The earliest record of ginseng comes from the Weishu of the Confucian teachings of the Han and Han Dynasties, such as "Shake the light and scatter the stars and become ginseng, and the benefits of the people's waste and desecration of the mountains will shake the light and the ginseng will not grow" ("Spring and Autumn Weft"), "The king rides the wood and the king has ginseng, and there is purple gas on the ginseng below" ("Liwei Dou Weiyi").

But what really makes ginseng a medicine is from the "Shennong Materia Medica". Subsequently, it became famous in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the famous doctor Zhang Zhongjing wrote "Treatise on Typhoid Fever".

There are 113 prescriptions in this book**, of which 21 contain ginseng, accounting for 18.6% of the total formula. It is also discussed that ginseng has the functions of "warmth, moisturizing, strengthening, strengthening, heat preservation, enhancing eyesight, and stabilizing the spirit".

In the Ming Dynasty, with the rise of the Wenbu school, ginseng finally embarked on the road of deification. Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" believes that ginseng can cure various diseases, including: "all deficiency syndromes in men and women, fever, self-sweating, dizziness, headache, nausea, diarrhea and diarrhea, frequent urination, fatigue and internal injury, stroke, heat stroke, paralysis, vomiting blood, coughing blood, bleeding, bloody shower, blood collapse, prenatal and postnatal diseases, etc."

However, in the Ming Dynasty, most of the ginseng was produced in Shangdang in the Taihang Mountains of Shanxi, and the doctors of the Ming Dynasty also believed that the quality of Shangdang ginseng was better than that of Baekje's Korean ginseng and Liaodong ginseng.

However, because the Yongle Emperor moved the capital to Beijing, the forest resources on the Taihang Mountain were cut down in large quantities, so the most outstanding Shangdang ginseng and purple ginseng began to become scarce.

In addition, the local ginseng is too famous, and the officials always take advantage of the local ginseng farmers, causing the local people to take ginseng as a harm, so they reclaim the ginseng garden as farmland, and the party no longer produces ginseng.

However, with the spread of the Compendium of Materia Medica, the demand for ginseng in the Central Plains began to grow, so the Ming ginseng merchants turned their attention to Liaodong.

The Changbai Mountain Range and the Ussuri River basin in eastern Liaoning are densely forested, rich in products, and rich in ginseng. By the end of Wanli, the huge demand for ginseng in the Central Plains induced the emergence of the ginseng collection industry of the Jurchens in Northeast China.

Only in the 11th to 12th years of Wanli in the transactions of Guangshun and Zhenbei Erguan, ginseng reached 3,619 catties, worth more than 30,000 taels of silver. In addition, the Ming Dynasty and the Jurchens also had many conflicts and disputes over the ginseng trade.

In the thirty-seventh year of Wanli (1609), the Ming Dynasty closed the border market with the Jurchen for some reason, which led to the overproduction of ginseng in the Jurchens, and the accumulation of ginseng amounted to more than 100,000 catties, and finally all of them were rotten.

In response to this crisis, Nurhachi invented the steaming method to preserve ginseng. Since then, ginseng has become easy to preserve, creating conditions for the widespread circulation of ginseng.

Up to now, the annual ginseng production in Liaodong is about 8 to 90,000 catties, and more than 90% of it is wild ginseng. The income from the sale of Liaodong ginseng has also become a major source of wealth for Houjin.

Therefore, the control of the Jurchen Eight Banners over the ginseng collection industry has also reached a very strict state, and the privileges of the ginseng collection industry are mainly in the hands of the Eight Banners nobles, and the Eight Banners are divided into mountains to collect ginseng, and then the imperial court uniformly buys and sells them.

In order to control the quantity of ginseng and maintain the price of ginseng, the Jurchens banned the artificial cultivation of ginseng, dismissed the artificial cultivation of ginseng as a fake and inferior product, and imposed heavy penalties on those who planted ginseng.

The only thing that can pose a threat to the ginseng market in Liaodong is the Korean ginseng produced in North Korea, but the production of Korean ginseng is less than a quarter of the ginseng in Liaodong, plus the sales to Japan for personal use, the amount of people who can export Daming every year ranges from three or four thousand catties to eight or nine thousand catties, so it can not meet the strong demand for ginseng in Daming.

Fan Wencheng reasoned out, and he made up for the history of ginseng trade before he set off, and then listened to Fan Yongdou tell him what troubles the Great Khan's trade had encountered.

Fan Yongdou also felt very helpless, and he told Fan Wencheng honestly about the news he heard from the shopkeeper of his own shop.

“… At the beginning of the year, His Majesty the Emperor issued an edict to set up the Department of Medical and Epidemic Prevention and Health, which was under the jurisdiction of Tai Hospital and Huimin Hospital, which was formerly known as Huimin Pharmacy.

As soon as Huimin Hospital was established, cowpox cultivation began to eradicate smallpox, so it soon received the support and donations of the gentry from all over the world. In just 3 or 4 months, large and small Huimin hospitals have been established in various counties in the north and south of the river and in the hinterland of the Central Plains.

At about the same time, the Department of Medical and Epidemic Prevention issued an order for a patriotic health campaign in the name of protecting the health of the people of Daming. There are a few of them,

1. Eliminate the source of disease transmission in the living environment, such as eliminating the six pests: flies, mosquitoes, rats, cockroaches, fleas, and bed bugs.

2. Develop healthy hygiene habits, don't drink raw water, don't eat rotten food, wash your hands before meals and after using the toilet...

3. Certify doctors and pharmacies in various places, oppose unlicensed medical practice, and unlicensed operation of pharmacies and dispensing work...

