The History
This ancient herbal recipe was taught to my grandparents from a Chinese herbal healer after he escaped to Taiwan during the Communist Cultural Revolution.
Chinese herbal medicine had been mastered and perfected by ancient Chinese herbal doctors for thousands of years until the Chinese Cultural Revolution attempted to eradicate and destroy their methodologies. This particular herbal recipe was originally part of a larger collection of herbal recipes in a treasured medical journal written by a "Master Healer" and the master healers before him and passed down for many years. In order to preserve his livelihood and protect these medical treasures, this Master Healer escaped to the island of Taiwan on a small boat when the Communist Party began its destruction of Chinese traditions, culture, philosophy, and religion during Mao’s Cultural Revolution in the 1960s - 1970s. In those days, immigrants from mainland China were often discriminated against by earlier “native” Chinese settlers in Taiwan much like later European immigrants processed through Ellis Island faced nativist sentiment from US-born white men. With no money, no food, no job, and homeless, this Master Healer went from door to door each day politely requesting for spare food and a warm bed.
On a rainy day, after struggling in starvation, and bearing the hardships of verbal and physical abuse for months, this Master Healer stumbled upon my grandmother’s front steps in the farmlands of Taoyuan, not far from where Taipei International Airport is today. Knock. Knock. Knock. "Hi. How are you? I am a traveler from..." My grandmother interrupted the stranger immediately with hysterical concern for his well-being, the type of genuine concern you always expect from your grandmother, especially on a rainy day with no umbrella, and invited him inside before he could continue to speak. My grandmother immediately drew up a hot bath for the stranger, and before he knew it, the man was in the bath cleansing himself of the wounds from his journey.
My grandmother always had a way with getting people to do exactly as she wished but always with the best intentions and concern for their well-being. Every meal anyone had with my grandmother, even if you were completely stuffed, she somehow found a way to convince you to eat twice or three times more. During our meals, she was always busy tending to everyone’s needs while she barely ate herself. So it was no surprise that under my grandmother’s direction, this man also ate until he couldn’t move. Although the dishes were simple farmer’s homemade foods, it may have been the best meal he had in his life.
After the meal, the man told my grandparents how he escaped from China to seek survival in Taiwan while purposely not disclosing his profession fearing that it may bring trouble for my grandparents. My grandparents told him not to worry and said that our family had more than enough to accommodate him and that he could stay with us for as long as he liked. My grandparents opened their doors to this stranger and treated him like a member of our family. Grateful for saving his life, this man did everything he could to help out on my grandparents’ farm gave them several tips about farming and planting all sorts of vegetables, herbs, and fruits. The man also gradually introduced my grandparents to many methods in which to prepare the different types of herbs for various medicinal purposes.
After several months, the man finally saved up some money and decided that had to leave. His decision to leave was met with strong opposition from my grandmother as she felt there was no rush for him to leave. However, the man insisted and couldn’t bear to continue being burden in their lives. For once, my grandmother conceded but left him with an open invitation to return at any time. After his departure, my grandmother found the man’s treasured medical journal with a heartfelt note expressing his everlasting gratitude and eternal debt to my grandparents. The man left the journal behind as a gift with all the secrets necessary for my grandmother to treat anything from a common cold, infections, cuts and bruises, to infertility, and even cancer. The man never returned and was never seen by my grandmother again.
My grandmother, being the overbearing caring person she always was, used the medical journal to try and help as many people as she could. All the neighbors, friends, and family would always seek her help when illness fell upon their loved ones and the entire town loved and respected her for all the people she helped over the years. That is how my grandmother became known for her herbal remedies for treating all types of illnesses and, to this day, if you mention her name in the older shops and markets of Taoyuan City you instantly receive a warm welcoming with many great stories of her life. If it weren’t for my grandmother’s passion to help others, she wouldn’t have learned the remedy for leukemia and I wouldn’t be alive today. In my opinion, I believe the Master Healer left the medical journal for my grandmother not only as a gift but also because he recognized my grandmother’s sincere care for others and knew that the secrets of the journal would be best put to use in her hands.
These herbal remedies and recipes have been administered, perfected, and prescribed by Chinese doctors such as the “Master Healer” for thousands and thousands of years. In the past, going to a western hospital was always a last resort for Chinese people, especially poor farmers. They have always relied on herbal remedies as the conventional method and viewed the expensive treatments of western medicine as “untrustworthy”. However, much of the Chinese herbal medicine culture and its knowledge was destroyed or lost during the Chinese Cultural Revolution until bits and pieces of secret family recipes being brought back in recent years.
