What is "Echo Bug"? As a familiar colloquialism, it refers to a kind of person in life, who lacks opinion, always echoes others, or promises to superiors, and will be ridiculed as "echo bugs".
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Strictly speaking, this is a three-word idiom, which is interpreted in the Chinese dictionary as, "The metaphor is that one has no claims in one's own chest and goes along with others." However, the ancient idioms have their origins, and the origin of "echo worm" is not so simple.
Since there is a word "worm", as the name suggests, this word is related to some kind of bug. Taking the "Chinese Cihai" as an example, the first paragraph of the entry "Yingsheng Worm" is like this, "Legend has it that once upon a time there were worms in the belly of some people, and the human language was the response; its people read the name of the medicine in the "Materia Medica" and read 'Thunder Pill', and the worm no longer responded, that is, took the 'Thunder Pill' and healed." ”
According to Ci hai's explanation, it is said that there was a strange parasitic disease in ancient times, and as soon as a person spoke, the worms in his stomach followed suit. This is a bit scary, as if a repeating machine is installed in the body. And this bug not only parrots to learn tongue, but also seems to be very smart, if the patient reads the name of the drug, when reading its nemesis "Thunder Pill", it will not be silent, so the Thunder Pill can eliminate the Sound Worm.
Regardless of what the "Thunder Pill" is, let's first look at the ancient books about the sound bug.
The case mentioned in the Chinese dictionary is found in the Song Dynasty's Miscellaneous Records of Wenchang. The text says that there is a reader named Yang Mian in Huaixi who suffers from a strange disease, as long as he opens his mouth or talks to people, he says a word, and there is a strange voice in his stomach. At first, the voice was small, but after a few years it slowly became louder. But the doctor Yang Mian was looking for couldn't do anything about it.
Later, a Taoist priest saw Yang Mian's condition and was surprised: "This is a sounding insect!" If you don't treat it, it will spread to your family. The Taoist priest told Yang Mian a way to find a copy of the Shennong Materia Medica to read aloud, and if he read the name of the drug, the worm did not repeat it, indicating that the worm was afraid of this medicine and could be cured by eating it. As a result, Yang Mian read "Thunder Pill", and the bugs in his abdomen were silent. After he took a few thunder pills, the medicine was eliminated.
This case is mentioned in the Ming Dynasty Traditional Chinese Medicine Master Zhang Jingyue's "Jingyue Quanshu", and later mentions the experience of Pang Yuanying, the author of the "Wenchang Miscellaneous Records", who saw yingsheng insect disease. Once, Pang Yuanying saw a beggar performing a program in public at the market, and there was a voice in his stomach to learn him to speak. Although this is a bit similar to the "belly language" skill, there is still a difference.
Pang Yuanying found that the beggar's condition was the same as that of the insect disease, so he asked him, don't you know that Lei Pill can cure this disease? Unexpectedly, the beggar said helplessly, I know, but I don't have the skills to make a living, if I eat thunder pills, I can't perform the show to earn money. Pang Yuanying shook his head and sighed.
There are many similar records in the history of the wild. According to the Tang Dynasty's "Chao Ye You Zai", it should be that Zhang Wenzhong, a famous doctor who had seen The Tang Emperor Gaozong, was the first to discover how to treat the disease of yingsheng insects. When someone in Luoyang was suffering from this disease, he found Zhang Wenzhong, who meditated all night and let the patient read the Shennong Materia Medica, and sure enough, he found the nemesis of the sounding insect.
The author of "Chao Ye You Zai" and Zhang Wenzhong's contemporary, he said, originally he did not believe that there was a sound worm, but only believed it after knowing about it.
So, what is the Thunder Pill? The Shennong Materia Medica records that "thunder pills, bitter, salty, slightly cold, have a small poison, the main kills three insects, chases the poisonous gas, the stomach heat", is a kind of insect repellent, detoxification, antipyretic medicine. In fact, it is a concoction of the fungus thunder pill of the white mushroom family, also known as bamboo and thunder.
Thunder Pills
According to other records, the types of phonosomes are different, and the corresponding drugs are different. Banlan root, which is very common in Chinese herbal medicine, can also kill insects. The medical prescription books "Odd Fang Class Compilation" and "Examination of Fang Family Secrets" both say that if someone suffers from echo insect disease, use "a lamp of plate blue juice, divided into five serving effects", drink five times of plate blue juice and be cured.
So, what exactly does the sound bug look like? In the Song Dynasty's Yi Jianzhi, a case is told and mentioned. The article said that Mao Jing, an official in Yongzhou, had a strange illness, and every time he made a sound, something in his throat learned his voice. Later, Mao Jing also found a Taoist priest, who asked him to read the Materia Medica. When reading "blue", the bugs did not say a word. Mao Jingyiyan drank the "blue" juice and spat out a 2-inch-long meat ball, which was completely in human form.
According to the Shennong Materia Medica, "blue" should be the Chinese medicine Qingdai, alias indigo, blue dew and so on.
Qingdai
The Ming Dynasty's "Zaolin Miscellaneous Tricks" also recorded similar things. During the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of Ming, Pei Shi, a native of Hangzhou, summoned Yingsheng to be sick, and he felt very faceless and did not go out for several months. Later, I met a man from Shandong who said to him, you go to the mountains to find strange grass, and when you see it, you will pull it. If you pluck a kind of grass and the bug says don't eat it, you eat it.
Pei Shizhao found a kind of grass, and the worm in his belly really took the initiative to speak and did not let him eat it. After eating it for a while, he pulled out a large worm like a small snake, and the disease was better.
There are many strange diseases recorded in ancient books, but they are too bizarre, not to mention modern people, and many ancients do not believe it. We don't have to cling to whether these things are true or false, but we should look at them as stories and laugh.
References: "Jingyue Quanshu" and so on