Story of Dandelion

Once upon a time, there was a pretty young lady in a very rich family. One day she felt that her breasts were red and swollen and hurt a lot. She was too embarrassed to tell anyone except her maid and confidante, who ran off to tell her mother.  "Madame, missy is sick. Send for a doctor quickly... "  "What?" the mother thought. "How can an unmarried girl like her have a disease like that? Is she hiding a sweetheart from her parents?"  The mother confronted her daughter's maid. "Tell me the truth. Just who has my daughter been seeing?"  "No one, I swear. "   "Shameless hussy! You're a disgrace to the family!"

Suspected for no good reason, the young lady was both ashamed and distraught. But she had no evidence to prove her innocence.  That night she ran away from home and leapt into a river hoping to drown herself. The moon was bright, and a fisherman named Pu and his daughter were out fishing in a little boat.  "Hey, didn't somebody just jump into the river?" the daughter cried.  She dove in and rescued the half-drowned girl.

While she was changing the girl's clothes, she discovered the sore spots on the girl's breasts and she told her father. "Go up into the hills early tomorrow morning and look for a plant with saw-edged leaves... " he said, describing what to look for.  When she returned, the fisherman boiled the plant into a broth for the girl to drink. After she had drunk it several times, the red swelling gradually disappeared.  Meanwhile, when the girl's parents learned that their daughter had thrown herself into the river, they were terrified and quickly sent out servants to find her.

Soon enough, one of the men came to the fisherman's home.  Her eyes brimming with tears of gratitude, the girl knelt down to thank the fisherman and his daughter and bid them farewell.  He gave her one of the plants to take with her. "This herb has the ability to reduce inflammation, relieve fever and suppress pain. if you have a similar problem, drink it again. "  When the girl returned home, she planted the herb in the garden and called it pu-gong-ying (dandelion). Pu was the fisherman's surname, and Gong-ying was the name of his daughter. People have been aware of the broad medicinal value of the dandelion ever.