Where did Xue Baochai's "Lengxiang Pills" come from? Why does she need to take this medicine?

Lengxiangwan first appeared in the seventh chapter of "A Dream of Red Mansions".

After the Zhou Rui family saw off Grandma Liu, they went to the upper room to talk to Mrs. Wang. Unexpectedly, Mrs. Wang was not in the upper room and went to Lixiangyuan to meet Aunt Xue to talk about the family. Zhou Rui's family then came to Lixiangyuan and saw her sisters chattering endlessly, so they went inside to chat with Xue Baochai. When Zhou Rui's family asked why they hadn't been strolling there these past few days, maybe Brother Bao had bumped into her. Baochai said that it was just because the disease recurred, so she didn't go around, which led to a question called "Lengxiang Wan". "The pill. Xue Baochai and Lengxiang Pills

Treating diseases requires prescribing the right medicine. Xue Baochai took Lengxiang Pills because it had the effect of curing the disease and was the nemesis of that disease.

Baochai's illness occurs in stages, with good and bad spells. When the disease occurs, he only has some wheezing and coughing. There are no serious symptoms. I don't know how much money has been spent on this disease, but no matter what famous doctor or fairy Medicine never works at all. Lengxiang Pill is a fairy recipe from the sea told by a bald monk who specializes in treating unknown diseases. Just take one pill when you are sick.

To make cold-flavored pills, you need twelve taels each of white peony stamens in spring, white lotus stamens in summer, white hibiscus stamens in autumn, and white plum stamens in winter. Dry them on the spring equinox of the following year. Grind together the powdered medicine with a unique fragrance given by the monk, and then mix 12 qian each of the rainwater on the rainy day, the dew on the white dew day, the frost on the frosty day, and the snow on the light snow day, and mix them with various colors. Mix the flower stamens with medicine, add 12 qian of honey, 12 qian of white sugar, and make longan-sized pills. Place them in an old porcelain jar and bury them under the roots of the flowers. When the disease occurs, take out a pill and decoct it with 12 points of cork and give it to the patient.

Baochai's body contained a heat poison brought from the womb. Fortunately, she was born strong, so it didn't have much effect. Ordinary medicines were ineffective. This cold-flavored pill was more effective, but it wasn't as good as Zhou Rui's family said. That's how "except following". Lengxiang Wan is not uncommon

From a modern perspective, Lengxiang Wan can be described as an out-and-out fairy recipe from the sea. It has flowers, pistils, rain, frost, and is full of mystery. The colorful medicine is almost equivalent to the elixir for cultivating immortality. It is extremely rare and precious. However, to ancient people, these were just ordinary ingredients or medicinal materials, nothing to make a fuss about.

Take peonies and lotus flowers as examples. The ancients once wrapped them in batter and fried them into crunchy snacks; hibiscus flowers can be made with tofu to make "Snow Cloud Soup"; plum blossoms can be made into Add it to white rice, or mix it with tea leaves to make "plum blossom tea". In addition, these four kinds of flowers are also favored by doctors and are medicinal materials in traditional Chinese medicine.

As for rain, dew, frost, and snow, they were regarded as high-quality drinking water in ancient times. The ancients believed that these products of nature had unique pharmacology and important functions, so they were consumed seasonally every year. Collection and storage.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, people in Hangzhou, Jinling and other places believed that rainwater was sweeter and more palatable, so they collected large amounts of rainwater in summer and stored it in water tanks. In Chapter 41 of "Dream of Red Mansions", Miaoyu gave Laojun Mei to Jia Mu. The water used was the rainwater from the previous year.

According to literature, the dew on lotus flowers and lotus leaves has different health-care properties and can be used to make medicine, make wine, and make tea. An example is that when Shen Fu and his wife lived in Xiaoshuang House in "Six Chapters of a Floating Life", Chen Yun packed some tea leaves in a small sand bag and placed it in the heart of a lotus flower on a summer night. She took it out early the next morning and boiled the rainwater to make tea. The scent is wonderful.

Snow was also very useful in ancient times. It could be used to marinate bacon, or seal fruits in the snow in the cold winter months to preserve their freshness. Miaoyu invited Daiyu, Baochai, and Baoyu to have tea, and the water used to cook it was the snow on the plum blossoms harvested five years ago. According to Miaoyu, snow is purer than rain.

It can be seen that rain, dew and snow are the daily necessities of the ancients, and the ancients also used their wisdom to invent special methods of collecting rain, dew and snow, which are very operable.

There are records of collecting frost in "Compendium of Materia Medica", that is, gently sweeping it down with chicken feathers, dropping it into a bottle, sealing it and placing it in a cool place. The cream can be taken internally or applied externally; it can not only eliminate body heat and flushing after drunkenness, treat typhoid and nasal congestion, but also has therapeutic effects on skin redness and swelling.

Therefore, the ingredients of Lengxiang Pills were not uncommon in the era when "Dream of Red Mansions" was written. Cao Gong drew inspiration from life, and then sublimated this inspiration, transformed it into words, and transformed it into literature step by step. This is why art originates from life and is higher than life. So, where is the advanced nature of this art?

First of all, judging from the number of ingredients in Lengxiang Pills, it is either twelve taels, twelve cents, or twelve cents. The number "12" echoes the "Twelve Beauties of Jinling". "A Dream of Red Mansions" tells the story of these twelve women.

Furthermore, the four-color stamens in the ingredients of Lengxiang Pills are the delicate parts of the flower, so they are specially chosen to be ground on the vernal equinox; rain, dew, frost, and snow are also specially chosen to be collected on rainy days and white dew days. , frost day, light snow day, it seems that the rain, dew, frost and snow on these four days are better than those on other days. In fact, this can be explained by Confucius's saying "You never tire of fine food, and you never tire of fine food". After all, art is a sublimation of real life. How can we treat it casually? We need to pay more attention to it.

Finally, the ingredients of Lengxiang Pills include honey, sugar, and Phellodendron cypress, which is cold in nature and bitter in taste. The sweetness and bitterness are intertwined, which is a unique expression of the ups and downs, bitterness, spicyness, saltiness, and mixed flavors of life. The appearance of yellow cypress as the last process, and the fact that Baochai buried the cold scented pills under the pear tree actually hinted at Xue Baochai's miserable fate that would end in a tragedy of separation, which is in line with the "grey line of grass and snakes, spreading for thousands of miles" in "A Dream of Red Mansions" ” writing technique.