The breeze was powerless to kill the heat, and the setting sun flew up the mountain with its wings. The people have been exhausted. Why doesn’t God spare the river and the Han Dynasty? It is most appropriate to use this poem by Wang Ling, a poet of the Song Dynasty, to describe the scorching climate of the dog days.
It is precisely because nature’s enthusiasm is like fire that people use ingenuity to weave unique health-preserving customs, such as drinking mung bean soup, preparing chrysanthemum water, eating lotus seed porridge, etc., which have been inherited to this day.
The dog days can be said to be the most uncomfortable days of the year. On the one hand, this is the day with the highest temperature in the year, and the heat is unbearable; on the other hand, it happened to be the rainy season before this, and the rain was continuous, resulting in heavy moisture, so traditional Chinese medicine has the saying of “more heat and wetness”. Therefore, at this time, it is both sultry and humid, and there is a folk saying that “small heat is hot, steamed and boiled”.
At this time, there is sun exposure on the sky and moisture evaporation below. During this period, people can be said to suffer a lot. They not only have to endure the hot sun and sweat, but also have to endure the trouble of moisture and get tiredness, especially the heat and dampness and the spleen and stomach, which makes people have the phenomenon of ” Flavour. What’s more unfavourable is that the nature of summer heat and dampness is exactly the opposite: heat is positive, which makes people’s pores vent and sweat and consumes body fluid; dampness is yin and evil, which hinders the qi and is easy to damage the yang of the human body.
Therefore, this is a pair of contradictory communities. In terms of prevention and control, if you want to relieve the heat, you will inevitably damage the yang qi with bitter cold, and if you want to get rid of dehumidifying evil, you will inevitably consume the fluid with bitterness, warmth and dryness. Therefore, the correct health care method is very important for spending the dog days.
The following points should be mastered:
1. It is necessary not only to clear away heat and津津, but also to take care of Yangqi. The summer is hot, the heat is intense, and the sweat is endless, which often makes people feel annoying and hot. Therefore, avoiding summer heat and quenching thirst is a natural behaviour. Blowing air conditioning and drinking iced drinks have become a common meal in summer, but it is often accompanied by the damage of yang qi in the human body, especially yang qi in the spleen and stomach. People often have stomach pain, diarrhoea and other symptoms. Therefore, while avoiding summer heat and quenching thirst, you should avoid being too cold in summer to avoid damaging the yang qi.
2. It is necessary to not only detify the heat and dampness, but also protect the vaginal fluid. Summer dampness disturbs the human body, especially the spleen and stomach, resulting in spleen and stomach disfunction, loss of appetite, limb fatigue, and even diarrhoea and vomiting. Therefore, the resolution of summer dampness is an important rule of summer health care. However, the problem is that dehumidifying drugs are often warm and fragrant, which are easy to deplete the yin fluid of the human body. This requires that the yin fluid of the human body must be protected in summer while dehumidising and relieving summer heat.
3. Pay attention to calming the mind and eliminating annoyance. The hot climate in summer often makes people feel upset and impetuous. This requires the application of some food and drugs that can calm the mind, clear away heat and eliminate annoyance.
In some areas, there is often a custom of taking mung beans and lotus seeds on dog days in some areas, and the preparation of chrysanthemum is a common medicine during the summer season. This is because the performance and function characteristics of mung beans, lotus seeds and chrysanthemum preparations correspond to the climate characteristics of summer. Mung beans are known as “sacred products for heat prevention”. Its taste is sweet and cold, which belongs to the heart and stomach meridians. It has the effect of clearing away heat and heat, diuresing and eliminating annoyance. It is very suitable for summer consumption. It can not only directly relieve summer heat, but also make the heat go away from urine. Mung beans and a small amount of rock sugar can be boiled into soup, which can be eaten after cooling, which can relieve summer heat, relieve boredom and thirst.
There is a folk saying: “If you don’t have insomnia, cook porridge with white lotus.” The white lotus here refers to the lotus seed. As a mature seed of aquatic lotus, lotus seeds are sweet, flat and astringent in nature, and have a good calming effect.
There are two characteristics of lotus seeds:
First, nourish the mind and calm the mind. Because the lotus seeds are sweet and return to the heart meridian and kidney meridian, it can invigorate the heart qi, tonify the kidney qi, and make the upper and lower heart and kidneys intersect, which is very effective for insomnia caused by heart and kidney disfunction (called “heart and kidney does not cross in traditional Chinese medicine”).
The second is to calm down. Because lotus seeds are not only sweet but also astringent, which has the effect of restraining the mind, it is especially suitable for upset and insomnia caused by summer heat. In addition, there is a green germ in the centre of the lotus seed, that is, the lotus seed heart, which tastes bitter and cold, and has a good effect of calming the mind. Therefore, there are many ways to calm the mind of lotus seeds, and eating them in summer can indeed make people feel peaceful. Lotus seeds can be eaten alone or cooked with lilies, mung beans, red dates, etc. to make porridge or soup.
Whether it is mung beans or lotus seeds, they are both medicinal and food products. They are relatively peaceful in nature, have a good taste, and are easy to use. Eating in summer can play a role in preventing heatstroke, generating fluid and removing annoyance, and calming the mind. But after all, both are cold, so people with weak spleen and stomach, especially diarrhoea, should be used with caution.
When it comes to summer heat prevention and heat relief, we have to mention a kind of Chinese patent medicine – chrysanthemum preparation. What kind of medicine is the fragrance? Why is it so common in summer?
The aromatic wet medicine represented by the fragrance is very suitable for summer use: the smell is fragrant, spicy but not strong, and the nature is slightly warm and not dry. It mainly belongs to the spleen, stomach and lung meridians. It can not only aromatise dampness, but also relieve summer heat.
For vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, etc. of heatstroke in summer, the fragrance can dehumidify and relieve summer heat, wake up the spleen and stomach, and stop vomiting and diarrhea. For summer, it can not only hurt the heat and dampness, but also feel the cold caused by wind and cold. Therefore, in the hot summer, whether you are at home or travelling, it is wise to prepare chrysanthemum water.
