Why is the "cold fragrant pill" in A Dream of Red Mansions so magical?

Lengxiang pill is not recorded in the medical record. It may have been invented by the author. What is the origin of this "cold fragrant pill"? In the seventh episode of A Dream of Red Mansions, Baochai got a disease, which was heat poison brought from the womb, and she had symptoms such as wheezing when she committed it. A monk told Baochai a "sea fairy prescription". This medicine is called "Lengxiang Pill". Since Baochai took it, it has also had an effect. According to the book, Lengxiang Pills are made by grinding white peony flowers, white lotus flowers, white hibiscus flowers and Bai Meihua stamens into twelve taels of powder, blending them with the rain at twelve taels, dew of the White Dew, seasonal frost of the first frost and seasonal snow of that year, adding honey and sugar to make Jackie Chan Eye Pills, filling them into utensils and burying them under the flower roots. At the onset, take one pill with Cortex Phellodendri decoction 12. For modern readers, Baochai's cold fragrant pill in A Dream of Red Mansions is particularly ethereal, as if it were a sharp weapon only found in Xiu Xian's novels. In fact, in traditional life, the eight-color ingredients mentioned in this recipe are either ingredients or medicinal materials, or both. Therefore, in the eyes of Qing people, the formula of Lengxiang Pill is not bizarre, but has certain operability. In ancient times, it was popular to wrap peony petals and lotus petals in batter and fry them into crispy snacks, while hibiscus petals can be made into "Xia Xue soup" with tofu, and plum petals can be pickled with honey, or directly poured into white rice porridge or brewed with tea. In short, the four petals used in Lengxiang Pills can be imported directly. In addition, Chinese medicine also uses these petals as medicinal materials, such as "Plum Blossom Spotted Tongue Pill" and "Purple Gold Ingot" which Granny Liu specially asked Jia's family for, and plum blossom petals are one of them. More interestingly, in the past life, the four components of Lengxiang Pills, rain, dew, frost and snow, were the sources of high-quality drinking water, which were collected and stored quarterly every year. The ancients believed that these products of nature all had their own unique pharmacology and were worthy of great responsibility. The most famous example is collecting rainwater from lotus leaves to make wine. It is said that the finished product has a strong fresh fragrance. In fact, during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, people in Hangzhou, Suzhou, Jinling and other places collected a lot of rainwater in summer and stored it in water tanks, thinking that this kind of water was smoother and more delicious than spring water. In addition, according to the literature, the dew on lotus head, lotus leaf, rice leaf and herb has different health care properties, and can be used for brewing wine, making tea and making medicine after collection. In the past, like rain, snow was collected by every household. Snow has many uses. It is said that curing bacon with snow water or sealing fruit with snow water in December can avoid eating insects and keep fresh for a long time. Because rain and snow dew belong to the necessities of life that need to be stored in moderation every year, the ancients invented several special collection methods. For example, install a long sink in front of the eaves to let the rain flow down from one end of the notch and fall into the trough; First, dye the new cloth with gallnut, put it on the grass leaves before dawn, suck up the dew, then twist the cloth hard to wring out the dew and make it drip into the container. Relatively speaking, frost is less effective and more difficult to collect, so it is not as active as the other three things in ancient life. Even so, the ancients invented a special collection method. "Compendium of Materia Medica" records that the frost is gently swept down with chicken feathers to make it fall into a bottle, then sealed and placed in a cool place, which can be preserved for many years without deterioration. In the view of Chinese medicine, eating cream or drinking cream water can eliminate body heat and redness caused by drunkenness, and can also treat typhoid nasal congestion. At the same time, it can also be used for external application to treat itching and redness of the skin.

Miaoyu invited Bao, Dai and Baoyu to tea with Snow on Plum Blossoms. Presumption is the frost-sweeping method recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica. The light snow floating on the blossoming plum blossoms can only be picked up by feather sweeping. Therefore, the eight-color raw materials in Lengxiang Pills were not unusual at that time of writing novels, so Baochai said that "everything is available now" (Fat Review). The tricky part of this prescription is that the time of "collecting medicine" is particularly strict. The rainy day must be rain, the Millennium day must be dew, the first frost day must be frost, and the light snow day must be snow, depending on the weather. In the reader's world of Qing dynasty, the collection time of rain, dew, frost and snow is a bit too harsh for the requirements of making cold fragrant pills. As for the four ingredients themselves, as well as the four-color petals, they often collect and use daily necessities. Therefore, Cao Gong conceived Lengxiang Pill, which once again explained the irrefutable truth that "art comes from life, but it is higher than life". Author: Meng Hui