Legends about tigers

Throughout the ages, there are many beautiful legends about tigers among the people in China. The touching story is that Sun Simiao, the drug king, saved the tiger.

According to legend, Sun Simiao, the king of medicine, went up the mountain to collect medicine one day and was stopped by a tiger on his way home. The drug king was in a dilemma and could only stare at the tiger, hoping for a chance, but unexpectedly found a strange phenomenon: the tiger didn't mean to pounce on him. It just squatted on the ground with its mouth open, staring sadly at the drug king, as if begging for something. The drug king approached the tiger slowly, and after careful observation, he found that a huge animal bone was deeply stuck in the tiger's throat. The benevolent drug king wants to take out this bone for the tiger, but he is worried that the tiger will suddenly shut up because of pain, may bite off his arm, and even be in danger. So he took off a big copper ring on the shoulder pole, embedded it in the tiger's mouth, opened the tiger's mouth tightly, put his hand through the tiger's mouth from the center of the copper ring, quickly pulled out the bone, and applied ointment to the wound. Finally, the tiger's pain was alleviated. From then on, every time the drug king went up the mountain to collect medicine, a tiger looked at him from a distance, as if to protect him in secret.

Later, people transformed the copper ring into a hand-cranked bell, which became a symbol of herb picking, and all herb pickers would carry it with them to protect the tiger.