Chapter 68: What to Grow

Shaoyang’s chief purpose in clearing land for herbs was not to make a fortune. He wanted to be a physician who helped people, not a medicinal-plant farmer. These days of practice had shown him that many commonly used later medicines were unavailable in the early Tang. They were indispensable to numerous classical and proven prescriptions, with no substitutes. Since he could not buy them, he must grow them.

Chinese medicine valued materials from their proper regions: angelica from Gansu, goji berries from Ningxia, coptis and aconite from Sichuan, ginseng from Jilin, astragalus and codonopsis from Shanxi, poria from Yunnan, and so on. Those regions produced better quality than elsewhere, and some medicines met the necessary requirements only when grown in particular places.

Fritillaria was one example. Zhejiang fritillaria cleared the lungs and expelled phlegm, suiting cough from phlegm-heat lodged in the lungs. Sichuan fritillaria treated dry-heat cough and cough from consumptive deficiency.

He could not grow every later medicine missing in the early Tang in one place. He must choose those suited to Hezhou. Gathering on Mount Qianren had shown him its wealth of medicinal plants. He should be able to grow many of the kinds he needed here.

Naturally he could not tell his father all of that.

“To be honest, I haven’t decided yet,” he said after a moment. “We should start with easy, hardy plants that are widely needed. Honeysuckle, platycodon, isatis root, gardenia, giant knotweed, pinellia, gastrodia…”

“Honeysuckle and isatis root have only recently come into use,” Zuo Gui said, stroking his beard. “There are few prescriptions for them, and many physicians don’t know them. You may have trouble selling them.”

Both first appeared in the Tang *Newly Revised Materia Medica*, also called the *Tang Materia Medica*, compiled some twenty or thirty years after this time. Shaoyang reasoned that inclusion in an official materia medica meant their effects had already been recognised and their use established. They must have been used in the early Tang, though not widely.

He had classified them as high-demand bulk medicines according to later prescribing habits: common ingredients in many formulas, suitable for large-scale production. But this was the early Tang. Their medicinal use was new, and formulas containing them few.

He had overlooked that.

“Well… then not those two,” he said with an embarrassed smile. “Something else first.”

Zuo Gui snorted. Seeing that his son had not really thought it through, his face darkened again. He sipped his wine. Shaoyang hastily put a piece of meat in his bowl.

“Have some food, Father.”

Zuo Gui lifted it with his chopsticks.

“Rice is eaten a mouthful at a time. Work is done one thing at a time. Herbs are no different. Bite off too much and you cannot chew it. Want to grow this, that and everything, and you’ll achieve nothing.”

He put the meat in his mouth and chewed slowly.

“Quite right,” Hou Pu told Shaoyang with a smile. “You haven’t many hands to help at first. Begin with one or two kinds: easy to grow, easy to sell, profitable. Once you have money, expand.”

The idea had only come that day, so Shaoyang had not considered this carefully. At short notice, he had to choose something he knew.

Fortunately, he had taken an elective in *Cultivation of Medicinal Plants* at university. He had always studied seriously and remembered some of it. Tilting his head back, he searched his memory. Such a broad search brought nothing to mind. Instead he saw Peilan that morning on Mount Qianren, delighted at finding her first gastrodia.

Gastrodia! He could grow that.

But it demanded precise temperature and humidity. Artificial cultivation generally took place indoors or in a greenhouse. Outdoors, shading would be needed to prevent excessive warmth from direct sun. Its growth cycle was long too—several years before results.

Better choose something quicker.

Of the plants he knew how to grow, with a short cycle and suitable for Hezhou, platycodon seemed the answer. It had been a medicine since *Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica*, appeared in many prescriptions and could be eaten as food. Demand was large. Cultivation was straightforward; anyone who could farm could grow it. It could also be intercropped with grain or suitable medicinal plants.

The one drawback was its soil requirement: deep, fertile ground with convenient drainage and irrigation, sunny but sheltered from wind. Cultivated land was best.

“Can the ownerless, abandoned fields outside town be farmed?” he asked Hou Pu.

“Those belong to the court when the owners’ family line dies out. But the court sells them and encourages people to buy.”

“I hear two taels a mu?”

“For the best fields. Middling land is one tael and five qian. Poor cultivated land only one tael.”

Cheap as it sounded, prices in general were low in the early Tang and money hard to earn. After these days of struggling for income, Shaoyang knew particularly well that two taels was no small price.

His father shook his head and pointed at him with the chopsticks.

“I told you, the boy’s a crab—always sidling off. One moment he’s talking about clearing waste ground, the next he’s onto cultivated fields. Soon he’ll want to buy land and grow grain!”

“Weren’t you going to grow herbs on reclaimed ground?” Madam Liang asked quickly. “Why ask about fields?”

He had simply followed his thoughts aloud. He had not intended to buy cultivated land for herbs.

“I wasn’t planning to farm grain. I’m considering what to grow, and it came to mind. Just talking.”

“Have you decided what to grow on the waste ground?”

“Yes.”

“What?” his mother asked anxiously. Afraid he would invite another rebuke, she added, “Think carefully before answering.”

Huixiang was anxious too.

“Something with several uses would be best. Medicinal, edible and pretty. Peonies, for instance.”

“Peonies? Too delicate. Hard to grow out in the wild. I don’t know much about cultivating them either.”

“Are they? Still, they’re beautiful. Flowers blooming with wealth and honour!”

“Blooming…”

A song suddenly sprang into Shaoyang’s mind: *Gardenias in Bloom*. It had been popular on campus during his student days, and he had liked it. The song had drawn his attention to gardenia as a medicine. He had specifically read about its cultivation and remembered it clearly.

“Gardenias! We’ll grow gardenias!”

Gardenia too had appeared in *Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica*. It cleared heat and drained fire, cooled the blood and resolved toxins, and was common in many formulas. Besides medicine, it provided dye and could be grown ornamentally. Demand was considerable.

Its cultivation was relatively simple. Deep, fertile soil suited it best, but it could grow on uncultivated slopes, preferably after thorough clearance.

“Very well,” Zuo Gui said. “Tell me how.”

This was something Shaoyang could answer. He sipped his wine and counted points confidently on his fingers.

“Gardenias dislike cold. They favour warmth and moisture, but not excessive direct sun, and need good ventilation. Choose the middle or lower part of a sunny slope, with fairly deep, fertile, loose soil. Well-drained sandy soil is best, though others can do.

“Fresh branch cuttings can be planted from the beginning of spring until the beginning of autumn. They root in about half a month. Dig planting holes roughly one or two chi wide and deep, about four chi apart. Gardenias like fertiliser. Put well-rotted farm manure in each hole and mix it with the soil. Afterwards, apply light dressings regularly…”

Zuo Gui’s eyes widened. He stared at his son.

“Where… where did you learn all that?”

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