Cooking delicious food with human milk is recorded in many ancient books. There is a story in Shi Shuo Xin Yu. Fei: On one occasion, Sima Yan, Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty, visited his son-in-law, Wang Wuzi, and Wang Wuzi gave him a banquet. The seats were all glazed utensils (which were very precious at that time), and there were more than 100 maids, all dressed in silk and satin. There is a steamed suckling pig in the dish served by the maid, which is fat, tender and delicious. Emperor Wu was curious and asked how this dish was cooked. Wang Wuzi replied: "This is made of piglets fed with human milk, so it tastes different." After hearing this, Emperor Wu was very dissatisfied with his practice and left before he finished eating.
In recent years, some people have initiated a "human milk feast" to cook hundreds of dishes such as "human milk abalone" and "milk soup crucian carp" with human milk. However, this practice violates ethics and is resisted and opposed by many people, so it is difficult to promote it.
As for the use of human milk for health care treatment, it was also very common in ancient times. For example, the book "Diet Spectrum of Interesting Life" says that human milk can "replenish painstaking efforts, replenish fluids, transform qi, promote granulation, soothe the nerves, improve intelligence, strengthen bones and muscles, benefit organs, strengthen stomach and spleen, and improve hearing and eyesight". Li Shizhen also said in Compendium of Materia Medica that human milk can cure diseases such as "wasting, wasting gossip, silent stroke". Yue in the Southern Dynasty recorded in the Biography of He Shangzhi in the Book of Song Dynasty that the prime minister He Shangzhi had been tired for many years and had been ill for a long time. It was cured by drinking a woman's milk. In the Ming dynasty, there were more cases of taking human milk to treat diseases. For example, the 79th episode of Jin Ping Mei wrote: "I saw Xiao Yu make Ruyi milk half a cup and go to the study and Ximen Qing to get medicine." Li Shizhen also recorded a song that was circulated in the society at that time, "Song of Taking Milk":
Xianjia wine, Xianjia wine, two pots of lusheng and one barrel.
The five elements brew truth, and the world is everywhere.
A dry belly will swallow a heavy building, while a wet one will rot.
You can drink an extra liter in the morning and feel refreshed.
By the Qing dynasty, it was more common to treat diseases with human milk. But in most cases, it is not just drinking human milk alone, but taking human milk together with other Chinese medicines. For example, in Yong Zhengdi in Qing Dynasty, the favorite secret recipe for health preservation in his life was Guilingjifang, which was composed of 33 kinds of drugs. Breast milk is one of the most important drugs. Emperor Guangxu, who was in poor health, was dying. The life-saving prescription prescribed by the imperial doctor was stewed with human milk.
In addition to treating diseases, the ancients also believed that human milk had the function of beauty and health preservation. In the Ming Dynasty, Li said in Description of the Nature of Leigong's Processed Drugs. Human milk ":human milk" is sweet in taste, non-toxic, enters the heart, liver and spleen, strengthens the limbs, nourishes the five internal organs, has a solid texture, pleases the skin, calms the heart and calms the nerves, benefits customs, improves eyesight, and prolongs life after being taken for a long time. " There is a story in Historical Records and Hanshu: Zhang Cang was the prime minister of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty. When he retired as an official in his later years, all his teeth fell out and he couldn't chew hard things. So he thought of a way to suck human milk for health. This old guy has hundreds of wives and concubines, so it's not a problem to nurse him. Everyone can be his wet nurse. In this way, under the inexhaustible human milk, he lived for more than a hundred years before he died. This is probably the earliest record of adults eating human milk. Xie Ming Zhao Zhe also recorded in "Five Miscellaneous Groups": "There are 240-year-old people in Yacheng who stop eating cereal and drink the milk of their great-grandchildren." It's outrageous and incredible to live to be 240 years old by drinking the milk of my great-grandson. However, it is an indisputable fact that Empress Dowager Cixi in the Qing Dynasty relied on human milk for beauty and health. It is said that the breast milk that the old woman drank as a child does not count. From the age of 26 until her death at the age of 75, she never stopped drinking human milk for nearly 50 years. Every day, three wet nurses provide her with enough healthy milk. She firmly believes that the best way to stay young is breast milk, which can be confirmed by her beautiful face in her 70 s.
In addition to Empress Dowager Cixi, other empresses in the Qing Palace also drank human milk. To this end, the Qing palace stipulated that 40 wet nurses should be selected every season, and a special room should be set up in the palace for maintenance, which is called "sitting on the milk outlet"; Then choose 80 people to live in the palace, and the inner government will provide food specially, which is called "point-to-point milk mouth", that is, "standby wet nurse". When the "sitting milk outlet" is unexpectedly unable to supply milk, these "milk outlets" can make up for the vacancy. These wet nurses change a batch every season.
Of course, "human milk" is "human" rather than "cow" after all, and the two cannot be treated equally. For modern people, drinking human milk has a moral problem. Young babies have the unquestionable privilege of drinking human milk; For adults, there should be many taboos ...