Make the best of dog days with Chinese Sanfu customs
Updated 22:32, 16-Jul-2020
By Wu Yan

The hottest and most sultry days of the year, dog days, or Sanfu in Chinese, came on Thursday.

In Chinese, san means "three" and fu means to "hide". The word refers to three periods of fu days, which usually fall between mid-and-late July and early August.

The first fu days, or Chufu, lasts for 10 days; the second fu days, or Zhongfu, lasts for 10 days or 20 days in different years; and the third fu days, or Mofu, lasts for 10 days. This year's Sanfu days last for 40 days.

In the philosophy of traditional Chinese medical science, it is the best time for driving away summer-heat evil, or dampness, out of the body. To resist evil, people are advised to hide from heat during dog days.

Since ancient times, Chinese people have developed some traditional customs to prevent heatstroke and adjust their bodies to be better accustomed to the changing seasons, including eating the right food and using the medicine.

What to eat during dog days

There is a common saying in northern China, "Eat dumplings in the first fu days, eat noodles in the second fu days, and eat egg pancake in the third fu days."

The saying reflects the regular pattern of agriculture production. In the first fu days, wheat is just harvested in the wheat-producing areas in China, and many households have the flour to make dumplings.

Also, people usually don't have an appetite in hot days, but dumplings help stimulate the appetite.

A bowl of soup noodles. /CFP

A bowl of soup noodles. /CFP

The soup noodle fits the second fu days. Eating a bowl of soup noodles makes people sweating, and the dampness, heat, and bad substance in the human body will be discharged in this way.

The weather becomes cooler in the third fu days. Pancake is easy to make and keeps nutrition to the greatest extent during cooking, so it is a good food to build people's health.

The popular summer food is different in southern China.

Ancient Chinese has the tradition of preserving ice from winter to summer. Mix ice with summer fruits, such as Chinese bayberry and peach, and carry them in a shoulder pole to the street. You are the most popular vendor in the community.

Iced cherry. /CFP

Iced cherry. /CFP

Sanfutie, a traditional way of treating disease

The Sanfu days are also considered the best time to treat some diseases.

In the philosophy of traditional Chinese medical science, the human body is full of positive energy on hot days, and skin is open to the outside world.

If paste some medicated patches, Sanfutie in Chinese, to some acupuncture points on the body, it will work better along the main and collateral channels and blood vessels.

Leave the patches on the body for several hours before taking away, and repeat the procedure several times according to different diseases during the dog days.

Pasting a Sanfutie on the neck. /CFP

Pasting a Sanfutie on the neck. /CFP

The method can be used to treat some diseases that often harass patients in autumn or winter, such as asthma, allergic rhinitis, and frozen shoulder. Since the disease has been treated in summer, the probability of the disease to break out will decrease in autumn and winter.

As the old method can help a patient ease pain without taking drugs and having acupuncture or an operation, it gains much popularity from ancient times till now.

If you visit a traditional Chinese medicine hospital on the first day of Sanfu, you will find long queues waiting for getting Sanfutie treatment, which might not be suitable for everybody. Consult a professional doctor before using it.

(Cover image via CFP)