The Three Traditional Meanings of Jade Cabbage

There are many kinds of vegetables all over the country, some similar and some different. The most famous vegetable is cabbage, which is known as the "king of vegetables". Because cabbage can cope with all Chinese cooking techniques, it can be stir-fried, made into soup, used as stuffing, and served cold, etc., which are not something that every vegetable can do, so cabbage is known as the "king of vegetables". The cultural meaning of cabbage is obviously not single.

The first meaning is that it is innocent. There was a saying in the past that cabbage is pure and white. In fact, it should be pure and white. The so-called "clear" refers to the leaves, and "white" refers to the stems. This meaning is the one that Chinese people are most willing to accept. It is very important for a person to be honest when living in society, which means he must be trustworthy and not tell lies. The most annoying thing in life today is telling lies. We treat this society with lies in all kinds of situations. This problem has also existed in history, so Chinese literati have given cabbage such a beautiful meaning, called "innocence", and people should be innocent.

The second meaning is peace. We always say "radishes and cabbages ensure peace", which means that Chinese people prefer simple food and drink. We believe that there is no sin that cannot be endured, but only happiness that cannot be enjoyed. Today, most people have problems with good fortune, such as eating too much, having high blood lipids, and trying to lose weight. A physical examination reveals that they have fatty liver. These are all fortunes that they cannot enjoy. I couldn’t eat that much meat in the past. I felt good if I ate it once a week. In addition, the physical labor in the past was very intense, so what I ate could be digested very quickly. If it cannot be excreted today, it will accumulate in the body and form toxins. So it makes sense to eat more radishes and cabbages and eat a vegetarian diet to stay safe. I remember when we were kids and had a cold, we would boil radish roots, cabbage roots and onion roots into soup and drink it, and that would help us feel better.

The third meaning is the homonym for “Bai Cai”, which is related to getting rich. Because the Chinese were poor in the past, especially the long period of poverty after the Opium War, the Chinese are eager to make some money. Cabbage is also given a secular meaning, called "a hundred fortunes". There is a social scene that is no longer seen today, but twenty or thirty years ago, in Beijing in winter you could see every household queuing up to buy cabbage for winter storage. In the past, people ate seasonal vegetables. Every family would buy several hundred kilograms of cabbage, put them on the balcony or in the corridor, and then cover them with quilts to prevent them from freezing. They could eat them for the whole winter. Today we can eat out-of-season vegetables. We can eat whatever we want in winter because we have greenhouses and use technology to grow vegetables. In the long winter of the past, the northerners had three main vegetables: cabbage was the first, radish was the second, and potato was the third. Apart from these three, there were no other vegetables, so the daily vegetables they ate were switched back and forth among these three. Compared with potatoes and radishes, cabbage is a true vegetable, as potatoes and radishes are both root vegetables. When I was a child, I bought three cabbages that weighed 100 kilograms. It is normal for a cabbage to weigh more than 30 kilograms. The cabbage is very thick and a person can stand on it. It is very solid and will not be stepped on.

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