Once upon a time, two skillful writers went to the capital to have the imperial examination in summer. They hurried on with their journey for fear that they would miss the examination. So they were weak because of tiredness.
One day, they entered the desolate desert. There was no inn at all. They were both thirsty and hungry.
One skillful writer had suffered from vacuity fire flaming upward due to tiredness. Blood ran out of his nose suddenly. The other one was astonished to see that and had to stuff his friend's noses with paper. But the blood ran out of his mouth while the noses were stuffed.
The other skillful writer had no idea. "What shall I do?"
"Water! If there's water."
"How can I get water for you? We are in the desert."
Just when they were talking, a red-crowned crane was flying past. "Wait! Give me yours wings and let me fly out of the desert." The one with nose bleeding cried out.
The crane was frightened by him and dropped a piece of weed held in its mouth.
The other skillful writer picked it up and said, "There's no wings, but you can take it to moisten your mouth.
The one with nose bleeding put it into his mouth and chawed. After a while, his nose stopped bleeding unexpectedly. They were very delightful, "Aha, the red-crowned crane brought us the xian-cao (mystery weed)."
They didn't miss the examination at last. And several years later, they were both the officials of the imperial court.
They met one day and recalled the experience in the desert. They both wanna find the weed which can stop bleeding.
So they drew a figure of the weed and ordered the heelers to get it. Many years later, it was found finally.
It's a kind of herb of which the leaves are feather-like and the flowers white. It has the actions of astringing to stop bleeding, supplementing, eliminating stagnated food and killing intestinal worms. In order to commemorate the red-crowned crane (xian-he in Chinese) which brought them the weed, they termed the herb Xianhe-Cao, (i.e., agrimony).
1、有一年夏天，两个秀才进京赶考。他们生怕误了考期，一路不停地赶路，都累得体虚气短了。
2、这天，两人一没逢着村，二没遇上店，走来走去，进了一片荒沙滩。他们又渴又饿，却又无处歇脚。
3、其中一个秀才连劳累带上火，突然鼻孔里流血不止。另一个秀才吓慌了，急忙把携带的旧书撕成条儿、卷成捻儿去塞朋友的鼻孔。可他塞住了鼻子，血又顺着嘴往外流。
4、这个秀才没了主意：
“这可怎么办？”
“有点水就好了。”
“你让我上哪儿找水去？”
正在这时候，唰地一声，有只仙鹤从他们头顶飞过。口鼻冒血的秀才羡慕的张开双臂，喊道：
“慢点，借我翅膀用用，让我飞出这鬼地方吧！”
5、仙鹤受了惊吓，一张嘴，叼着的一根野草掉落下来。
另一个秀才笑捡起来，说：“翅膀借不来，先拿它润润嗓子吧。”
口鼻冒血的秀才忙接过野草放进嘴嚼起来。说也怪，嚼了不大会儿血竟止住了。两人高兴极了：
“哈哈，仙鹤送仙草来了！”
6、 后来，他俩总算没误了考期，几年过去，都做了官。
7、一天，两人碰在一起，想起荒沙滩的遭遇，都想再找到那种能止血的药草。
8、于是，他俩回想着药草的样子，画出图来，命人照图寻找。就这样找了许多年，最后才把那种药草找到。
9、这是一种有羽毛样的叶子、秋天开白花的药草，确有收敛止血的功能。它还有补虚，消积，止痢，杀虫的作用。为了纪念送药的仙鹤，他们就给这种药草取名叫“仙鹤草”了。
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