Dialogue #1 + Explanation
Nov 26th, 2011 by sarahkeller
Song Dynasty China (AKA – before Mongolian Rule):
Characters:
- Tsang Kwan: The father of a dying son. A state official.
- Tsang Min: Tsang Kwan’s wife. The mother of a dying son.
- The Doctor: A physician trained in the medical teachings of the Yellow Emperor and other classical medical texts.
- The Dying Son: Silently suffering a flourishing ailment that could have been prevented by getting the right medical help.
- The Servant: A man in debt to the Tsang family. Their servant until his debts are paid.
Setting:
- Chengdu, Sichuan province. (Western China at that time.)
- Northern Song Dynasty (Between 960–1127)
- The Estate Of a State Official
Point of the Dialogue:
- In China, depending on where one lived, different teas were available more than others for use as medicine. This could contribute to life-or-death situations in a very negative way if a household did not have the right tea.
Part 1: Diagnosis and Prescription
Tsang Kwan: Doctor, what is wrong with our son?
Doctor: His vapor needs to be replenished and he is suffering from an abundance of phlegm. His yin and yang are out of balance. I would give him a potent ginseng licorice infusion, but I’m afraid that he’s too weak. If he purges any more, he will lose the bodily fluids that he has left.
Tsang Min: So what do we do? Can he be saved?
Doctor: I’m not sure if he can be. I’m afraid that the physicians who you hired before me might have sealed his fate, but I can try to help. Tsang Kwan, do you possess a brick of green tealeaves?
Tsang Kwan: No, I haven’t been to the south for months. I do have some black tea leaves though.
Doctor: Those won’t work. Their fermented nature does not have the same effect.
Tsang Kwan: What can we do then?
Doctor: Ask your neighbors for the tea. But also send one of your servants to go to the Buddhist temple. They often have good tea bricks there. You’re a state official. They should give your son the same respect that they’d give you. Perhaps they’ll trade some of your black tea for part of a tea brick.
Tsang Kwan: Thank you, Doctor.
Doctor: Call me when the tea arrives. For now your give your son two cups of boiled every hour. His inner landscape is in terrible danger of drying up without it with all of the phlegm expelling from his body.
Doctor: His vapor needs to be replenished and he is suffering from an abundance of phlegm. His yin and yang are out of balance. I would give him a potent ginseng licorice infusion, but I’m afraid that he’s too weak. If he purges any more, he will lose the bodily fluids that he has left.
Tsang Min: So what do we do? Can he be saved?
Doctor: I’m not sure if he can be. I’m afraid that the physicians who you hired before me might have sealed his fate, but I can try to help. Tsang Kwan, do you possess a brick of green tealeaves?
Tsang Kwan: No, I haven’t been to the south for months. I do have some black tea leaves though.
Doctor: Those won’t work. Their fermented nature does not have the same effect.
Tsang Kwan: What can we do then?
Doctor: Ask your neighbors for the tea. But also send one of your servants to go to the Buddhist temple. They often have good tea bricks there. You’re a state official. They should give your son the same respect that they’d give you. Perhaps they’ll trade some of your black tea for part of a tea brick.
Tsang Kwan: Thank you, Doctor.
Doctor: Call me when the tea arrives. For now your give your son two cups of boiled every hour. His inner landscape is in terrible danger of drying up without it with all of the phlegm expelling from his body.
[Exit – The Doctor]
Part 2: Treating Ailments with Tea
[Enter – The Servant]
Tsang Kwan: What have you brought me. Please say you have good news.
The Servant: I have good news. The Buddhist monks were generous enough to give you a week’s worth of green tea for your black tea.
Tsang Kwan: Only a week’s worth? I suppose that I should be thankful for any green tea. Go tell the doctor that the tea has arrived.
The Servant: I have good news. The Buddhist monks were generous enough to give you a week’s worth of green tea for your black tea.
Tsang Kwan: Only a week’s worth? I suppose that I should be thankful for any green tea. Go tell the doctor that the tea has arrived.
