In 2019, a TV series starring Chen Baoguo, Xu Qing, Feng Yuanzheng and others, "Old Chinese Medicine", hit the screen. The drama mainly tells the story of the "Abolition of Chinese Medicine" issued by the Nanjing government during the Republic of China period, and the Chinese medicine doctor Weng Quanhai led his TCM colleagues to jointly resist the abolition of TCM.
In the second episode of this play, the important character "Xiaoling Doctor" Gao Xiaopu pushed his mother with a wheelbarrow, while shouting and shaking the bell to sell medicine, the bell sound was crisp, the shape was very special, which aroused the interest of the audience.
In fact, the bell in the play has a professional name in the field of traditional Chinese medicine, called "Tiger Support". Mr. Jin Yong's books "Flying Fox on the Snowy Mountain", "Liancheng Tips", and "The Tale of the Dragon Slayer in the Heavens" all have the figure of Tiger Support.
Is there anything to do with tigers? Why would You Fang Langzhong take it to practice medicine?
Tiger support, also known as "string bell", "medicine bell", "tiger title", "newspaper junzhi", many literary works have mentioned it.
"Golden Bottle Plum Words": "When Jiang Zhushan was not allowed to land, he sold plasters on the strings";
The first time in "The Journey of the Old Remnant": "The old remnant worshiped a Taoist priest who shook a string of bells as a teacher, learned a few tricks, and from then on he also shook a string of bells to cure people's diseases and make a living."
"Yanshi Goods Sound and Craftsmanship": "Traveling doctors in the rivers and lakes, shaking iron strings, or negative medicine boxes, or backpacks, selling various medicines."
"Hongwu Zhengyun": "The bell is round, half-cracked to make a sound, so the copper pill is inside to sing." ”
In the Southern Song Dynasty painter Li Tang's masterpiece "Village Doctor Diagram", tiger braces are already placed on the ground. It can be seen that tiger brace has been popular for at least thousands of years.
According to research, the practice of medicine with a tiger support began with the Song Dynasty doctor Li Cikou. The "Maoting Guest Talk" records that during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song, there was a divine doctor named Li Cikou, who was famous for his superb medical skills. The custom of using tiger support to practice medicine when traveling south and north was followed until the end of the Qing Dynasty and the early years of the Republic of China, and then gradually disappeared after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Look at the shape of the tiger brace and the actual use of the method, in the TV series "Old Chinese Medicine", the shape of the tiger brace is not large, even the old lady can easily grasp it with the palm of her hand.
Tiger braces are generally hollow circles made of copper or iron, with two built-in iron balls and a bagua pattern or sun, moon and stars cast on the front. Due to the small size of the tiger brace, the user can put it on the finger, support it with the thumb, and then float up and down. During the shaking, the iron pellet and the metal circle collide with each other to make a crisp sound.
Traveling doctors, including drug dealers, walk the streets and alleys, and when they solicit customers, they will shake this bell. Hearing the crisp string of bells, the sick people knew that Langzhong was coming, and they would go out to see the disease.
Folk legend: "Traveling to the rivers and lakes, shaking iron strings, or negative medicine boxes, or backpacks, selling all kinds of medicines." This "string bell" refers to the tiger brace.
"Tiger support" with a tiger word, then tiger support and tiger, in the end, is there a connection?
According to legend, the "medicine king" Sun Simiao once went into the mountains to collect medicine, and encountered a tiger with bone spurs in its throat, and the tiger kept crawling on the ground and kowtowing, begging for medical treatment.
Sun Simiao was benevolent to the healer, and he saw that the tiger was really pitiful, and he was ready to reach into the tiger's mouth with his hand and pull out the bone spur. However, Sun Simiao tried several times in a row without success, because the tiger was a beast after all, and with the pain, the tiger's mouth could not be opened at all.
Therefore, Sun Simiao placed a copper ring in the tiger's mouth with him, supported the tiger's mouth to avoid closing, and then passed through the copper ring with his arm and removed the bone spurs, so that the tiger healed as before.
