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Why Do Chinese People Eat Snakes, Ants, and Worms for Medicine?The World of Chinese | The World of Chinese

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WHY DO CHINESE PEOPLE EAT SNAKES, ANTS, AND WORMS FOR

MEDICINE?
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 | BY: ANDY DEEMER ()
In any traditional Chinese pharmacy, one of the first things to strike a foreigner is always
the ingredients Frankly, theyre a little strange: dried sea horses, geckos, snakes,
worms, a stuffed deer and one lone owl gazing down from above.
Meanwhile, theyre hovered over by serious pharmacists in lab coats, consulting giant
medical tomes. It all seems rather incongruous. But this is not Macbeth. This is as much
a part of Chinas history as anything else.
Take, for example, snakes. Theyre used for wind expulsion and channel clearance
which means theyll do wonders for sagging energy levels and weak immunity.
Back in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), an unnamed villager suffered from a terrible skin
disease. Boils and lesions covered his entire body. After drinking from a vat of wine over a
period of time, his skin unexpectedly started to clear up. Everyone was shockedno one
could quite work out what had cured his ailments. That is, until a large, rotten snake was
discovered lying at the bottom of the barrel. The snake, it was hypothesized, could cure
skin diseases!
Li Shizhen lived from 1518
to 1593, and was one of
Chinas most famous
doctors. He researched
snakes for his massive
52-volume medical
textbook, Compendium
of Materia Medica (
B0n C2o G`ng
M&), and found that
snakes could be used to
treat stubborn dry scale-

I A M L O O KI N G FO R
ANCI E NT HI STO RY
ART
BE A U T Y A N D FA S H I O N
BO O KS
CO ME D Y
E T H N I C GR O U PS
E TI QU E TTE
FI L M A N D T V
GA M E S
I N T E R N E T A N D T E C H N O L O GY
LI TE RATU RE
MODE RN HI STORY
MU SI C
M Y T H O L O GY A N D FE S T I V A L S
PH O T O S T O R I E S
S PI R I T U A L I T Y
S PO R T S
TRAD I TI O NAL CHI NE SE ME D I CI NE
M O S T PO PU L A R
CHINAPORNWARS

like skin diseases, skin eruptions and rashes.

Today youll still find snakes, prized for their medicinal qualities, preserved in liquor
barrels. Snake-infused liquor is sold by the glass or the bottle.

SMOGS FIVE UNEXPECTED

GAINS

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Why Do Chinese People Eat Snakes, Ants, and Worms for Medicine?The World of Chinese | The World of Chinese

At Lao Zhuan Cun, a restaurant in Qingdao, for example, Manager Sui bottles his own
liquor, adding a long-nosed pit viper, gutted, to a liter of rice wine. He throws in some
ginseng and wolfberries and lets it all sit for a month before selling it at 18 RMB a liang
(,50g).

FILM

Many people like it, says Sui, especially men.

Farmer Zhang Changmeng is one of those men. As a child, he suffered from rheumatic
arthritisuntil he took to drinking snake liquor. Two years later, he was healed and was
so impressed he took to TCM studies; then he became a farmer. His crop? Snakes.

SCREENING: THIS IS SANLITUN

S U BS C R I BE T O T H E M A GA Z I N E

Farmer Zhangs Red Plum Snake Farm, inSishui County,ShandongProvince, now sells 60
tons of snakes a year at 400 RMB a kilo.
Snake powder not only helps with arthritis, Farmer Zhang insists, but also eliminates
toxins, clears your skin, and keeps you young.
To make the powder, first gut and skin the snake, then bake it at a low, steady heat. (You
may have to experiment, as the precise time and temperature are closely-guarded trade
secrets.) Finally, grind it in a mortar and pestle or a coffee grinder. But be warned, its a
pungent treatment.

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An easier way to take snake is to have it ground and packaged as a pill. Theres Vitiligo, for
acne and other persistent skin problems, and Pure Zaocys, for lower back and leg pain.
For more specific problems, though, you shouldnt miss the specifics of the snake.
The gallbladder of a Chinese rat snake, for example, is the size of a large soybean and is
reported to be great for poor vision. It is terrific for eyesight, said Farmer Zhang. He
sells fresh ones for about 5 RMB each. You can slice them into small thin pieces, or grind
them up.
A snakes male anatomy, meanwhile, is small, spiky, and apparently genius at warming
the kidney and enriching the qi. But, priced at up to 20,000 RMB a kilo, its not cheap.
Ants, meanwhile, are a bargain
at just 200 RMB a kilo.

Emperor Qianlong ate

black ants and was
apparently the happiest
emperor in the history of
China. He died in 1799 at
the ripe old age of 89, and
claimed his good looks
and youthfulness to be
entirely due to his diet.
He was inspired by Li Shizhens Compendium of Materia Medica, which was then 200
years old, and still the most popular medical book in China. (It remained that way until
1959.) In it, Li wrote that black ants enrich the qi, beautify skin, delay ageing and restore
kidney energy.
The emperors preferred recipe, ants fried with pine nuts, remains an all-time classic. Its
the best way to ingest the insects, and can today be found in restaurants across China.
Deep fry50gof black ants in vegetable oil until they become crisp, then do the same
with300gof pine nuts. Now toss them in a pan with20gof vegetable oil and stir it all
together. Add some salt and sugar, and dig in!
If you want to buy ants, know in advance that the bigger they are, the more expensive
theyll be. Organic, wild ants are also going to cost more than farmed ones. But the most
expensive is the mountain-dwelling Wild Black Ant (300 RMB a kilo).

