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The article uses the Henglong Mountains full of Polygonum multiflorum and the legend of mining to look at the years of educated youth, the local customs and memories of nurturing people through mountains and rivers, and also expresses the author’s deep longing for his hometown and his past youth.
Like migratory birds, at that time, we educated young people would jump into queues in the rural areas, and every year as soon as the Chinese New Year came, we would return to the city to reunite with our families. As soon as the new year ends, they have to return to the countryside where they line up and begin spring plowing and harvest. Whenever I leave the village and return to the city, I look at the Henglong Mountains that stretch across the village, and I see a bleak winter scene with the mountains completely yellowed. When I returned to the village in spring, Henglong Mountain was already covered with green mountains.
Suddenly one day, a few dots of emerald red involuntarily appeared on the mountain, as if some skilled painter was sprinkling it on a huge scroll all over the mountain, and then some more swan yellow and other colors, increasing day by day, gradually moving from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain and into the depths of the mountain. A closer look revealed that at the foot of the mountain there were girls dressed in red, yellow and sometimes green, holding shovels, carrying small baskets or bamboo baskets on their backs, concentrating on digging something among the soil and vegetation.
The villagers told me that what they were digging was Polygonum multiflorum. Polygonum multiflorum is a very nutritious Chinese herbal medicine. At that time, in the Henglang Mountain area where I joined the team, the mountains were full of trees. Every spring, the mountains were filled with girls dressed in red, yellow, and sometimes green, who would go to the mountains in numbers of two or three to dig. These girls digging Polygonum multiflorum are really beautiful. The strange legends the villagers told me about harvesting Polygonum multiflorum added a bit of mystery to this beauty.
It is said that Polygonum multiflorum is quite spiritual and should be dug up by a young, beautiful and unmarried girl, also known as “Meeni” in the local area. Otherwise, the nutritious medicinal properties of Polygonum multiflorum hidden under the wet soil and vegetation will silently transfer and slip away. Undoubtedly this is a far-reaching folk saying. However, over the years, it has been passed down to the Henglong Mountain area and has become a custom.
Beautiful rums turn the pruning of Polygonum multiflorum into a beauty pageant every spring. The girls who are digging are becoming more and more beautiful and the scenery on the mountain is becoming more and more lively day by day. Among them are the girls who are most diligent in digging Polygonum multiflorum, and also the handsome and strong young men, commonly known as “Yi Ni” in the local area. One by one, Polygonum multiflorum appears eagerly poking out of the ground and is thrown into the hands and arms of the digging girls. Then, under the eager eyes of those handsome young men, they were carefully put into bamboo baskets or backpacks.
Polygonum multiflorum dug from the mountain is washed, dried and then sent to the medicinal material purchasing station in the city. In the Henglong Mountain area where I jumped in line, digging up Polygonum multiflorum can bring in a lot of money. Almost every household has people go to the mountain, and those sent to dig are often young, beautiful, and unmarried girls.
The villagers also told me that the tonic properties of Polygonum multiflorum are reserved only for men. That’s why no matter how much the girls dig, they never eat it themselves. Not only this, men also shy away from eating Polygonum multiflorum, rather sell it for more money. In my opinion, all local men are strong and sturdy, and do not need any medicine for nutrition.
I remember that later I joined the Army from a rural area where I joined the Army. When I did the physical examination, all the young men around me were in excellent health. The people leading the army were surprised and asked, “Why are the soldiers here in such good physical condition?” Years later, looking back, I suddenly had an almost inspired answer: perhaps it was the mountains of Polygonum multiflorum and its renowned medicinal properties and spirituality. Soil and water support people. We drink mountain spring water, eat grains, vegetables and fruits that grow in the mountains, and eat livestock and poultry raised in the mountains. As for the Polygonum multiflorum that grows all over the mountain, aren’t their well-known nourishing medicinal properties also integrated into the nutrients of this land?
