The earliest Chinese records about Wudu (fivepoison) cake are in the late Qing Dynasty (16441911). Wudu cake is regarded as a local specialty of Beijing, decorated with the patterns of five poisonous animals. It is said to have grown out of the talisman written by the 42nd generation Tianshi (Taoist Master) at the end of the Yuan Dynasty (12711386). Eating it can exorcise evil spirits and avoid epidemic diseases. However, foreign missionaries had observed Tianzhong Festival (天中节) food custom in Guangdong similar to Wudu cake long before the Chinese records. Tianzhong Festival is at noon on May 5th, the Dragon Boat Festival. This talismanic custom of exorcising evil spirits and avoiding epidemic diseases on May 5th can be traced back to the preHan Dynasty. And the talisman that can be eaten is a mystic amulet of the Tianshi, which is called Shutiandi (书天地) in Song Dynasty (9601279). Since the Song Dynasty, the Tianshi talisman of Shutiandi passed on in two opposite directions, the north and the south, and became the Wudu cakes of the Dragon Boat Festival in Beijing in the late Qing Dynasty and the cakes of the Tianzhong Festival in Guangdong. Modern Cantonese have forgotten this food custom, while people in Beijing are still proud of their local snacks.