What does China's first aid sign "Snake and Sword" mean?

China's first aid sign is a snake coiled on a pole, not a sword.

This sign comes from a biblical story. Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. In the wilderness, the Israelites complained about the hardships of life and blamed God. God made the Israelites sick and die. Moses prayed to God for Israel, and God changed his mind. He told Moses to erect a pole and cast a copper snake at the top of the pole. When the patient saw the copper snake, he recovered.

In this way, the pole carrying the copper snake became a sign of saving lives. Surrounded by olive branches, it also comes from biblical stories. Noah released pigeons on the ark, and the pigeons brought back two olive branches, indicating that the flood receded and they could land. The olive branch here means that you will be safe after first aid.

Extended data:

Western medicine takes "snake stick" as its symbol. The so-called "snake stick" is a walking stick with a snake-shaped pattern around it.

There is also an allusion from the ancient Greek legend: Asclepius, one of the founders of ancient Greek medicine, is said to be the son of Apollo, the sun god, and Coroni, a mortal. He once studied medicine with Khyron's superb medical skills, and his medical skills were very good.

One day, when he was absorbed in thinking about a case, a poisonous snake crawled over and wrapped around his hand. Asclepius was surprised and killed the poisonous snake at once. Who knows, at this moment, another poisonous snake appeared, with herbs in its mouth, lying next to the dead snake, and the dead snake came back to life.

When Asclepius saw this scene, he immediately realized that snakes are poisonous and can kill people, but they have mysterious healing power and can save people. No wonder people always think that snakes are the embodiment of wisdom.

From then on, wherever Asclepius went to practice medicine, he not only took a snake with him, but always wrapped a snake around his cane.

Once this theory spread, people engaged in the medical industry followed suit, so the "snake stick" became the symbol of the western medical industry. In the old society, the collar of the Kuomintang military medical officer was the badge of "snake stick".

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-snake stick

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia-120 (Chinese mainland Emergency Phone)