In my hometown Zigong, on the DongZhi (Winter Solstice) Day, families often stew many herbs with meats to make a special tonic soup.
Though I left Zigong for more than 20 year ago, I still remember the strong herb smell and the slight bitterness of Yeyi’s tonic soup. I also remember Yeyi’s comments on tonic soup: “Tonic soup is not suitable for everyone. Tonic soup can be fatal for people who are too weak to take it.”
In 2016, I was alone in San Jose on Winter Solstice Day. In 2017, I spent Winter Solstice with my parents in Beijing and enjoyed the Zigong’s authentic tonic soup made by my uncle, after many years.
The tonic soup made by uncle contains duck and pork meats along with more than ten types of Chinese herbs, such as: Lingzhi, Tianma, ginkgo, Shihu, ginseng, angelica sinensis, Dangshen, astragalus, Qingui, YiRen, euryale xerox, jujube, and Gouji(天麻、白果、石斛、人参、当归、党参、黄芪、芩归、苡仁、芡实、红枣、枸杞) .
My toes felt very warm right after I drank the tonic soup. Following my hometown tradition, we drank the tonic soup for several days and I felt very warm everyday. Drinking tonic soup is indeed a very enjoyable task for me.
However, my father insisted on not drinking the tonic soup the second day because he felt ill after drinking the soup on the first day. My father grew up in ShanDong, far from Zigong. His body is probably not used to Zigong’s tonic soup. Just like Yeyi said that not everyone can eat tonic soup.
In the next few days, my aunt blended the tonic soup with green vegetables and rice into smoothies for my mother. I watched my mother was getting better day by day. I guessed that authentic Zigong tonic soup had an authentic effect on my mother, as an authentic Zigongnese. After not talking for five days, my mother started to talk when my uncle played with her. My mother said very loudly: “NiZaiFangPi(You are bullish)” and woke me up as I was taking nap near her. I felt my hometown’s dialect is very familiar and sweet to my ears, even the swear words.
Later, while skypeing with my daughter, I told her: “I drank Zigong tonic soup on DongZhi, after more than 20 years.”
My daughter immediately said: “Oh, I know DongZhi is Winter solstice, the day with the shortest daylight of the year.”
When I was little, I drank tonic soup on DongZhi every year, but I didn’t know DongZhi has the shortest daylight of the year. My daughter has never drank tonic soup on DongZhi, but she immediately explained the unique weather characteristics of DongZhi. This got me thinking…
My daughter described the characteristic of DongZhi accurately in one sentence. I used many sentences but only described a small portion of my hometown Zigong’s rich DongZhi traditions.
I feel scientific knowledge by itself is lifeless and plain, lacks rich feeling. Meanwhile our traditions are enriched by our feelings and cultures constantly.