Xiao Tianshu said: "The witch doctor is a person with a dual identity. He can communicate with ghosts and spirits, and he also has medicine, and is a character who specializes in medicine more than ordinary wizards. ”

Lu Dongbin said: "Witch doctors, that is, sorcerers and doctors, the ancients often asked for help from ghosts and gods to cure diseases, so witch doctors often mentioned them together. Tang Hanyu's "Teacher Says": "~ A musician who works a hundred jobs, is not ashamed of his teacher." "During the Spring and Autumn Period of the Witch Doctor, the Witch Doctor officially separated, and from then on, the Witch Doctor no longer assumed the responsibility of curing the sick and saving people, but only asked the ghosts and gods to divinate the good fortune and evil. And the doctor (doctor) is not asking God to ask ghosts, but is only responsible for saving the dead and helping the wounded, and hanging the pot to help the world. The witch doctors of the Yin and Zhou dynasties used witchcraft to cure diseases, as seen from the oracle bone inscriptions in Yinxu, in the form of witchcraft, creating a witchcraft atmosphere, which had the psychological effect of comforting and spiritual support for the patients, and really treating physical diseases, or borrowing medicines, or taking technical treatment. The duality of witch doctors (the application and hindrance of medicine) determines their mixed contribution to the development of medicine. ”

Xiao Tianshu said: "The witch doctor certificate includes the first two kinds of Taoists and doctors, and then gradually Taoist priests have Taoist doctors, so it is much more convenient to come to alchemy......

Lu Dongbin said with a smile: "Shennong's Materia Medica" is a summary of the knowledge of medicine since the Warring States, Qin and Han dynasties. This book has obvious Fangshi and immortal colors. It divides the drug into three grades: upper, middle and lower. There are 120 kinds of high-grade medicines, which can be taken for a long time to lighten the body and benefit qi, and not grow old and prolong life. There are 120 kinds of Chinese medicines, which can resist diseases and replenish weakness. There are 125 kinds of medicines of the lower grade, which can remove cold and heat and evil qi and break the accumulation. Ge Hong quoted the "Four Classics of Shennong" and said: "The medicine makes the body live in peace and prolong, ascends to the gods, travels up and down, serves all spirits, gives birth to feathers in the body, and stands in the kitchen." …… Traditional Chinese medicine nourishes the nature (raw), and the medicine is used to eliminate diseases". ("Hug Puzi??") Immortal medicine) can be seen that the medicine is the pursuit of the Taoist and immortal, most of these drugs are out of the Warring States Qin and Han dynasties, which are said to many medicines: "immortal immortals", "immortality" is proof. In the Book of Han?? In the "Art and Literature Journal", the four types of books of "Medical Classics", "Jing Fang", "Fangzhong" and "Immortals" are listed in the Fang Technique Strategy, which shows that ancient superstition and science are mixed with each other. At the top of the list of high-grade medicines is Dansha, which has been regarded as a miracle medicine by past generations. Ge Hong said: "The one above the immortal medicine is Dansha." ("Hug Puzi??") "Dansha burns into mercury, accumulates and changes into dansha, and its plants and trees are far away, so it can make people live forever." ("Hugging Puzi??") Ge Hong did such an experiment in alchemy, heating and dissociating the dansha to produce mercury, and the mercury and sulfur reacted, heated and sublimated, and then the dansha was generated. The Taoist priests did not understand the chemical reaction, and regarded it as a mysterious elixir, and as a result, many people were poisoned and died. Li Shizhen criticized: "Mercury and even the essence of yin are calm. If you get the fire exercise, you will soar and change, and if you get the fumigation of popularity, you will drill the tendons into the bones, and the yang will erode the brain, and the yin and poisonous things will not be similar. ...... "Hug Puzi" thought it was the elixir of life. Those who are greedy for life below the six dynasties take it, resulting in the abolition and loss of the body, and I don't know how many people are there. Fang Shigu is insignificant, and "Materia Medica" can be said in vain!" ("Compendium of Materia Medica" Volume 9 Mercury Bar)"

Xiao Tianshu said: "Speaking of alchemy, we have to mention Ge Hong......"

