According to research, people in Qin and Han dynasties were obsessed with tonic for teenagers, which was obtained by burning cinnabar, mercury, lead and other minerals and reacting chemically. At that time, the most popular "tonics" for the rich were amethyst, sulfur, realgar, ochre and turquoise, which were regarded as "the essence of five stones", also known as "five stone ginseng" and commonly known as "five-color medicinal stones". These "big tonics" are actually big poisons, and most of them contain toxic substances to varying degrees. Taking a small amount is not a big problem, and sometimes it is beneficial. But if you take too much or take it for a long time, it will not only fail to play a health care role, but will hurt your body and lead to death.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, taking health care products became the consumption fashion of the rich and literati. During this period, this kind of "tonic" with medical stone as the basic component was the most popular. At that time, the most advanced and popular was "Wushi Powder", also called "Cold Food Powder". According to Ge Hong's Inner Chapter of Bao Pu Zi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Hanshi Powder is made of five herbs: cinnabar, realgar, alum, zengqing and magnet. The effect of Wu XIII is immediate. After taking it, the body is hot, but it also has strong toxic and side effects. After taking it, I feel irritable, such as burning my body. Therefore, taking Wushi powder is strict: it must be cold clothes, cold drinks, cold food and cold lying, hence the name "cold food powder". When distributing medicine, you must take off your coat and wear a big hat when you go out for a walk, so it is also called "getting separated" and "taking medicine".

China people's superstition of tonics reached its peak in Sui and Tang Dynasties. During this period, alchemy was renovated and there were many kinds of health care products. Some use pig teeth and Gleditsia sinensis collected in 1 1 month to make plaster, and make it into a kind of health care medicine called "pod teeth". Even the urine and urine were used by the Tang people to refine tonics. There is a kind of Dan medicine called "lead mercury", which is made from the urine of boys and girls. These Dan medicines were commonly known as "big medicines" in the Tang Dynasty. The emperor of the Tang Dynasty was more superstitious about tonic "multi-bait pills".

During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, liquid supplements represented by animal milk and blood became popular. The consumption trend of this health care product actually appeared at the end of the Tang Dynasty, when it was called "drinking", which was a modern health care drink. Deer blood is very popular among the really rich and noble. "Qingbo Magazine" records: "Scholar-officials seek indulgence, including raising giant deer, stabbing their blood every day and drinking alcohol." Some people even raised hundreds of deer, which shows that people in Song and Yuan Dynasties were superstitious about the health care function of deer blood.

By the Ming dynasty, the rich people's concept of health care consumption seemed to have regressed. In the Han and Tang dynasties, the popular medical stone has a market again, and the wind of alchemy has revived. In the Ming Dynasty, the rich took the elixir as the scene, and emperors, ministers, eunuchs and even ordinary officials were quite obsessed with the art of burning and tempering, which was recorded in Ming History and Shi Minglu. In fact, many tonics in Ming and Qing dynasties were aphrodisiacs, and the "tonic" commonly used by emperors in previous dynasties was actually this kind of thing.