Buddha's-hand

Text by Guo Dan Translation by Sussi Yuan Illustration by Nan Fang

Buddha's-hand

Text by Guo Dan Translation by Sussi Yuan Illustration by Nan Fang

Kallen Guo

Senior filmmaker, socialite and bestselling author, authored Don't Fall in Love with Zurich, the winner of The Best Foreign Language Novel.

郭丹

资深影视人、名媛、畅销书作家。代表作包括最佳外语小说奖获得作品《别爱苏黎世》等。

Recently my gum swells up a little bit. When I eat I can only use one side of my teeth to chew and I have to cover the swollen side by my hand. In traditional Chinese medical book, it says this is caused by the internal heat in the stomach. It is a folk saying, which also says that the internal heat in the heart will be refl ected on the corners of the mouth and the defi ciency of the kidney will cause acne on your jaw. My brother was brought up by my aunt. Every time he got a swollen gum, my aunt would ask him to drink salty water and take tablet of bezoar. But for me, I prefer food therapy like mung bean soup and eel porridge. Sliced-up chayote can also reduce the internal heat, and it has a high output. In the countryside, people use chayote to feed pigs.

这两天有点牙龈肿。吃东西单边嚼，肿痛得一边手捂着。医书上说是胃火重。上火，热气，都是民间俗语。而心火旺的，跑到嘴角，阴虚火旺，肾阴虚，则在下巴长痘。祁婶子带大的我哥哥，每逢他牙龈肿，祁婶子就说喝盐水蛮好，新簧片。但在我这里主要还是食疗，绿豆汤、鳝糊。佛手瓜切片生吃也脆爽降火。佛手瓜别名多多：隼人瓜、安南瓜、寿瓜、葵瓜、虎儿瓜、云南叫洋丝瓜，产量贼高，农村喂猪。又叫徒儿瓜，勿晓得都是哪个地方的叫法。普通，不难见。

风俗器薄，不比佛手，指尖如钩如爪，背大痒时，得此以爬意淫麻姑挠痒。肉乎乎外层果瓣攥紧小拳，也是它的一种卖相。红楼梦里的贾探春摆盘用的是佛手，刘姥姥家的板儿要玩。汪曾祺说，卖果子的叶三专给大宅门送果子，佛手、香橼，人家买去，配架装盘，书斋清供，闻香观赏。而佛手瓜则少有人看得上眼。

Unlike chayote, the Buddha's hand looks like a hand or a claw. When my back itches, I will use it and pretend that someone is tickling for me. Sometimes its appearance is similar to a plump fi st. In the Chinese novel A Dream of Red Mansions, Tanchun used it as a garnish in the plate and a kid treated it as a toy. The Chinese writer Wang Zengqi once wrote, the wealthy families would buy fruits, Buddha's hand and citron as decorations in their studies. But chayote was not lucky enough to be their choice.