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During the Qing Dynasty, the novelist Pu Songling told a story in Liao Zhai Zhi Yi ( Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio ). In this story, there was a scholar named Kong who developed a painful and stubborn sore on his chest. A fox spirit, who has friended him, performed surgery on him and spit a red pill out its mouth to apply to the wound, which quickly healed the long-standing ailment. Setting aside the supernatural elements of the story, from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), this red pill was very likely an external medicine primarily composed of cinnabar. Cinnabar is known for its medicinal properties in treating swellings,ulcers, and it is insoluble in water, which is why the fox spirit could hold it in its mouth.
Cinnabar is primarily used in TCM for its effects in calming the spirit, settling agitation, improving eyesight, and removing toxins. Apart from its medicinal use, as far back as the Hemudu culture over 6,000 years ago, ancient Chinese utilized the color-stable properties of natural cinnabar as a pigment for painting. Today, you can still f ind traces of cinnabar in temples, on pillars, murals,artifacts, Buddha statues, and more.
Iron is a type of metal. In the later period of the Spring and Autumn period, our ancestors were already able to extract iron from various ores such as hematite, limonite, and magnetite,which they mined from mountains. In TCM, iron is considered to have a pungent taste and a cool nature. It is believed to have the effects of calming the heart, soothing the liver, resolving abscesses, and detoxifying the body. However, it should be used with caution by individuals with spleen and stomach qi deficiency or those who have liver and kidney deficiencies. Iron containing preparations are also commonly used to treat iron-deficiency anemia.