Later, the hospital also announced that in order to prevent quacks from using the wrong prescriptions to treat patients, it had decided to conduct a comprehensive survey of the medical books and collect existing prescriptions for correction.

In addition, a system of prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs has been established, and if an unlicensed doctor prescribes drugs that cause the death of a patient, he or she shall be sentenced for the crime of manslaughter. If a licensed physician prescribes a drug that causes the death of a patient, the patient's family may appeal to the medical and epidemic prevention and health department of each county, and if the medical and health department finds that the person who is at fault for the medical treatment, it may impose various penalties ranging from suspension of medical practice to revocation of license and lifetime prohibition from practicing medicine..."

Fan Yongdou said a lot of long-winded, and it had nothing to do with the ginseng business, Fan Wencheng felt that these medical and health regulations issued by the Ming Emperor were simple and easy to understand, and quite reasonable, and the operability was also very high.

He waved his hand to stop Fan Yongdou from continuing, and asked straightforwardly: "What went wrong, you talk about the point." ”

Fan Yongdou smiled bitterly, he straightened out his words in his heart, and then said more simply: "The medical books that have been reviewed by Tai Hospital have greatly deleted the description of the use of ginseng, even the book on the Compendium of Materia Medica. They came to the conclusion that it was too much, that it was not remedied, that it was a good medicine for killing, and that it needed to be used cautiously under the guidance of a doctor.

Since June this year, the Daming Times has begun to publish a large number of articles, criticizing the school of Chinese medicine and the Wen Bu school, believing that the untimely death of Taichang and Tianqi Emperor is too much, which leads to a big business. Several new doctors in Tai Hospital even accused Wen of learning theories and using medical theories to kill people.

The Daming Times also deliberately published dozens of cases of using ginseng to treat diseases, but the patients died urgently. In addition, the Times also claimed that because of the erroneous theory of the Wenbu school, ginseng was abused by a large number of inferior doctors, so not only the price remained high, but also a large number of fakes appeared on the market.

Under the appeal of the Daming Times, the Department of Medical and Epidemic Prevention and Health not only included ginseng in the prescription drugs for controlled use, but also set up a special Food and Drug Administration to rectify the ginseng market.

In September, the Food and Drug Administration published an announcement in the Daming Times, declaring that all ginseng must wear an anti-counterfeiting label before it can be sold on the market. Ginseng without anti-counterfeiting labels is regarded as counterfeit and shoddy products, and the Food and Drug Administration will directly close down the pharmacies and distributors, and in addition to high fines, the confiscated ginseng will be publicly destroyed in the market. ”

"Destroy?" After Fan Wencheng's face became darker and darker, he finally couldn't help but ask.

Fan Yongdou looked at his gaze and nodded, and said with the same ugly face: "It is indeed destroyed, the ginseng market in Shakouchang, Beijing, has publicly destroyed more than 700 catties of ginseng. ”

Fan Wencheng suddenly couldn't sit still, he stood up and walked back and forth in the room with some anxiety, Fan Yongdou looked at his footsteps walking back and forth, and said: "Now the price of ginseng in Beijing has plummeted, and it is about to be on par with the outside of the border. ”

Fan Wencheng's forehead was sweaty, and he suddenly stopped and said to Fan Yongdou: "What about over-the-counter transactions?" The Ming Kingdom is a vast place, and it is not necessarily necessary to trade in the ginseng market in the capital.

Haven't the southern gentry and wealthy rooms always been eager for ginseng? I don't believe it, is it possible that a few articles in the Ming Times can reverse the preferences of the people in the world?

In addition, if you can't sell it in the market, you can sell it directly to pharmacies in various places. As the saying goes, if the mountain doesn't come, I can go to the mountain. Our ginseng is all genuine, and those who open crude medicine shops are always knowledgeable, right?

This has just been established by the Medical and Epidemic Prevention and Health Department, can he still manage so many pharmacies in the world? There's no way they're going to have a single person in every pharmacy to keep an eye on, right? Then the Ming treasury must be bankrupt. ”

Fan Yongdou shook his head and said: "First, we don't have one or two hundred catties of ginseng in our hands, and if we want to sell all these ginsengs, it is estimated that we will have to run thousands of pharmacies, and this person is a problem."

Second, there are rules for medicinal materials in pharmacies all over the country, and if we send them to the door like this, he will buy one or two times, and if he wants to turn it into a long-term business, he will definitely be bad.

Third, the southern gentry and wealthy rooms are eager for ginseng, will they change their habit of eating ginseng for a while, but they are not bad for money? There are legal channels for this to buy ginseng, why did he buy undocumented ginseng that the imperial court pointed out as harmful to the body?

Fourth, transporting such a large amount of ginseng from the north to the south is not a small risk on the way, if it is seized and destroyed by the government, how can I explain to the Great Khan?

Fifth, according to the new regulations of the Department of Health and Prevention, all prescription drugs must be backed up in pharmacies and then handed over to the local health departments on a monthly basis. If someone has a problem with a prescription drug, they can hold the doctor accountable for the prescribed drug.

This month alone, there have been five cases in Xuanfu counties where the families of patients have been sued by the government because the doctors prescribed drugs to kill them. Of the five medical cases, three were found guilty, and two were implicated in pharmacies, all because ginseng was prescribed in the prescription.

Nowadays, whether it is a doctor or a pharmacy, they are extremely cautious about the use of ginseng or the dosage of ginseng in the dispensing, for fear of bad trouble. Some healers simply changed the recipe and didn't add ginseng to the recipe..."