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Why Do Chinese People Eat Snakes, Ants, and Worms for Medicine?The World of Chinese | The World of Chinese

To catch this monster, professional hunters spread ground-up bones on plastic sheets,
and sprinkle them with vinegar. After half an hour, huge ants will start to appearthe ant
assassins will snatch them up and drown them in a bucket thats half-filled with water.
After a few days in the sun, theyre ready to be eaten.
Li Yanjun has farmed and sold ants for a decade, and talks like an entomologist
businessman. Ants are nutritional, medical and healthy, he says. Theyre also one of the
most valuable insects in China. The ant business has exploded in recent years. People
realize that its a good medicine. Looks disgusting, but it tastes nice if you cook it in the
right way.
Which is, presumably, deep fried with pine nuts.
You can also soak ants in liquor, like a snake. After a week, the ant-guotou cocktail will be
ready, but the longer you wait, the better. Drink 40ml a day for arthritis, or perhaps as an
aphrodisiac.
A pre-bottled version of this recipe, Yilishen Tonic Wine, was a huge seller across China a
few years ago. It advertised itself as a booster for mens sex drive and fertility, with a
discrete tag line of Those who use, are those who know! (She yng she
zhdo!) But the company has since disappeared.
I didnt see any effects, said Mr. Yan, an older man who drank his own homemade ant
cocktail. Plus, it was disgusting.
Granny Chen, meanwhile, eats ants for the same reason that Emperor Qianlong did:
youthfulness. Your hair will go from grey to black, she says, citing a friend who ate ant
powder for three years.
Unlike the emperor, though, Chen uses a microwave to heat her dried ants, and then
blends them in a food processor. Two spoons a day, and shes still waiting for her hair to
turn blackbut she has high hopes. The only problem? It tastes horrible and smells like
urine. Its disgusting, really.
Far more pleasant than the thought of eating ants is the thought of a deer. Its one of the
most common sights in a TCM pharmacy, and represents longevity, happiness, luck and
benevolence.
And in the medicinal world, every single part of that deer is considered valuable.
The antlers are often for sale, presented in an elaborate gift box almost like moon cakes.
Theyre not eaten whole, but ground up and mixed with warm water, until it becomes
gluey. Deer Antler Glue (, L&ji2o Ji`o, 70 RMB /250g), reputed to tone the kidney,
remove obstructions in meridians, help produce breast milk, andlike many of these
remedies, it seemsboost the libido. It balances the pairing of yin and yang, and even
helps women with menstrual troubles.
One of the few authorized producers of Deer Antler Glue inChinais an ancient Beijing
pharmacy called Tongrentang. It opened for business eight years after the start of the Qing
Dynasty, in 1669, and has been operating at the same location in Beijing since 1702.
Like the Compendium of Materia Medica, its a TCM institution and its cabinets are filled
with a world of strange TCMsea cucumbers, sea horses, and snakesbut one thing we
didnt find there was deer embryo.
Its an ancient remedy for women who have trouble getting pregnant, and according to
Chen Shiduos The New Materia Medica ( B0n C2o X~n Bi`n), published in
1691, it will invigorate the function of the spleen, reinforce kidney yang, tonify qi, and
produce vital essence.
Its also extremely hard to find.
All the embryos have already sold out this year, Dr. Bai Xiaofeng told us. Hed spent
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Why Do Chinese People Eat Snakes, Ants, and Worms for Medicine?The World of Chinese | The World of Chinese

