Why do we drink realgar wine during the Dragon Boat Festival? What is realgar wine?

Why do we drink realgar wine during the Dragon Boat Festival? What is realgar wine?
The fifth month of the lunar calendar is known in Chinese folklore as the "poison month" because the weather is hot and Cordyceps sinensis breeds, making it a season prone to illness and poisoning. During the Dragon Boat Festival, people race boats and eat rice dumplings. This traditional festival celebrated throughout the world not only carries the expectations of the ancients, but also carries people’s hopes for the future. Let’s take a look at the relevant content of the Dragon Boat Festival in 2018! This year's Dragon Boat Festival is on the 28th day of the third lunar month in 2018 (lunar calendar), which corresponds to the 13th day of the fifth lunar month in 2018, which is a Sunday in the Gregorian calendar.
The Dragon Boat Festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar every year. According to the "Jingchu Sui Shi Ji", because people climb high places in midsummer when the sun is in the sky, and May is midsummer, its first noon is the day for climbing high places in the sky, so the fifth day of May is also called the "Dragon Boat Festival." The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional cultural festival popular in China and other countries in the Chinese cultural circle. In 340 BC, Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet and minister of the State of Chu, faced the pain of losing his country. On May 5th, he threw himself into the Miluo River with a large stone in his arms in anger. Legend has it that after Qu Yuan jumped into the river, people in his hometown threw rice dumplings and salted eggs into the river to prevent a dragon from eating his body. An old doctor brought a jar of realgar wine and poured it into the river, saying that it could drug the fish and dragons and protect Qu Yuan. After a while, a dragon really emerged from the water. So people pulled the dragon ashore, pulled out its tendons, peeled off its skin, and then wrapped the dragon tendons around the wrists and necks of the children. They then smeared their seven orifices with realgar wine, thinking that this would protect the children from harm by insects and snakes. It is said that this is the origin of drinking realgar wine during the Dragon Boat Festival. Until now, many places in my country still retain the habit of drinking realgar wine during the Dragon Boat Festival. Realgar wine is a traditional Chinese medicinal material, and realgar can be used as an antidote and insecticide. Therefore, ancient people believed that realgar could restrain snakes, scorpions and other insects, "it can kill all kinds of poisons, ward off all kinds of evil spirits, and control poison. If a person wears it, tigers and wolves will lie down when they enter the mountains and forests, and all kinds of poisons will avoid them when they enter the rivers." Realgar has a long history of being used as medicine. It is pungent, warm and highly toxic. It enters the liver, stomach and large intestine meridians. It is mainly used externally to kill insects, detoxify, and treat carbuncles, furuncles, eczema, scabies, and snake and insect bites. Realgar wine has a strong pest removal effect. In ancient my country, realgar wine was one of the main disinfectants used to eliminate pests and diseases in summer. Spray it frequently in dark places such as under beds and corners to avoid harm from poisonous insects.
"Realgar" is also known as realgar, stone yellow, fumigated yellow, and golden stone. It is produced in Hunan, Gansu, Yunnan, Sichuan and other places. Realgar is warm, slightly pungent and poisonous. It can be applied externally or taken internally. It is mainly used for detoxification and killing insects. It is used externally to treat ulcers, snake and insect bites, etc., with good results. Drinking a small amount of realgar can cure epilepsy and sores, but because realgar has corrosive power, it must be drunk under the guidance of a doctor and in combination with realgar wine made according to traditional methods. In the pharmaceutical industry, it can be used as medicine and strong stimulant. High-grade realgar and orpiment ores can be directly used as traditional Chinese medicine.
The main chemical component of realgar is arsenic sulfide. When realgar is heated, it will be converted into arsenic trioxide, which is the highly toxic arsenic, through a redox reaction. It can be seen from this that drinking heated realgar wine is actually taking poison. Alcohol can dilate blood vessels and accelerate the absorption of arsenic in the digestive tract and skin. Poisoning can occur in a short period of time of a dozen minutes or a long period of four to five hours. In mild cases, symptoms include pain behind the skull, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and "rice-like" stools. In severe cases, death may occur. There is no scientific basis for applying realgar wine on children's heads, nose tips, earlobes or rubbing it on their bodies to ward off evil spirits and avoid epidemics. However, due to the fact that realgar is insoluble in water but soluble in dilute nitric acid, most of it cannot be absorbed.

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