Just as food must be cooked to suit people's stomachs, the animals, vegetables, and minerals that go into Chinese medicine also must go through processes passed down from the ancestors. These processes are called, in general, p'ao-chih ("concocting").

According to ancient Chinese texts on p'ao-chih, there are three types of concocting: water, fire, and water and fire together. Each type of medicinal ingredient is different in nature so the procedures also differ.

Water concoction involves washing and soaking the ingredients in order to decrease their toxicity and odor, and to make them clean and soft and easy to chop up and process. As for fire concoctions, this is similar to frying or cooking ordinary food. There are five methods: stir frying, direct exposure to flame, drying over a fire, smoking, and "crisping" (heating until brittle, specially used for minerals). But it becomes still more complex. Chang Chia-hsun, a doctor, says that, taking "dry frying" for example, this is further divided into submethods, according to different times and temperatures (yellowing, browning, cooking to a deep black) to affect the medicinal properties of the ingredients.

Making medicine by frying, according to Huang Mu-ch'in, is the most tiring method. You've got to keep turning the ingredients. Because some have a bad odor, it makes your eyes water and nose run. Because the work is laborious, young women apprentices have been rarely seen since ancient times.

Steaming, boiling, and two ways of dunking hot ingredients in cool water (one after boiling, one after heating), are the p'ao-chih which combine both fire and water. Ingredients can be steamed in water alone or together with vinegar, alcohol, or ginger juice. Even after steaming highly toxic ingredients in water, it is necessary to boil them to remove all the poison. Mr. Ts'ao indicates that one often needs to add other ingredients with the boiling method. The amount that is added is where the skill comes in to p'ao-chih, "but many novices overlook this."

Most of these concoction methods, which have been handed down since the Han dynasty and constantly elaborated on and expanded, are still followed in traditional Chinese medicine shops. Despite slight variations, there is never great deviation from the original methods. These time-tested ways have reduced the toxicity and side-effects of medicinal ingredients, not only increasing their effectiveness, but also making storage more convenient.

After learning concoction, then you learn ch'ieh-p'ien (literally "cutting into strips"). "If you cut up expensive medicines like ginseng, you've got to have experience to do it right," says Hwang Mu-ch'in.

After you've worked making the medicine for two years, if your qualifications are good enough, then you can move out to the counter. There you'll meet all kinds of customers and see all kinds of prescriptions, which is of course much more interesting than making medicine. "By looking at the prescriptions, you can tell if it was written by a learned old doctor, or somebody who just flipped through the books on his own," says Mr. Ts'ao, who has studied Chinese medicine for more than ten years.

He offers a little tip: The simplest way to tell is to see whether the prescription is properly laid out. If it jumps back and forth between main and secondary ingredients, that means the person was just flipping through the books, and has no foundation. In addition, if "cold" diseases are treated with "hot" medicines, or there's no distinction between "hot" and "cold," then it must have been by someone just getting started.

Masters of the medicine shop, having seen many patients and prescriptions, mostly can diagnose and write prescriptions themselves.

However, a person can't just go about it casually; you've got to have a firm foundation. On Taiwan at present, besides large pharmacies that make medicine themselves, quite a few buy wholesale from medicine factories. These factories are of mixed quality. Some will use rather poor quality ingredients and casual p'ao-chih to boost profits. Some even go so far as to steal more valuable medicines sent to them for grinding and stealthily replace them with inferiors.

In present day Taiwan, most of the Chinese medicine used is imported from the mainland. Every store claims that its medicinal ingredients are the "real thing." Even if they are genuine, if the manufacturing process is taken lightly, the effectiveness will be discounted. There may even be toxins left behind, and the consumer will be the victim.

"Many Chinese doctors of Chinese medicine can only write prescriptions; they can't tell if the medicine is good or bad," says Huang Mu-ch'in. It seems that only old masters in the field can distinguish whether concocted medicines are useful or not. So it is best to carefully select a Chinese medicine shop.

However, after you have a deeper understanding of the medicine-making process, if you ask penetrating questions the next time you're in a Chinese medicine shop, the guy behind the counter-besides being impressed-will not dare to carelessly take the first medicine that comes to hand.

[Picture Caption]

If you want to get to the counter, you've got to learn how to make the medicine first.

A large pot on top of a coal fire; on top are aconites being treated. This kind of traditional p'ao-chih (concocting) is not much seen these days.

One can see a variety of rare and unusual ingredients at a Chinese pharmacy, seahorses among them. (photo by Wang Wei-chang)

A lot of raw medicines must be "cooked" first to eliminate toxicity.

Using machines instead of people to make medicine capsules saves a lot of hassle.

After the ingredients are concocted, it is necessary to protect them ina dry place so that they don't lose their medicinal value.

This old master at the Sheng-yuan Shop has been cutting medicines for 50 years.

The life of moderns is hectic, so many Chinese medicine shops offer to prepare your medicines for you.

A large pot on top of a coal fire; on top are aconites being treated. This kind of traditional p'ao-chih （concocting） is not much seen these days.

One can see a variety of rare and unusual ingredients at a Chinese pharmacy, seahorses among them. （photo by Wang Wei-chang）

A lot of raw medicines must be "cooked" first to eliminate toxicity.

Using machines instead of people to make medicine capsules saves a lot of hassle.

After the ingredients are concocted, it is necessary to protect them ina dry place so that they don't lose their medicinal value.

This old master at the Sheng-yuan Shop has been cutting medicines for 50 years.

The life of moderns is hectic, so many Chinese medicine shops offer to prepare your medicines for you.