After that, the tiger was willing to be Sun Simiao's mount, which is the allusion of "tiger guarding the apricot forest". After hearing about this incident, the folk You Fang Langzhong followed the example of Sun Simiao carrying a brass ring with him to ask for a good color head to eliminate disasters and avoid disasters, so he also called it "Tiger Support".
In this way, the prototype of the tiger support is a brass ring, which is related to Sun Simiao's rescue of the tiger. Passed down, the tiger brace is not only used as a device to cure diseases and save people, but also as a tool for shouting.
Of course, the use of tiger brace is not casually shaken, there are many exquisite points.
If it is an ordinary youfanglang, if the tiger bracing is generally placed on the chest and shaken, at most it can only heal some small problems of typhoid fever and bruises; the tiger bracing is shaken at the same level as the shoulder, indicating that the medical skills are higher and can cure difficult and complicated diseases; if the tiger bracing is lifted above the head and shaken, it shows that his medical skills are very skilled, and he can even sit on one side.
However, no matter how skilled the medical skills were, when Lang Zhong passed the door of the medicine shop, the tiger brace in his hand could not make a sound. Because the pharmacy was filled with Sun Simiao's tablets, the Langzhong were all disciples of Sun Simiao.
If you shake the tiger brace, there is a suspicion of deceiving the teacher and defying the ancestors, and the pharmacy people can go forward and confiscate the tiger brace and medicine basket of the traveling doctor, and at the same time apologize to Sun Simiao's tablet.
By the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, these rules were no longer taken seriously. In those years, the world was not peaceful, even the doctors who saved lives and helped the injured had to go to the streets and alleys to treat people, so as to collect medical expenses and make a living. If you are calculating death, the family will eat the last meal without eating.
There is also a small story, which is not considerable, and everyone should listen to it as a joke.
It is said that the real reason why Langzhong of the Touring Party uses the tiger brace to ring the bell is to "frighten the girl".
The boudoir is deep, the idler is difficult to reach, the sound reaches within, and the one who comes out comes out.
In ancient times, if everyone suffered from some unspeakable gynecological diseases or other hidden diseases, and did not want their families to know, they would painstakingly search for you Fanglang, who was skilled in medicine.
First, You Fang Langzhong can also cure diseases, and second, most of these langs are foreigners, and after curing their diseases, they will go away and will not leave any horse feet.
How can I know that these wandering langs have arrived here? Therefore, the doctor uses the tiger brace to ring the bell, so that those who are all bridesmaids can quickly come out and contact themselves, and the two sides will reach a deal after paying for treatment, which is really what they need.
It is rumored that not only Langzhong will use tiger braces, but some martial artists will also use special tiger braces for self-defense.
For example, in Jin Yong's classic book "Yitian Slaughtering Dragon", Peng Yingyu, one of the "five scattered people", once disguised herself as a medicine seller and lurked in Yuan Dadu to collect intelligence.
Yuan Dadu is the land of hidden dragons and crouching tigers, Peng Yingyu has to do a full set of plays, he holds a banner in his right hand, and a tiger brace in his left hand, flaunting the market, shouting and selling medicine.
In addition to "The Book of the Dragon Slayer in the Heavens", the male protagonist Di Yun in "Lian Cheng Ti" also disguised himself as Lang Zhong, shaking the tiger support and deliberately attracting the attention of the enemy Wan Zhenshan's family. Including Shi Wanfu, the enemy of Hu Fei, the male number one of the "Snow Mountain Flying Fox", is armed with an extra-large tiger brace.
In the martial arts world of Jin Yong's novels, the shape of the tiger brace includes materials, which is far from the real tiger brace.
The tiger brace in the martial arts novel is a special weapon, which can be hidden on the body or directly on the arm when not in use, and then taken off when used, somewhat similar to the weapon Qiankun Circle used by the Three Princes of Nezha.
Of course, this kind of oversized tiger name is not common, but only appears in some martial arts novels or specific scenes.
Nowadays, with the disappearance of You Fanglang, HuPao has withdrawn from the historical stage at the same time, as a historical relic, it has witnessed the development of traditional Chinese medicine and has a profound cultural connotation.