”

He deliberately made himself sound forlorn.

She laughed and looked back.

“Two wen a day, with two meals. Take it or leave it.”

“I’ve heard of workers bargaining their wages up, never down!” He laughed. “Very well, if you insist. But if the herbs prosper and make money, I’ll raise your wages. You mustn’t refuse then.”

She smiled faintly and nodded.

They soon reached her usual woodcutting ground, a broad sunny slope not far from the village. Its gentle incline suited her work, but not his winter herb gathering. Snow still reached halfway up the calves, despite a morning’s partial thaw. He would have to clear it away before seeing what grew beneath.

He had no desire to hunt blindly through the snow. Instead he looked for taller plants and soon spotted several clumps of perennial buckwheat, jin qiao mai. It cleared heat and toxins, discharged pus and dispelled blood stasis. Autumn and winter, when the stems and leaves had withered, were the best time to gather it: cut away the upper growth and dig out the medicinal root.

As he searched, his eyes suddenly lit up.

A plant stood like an arrow shaft, flower spikes at its tip, resembling a red feathered arrow thrust upside down into the snow.

Gastrodia! Called “red arrow” in *Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica*.

He cleared the snow and carefully dug out the tuber, removed the stalk and fibrous roots, then washed it with snow water. It lay heavy in his hand, full and firm, with a parrot-beak-like tip. Excellent-quality gastrodia.

Hearing the thud of Peilan’s billhook nearby, he called her over.

The chopping stopped. Twigs cracked as she approached, covered in snow knocked from branches, like Father Christmas. Billhook in hand, she smiled at him.

He held up the tuber.

“Do you know what this is?”

She took it, examined it and shook her head.

“Gastrodia, tian ma, also called red arrow. A valuable medicine. I looked at the wholesale herb market in town the other day. Top-grade gastrodia costs twenty wen a jin; ordinary grades still fetch over ten. Our shop’s retail price is higher than the market’s wholesale price.

“If you could dig a few jin a day, wouldn’t that beat cutting wood? You said much of your wood doesn’t sell and stays for home use. This is different. It’s a common medicine for extinguishing wind and relieving spasms. Demand is strong. Find it, and you can sell it.”

“Really?”

Her doubtful expression plainly asked why others did not do the same if it was so easy.

He smiled.

“It isn’t as plentiful as ordinary grass. You might search all day and find only one or two. With bad luck, none. And it can only be dug in winter and spring. Winter tubers are best—the ‘winter gastrodia’. Spring ones are much poorer. You can’t expect this good fortune all year. But there are more herbs to gather in other seasons.”

He gestured over the silver-clad mountain.

“How many people come up to cut wood in snow on the first or second day of the year? They aren’t as willing to endure hardship as you. Gathering herbs is a skill too. Many people don’t know it and have nowhere to learn. You might walk past this without knowing what it was, much less dig it up to sell.

“You need someone to teach you. Others have no teacher; I can teach you which herbs to gather in winter. It should earn more than firewood.”

“I believe you,” she said. “Teach me. We have nearly enough wood at home anyway.”

“Good!”

He showed her the stalk he had removed and explained how to recognise gastrodia. Then he led her in searching the slopes.

Their luck was good. Not far away, another plant appeared.

He deliberately looked elsewhere and said nothing. Peilan caught the stem, studied it and turned excitedly.

“Physician Zuo, is this gastrodia?”

“Dig it up and see.”

She quickly dug out the tuber, cleaned the earth away and compared it with the first. Delight spread over her face.

“It must be! They’re so alike!”

“Yes. Your first medicinal herb, and a reasonably valuable one.”

She turned it over lovingly in her hands. Even the freckles beside her nose seemed to smile. Shaoyang’s heart stirred. Her skin might be dark, but she was very pretty. Women were not lovable because they were beautiful, people said, but beautiful because they were lovable. It fitted Peilan perfectly.

Her interest sharpened, she searched wide-eyed beside him. Before long they found figwort root, xuan shen. Though its Chinese name also contained the word “shen”, it was far cheaper than ginseng: only one wen a jin.

Next came the fruits of sweetgum, lu lu tong, along with ge shan xiao and nux-vomica seeds, ma qian zi. These had not entered medicinal use until the Song, Ming or later. In the early Tang, no one knew them as medicines, so no one gathered them.

Sweetgum fruit dispelled wind, freed the connecting vessels, promoted urination and opened the channels; it was useful for rheumatic pain and paralysis after wind stroke. Ge shan xiao strengthened digestion, moved qi and relieved pain, and could encourage milk flow after childbirth. Nux-vomica was a valuable injury medicine, reducing swellings and masses, freeing the channels and relieving pain.

Shaoyang gathered them and told her, “These can all be used medicinally, but many physicians don’t know it, so the market won’t buy them. You can sell them to me. I need them. They’re relatively easy to find, though only in winter. I’ll pay a wen for three jin.”

“How much could you use by yourself?” she said with a smile. “They’re worth so little. I’ll gather some while I’m cutting wood and bring them.”

“Then thank you!”

Once he began looking, Mount Qianren proved a treasure-house of medicines. In one morning they found many, including mulberry mistletoe, Sichuan chinaberry fruit, green-thread turmeric, turmeric, achyranthes root and hogfennel root, all gathered in winter.

By noon, the basket was full. He estimated it might fetch ten-odd wen.

They headed back excitedly. The sky was darkening again, with an occasional snowflake drifting down.

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