White wax insect is a tiny insect, belonging to Insecta, Homoptera, Coccidoidea and Coccidoidea. In addition to China, Japanese, Korean, Indian and Soviet also recorded it. China is the first country to use gray insects and insect ash; The ancient books with earlier written descriptions that can be found in history are:
1. During the Qingyuan period of the Southern Song Dynasty (A.D. 1 195), Zhu Fu wrote Xi Man Cong Xiao. It is mentioned in the book that this kind of cloth is printed with wax blocks, which are dyed in indigo vats and used to imprint bronze drum patterns. The wax mentioned here is insect white wax.
2. From the 18th year of Yuan Dynasty (A.D. 1282) to the 2nd year of Yuan Dynasty (A.D. 1296), he carefully wrote the book "Return to the Heart and Miscellaneous Knowledge". In the chapters under the sequel, he described in detail the specific methods of raising and collecting ash by working people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and recorded females and males scientifically for the first time.
3. According to the Records of Yuanhe County written by Li Jifu in Tang Dynasty (AD 8 13), among the tributes from all over the country every year, the four states that pay pewter to the court are Fenzhou, Zhou Jun, Liangzhou and Tanglinzhou; The three states paying tribute to yellow wax are Shaozhou, Qianzhou and Xizhou. Only fourteen States say salute to wax; Five states pay tribute to candles. The ash mentioned here is obviously insect ash.
As for the earliest written record of using insect white wax as medicine, it is necessary to push Tao Hongjing (AD 452-536) in Liang Dynasty to write "A Record of Famous Doctors", which was compiled by Tao Hongjing according to the records of two disciples of Hua Tuo, Upp and Li Dangzhi, and the drugs used by famous doctors since the Han and Wei Dynasties. Some insect medicine items added in the book A Record of Famous Doctors include the "White Wax" special train. Although Tao Hongjing himself, due to the limitations and one-sidedness of scientific knowledge, accidentally lost his recognition and misjudged the insect ash "this beeswax"; After repeated and meticulous textual research by scholars, it is almost beyond doubt and dispute that the white wax mentioned in "Bielu of Famous Doctors" is insect white wax.
It can be seen that the working people in ancient China began to cultivate and utilize wax insects, which can be traced back to at least the Tang Dynasty. You can even go further and think that it was in the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Wei and Jin Dynasties before the Tang Dynasty. If so, the history of wax insects is 1700 or 800 years ago. In addition, many local chronicles in China can also find information about wax insects; For example, the collection of local chronicles of the Ming Dynasty "Woodcut in Jiajing Period" collected by Tianyige Bookstore in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, in which the thirty-second page of the geography volume "County Records of Anxi County, Fujian Province" has quite clear words: "There are yellow wax and white wax, yellow wax and beeswax, all of which are honey in the house, honey in the house, and wax in the house." Insect wax, a white wax worker, has hundreds of insects in each cocoon on the branches, as thin as silk hair. The so-called autumn and winter seed collection means that the seeds are tied to the tree in spring, and the insects come out of the cocoon to eat the body fluids of the tree, so they put wax on the branches, peel it off and cook it. It is white as snow, so it is called ash, and its tree is now holly. It is especially suitable for waxing when the trees are tender. Materia Medica says that yellow wax is refined into white wax, which is still used by doctors, but there are many trees. "Looking at the full text, all the above situations are scientific except that the unknown yellow wax is refined into white wax. It is no exaggeration to say that the industrious and intelligent people in ancient China have already mastered a set of quite perfect techniques and methods for stocking white wax insects; The changes and results of growth and reproduction of wax insect in different stages were observed in detail. These rich labor practices and thinking analysis have undoubtedly gradually become the scientific basis for the traditional development of ash sideline in mountainous rural areas of China.