Scallion and Rakkyo: How the Donguibogam Saw Two Pungent Vegetables Differently

Scallion is "the chief of the vegetables"; rakkyo is the "mushroom of immortality among vegetables." Both are pungent, yet the text judges them differently.

Scallion and rakkyo are both pungent members of the onion genus, yet the Donguibogam paints them quite differently: one as a vegetable of dispersing and sweating, the other as warming and supplementing. Here are the text's words.

Scallion: a smell with a use

葱者菜之伯, 雖臭而有用

Scallion is the chief of the vegetables; though it smells, it has use.

Tangaek-pyeon · vegetables · scallion

此物, 大抵以發散爲功, 多食昏人神. 且白冷而靑熱

This thing works mainly by dispersing, and eaten in quantity it dulls the spirit. Also, the white is cool and the green is hot.

Tangaek-pyeon · vegetables · scallion

The Welsh Onion (White Part) entry says to use it only as a seasoning that harmonizes the five flavors and not to eat much, and carries the record that it is incompatible with honey.

Rakkyo: pungent but not "gamy"

雖辛而不葷五藏, 故道家常餌之

Though pungent it does not make the five viscera gamy, so Taoists regularly ate it.

Tangaek-pyeon · vegetables · rakkyo

薤性溫補, 仙方及服食家, 皆須之

Rakkyo is warming and supplementing, and both immortal formulas and those who practiced dietary regimens all needed it.

Tangaek-pyeon · vegetables · rakkyo

Rakkyo (Chinese Scallion) was set apart from the forbidden pungent vegetables like scallion and garlic because it does not make the five viscera gamy, and ascetics ate it freely.

Hu-cong: an onion filed as a pungent vegetable

其狀似大蒜而小, 形圓皮赤, 稍長而銳. 五六月採, 亦是葷物耳

It looks like garlic but smaller, round with red skin, slightly long and pointed. It is gathered in the 5th–6th months and is also just a pungent vegetable.

Tangaek-pyeon · vegetables · hu-cong

Even within the onion genus the text draws a line, calling hu-cong "just a pungent vegetable." It did not treat the genus as one block but judged each by its nature. See Garlic and Chinese Chive for the others.

This article introduces classical judgments for education and makes no claim about the benefits of any vegetable.