Chāngpú de yèzi yòu cháng yòu jiān, xiàng yì bǎ jiàn, suǒyǐ gǔrén rènwéi tā néng qūxié.
Calamus leaves are long and pointed like a sword, so people in the past believed they could drive away evil.
Tips
culture
菖蒲 is a fragrant plant of ponds and marshes. Its sword-shaped leaves are tied in bundles with 艾草 'mugwort' and hung on doors at the 端午节 to keep off illness and evil in early summer.
mistakes
In Japanese the same characters, read 菖蒲 (ayame), name the iris, a different plant with similar sword-like leaves. Chinese calls the iris 鸢尾.
