The significance of ancient people drinking realgar wine on Dragon Boat Festival Why did ancient people drink realgar wine?

Introduction: Dragon Boat Festival is coming, and everyone is preparing zongzi in full swing. In addition to the traditional sweet and salty dumplings, netizens have spontaneously developed many flavors, such as bubble tea dumplings, double dumplings and snail powder dumplings. Zongzi is a major attraction and discussion point of Dragon Boat Festival, and so is realgar wine. Do you know the significance of ancient people drinking realgar wine on Dragon Boat Festival? Why did the ancients drink realgar wine? Come and have a look with me next.

The significance of ancient people drinking realgar wine on Dragon Boat Festival is

There is a folk saying that drinking realgar wine can cure all diseases. Therefore, on the Dragon Boat Festival, most parts of China have the custom of drinking realgar wine, that is, adding realgar to the wine. Realgar, also known as Celosia cristata, is a mineral and a commonly used Chinese medicine. The composition of realgar is arsenic sulfide, which is toxic. It has inhibitory effect on various skin fungi, Staphylococcus aureus and Proteus, and has anthelmintic effect. Li Ming pointed out in Compendium of Materia Medica:

"Realgar is pungent and toxic, and it has the effects of detoxifying insects, operating nirvana, killing insects and expelling crimes. ..... attending to all kinds of insect poison and snake venom. "

This reminds us of a folk story (Legend of the White Snake), in which Xu Xian gave the White Snake realgar wine on the Dragon Boat Festival. As a result, the White Snake got drunk and showed her true colors. Xu Xian was frightened. This plot is imagined according to the function of realgar.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, calamus wine and realgar wine were combined into one. Zhao Zuo's "Five Miscellanies" says: "Drink calamus wine, and drink it with realgar wine." In other words, realgar is released to drink with calamus wine. Jia Qinglu, an ancient land in Qing Dynasty, said: "Grinding realgar into powder, crushing Pugen and drinking it with wine is called realgar wine." This wine needs to be exposed to the sun, and some even start to dry from the first day of May. During the Dragon Boat Festival, the whole family will get together and have a cup of realgar wine to celebrate and keep fit.

Besides calamus wine and realgar wine, there was also a cinnabar wine at that time. Feng Ming's "Ying Jing" (moon order in a broad sense) said:

"In the afternoon, I used cinnabar wine to detoxify, and the rest of the wine stained my forehead, feet, hands and feet, so there was no danger of pool snakes. Sprinkle water on the doors and windows of the field wall to avoid poisonous insects. "

Cinnabar, a mineral, also known as cinnabar, is an important raw material for extracting mercury and has medicinal value. The ancients used cinnabar wine, which may not be as effective as realgar, but it was replaced by realgar wine in Qing Dynasty.

Why did the ancients drink realgar wine?

"On May 5th, realgar shochu celebrated the Dragon Boat Festival. "On this day, people cut Pugen, dried it in the sun, mixed a little realgar and dipped it in white wine. Some people also dipped it in realgar alone, hence the name "realgar wine". People believe that realgar wine can exorcise evil spirits, which forms the custom of drinking realgar wine on Dragon Boat Festival.

When I was a child, when I watched The Legend of the New White Snake, the white snake accidentally drank realgar wine to expose her true body. I believe that every audience was deeply impressed, and the role of drinking realgar wine to ward off evil spirits is self-evident.

At the same time, children's cheeks and ears should be painted with realgar wine, or the word "Wang" should be written on their foreheads, which is compared to a tiger to intimidate evil spirits. Villagers will also spray the leftover realgar wine in the dark corner of the house wall or store it. If the insect bites swell every day, it can be applied to detoxify and reduce swelling. Anyone who goes down the well needs a piece of realgar, wrapped in silk wool, and put it into the well to remove the poison from the water.

Nanjing people have many customs about realgar wine. Nanjing people pay attention to "breaking the eyes of fire" during the Dragon Boat Festival, that is, soaking realgar in wine and exposing it to the sun, and the whole family rubbed it on their eyes with wine to avoid red eye. Old Nanjing people also like to fry soybeans with realgar wine, which can also play an antiviral role, while fried pickles can play a role in preventing stomach pain.

During and after the Dragon Boat Festival, the climate is hot, flies and insects are flying, toxic gases are rising, and epidemics are breeding. The ancients believed that people who ate whole grains gave birth to all kinds of diseases, and the diseases entered from the mouth, mostly due to pathogenic factors and miscellaneous gases, which were inhaled through the nose and mouth. In the long-term struggle against various diseases, people found that drinking realgar wine and wearing sachets can exorcise evil spirits and detoxify, which has its own medical principles. "Jia Qinglu" records: "Grinding realgar, crushing Pugen and drinking it with wine is called realgar wine." That is, realgar is added to the wine. Realgar, orange-red, can be used as medicine to solve the virus.

Realgar wine is the wine of Dragon Boat Festival. In the old society, Jianning almost brewed realgar wine at home, but most of them were drunk by men, and some women who could drink also drank some. Children can't drink it, so adults immerse their hands in wine, making children's faces, ears, nose, palms and feet blister. Later, people added Artemisia argyi leaves, smoked grass and other raw materials to realgar to make sachets for women and children to wear.

Drinking realgar wine is harmful to human body.

There is an old saying: "Drink realgar wine and all diseases will disappear". Realgar is a mineral, commonly known as "Jiguanshi". Its main component is arsenic sulfide and contains mercury, which is toxic. The common realgar wine is made by adding a small amount of realgar to white wine or homemade yellow wine, and there is no pure drink. Realgar wine has the functions of sterilization, insect repellent and detoxification, and traditional Chinese medicine is also used to treat skin diseases. When there was no disinfectant such as iodine in ancient times, soaking in realgar could detoxify and relieve itching.

For children under drinking age, adults apply realgar wine on their foreheads, ears, ears, hands, feet and hearts to disinfect and prevent diseases. The ancient poem goes: "Only when I was a child, I didn't forget to hold Aifupu as the king." It means that on the Dragon Boat Festival, children hold mugwort leaves, put on calamus and write the word "king" on their foreheads with realgar wine to ward off evil spirits and prevent epidemics. Sprinkle realgar wine on corners, bed bottoms and other places to repel insects and clean the environment.

From the point of view of modern medicine, drinking realgar wine is very harmful to human body. Even if you don't drink it, it is not recommended to just apply it to your child's head and body.

Because the main chemical component of realgar is toxic arsenic disulfide, it will become arsenic trioxide after heating, which is also commonly known as arsenic. People will be poisoned if they drink it. It is no exaggeration to say that drinking realgar wine is actually equivalent to eating arsenic, so don't take any chances and think about whether you can use the poison of realgar wine to fight the poison, otherwise it will be very dangerous if you only drink a little realgar wine.

If realgar wine must be used in Dragon Boat Festival, it can be sprayed in the corner to drive away poisonous insects in summer.