Burning moxa sticks, hanging calamus, and wearing sachets The Dragon Boat Festival is also an ancient "National Sanitation Festival". There are many
coups for the ancients to cure diseases and prevent epidemics.
The Dragon Boat Festival is approaching. Have you already planned your travel arrangements?
The folk proverb says: "Dragon Boat Festival, the weather is hot, the five poisons wake up, and the rest is unrest." Did you know that Dragon Boat Festival is midsummer, the temperature rises, mosquitoes breed and spread diseases easily. "Sanitation Day", burning moxa sticks, hanging calamus, wearing sachets...Many customs of the ancients on this day are actually related to sanitation and epidemic prevention.
At the moment, the new crown virus is still acting recklessly around the world.
Moxibustion, sachets, herbal teas, fumigation of Chinese medicine...the methods used by the ancients to prevent epidemics can still be used for reference even in a modern society with highly developed technology.
Today, I’m going to talk to you about the ancient methods of epidemic prevention.
The ancestors of physical isolation have long realized
"Isolation" was the best way to prevent epidemics that the ancients realized early on.
"Book of Jin·Wang Biao's Biography" records: "At the end of Yonghe, there are many diseases. The old system, courtiers sometimes get sick, and those with more than three people who are easily infected will not be allowed to enter the palace for a hundred days although they are not sick." The isolation requirements for sexual diseases are strict, and isolation measures must be taken as long as there is contact with the patient.
In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, "quarantine and epidemic prevention" had become a system.
Immunity is protective clothing
Look at the six methods of nourishing the ancients
Improving self-immunity is the nourishment of the ancients.
"Internal Classics" says: "...those who do not get in contact with each other, righteous qi is inside, evil cannot be done, avoiding its poisonous qi." Because "the evil is gathered together, its qi must be deficient", it warns people that "the essence of winter will not be stored, spring will be ill ", "Void evil and thief wind, avoid it for a time", and require "the tranquility of the emptiness, the true qi follow it", in order to achieve the purpose of "the spirit is guarded and the illness is safe."
The ancients valued inner seeking and believed that righteousness was the basis and evil was the standard.
To prevent infection, the first priority is to strengthen the righteousness, and the righteousness will prevent the evil.
In the fight against the new crown pneumonia epidemic, many medical staff were infected with the virus.
They have put on protective clothing, why are they still infected?
The root cause is righteousness.
Because of the high pressure of clinical work, the lack of hunger and satiety, and overwork, the righteousness is deficient.
If the evil is gathered together, its qi will be empty.
Therefore, righting is the key.
The ancients had the following six methods of nourishing righteousness.
The predecessors of moxibustion recognized that moxibustion can "strengthen the roots, protect the body, and fumigate the original, but eliminate all diseases, the pain of the five internal organs, and protect the health of the whole body." Therefore, the ancients attached great importance to moxibustion while not ill. To avoid infection with the virus.
"Bian Quexin Shu" preached: "The life-saving method, burning moxa is the first." Moxibustion can save life, it can treat and prevent diseases.
Bian Que believes: "When a person is not sick, he often moxibuses Guanyuan, Qihai, Mingmen, and Zhongwan. Although he does not achieve longevity, he can still live for more than a hundred years." People who are not ill can also use moxibustion. Prolong life.
Normal people can also moxibus Zusanli by themselves, because Zusanli is the acupoint of the stomach meridian, which is the earth meridian earth point, which can cultivate the earth to replenish the deficiency and is most suitable for preventing the epidemic.
The ancients believed that the epidemic poison is a kind of evil with a very serious bias, and the bias of the epidemic can be restrained by the bias of the medicine.
The method of hanging or wearing medicine can be used to effectively prevent the epidemic virus infection.
There was a saying among the folks that "wear a vanilla bag and be not afraid of five insect pests".
Wearing a sachet is a folk custom, but it is also a way to prevent the plague.
