Chapter 66: A Son-in-Law’s New Year Visit

Water levigation had been used before the Tang. But without the technique of heating hard minerals to redness and quenching them in vinegar, practitioners could not break them down sufficiently. Even levigation could not produce the required fineness. Before the Song, such medicines were generally heated directly, crushed and ground, leaving larger particles.

After graduation, Shaoyang had worked in the dispensary of a Chinese-medicine hospital. It had a dedicated processing room and prepared common medicinal materials itself to reduce costs and increase profit. Most equipment was modern, but the principles and methods remained traditional. He knew how to process these medicines.

For his first trial, he chose amethyst, one of the hardest mineral medicines to grind finely, to see what ancient tools could achieve. With those tools available, he decided to follow the Song method.

He placed a piece in the calcining crucible and heated it fiercely until red throughout. Immediately he tipped it into vinegar to quench and make it brittle, then removed it. The vinegar and amethyst were proportioned at roughly one to three. He repeated the heating and quenching seven times.

In a modern dispensary, improved equipment and technique generally reduced this to two cycles rather than seven.

The amethyst had to dry before crushing. While he waited, he processed borax and the other materials he needed.

Borax was easier. The Song method had been comparatively elaborate and used auxiliary materials, but later study found these made no obvious difference to the medicinal action or processing result, so they could be omitted. He crushed the borax, put it in a calcining pan and heated it strongly until small bubbles rose and it became a snow-white, friable mass. Then he removed it to cool before grinding.

Before the Tang, borax had simply been ground directly, naturally producing a coarser powder.

Calamine was more troublesome. Earlier practice likewise calcined and crushed it directly, leaving particles too large for use in the eyes. Shaoyang adopted a modern improvement on the Ming method of calcining and quenching in Three Yellow Decoction.

First he decocted coptis, phellodendron and baical skullcap two or three times, until their bitterness weakened, then strained out the dregs. He heated the calamine in the pan until red throughout and tipped it into the decoction to quench. After stirring, he poured off the upper suspension and calcined and quenched the residue three or four more times, until nothing further would suspend.

He combined the liquids, left them to settle and poured away the clear water. Once the sediment dried, it would be ready.

Processing calamine with Three Yellow Decoction strengthened its ability to remove dampness, drain fire, clear heat and resolve toxins.

He treated the remaining ingredients by other improved post-Tang methods. Such work could not be finished in two or four hours. By the time the preliminary stages were complete, supper was approaching.

Hou Pu, chatting with his father-in-law, heard the bellows and repeated pounding from the preparation room. Only then did he realise Shaoyang had genuinely set to work. He knocked and asked whether help was needed. Since the quantities were small, Shaoyang said he could manage and asked him to keep his father company.

At dusk, Huixiang knocked.

“Brother, supper!”

He put out the fire and emerged.

“Tired?” Hou Pu asked, seeing his sweat-soaked head. “How did it go?”

“About halfway. It’s drying now. Tonight I still have to crush, grind and levigate it. We won’t know until morning.”

Zuo Gui had begun to view his son’s medical ability differently, but had yet to see evidence of his processing skills. He had wanted to stop the boy wasting ingredients; with his son-in-law and grandchildren present, he had said nothing. Now, hearing that it was half done, he could not be bothered to inspect it. Mineral medicines were cheap. The experiment would cost little.

The door had stood open all afternoon without a single patient. That had dampened his mood. With food on the table and the sun down, he said quietly, “Enough. Eat.”

Yet instead of going to the dining table, he approached the altar with his hands behind him, brushed down his sleeves and respectfully offered incense. Only then did he sit.

The others followed his example before gathering round the little table. Zuo Gui occupied the place of honour, Hou Pu and Shaoyang to either side. Huixiang and Madam Liang sat at the lower end.

Shaoyang had wanted his mother beside his father, but Hou Pu smiled, shook his head and drew him down. He realised there were rules governing seats at a formal meal. Later he learned that in grander households, at a proper reception such as a son-in-law’s visit, women did not sit at the table at all, let alone at its lower end.

Hou Pu’s family had brought a thin cut of pork, a little under half a sack of rice and a flask of wine. Madam Liang stir-fried the mutton from the New Year’s Eve offerings for her guests, keeping the beef and a few rice cakes to send back in their gift basket.

The mutton and pork were prepared separately into four or five meat dishes, with a soup of green leaves. Dadou and Douhua swallowed at the sight. Poor children seldom saw meat outside the New Year. No wonder they loved the holiday.

With son-in-law and grandchildren visiting, bringing meat and wine, Madam Liang could hardly serve buns of dark flour and mulberry bark. Steeling herself, she took half the rice they had brought, added a bowl of dark flour and half a pot of water, and made a thin porridge. Each child received a large bowl, topped with two broad slices of half-fat pork. Delighted, they carried their bowls to the threshold to eat.

Huixiang half-filled a small wooden bucket with hot water and set the earthenware wine vessel in it to warm. She put three chipped white porcelain cups before the men and carefully poured.

Seeing none before his mother or sister, Shaoyang smiled.

“Bring two more cups, Sister. You and Mother should have some too.”

She glanced at the wine vessel, swallowed and managed a smile.

“I don’t drink. Keep Father and your brother-in-law company.”

“How can that be? It isn’t New Year unless everyone has a drink. Mother had some on the eve.”

Hou Pu patted his shoulder.

“Don’t urge her. If she starts, this flask won’t be enough for her alone.”

“Then let her have it!”

Huixiang rolled her eyes at her husband.

“Don’t listen to him. Eat before it gets cold.”

“No. You and Mother have worked hard all year. If you won’t have a cup at New Year, neither will I.”

Zuo Gui smiled into his beard.

“Since Zhong insists, have one each.”

“Then no need for another cup,” Huixiang said with a smile. “I’ll have a sip from Hou Pu’s.”

He covered it at once.

“Better get your own, or there’ll be none left for me!”

Everyone laughed. Madam Liang brought two more cups and filled them.

Zuo Gui raised his own, spoke a few auspicious words about reunion and drank. As soon as he had finished, Huixiang tipped hers back, swallowed the whole cup and smacked her lips.

“Gone already? I didn’t even taste it.”

Shaoyang laughed. After finishing his wine, he took the vessel to refill hers. She hastily lifted her cup and hid it beneath the table.

“No more, Brother. You three drink.”

Hou Pu and Zuo Gui laughed.

“Leave her be,” Hou Pu said. “A young wife has had enough with one.”

Madam Liang had taken only a sip. She put the rest before her daughter.

“Too fierce. Like a knife. I don’t care for it. Finish it for me.”

“Gladly!”

Huixiang seized it and drank before anyone could object. She smacked her lips and even ran her tongue over them.

Only then did Shaoyang realise that his elder sister had a formidable capacity for wine.

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