A Dream of Red Mansions focuses on the daily life of the Jia family, and its description of food, clothing, housing and transportation takes up a lot of space. In the daily diet and daily life activities of the characters in the Red Chamber, a lot of health care knowledge is integrated. For example, when I wrote about Jia's dinner for the third time, I found that "the maids insisted on removing dust and washing dishes" and "after the meal, the maids served tea with small tea trays". The first cup of tea is for gargling, and the second cup of tea is for eating. This book mentions gargling with tea many times. Gargling after meals is beneficial to oral hygiene and dental care; Rinsing with tea can get rid of greasy than rinsing with clear water; Drinking tea after meals can also help digestion.
There are often parties and banquets in Jia's family. When drinking, especially in winter, you must drink it while it is hot. The eighth time I wrote that Baoyu drank cold wine, Baochai immediately dissuaded him: "Brother Bao, thanks to your daily chores, don't you know that wine is the hottest? If you eat it while it's hot, the smell of wine will soon dissipate;" If you eat it cold, it will condense in it. Warming him with five internal organs won't hurt? "This statement is very scientific. Drinking cold wine is harmful to the stomach. If the wine is heated before drinking, on the one hand, it can reduce the consumption of heat energy in the body, on the other hand, it can make the irritating substances in the wine evaporate, reduce its irritation to the stomach, and at the same time, it can strengthen the role of promoting blood circulation and qi circulation, making the wine more mellow.
There are many descriptions about the relationship between diet and health care in the book. For example, in the thirty-eighth time, I wrote that there was a crab feast in Jiafu. Seeing that Baoyu and others loved crabs, Grandmother Jia warned, "It's delicious, but it's not good. Eating too much has a stomachache. " Daiyu was weak, so she "ate a little" and "felt a slight pain in her heart" and quickly drank hot wine to suppress it. This is because crabs are cold, and crab roe is a high-fat and high-protein food, which is not easy to digest. Eating too much is not good for people. Daiyu is ill and often doesn't think about diet. She only supports herself with tonic. Baochai advised her: "The ancients said,' He who eats grains lives.' The game you eat every day can't nourish your spirit and blood, and it's not a good thing. He said, "I saw too much ginseng and cinnamon in your prescription yesterday. Although invigorating qi and nourishing the mind, it should not be overheated. In my opinion, it is important to calm the liver and nourish the stomach first. If the liver fire is calm, you can't kill the soil, your stomach is healthy, and your diet can support people. " These words put forward the viewpoint that food tonic is superior to medicine tonic and food tonic, and pointed out the harm of abusing tonic.
A Dream of Red Mansions emphasizes dietotherapy, curing diseases and strengthening the body. In the fifty-third reply, I wrote: "The secret custom of this Jia family is just a little cold and cough, always hungry, and then take medicine to recuperate." Qingwen caught a cold. "I was hungry for two or three days, taking medicine carefully ... and I'm getting better." . 109 wrote that the old lady ate too much and her chest was full. Yuanyang wanted to tell Jia Zheng, but Grandmother Jia wouldn't allow it, saying, "I'm hungry, so don't shout."
At the 42nd visit, Dr. Wang Jiren treated the old lady and said, "My wife has no other symptoms. I feel a little cold occasionally. I don't need to take medicine after all, just a little mild and warm. " At the same time, I wrote that Wang Jiren was treating Xifeng's daughter and sister, and I also advised her: "Just clean and hungry for two meals." When Jiafu people are sick, they often recuperate with light diets such as rice soup and porridge. There are six or seven kinds of porridge in the book, such as "Bijing porridge" and "glutinous rice porridge boiled with dates". The book also writes about various health foods that can be used as medicine and food, such as Albizia Albizia, Rose Dew, Poria Frost, etc. Especially for bird's nest, many places have written about the eating method and function of bird's nest. For example, when Dai Yu wrote back on the 45th that she didn't want to eat, Baochai recommended to her to eat bird's nest porridge: "Get up early every day and take one or two first-class bird's nests, with five yuan of rock sugar, and cook porridge with silver tweezers. If you get used to it, it's better than medicine.
A Dream of Red Mansions also describes the prevention of exogenous diseases. The fifty-eighth time I wrote that Baoyu went out to see many old women taking care of the garden after his illness. When Shi Xiangyun saw it, he said, "It's windy here, and it's cold on the rocks. Let's sit down. " This is the writing to ward off evil spirits. Back to the sixty-second, Shi Xiangyun was drunk and slept on a stone bench. When everyone saw her awake, they said, "wake up and go to eat. This wet bench is still sick." This is to avoid dampness. The fifty-first time I wrote that Qingwen was ill in Yuan, and an old maid took a message; "Two doses of medicine are ready. If it is not good, it is better to go out. The weather is bad now, and being polluted by others is a trivial matter. The health of girls is very important. " This means preventing infectious diseases.
The thirteenth time, Baoyu heard that Qin Keqing had died and was anxious to see him. Grandmother Jia dissuaded her: "People who have just died are not clean there." This is because after the patient dies, the pathogenic microorganisms on his body may be stained on furniture and other items or emitted into the air, and healthy people may be infected once they are in contact. So the Lady Dowager immediately stopped Baoyu from going to see Qin Keqing. The above description of preventive health care is very scientific.
Many characters in A Dream of Red Mansions are ill, which is closely related to their emotions. Therefore, the book also attaches great importance to emotional restraint and health care. For example, the disease written in Nineteen Hours, You Shi said: "Brother Rong also has something to ask. I said, "Don't bother him-don't make him angry. Let him rest quietly for a few days. "Back to the eighty-third, I wrote that Daiyu vomited blood, and Tanchun came to see her and said," As long as you are willing to take medicine with peace of mind, you can be tough every day. "These two cases show that peace of mind and relaxation are of great help to cure diseases.
The thirty-second time, Baoyu said to Daiyu, "You are all sick because you are not at ease (referring to your marriage with Baoyu). But if you are relieved; This disease can't get worse every day! " The forty-eighth time I wrote that Xiangling joined the poetry club in order to learn to write poems "to dig her heart and find courage". She couldn't sleep at night, and Baochai warned her, "If you can't learn poetry, will you get sick?" These two situations show that excessive worry can easily lead to disease.
In addition to paying attention to diet, preventing foreign evils and controlling emotions, the book also writes a lot of other health care knowledge. For example, Baoyu went to see Daiyu on the 19th, and when he saw that she was still asleep at dawn, he said to her, "The pain is small, but if you sleep, you will get sick." By the sixty-seventh time, Xue Baochai advised Lin Daiyu according to her own experience: "If my sister is not feeling well, it is better to make a living by herself, and don't sit around in the house. I didn't feel lazy for those two days ... so I found something to mix with myself, and I feel better these two days. " There is a saying in Chinese medicine that "sitting for a long time hurts the meat and lying for a long time hurts the gas". Both descriptions show that sitting still and lying still for a long time is not good for your health. Even if you are sick, if it is not serious. You should also exercise as much as possible to avoid the loneliness and boredom of sitting and lying down and divert your attention from the disease; Secondly, it can also promote blood circulation and enhance physical fitness; The words of Baoyu and Baochai seem ordinary, but in fact they come from experience.
(Original: Tea in the Red Chamber)