Why do you drink realgar wine on Dragon Boat Festival?

Realgar was originally taken by Taoist alchemists. It is pure yang and can dispel yin and evil. Later, it was incorporated into the Dragon Boat Festival folk custom to drive away damp insects and snakes.

The Dragon Boat Festival absorbed the belief of the rise and fall of the summer solstice in its formation. In the folk, summer solstice is regarded as an important day of agricultural production, which is used to guide the planting of crops. At the official level, due to the influence of Yin-Yang theory and its beliefs, the summer solstice sacrifice is quite grand.

In May of the lunar calendar, the climate is hot and humid, all kinds of plagues and diseases are easy to breed, and the activities of snakes, insects and other pests are also increasingly frequent. Therefore, the people have always regarded May as an "evil month" and a "poisonous month". Because there is a special taboo in May, and the time span of May is relatively long, Xia people regard the fifth day of May as an evil day of evil month, and hold a series of activities such as collecting medicine, storing orchids and bathing to ward off evil spirits on this day. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the folk May 5th Movement also became a national memorial ceremony, which was actually the official recognition and acceptance of the May 5th Movement belief. Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, some official sacrificial activities have moved the original summer solstice solar term to May 5, which has added many new folk activities to this folk festival.

As two important solar terms, summer solstice and winter solstice were determined in Xia Dynasty. According to the theory of yin and yang, the summer solstice is the day when the yang spirit reaches its peak and begins to decline, while the yin spirit begins to sprout. Summer is endowed with the meaning of supporting yang and restraining yin in the theory of yin and yang, that is, on this day in summer, we should do everything possible to help the growth of yang and stifle the bud of yin. The Taiping Magnolia Volume 31 quoted the Local Records as saying: "Midsummer Dragon Boat Festival. The end is the beginning. Vulgarity is as heavy as the summer solstice. " In this passage, "Five Days with the Summer Solstice Day" refers to the most important May 5, and the folk activities on May 5 are similar to the Summer Solstice Day. The folk custom of drinking realgar is also explained by the theory of Yin and Yang.

Volume 9 of Compendium of Materia Medica: "orpiment and realgar are produced at the same time, but they are different in terms of being affected by it." Therefore, the eater pays attention to realgar and takes the essence of pure yang; Orpiment is both cloudy and angry. " Because realgar is born in Shanyang, it is pure yang, which can eliminate yin and evil. Realgar was originally taken by Taoist alchemists, but it was later incorporated into the Dragon Boat Festival to drive away damp insects and snakes.