months trying to find one for his daughter. It took many failed attempts, and some
personal connections, to finally get his hands on one.
I asked my daughter to take three spoonfuls of the ground-up powder a day, he told us.
She didnt like itit smells so bad. But she was pregnant by the third week. I asked my
wife to finish the rest. You see, deer embryo is expensive, and not a speck should be
wasted.
The owner of the Zhaofeng Deer Farm refused to give her name, but enthusiastically
agreed with Dr. Bai. Deer embryo is especially good for women, she said. Men can take
it as well, as a tonic.
But her favorite suggestion for a mens tonic is actually made from the loin of a male deer.
Private parts appear frequently in TCM. The basic concept behind it all is that you can
improve any organ in your body by eating that same organ of an animal. You are what you
eat, orliterally in Chineseeat something, nourish something. ( Ch~
sh9nme b^ sh9nme.)
Today, deer parts are priced for the gentry (400 RMB for a100gmember) and are
recommended mostly for the older set. Young men should leave it to their elders, said
Xie Chongyuan, a professor atGuangxiTCMUniversity. They should focus on a healthy
lifestyle, not on drinking tonics.
But if you do want to prepare that tonic, slice the meat thinly, and soak the strips in a liter
of strong alcohol for about two weeks. Twenty milliliters of liquor a day should be enough
to help the adrenals, boost testosterone, and improve function.
In ancient times, this tonic was legendarily popular with the emperors. But when you
remember the number of wives and concubines they often had, thats not so entirely
surprising.
Another legendarily royal remedy is the earthworm.
In China, though, its not actually known as a worm, but by a far more royal name: Earth
Dragon (d#l5ng).
It all started with Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty. He ruled from 960 to 976, and
apparently had a terrible case of shingles. His royal doctors were all baffled by this
persistent and painful skin rash. No one could find a cure.
Finally, a folk doctor was brought in, andwhere all else had failedhe simply pulled two
earthworms from the ground. He moistened them with honey and sugar, and left them on
a plate, where they eventually melted in the sun.
Using that wormy liquid as a balm, he wiped the shingles, and for the very first time,
Emperor Taizu felt a cool relief.
But this wasnt the end of the treatment. Next, the doctor fed the emperor a bowl of
earthworm juicea few days later, he was healed. As a tribute to the night crawlers, the
emperor announced a new name for the worms: Earth Dragons.
Li Shizhen was also a firm believer in the earthworms merits, and noted the creatures
ability to clear internal heat, nourish the lungs and calm asthma, as well as heal aches in
joints and skin problems.
Dai Wenjuan, a TCM scholar atShanxiTCMUniversity, explained that earthworms are still
widely used. They can be applied both externally and internally, she said. Eating
earthworms can treat asthma, swollen joints and rheumatic arthritis. Externally, it will
stop allergic skin reactions.
Yu Fenghai started his first earth dragon farm, Guangxi Bohai Earthworm Cooperative
Society, five years ago in a small village inSouthern Chinas Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous
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Why Do Chinese People Eat Snakes, Ants, and Worms for Medicine?The World of Chinese | The World of Chinese

Region. We churn out 500 kilos of earthworms every day, he said, proudly. Most of them
are sold to TCM pharmacies and factories.
At a pharmacy, one kilo of dried worms sells for about 90 RMB.
Guangxi is not just a hotspot for earthworm farming, but also for earthworm eating. Down
there, theyre found in liquor, in pancakes, stir fried with veggies, everywhere.
Farmer Yus favorite earthworm recipe is Earth Dragon Soup. To make it, fry200gof
earthworms with50gof smashed ginger in a pan with oil. Add one spoon of rice wine and
600ml of cold water and let it boil for half an hour. Add salt to taste.
Earth Dragon Soup can improve circulation and calm down asthma, said Yu. And whats
more, it tastes niceeven better than pork soup!
Pork soup does taste nice, and its a frequently-used mask for the salty taste of sea horse,
which is one of the most popular, and most mysterious, TCM ingredients of allone that
even rivals ginseng.
Much like ginseng, sea horses are often used as an aphrodisiac, and to reinforce the
kidneys yang. As the Guangxi saying goes:
Eating sea horses
makes an 80-year-old
granddaddy young.
Chng ch him,

bsh gnggng lo li sho.

One legendary fan of the

strange equine fish was Emperor Tangminghuang, one of the most popular emperors of
China. He ruled from 712 to 756, and drank sea horse-infused liquor in his later years.
This was hundreds of years ago, but the fish remains a bestselling tonic. Professor Lu
Yannian, of the Chinese Old Age Research Group, suggests middle-aged couples use it
regularly to enhance their private lives.
One contemporary enhancer is Neil Zhong, who buys his sea horses in Hong Kong to
consume in theUK. He soaks them in 500ml of top-shelf whiskey, and drinks a small cup
every night after dinner. While his passport reveals hes 50 years old, he looks and acts
much younger.
Exercise and sea horse wine are my secrets, he laughs.
Unwilling to waste even a bit, Zhong chews up the sea horse after emptying a bottle. Its
salty, and has the consistency of squid, but the fish also costs up to 5,000 RMB a kilo.
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Why Do Chinese People Eat Snakes, Ants, and Worms for Medicine?The World of Chinese | The World of Chinese

Others will cook it into a soup with pork and dates, or stew it with pigs kidneys. You can
also take it as a powder or in capsule form.
And yet, be forewarned that sea horses are a slow cure. Dr. Tang Shulan, who does
recommend them as a remedy, says, This isnt Viagra. Its a tonic. You have to take it
regularly, and dont expect to see effects in a short time.
Dr. Bai Xiaofeng bought four, ate them, and saw no effect at all. Rich people can afford
more, he said, but I cant.
Sea horses are not only expensive, theyre also at risk: its reported that 20 million a year
are sold for TCM purposes alone. Theyre protected in China and only legal when farmed
not when caught in the wild. So before you go on a sea horse binge, stop and think about it.
Maybe you should try ants instead.

Special thanks to the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine Museum.

strange
qgui
snake
sh
ant
my
to bake
ko
A: How can I improve my Chinese?
Znme tgo w de zhngwn?
B: Eat more tongue!
Du ch din shtou!
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