Why is the Dragon Boat Festival a time when "Five Poisons" frequently appear? Speaking of the custom of medicated bath before and after the Dragon Boat Festival, it can be traced back to the saying that there are five poisons in the Dragon Boat Festival. According to reports, the five poisons are the general names of snakes, scorpions, centipedes, toads and geckos. Chengdu plain is warm and humid, with miasma in summer, and the five poisons appear around the Dragon Boat Festival. This statement of "five poisons" dates back to the Tang and Song Dynasties. Because of geographical reasons, the "five poisons" are also somewhat different. For example, in some areas, spiders and lizards are also among the "five poisons".
But fortunately, we have a killer weapon against the "five poisons". On the Dragon Boat Festival, the old Chengdu people specially prepared a lunch containing "Huang Wu", that is, "Fight poison with poison". This "Huang Wu" is realgar, cucumber, leek, eel and yellow duck eggs.
Moreover, each "yellow" has its own emphasis: realgar has the effect of detoxifying and eliminating evil, cucumber can dispel summer heat, leek contains fragrance to strengthen yang, eel can nourish yin, and yellow duck eggs have the effect of nourishing the heart. Old Chengdu people have great wisdom in diet, and even make "Huang Wu" a health food.
As we know, every household in old Chengdu has the custom of soaking realgar wine during the Dragon Boat Festival. Every Dragon Boat Festival, there are two kinds of Chinese medicine shops in old Chengdu, one is sachet and the other is realgar. Realgar can repel poisonous snakes, insects and ants, but it contains arsenic, which is toxic. Therefore, in 1950s and 1960s, few people in Chengdu drank realgar wine, but put it on children's eyebrows, ears and so on. Grandparents also wrote the word "Wang" on their grandchildren's eyebrows with realgar wine, which means the king of beasts.