🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Frost Descent is one of the 24 solar terms, beginning when the sun reaches 210 degrees of ecliptic longitude, typically around October 23 or 24 each year. At this time, the weather gradually turns cold and frost begins to appear. The "Yue Ling Qi Shi Hou Ji Jie" records: “In the ninth month, the air becomes crisp and condenses, forming frost.” When Frost Descent arrives, southern regions enter the busy season of autumn harvest and sowing, while the Yellow River Basin generally sees the first frost. Folk sayings include: “If there is no frost at Frost Descent, the coming year will face famine.” In Yunnan, a region with many ethnic minorities, there is a saying: “No frost at Frost Descent, no rice in the mill.” From this, we can see how people in long-term labor practices have summarized the impact of climate on life and how to adapt one’s body to natural changes throughout the seasons, maintaining a dynamic balance between humans and nature.
This dynamic balance, from the perspective of traditional Chinese health preservation, essentially involves two aspects: first, the normal functional balance within the body’s own systems; second, the relative balance between bodily functions and material exchange with nature. Harmonious balance is a core theory in traditional Chinese health preservation. Ancient Chinese Wu Xing (Five Elements) theory holds that all matter in the world arises from the movement and transformation of five fundamental elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. These five elements interact through mutual generation and control (“sheng ke zhi hua”), maintaining ecological balance in nature and physiological harmony in the human body.
Frost Descent marks deep autumn, belonging to metal in the Five Elements, corresponding to autumn among the five seasons (spring, summer, mid-summer, autumn, winter), and to the lung organ among the five zang organs (liver, heart, spleen, lung, kidney). According to traditional Chinese health preservation principles, in the context of seasonal tonification (spring: ascending tonification, summer: clearing tonification, mid-summer: bland tonification, autumn: balanced tonification, winter: warming tonification), autumn should follow the principle of balanced tonification. In dietary supplementation, differentiate based on food’s nature, flavor, and meridian affinity.
Autumn is prone to coughing, and chronic bronchitis tends to recur or worsen during this season.
Here are several fruits, dried fruits, vegetables, and recipes suitable for autumn:
Pear:
[Nature and Flavor] Cool in nature, sweet and slightly sour, enters the lung and stomach meridians.
[Efficacy] Generate body fluids, moisten dryness, clear heat, transform phlegm.
If eaten when thirsty after labor, pears bring a refreshing, cooling sensation. Eating pears after drinking alcohol is delightful—sweet and fragrant, like drinking nectar, instantly eliminating the drunkenness.
Apple:
[Nature and Flavor] Cool in nature, sweet in flavor.
[Efficacy] Generate body fluids, moisten lungs, aid digestion, quench thirst.
The benefits of apples were already recorded in the Tang Dynasty’s "Qian Jin Shi Zhi." Westerners have a saying: “Eat one apple a day, and the doctor stays away.” In apple-producing areas of China, there is a folk saying: “Eat one apple after a meal, and an old man becomes as lively as a youth.”
Olive:
[Nature and Flavor] Neutral in nature, sour and sweet in flavor.
[Efficacy] Clear lungs, relieve sore throat, quench thirst, detoxify.
The "Ben Cao Qiu Zhen" states: “Olive is a fruit of the lung and stomach. It generates body fluids and quenches thirst. Chewing olives after drinking alcohol is especially suitable. If someone dies from poisoning by pufferfish liver or eggs, drinking boiled olive juice can save them.”
Ginkgo Nut (White Fruit):
[Nature and Flavor] Neutral in nature, sweet, astringent, and slightly bitter. Enters the lung and kidney meridians.
[Efficacy] Consolidate lung qi, relieve cough and wheezing, reduce urination, stop vaginal discharge.
The ginkgo leaf resembles a duck’s foot, hence the nickname “duck foot.” The Song Dynasty literary figure Ouyang Xiu wrote: “Duck feet grow in Jiangnan, names and realities are mismatched. Through tribute, silver apricot became valuable in Central China.” Ginkgo trees are also called “grandfather-grandson trees,” due to their slow growth—“grandfather plants the tree, grandson eats the fruit.”
Onion:
[Nature and Flavor] Warm in nature, pungent in flavor. Enters the lung meridian.
[Efficacy] Clear heat, resolve phlegm, lower lipids, lower blood sugar.
Onion is widely used in folk medicine as a diuretic and expectorant and is an essential ingredient in Western cuisine.
Recent medical research found that onions contain a substance—tolbutamide—that lowers blood sugar. Regular consumption benefits diabetic patients.
Mustard Greens (Snow-in-Winter):
[Nature and Flavor] Warm in nature, pungent in flavor. Enters the lung and large intestine meridians.
[Efficacy] Promote lung function, expel phlegm, warm the stomach, dispel cold.
Recommended for acute and chronic bronchitis with cold phlegm, white sticky cough, and chest tightness.
Ginkgo Radish Porridge:
Ingredients: 6 ginkgo nuts, 100 grams white radish, 100 grams glutinous rice, 50 grams sugar.
Preparation: Wash and slice the radish, blanch in boiling water. First, boil ginkgo nuts and glutinous rice together. When the rice blooms, add sugar and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Mix in the radish slices and serve.
[Efficacy] Strengthen kidneys, nourish lungs, relieve cough and wheezing.