According to historical records, ginseng is an ancient relict plant in the Tertiary period of the earth's development history, and it is called the living fossil of plants. It is the essence of heaven and earth, consolidating the foundation and cultivating the yuan, and was once mythologized as "the elixir of life"; It is a precious medicinal material in Shennong Herbal Classic, the earliest existing Chinese medicine book in China.
Who would have thought that such a priceless treasure of Longxing actually played a role in fueling the situation in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.
Ginseng industry laid the foundation for the development of the late Jin Dynasty. In the Nurhachi era, ginseng industry rose rapidly and became an important financial source in the late Jin Dynasty.
"Records of Emperor Taizong of Qing Dynasty" contains: "Ginseng gathering industry has become the livelihood of jurchen".
It can be seen that ginseng ushered in the golden age of history at that time and played a decisive role in the economic development in the late Jin Dynasty.
The ginseng industry stimulated the growth of Jurchen population. The more vigorous the ginseng industry is, the more it needs a lot of labor. At this time, manpower is particularly important. The growth of Jurchen population mainly depends on three ways: natural birth, peaceful migration and war plunder, and the rapid increase of population in a short period of time mainly depends on war plunder.
With the gradual expansion of social demand parameters, Jurchen families or families hope to get more benefits, thus having more labor force, ensuring the smooth progress of large-scale ginseng picking activities and maintaining the harmony and unity of productivity and production relations. Ginseng not only stimulated Nuzhen to reproduce themselves, but also became an excuse for them to attract and plunder other ethnic groups.
Its high profit, high value and high output are important incentives for foreigners to immigrate across the border. Under the influence of time, immigrants will eventually evolve into a population under the influence of Jurchen. However, some foreigners and nuzhen who cross the border illegally will take revenge measures, usually by force, thus plundering more people, property and land.
Nurhachi listed "crossing the border to steal ginseng" by Ming people as one of the "seven great hatreds", and used it to wage war, which made the population of Han nationality under the jurisdiction of Nuzhen expand continuously. In the final analysis, it is also thanks to ginseng.
Ginseng industry has improved the old economic structure of Jurchen society. With the increasing demand and price of ginseng, people constantly innovate the storage, transportation, sales and processing technology of ginseng, and the trade of ginseng is also constantly improving. The attracted and plundered foreigners helped Nuzhen bring new technology to the planting industry and laid a solid foundation for the rise of the late Jin Dynasty.
Jurchen's progress in handicraft industry is also worth mentioning. Their special iron tools such as "single stick" and "sharp knife" have promoted the improvement of smelting technology; The decoration of ginseng before sale promotes the perfection of woodworking technology; The environmental conditions needed to preserve ginseng are also helpful to improve the post-treasury.
A large number of ginseng trade brought a lot of money to Nuzhen, but also promoted the sales of other goods, which brought new vitality to the economic market of Houjin.
Ginseng was the main commodity force based on Northeast Asia's economy and trade in the late Jin Dynasty, and both Nurhachi and Huang Taiji attached great importance to ginseng trade. Shi Zainurhachi 18 years old participated in the horse market and earned hundreds of thousands, which is enough to show the huge profits obtained by the participation of Houjin.
The political and military influence of ginseng on the late Jin, Ming, Chao and Qing Dynasties greatly promoted the emergence of ginseng myth in the late Ming Dynasty. After the death of dignitaries, most of them relied on ginseng to continue their lives, which made ginseng strongly sought after in the Ming Dynasty. Ginseng, which was originally sold for a dozen taels of silver in Liaodong, may be sold for a hundred times in Jiangnan. Large-scale dumping of ginseng caused the outflow of silver in Ming Dynasty, which gradually weakened the economic strength and accelerated the corruption and weakness of Ming Dynasty.
During the Wanli period, many Liaodong officials often paid bribes to senior officials and eunuchs in order to please their superiors, which was called "taking bribes".
The most typical example is Gao Huai, the tax supervisor of Liaodong, who said in the name of buying mink, "Don't lose the castle, don't disturb the village".
Even if he was impeached, he was still at large under the protection of Wanli, which made Liaodong soldiers and civilians feel chilling and gave Nurhachi a good opportunity to accumulate strength. I have to say that ginseng made the latter gold.
Ginseng is like a kind of super glue, which closely unites the national strength of the late Jin Dynasty. When the Ming people and Koreans crossed the border to steal ginseng, the dignitaries in the late Jin Dynasty easily provoked national anger, making foreigners who crossed the border to steal ginseng become the enemies of the Jurchen nationality. The powerful people in the Qing Dynasty took this nation's "participation in the enemy" as an important excuse for conquering North Korea, and at the same time won the hearts of the people and mastered the power.
The Ming Dynasty is increasingly decadent and riddled with holes, and the proactive late Jin Dynasty is superior in both momentum and strength, and it is inevitable to become a political leader in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Then, it wants to make it clear, why attack North Korea? Early Korea helped the Ming Dynasty resist gold. In order to prevent between Scylla and Charybdis, Hou Jin had to solve this problem. When Huang taiji ascended the throne, under the condition of strong money and weak power, force decided his position. It is often an excuse to wage war, and "cross-border participation" is essential.