Lü Dongbin said with a smile: "Ge Hong (283-363) was a native of Jurong County, Danyang (Jurong County, Jiangsu). He "practiced comprehensive medical skills" and was a famous medical scientist. Ge Hong's medical works include 100 volumes of "Jade Letter Prescription", 4 volumes of "Emergency Prescription after the Elbow", 10 volumes of "Immortal Prescription for Food", and 1 volume of "Black Hair Wine Prescription". He felt that the prescription books of medicine were burdensome, so he selected and sorted them out and compiled them into one hundred volumes of "Yuhan Fang". It also compiles the convenient experience party as "the elbow to be urgent", which is used to save the emergency, is easy to carry, and can be hung behind the elbow, so it is also called "the elbow behind the elbow", referred to as "the elbow behind". It includes infectious diseases, chronic diseases, surgery, ophthalmology, paediatrics and veterinary medicine. The origins, symptoms, and treatments of various diseases are described. For example, the account of the epidemic of pox (smallpox) and tuberculosis is the earliest record in the history of world medicine. He also proposed a method of treating rabies by dressing the wound with rabies brain, which also proved that rabies brain contains anti-rabies virus substances. "Behind the Elbow" was supplemented by Tao Hongjing as "One Hundred Sides Behind the Elbow", "There are four major people who take Buddhist books, and one of them has the righteous name of one hundred and one diseases" ("Zhizhai Shulu Solution"). Later, Yang Yongdao of the Jin Dynasty took the prescription attached to Tang Shenwei's "Evidence Class Materia Medica" and supplemented it, named "Attached to the Broad Elbow Reserve Emergency Prescription", which shows that this book has been valued by medical scholars in the past dynasties. ”

Xiao Tianshu said: "There is also Tao Hongjing (456-536), a native of Danyang Moling (Nanjing, Jiangsu). Hongjing had extensive knowledge and was a well-known Taoist scholar in the Southern Dynasty. History calls it Youming "medical materia medica". His medical works include "Notes on Materia Medica", supplementing Ge Hong's "Behind the Elbow" as "One Hundred Sides Behind the Elbow", as well as "General Recipe for Medicine", "Prescription for Effective Application", "Collection of Jindan Huangbai Prescription", "Method of Taking Herbs and Miscellaneous Medicines", "Secret Mystery of Lingfang" and so on. ”

Lu Dongbin said with a smile: "An ancient pharmacopoeia collected by the Han Dynasty, "Shennong's Materia Medica", contains 365 kinds of medicines, which are divided into upper, middle and lower grades. "Materia Medica" has been copied by successive dynasties since the Han, Wei and Jin dynasties, and the meaning of the words is incomplete, the grades are mixed, and it is very confusing. Tao Hongjing is proficient in pharmacology, his contribution to the "Materia Medica" is: (1) sorted out the "Shennong Materia Medica", Tao Hongjing changed the method of classifying drugs according to the upper, middle and lower three products in the "Materia Medica", he is divided into seven categories according to the different types of drugs: jade, grass and trees, insects and beasts, rice food, fruits, vegetables and famous unused, this classification method is obviously more scientific and clear than the three-product method. Later, the classification of the "New Revision of Materia Medica" in the Tang Dynasty and the "Compendium of Materia Medica" by Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty were all improved on this basis. (2) According to the experience of many famous medical drugs in the Han, Wei and Jin dynasties, in addition to the 365 kinds of drugs in the "Shennong Materia Medica", 365 kinds of drugs were added, named "Famous Doctors' Records", and the drugs in the "Materia Medica" were developed into 730 kinds of drugs. (3) Explain the performance, shape, characteristics, and origin of the drug. For a drug with multiple properties, it is based on its main function. In traditional Chinese medicine, there is a distinction between a king, a minister, and an envoy. However, in "Shennong's Materia Medica", the upper grade is the king, the middle grade is the minister, and the lower grade is the assistant, and this mechanical division is obviously influenced by the alchemist Fangshi. Tao Hongjing uses drugs to determine its performance, such as the treatment of jaundice drugs such as Yin Chen, gardenia, etc., and the drugs for dispelling wind include windproof, self-defense, and solitary living. This is an important development of the Materia Medica. (4) In the compatibility and use of drugs, the main medicine is the king, and the auxiliary medicine is the minister and the assistant, and according to the old and young, men and women, the virtual reality of the body, as well as the different living habits and environments of various places, the dialectical treatment is carried out, and the "Materia Medica" is developed. ”