In ancient China, most people were very superstitious. They didn't visit a doctor but went for a necromancer when they were sick. At that time the doctors couldn't treat mania and withdrawal but the necromancer did. So, people preferred the necromancer to doctor.
There lived a scholar who also was familiar with medicine. He thought carefully about the necromancer, "They just draw magic figures and intoned chant. How can they treat disease? There must be something in it." So he had a plan with his wife to find the secret of the necromancer.
One day, the scholar's wife went for a necromancer and told him that her husband had been caught mania.
The necromancer went to the scholar's house immediately. With hair in disarray and face in dust, the scholar was mentally deranged and crying out, "Aha, I'm from the heaven to expel the evils for you ……"
Seeing that the scholar was mad, the necromancer lighted a fire and was ready to expel evils. He placed a bowl of water on the table, took out a magic figures drawn beforehand, and started to intone chant. After intoning chant, he was to light the magic figures.
Just at the moment, the scholar jumped out of his bed suddenly and kicked the necromancer out of the door. When the necromancer got up from the ground, the door had been locked. He had to go back dejected.
The scholar took a mouthful of water, but it was tasteless and was just pure water. He then picked up the magic figures. It was a piece of paper with a figure. "Both of the water and paper do not treat disease. Why?" The scholar looked at them again and again. At last, he noticed that the figures had been drawn with the cinnabar. "Can it be that the cinnabar treats the disease?"
The scholar took a patient with mania to his house the second day and made him take the water with cinnabar in it. Several days later, the patient was cured really. It was not the necromancer who could treat mania by expelling the evils but the cinnabar did. So the cinnabar had been the medication for treating mania since then.
The cinnabar has the actions of tranquilizing the mind and clearing heat and toxins. It is applicable for infantile convulsion and epilepsy, irritability and insomnia due to exuberant heart-fire, and sore throat and canker sores of mouth and tongue due to sthenic fire and heart-toxin.
1、早先，人们迷信。许多人有了病不求医，常去找主士。有一种癫狂病，当时的医生都没法治；可这病遇到方士，却治一个好一个。因此，人们更是“信巫不信医”了。
2、有个秀才懂几分医术，他暗自琢磨；“方士只会画符念咒、装神弄鬼，怎么会真能治病呢？这里准有名堂。”于是，他跟妻子商量了一个办法，想探出方士的秘密。
3、这天，秀才媳妇去找方士，说他丈夫得了癫狂病。
4、方士急忙来到秀才家，只见秀才披头散发、满脸泥污，躺在地上正说疯话呢：
“呔，我是玉皇大帝的女婿，老丈人让我统天兵天将下凡，扫荡妖魔鬼怪……”
5、方士一看，秀才果然疯了。他就点火把、洒松香，竖起桃木棒准备驱“鬼”。方士先端一碗净水主在桌上，又拿起一张画好的符，嘴里念念有词：
“天灵灵，地灵灵，一天三朝过往神。过往神，有神灵，鬼使神差下凡去。吾奉太上老君急急如律令，为你驱鬼来治病。只要喝下这符水，妖逃鬼散病除根。”
说着，方士就要点火烧符。秀才早有准备，嗖地跳起来，一把抢过符纸，抬腿一脚把方士踢出门外，嘴里骂道：“我是玉皇大帝的女婿，哪里来的妖道胆敢如此无礼？滚，你个老东西！”
方士被踢倒在地，刚爬起来，门已关紧。他叫了半天，没人理，只好自认倒霉回家去了。
6、屋里，秀才先把那碗水喝了一口，什么味儿也没有，确实是碗净水；再看看符纸，也没什么稀奇的。秀才反复琢磨：“这都不治病啊。”最后，他盯住画符用的朱砂了：“莫非这能治病？”
7、第二天，他把一个得癫狂病的人找到自己家，用一点朱砂放在水里给他喝。那人喝了以后，病果然慢慢好了。从此，秀才知道方士“驱鬼”治癫狂病，只不过因为符上的朱砂有药性。这样，朱砂便成了一味中药。
8、朱砂具有镇心安神，清热解毒的作用，用治惊风，癫痫；心火亢盛引起的心神不安，心烦失眠；及实火热毒引起的咽喉肿痛，口舌生疮。
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