However, "participating in hatred" is real but not empty for conquering the dynasty. Later, Kim always seized all the stolen goods of the "thieves" and used this to "ask for the sky" to force North Korea to bow down. In fact, North Korea is also a big producer of ginseng, but it is very cunning and treacherous. On the one hand, in order to protect their own market, deliberately depress the price of Liaoshen. On the other hand, under the military pressure in the late Jin Dynasty, they bought a part of Liaoshen at a low price and sold it to the Ming Dynasty to earn the difference.
These cleverness, finally discovered by the latter, once sarcastically said:
"Since ginseng is useless, your country is getting worse every year. I don't know what it is to dig up this useless ginseng."
After that, the second war broke out between the two sides, and North Korea was defeated and forced to surrender. Although the phenomenon of "cross-border participation" still occurs from time to time in North Korea, the Qing government rarely blames it for saving face. The struggle between the two countries, the Qing government ended in victory, relying on powerful force.
Such forces need to expand Qiang Bing, and Ginseng is the right-hand man to expand Qiang Bing. Jurchen's need to enhance combat power is closely related to ginseng. Ginseng trade can increase the population and achieve the purpose of expanding the army; Many hands make light work, which is conducive to planting and achieving the purpose of raising soldiers; The money and coins exchanged by ginseng are used for war horses and ironware, which is a necessity to enhance the value of force; Ginseng, as a medicinal material, has many functions, such as treating and protecting pregnant women, which provides medical security for Qiang Bing.
The cultural picture of ginseng and the reasons for its decline are "warm and fond of cold, and the earlobe is like Tianzhu Dan." The cloud has five leaves and three branches, and the jade stem is full of fragrance. "
Emperor Qianlong once described the appearance of ginseng in this way, which shows that ginseng culture has been deeply imprinted in the memory of Jurchen nationality.
In Qing culture, ginseng represented the image of Qing regime to some extent. In internal affairs, the emperor often used ginseng to express his love and attention to ministers; In diplomacy, it has become a special national gift, showing friendship to people in contacts with other countries. Even the infamous little Shenyang shows its wealth by the number of ginseng.
In addition, the Jurchen nationality has many unique folk customs and cultures. They call the roots of ginseng "sticks" or "roots" and "goods", the ones that are half red and half fleshy are called "rough" and the ones that are empty are called "bubbles". Call Shen Da a "big commodity". If you find it, you must go to worship the mountain god and the old pier. Also called boiled ginseng as "rare ginseng" to commemorate Nurhachi.
If named by season, early summer ginseng is also called "bud ginseng"; The flowering ginseng is called "blossoming ginseng"; Autumn frost ginseng is called "yellow grass ginseng". There are also some legends about ginseng, such as "ginseng doll" and "ginseng essence", and the legend of Nuerhachi digging ginseng, which later became the source of Manchu people's vertical pole sacrifice in the yard.
Michelle Ye in Qing Dynasty once said:
"In the old days, it was said that invigorating qi was a divine grass, but recently quack doctors have refined essence by mistake."
In fact, at present, whether it is a god grass or a demon, it is just a legend.
In modern Northeast culture, ginseng has become a postcard of Northeast China. When it comes to ginseng, I immediately associate it with Northeast China and Qing Dynasty. This bound memory exudes a strong local culture.
Ginseng also played a fundamental role in the formation and development of modern Manchu medicine and food culture. "Ginseng chicken soup", "Ginseng chicken soup" and "Ginseng chicken soup" are the fusion of Manchu medicine and food culture. In Manchu medical culture, the use of ginseng for recuperation is a major feature of Qing dynasty medicine.
The Qing Dynasty pushed ginseng to the climax of life. However, when the sun is shining and the moon is full, over-exploitation will lead to ecological degradation. Therefore, after entering the customs in Qing Dynasty, the growth and reproduction of wild ginseng entered a period of decline. It is extensive and predatory over-excavation that destroys surface vegetation, soil and hydrology, gradually reduces species richness, intensifies the loss of black soil, and leads to the disappearance of ginseng growth environment. Until the Qing government adopted the policy of "closing mountains to support ginseng", it still had no effect.
Man and nature should live in harmony. Before the Qing government realized this, it had seriously damaged the ecosystem, and the sharp decline of ginseng reflected the cruelty of human beings to nature. Ginseng has once again been artificially pushed to the high platform of rare plants, which is accompanied by a high market. At the same time, the efficacy of domestic ginseng decreased, which made Korean ginseng and American ginseng rise, which led to the change of modern ginseng trade pattern.
Generally speaking, in the historical development background of the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, ginseng is a rose show in Ran Ran, which symbolizes the rise of the late Jin Dynasty, promotes the change of dynasties, tells the prosperity of the early Qing Dynasty, and represents the vigorous and indestructible national cohesion of the Jurchen nationality. Whether it is economy, politics, military or culture, it plays a vital role in promoting and catalyzing the situation in Liaodong.