[Exit – The Servant]
Tsang Min: One would think it would be easier to find green tea, when it is such a traded commodity.
Tsang Kwan: It depends on when it is imported, I suppose. The neighbors don’t have any either. I hope that one week’s supply of green tea is enough.
Tsang Kwan: It depends on when it is imported, I suppose. The neighbors don’t have any either. I hope that one week’s supply of green tea is enough.
[Enter – The Doctor]
The Doctor: Your servant tells me that you have some green tea from the Buddhist Temple. If this is true, I can start treating your son immediately.
Tsang Kwan: Yes, we have some, but only a week’s worth.
The Doctor: We’ll supplement every second cup of tea with a cup of boiled water. It’s the best we can do under the circumstances. Any other remedy would be much too strong. Tsang Kwan, might you get your wife to boil some water for the tea.
Tsang Min: Yes doctor. Thank you again doctor.
Tsang Kwan: Yes, we have some, but only a week’s worth.
The Doctor: We’ll supplement every second cup of tea with a cup of boiled water. It’s the best we can do under the circumstances. Any other remedy would be much too strong. Tsang Kwan, might you get your wife to boil some water for the tea.
Tsang Min: Yes doctor. Thank you again doctor.
——————————-
The Dying son: *Cough-cough-gurgle -slurp-cough*
The Doctor: Take it slowly, son.
Tsang Kwan whispers to The Doctor: He’s not going live, is he?
The Doctor: As long as he keeps drink the tea, his body will slowly regain its strength. His yin and yang will become rebalanced, and he will be healthy again.
Tsang Kwan: And if he’s not healthy within two weeks of drinking tea and boiled water?
The Doctor: Then we can only hope that the merchants in town will have some green tea stocked by then.
Tsang Kwan: We can only hope.
The Doctor: Take it slowly, son.
Tsang Kwan whispers to The Doctor: He’s not going live, is he?
The Doctor: As long as he keeps drink the tea, his body will slowly regain its strength. His yin and yang will become rebalanced, and he will be healthy again.
Tsang Kwan: And if he’s not healthy within two weeks of drinking tea and boiled water?
The Doctor: Then we can only hope that the merchants in town will have some green tea stocked by then.
Tsang Kwan: We can only hope.
Explanation:
This first dialogue in how trade influenced the evolution of tea as a medicine is scene of a Song Dynasty physician treating a dying young man with green tea. Both characters are purposefully unnamed as they could be any Song Dynasty doctor and patient. I chose to write this as my first dialogue out of three because China was where tea started its healthful journey. The dialogue takes place in China’s Song Dynasty because it was a booming time of financial growth in both the Southern and the western parts of China. Tealeaves were a very commonly traded by this time, and recognized for their phlegm removing properties as medicine. Trade was however sporadic, and not as fast as it is in present day, so sometimes medical ingredients, and even tea would not reach it’s destination at a time when it was needed. However, according to “The True History of Tea” by Victor H. Mair and Erling Hoh, Buddhist monks drank tea and sometimes even carried it around with them as they walked about the land – a phenomenon most likely in common knowledge, so it is likely that physicians could use it to their advantage, such as in the circumstances in the dialogue.# I chose to leave the dialogue without giving away the knowledge of whether the son will live or die because it would depend on trade – the influence it had on the dying son’s life in getting the green tea on time to save his life.The main primary sources for this two-part dialogue are Cheng Maoxian’s narratives in which he helps patients with herbal infusions. The secondary source is The True History of Tea by Victor H. Mair and Erling Hoh. According to The True History of Tea, tealeaves were cheaper than infusions and commonly used by poorer folk. They were however less strong – and that’s why a rich family used them in this dialogue. Cheng Maoxian’s narratives were mainly used as a reference for how a patient should be diagnosed. Even if Maoxian used infusions, and not tealeaves, a patient would be treated very similarly with both – having the hot liquids in doses as medicine. The reader should understand green tea as a curer of symptoms, not just a drink to quench thirst.