The legend of Eucommia ulmoides

The legend of Eucommia ulmoides

Eucommia ulmoides is an herb and also a traditional Chinese medicine. The medicinal part of Eucommia ulmoides is its bark, which is mainly used to treat symptoms such as weak legs, knee pain, unstable fetus during pregnancy, and strengthening the kidneys and improving sperm quality in men. But according to legend, the origin of Eucommia ulmoides is a very sad story. Have you heard of it?

In the era before the development of industrial society, all labor and life had to be done by manpower. In the Dongting Lake area, cargo transportation relies on water transportation, which is actually small wooden boats that carry trade goods back and forth. As a result, many trackers emerged who made a living by pulling boats and moving goods on the shore. Due to years of physical labor and frequent soaking in the cold lake water, the trackers suffered from severe pain in their waists and knees.

Later, a young tracker named Du Zhong came. He was very kind-hearted. He felt very distressed to see the old trackers suffering from illness and determined to find a good medicine for them to relieve their pain.

So Du Zhong packed up his simple bag and set off. He came to a mountain rich in various Chinese herbal medicines, and by chance he met a white-haired old pharmacist. He hurried to ask about the whereabouts of the medicine, but the old pharmacist ignored him.

Seeing that the days away from home were getting longer and longer, Du Zhong gradually became anxious. He mustered up the courage again and found the old medicine man. He told him his original intention of going up the mountain to find medicine. Finally, the medicine man was moved and he told him a good medicine that could treat waist and knee joint pain. Du Zhong thanked the old man and went deeper into the mountains. When he was lamenting that the mountain road was becoming more and more difficult to travel, he met a woodcutter, who advised him that the mountain road was dangerous and the medicine he was looking for grew on the most dangerous cliff, so he should go down the mountain and go home. Du Zhong thanked the woodcutter for his kindness, but finally chose to work hard for the old trackers.

Exhausted both physically and mentally, Du Zhong accidentally slipped and fainted. When he woke up, he found the medicine he had been looking for for a long time next to him. Excitedly, he quickly collected a full bag of it and prepared to go down the mountain and go home. However, due to excessive fatigue, he collapsed into a mountain spring and was washed into Dongting Lake by the flood. By the time he was found by the trackers, Du Zhong had already lost his life, but in his arms he was still holding the Chinese medicine he had collected. The trackers took the medicine home in tears, and after taking it, the medicine miraculously cured his stubborn illness.

In order to express their remembrance of the little trackers, people named the bark of this plant Eucommia ulmoides, and it remains so today.