Why "What medicine is sold in the gourd"?

"What medicine is sold in the gourd" is a metaphor for not knowing the mystery of things.

Fei Changfang was a small official in Runan in the Eastern Han Dynasty. He was smart and eager to learn. One day, he found an old man selling medicine suddenly jumped into the gourd hanging on the hotel wall after the market was over. He felt that the old man was not mortal, so he prepared a table under the gourd hanging in the hotel. When the old man came out of the gourd, he immediately bowed down and asked the old man to accept him as a disciple and learn medical skills.

This is a myth in the history books. From a mythical point of view, the gourd can accommodate the elderly who sell medicine, and of course the medicine is also in the gourd. Naturally, there is a saying that "what medicine is in the gourd". It originally referred to medicine, and later people extended it to social life, and referred to "medicine" as viewpoints, measures, methods, countermeasures, inside information and so on.

The origin of gourd name

There are many records of gourd in ancient China, and there are many names for it. "Hey", "Hey", "Pot", "Dry", "Hey", "Gourd" and "Pru" all refer to gourds. "Pot" and "Lu" were originally two vessels for holding wine and rice. Because the shape and use of gourd are similar to them, people combine "pot" and "Lu" as the name of this plant.