The profession of wet nurse appeared very early, and there is a saying in the Book of Rites that "the son of a gentleman eats his mother". The children of dignitaries were brought up by wet nurses, and the feudal society was customized. There are dozens of young women waiting to be selected outside the palace, most of whom are 15 to 20-year-old rural women who have just given birth and have enough milk. Their status was low and nobody paid attention to them, but once they were elected to the palace, they were supported by the crown prince, the phoenix son and the phoenix grandson, and they became big shots from then on. As the saying goes, "once selected, you will have money all your life", which means this generation.
Studies have proved that
The study of human milk in traditional medicine has reached a very profound level.
Among the classic Chinese medicine with a long history, there are Compendium of Materia Medica, Thousand Golden Formulas, Herbal Rejuvenation, Yuehuazi Herbal Medicine, Herbal Medicine, Diet and Taste, Herbal Classic, Shu, Chinese Herbal Medicine, Jade Antidote Solution, Seeking Truth from Materia Medica, Bielu and others. Chinese medicine believes that human milk is flat and sweet and salty. Human breast hot service can tonify five internal organs, improve intelligence, replenish essence, moisten dryness, promote fluid production, nourish blood and tonify deficiency. Medical sage Li Shizhen described human milk as "milk fairy wine" in Compendium of Materia Medica. It has many functions, such as "enriching blood, replenishing fluid, replenishing essence, transforming qi, promoting granulation, calming the nerves, improving intelligence, strengthening bones and muscles, benefiting joints, strengthening spleen and nourishing stomach, listening to ears and improving eyesight", which can be described as extraordinary.
Li Shizhen also recorded a "Song of Taking Milk" which was widely circulated among the people at that time: "Xianjia wine (referring to human milk), 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 more than one liter in the morning, and you will be refreshed after a long time. "
"Herbal Classic Shu" also records: "Milk is yin, cool and moist, blood deficiency and heat, and those who are thirsty and dry."
"Herbal rejuvenation" records: "Human milk nourishes the heart and intelligence, moistens the lungs and nourishes the yin, quenches thirst and relieves fatigue and relieves cough."
"Life Taste Diet Spectrum" says: "Nourish heart and blood, tonify body fluid, transform qi and promote granulation, soothe the nerves and increase wisdom, lengthen bones and muscles, benefit the five internal organs, strengthen the spleen and stomach, and alert the eyes and ears."
"Records of Famous Doctors" points out that human milk can "replenish the five internal organs, make people fat and white, cure red eyes and shed tears".
According to "Dietotherapy Materia Medica", drinking a little wine and milk for several times can make silent stroke patients gradually speak, and it is also very effective to stew with pear juice and human milk when phlegm fire rises.
The secret recipe of Qing Palace is more specific: "Mixing 1.5g with human milk can dispel wind and clear heat, moisturize and whiten skin, and has the effects of clearing away heat and toxic materials and moistening skin."
Celebrity story
1. Sima Qian of the Han Dynasty told the story of Zhang Cang, a 100-year-old prime minister, in his magnificent masterpiece Historical Records. Zhang Cang was the prime minister of Liu Heng. After Liu Heng became the emperor of China, Zhang Cang was appointed as the prime minister. It was this famous soldier who contributed to the unification of temperament, calendar and measurement units in the Han Dynasty. It is said that after he retired in his later years, he paid great attention to health. Because his old tooth fell out, he raised more than 100 women as his wet nurses, and lived by eating people's milk every meal every day. Sima Qian wrote like this: "When I was young, I was old, toothless, breast-fed, and a woman died for breast-feeding ... Cang was 100 years old.
According to "Miscellaneous Notes on Ten Thousand Parts", Cixi recorded: "According to the regulations of the Qing Palace, 40 people are selected to milk each season, and a room is set up in the imperial court for maintenance, which is called the Sitting Milk Mouth. Another 80 people, born in the palace, were specially supplied with food by the inner government, called milk mouth, in order to fill the gap when something happened to the milk mouth. A batch is changed every season ... "It turns out that Empress Dowager Cixi looks good, which is caused by drinking fresh human milk every day and then using human milk as a raw material for skin care.
When Zheng Banqiao was three years old, his mother was seriously ill in bed and her life was dying. Banqiao was young and ignorant, and the wanderer "went to bed and hugged his mother to lie down. I don't know if her mother is still yelling." Later, it was brought up by a wet nurse. Banqiao's unforgettable life is that his wet nurse treated her well when her family was poor. Therefore, I once wrote the poem of the wet nurse as a souvenir, saying:
I am not lonely in my life;
Long-term hatred of wealth and late arrival makes you feel ashamed for a long time.
Zeng Guofan, a famous frontier official in Qing dynasty, made a couplet after the death of his wet nurse: one meal is still known, the situation is guaranteed, and he is only ten months pregnant; A thousand dollars is hard to pay back. When it comes to human physics, you will cry for three years. It can be said that this couplet is a fair evaluation of me as a wet nurse.