Chinese herbs are now quite common, and Ze Lan is a commonly used Chinese herb, mainly used for promoting blood circulation and regulating menstruation. It has a good effect in relieving menstrual pain in women. Do you know the origin of Ze Lan?
Image of Ze Lan
In the past, there lived a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in a deep valley in the Dabie Mountains. The mother-in-law always accused her daughter-in-law, Lan, of being lazy and not doing any work, so she often denied her food and drink, and even forced her to do heavy chores.
One morning, Lan was pounding rice on a stone mortar outside the house, and a piece of rice cake on the stove was dragged away by a cat. The evil mother-in-law insisted that Lan had stolen it and forced her to confess.
Unable to extract a confession, the evil mother-in-law beat Lan severely, and also punished her to pound nine dou of rice within a day. Lan, with her exhausted body, had to continuously tread on the heavy stone mortar. When the sun set, Lan, who hadn't even had a drop of water all day, was hungry and thirsty, and collapsed by the stone mortar. She grabbed a handful of raw rice and chewed on it.
When the evil mother-in-law heard that the stone mortar was not making any sound, she ran out and saw Lan lying unconscious on the ground. Enraged, she said, "You despicable creature, you stole the rice cake and now you're stealing the raw rice!" She picked up a wooden stick and beat Lan until she fainted. The evil mother-in-law, still not satisfied, said that Lan was pretending to be dead to scare people.
She then tore off Lan's foot-binding cloth, tightly bound her to the support post of the stone mortar, pried open Lan's mouth, pulled out her tongue, and pulled out her hairpin, viciously poking her tongue until it was a bloody mess.
Poor Lan, she died silently like that.
No one knows how many years or generations had passed, in the secluded valley where Lan died, a small flower grew. It had a light and elegant appearance, with jade branches and green leaves, silently emitting a fragrance. People say that this flower is the incarnation of Lan, with its curled flower bud resembling a tongue, and the red spots on the flower bud are stains of blood.