Modern research has found that traditional Chinese medicine sachets have the following four functions:
(1) Prevention of influenza, prevention and control of epidemics: Traditional Chinese medicine sachets play a certain role in preventing viral infectious diseases, and can reduce people's pollution by dirty or poisonous gas;
(2) Avoid filth and turbidity, and clean the air;
(3) Calm the mind and calm the nerves, invigorate the spleen and stomach;
(4) Repel mosquitoes and poisonous snakes.
Since the Chinese medicine sachet is purely natural, it can only be hung for half a month to a month, the aroma will be exhausted, and the effect will disappear.
Medicinal baths use traditional Chinese medicine baths to avoid evil. For example, the "Internal Classics" puts forward: "After the rain, three baths should be used to relieve sweat." Liu Songfeng's book "Songfeng Says Epidemic" in the Qing Dynasty recorded: "After Guyu, Chuanxiong was used. , Atractylodes, Angelica dahurica, Lingxiang (or Huoxiang) are divided into equal parts, decocted and bathed three times to vent their sweat, and those who are stinky from sweat are not sick.” Do not flush after the medicated bath, just dry the clothes directly.
Sneezing with soft paper twisted into a fine twist to stimulate the nasal cavity, a few large sneezes, can effectively prevent the flu.
Sneezing is the body's active detox reaction.
"Chuan Ya Diebian" records: "Whoever enters the plague house, puts sesame oil in the nostrils, and then enters the sick house, then the infection will not be contagious; if it comes out, or use paper to twist the nose deeply, it is better to sneeze." The ancients didn't have masks, so applying sesame oil to the nostrils was a very clever way.
Many Chinese medicine practitioners have provided preventive Chinese medicine prescriptions during the anti-coronary pneumonia epidemic.
The ancients also had preventive measures.
For example, the prescription of "Piwen Bing San" in Ge Hong's book: "Pearl and cinnamon are each one point, Fritillaria three points are boiled, the chicken is white boiled to make yellow and black, three points, pounded and sieved, every year is taken with a square inch dagger. , Can be taken during the lunar month, if the disease is cured, the patient will be cured, and the patient will be treated with great effect." Ge Hong's preventive prescriptions are all warm, and the warm energy can lead to the yang, and the yang will be evil.
During the seasons for drinking medicine and wine epidemics, the ancients paid much attention to drinking realgar wine, mugwort wine, calamus wine, etc. Realgar, mugwort, and calamus are all warm medicines, which have the function of warming yang and suppressing yin, and help to eliminate epidemic poisons.
"Ask for Truth in Materia Medica" mentions: "Artemisia argyi is hard and warm in nature, its qi is strong and pure and yang, in addition to the cold and cold, it can pass all the classics to cure all diseases."
Environmental disinfection
The ancients chose to burn smoke
Similar to our current eradication of viruses that pollute the environment, when the ancients faced epidemics, they used Chinese medicine to burn smoke to disinfect the air, which could interfere with the virus, eliminate the poison and eliminate the epidemic, harmonize the environment, and prevent people from getting sick.
Li Shizhen, the great physician of the Ming Dynasty, said: Zhang Zhongjing used atractylodes and trotters to burn smoke with all evil spirits.
The "New Compilation of Prescriptions" in the Qing Dynasty contained air disinfection prescriptions, which used "atractylodes powder and red dates to be pounded into pellets such as big marbles, which can be burnt from time to time to avoid epidemics."
Atractylodes japonicus has a fragrant smell, which can dispel dampness and turbidity inside, disperse the evil of rheumatism outside, and burn smoke can also disinfect the air.
In addition, the disinfection of the ancients generally targeted all clothing used by patients.
Most of them use the method of steaming and high temperature sterilization.
It can be seen that the ancients attached great importance to the prevention of epidemics, and the ancients used various methods to prevent epidemics, and some methods of preventing epidemics can still be used for reference today.
Text/Jing Xiaoling (Beijing Rehabilitation Hospital)