《孫真人備急千金要方》Vol. 14

Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold Pieces for Emergencies by the Perfected Sun, Volume Fourteen (part of an eight-volume work)

Collated by Lin Yi and others, who held the titles of Gentleman of the Court, Acting Junior Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, and Collator at the Secret Pavilion during the Song dynasty

Prescriptions for Infants and Young Children: Miscellaneous Childhood Illnesses, Chapter Nine (with prescriptions and moxibustion methods)

Prescription for sores inside a child’s navel

Apply mulberry juice to the nipple so the child takes it in while nursing.

Another prescription: Give the child the milk and blood of a ram.

Prescription for a severe, persistent sore caused by wind entering a child’s navel

Apply soil from the eastern wall to the affected area. It works well. If the discharge of pus continues, burn cocklebur seeds to ash, grind them into powder, and apply it.

Another prescription: Grind dried grubs into powder and apply it. The sore should heal after three or four applications.

Prescription for a child whose navel has not closed

Burn the grease from an axle pin to ash and apply it once a day.

Another prescription: Burn a wasp nest to ash, grind it into powder, and apply it.

Prescription for sores inside a child’s navel

Burn the cord from a rice-steaming basket to ash, mix it evenly with ointment, and apply it.

Prescription for redness and swelling in a child’s navel

Take half a liang of apricot kernels and eighteen zhu of marrow from a pig’s jawbone. Grind the apricot kernels into a paste, mix with the marrow, and apply to the swollen navel.

White Stone Fat Powder: Prescription for persistent discharge and redness and swelling in a child’s navel

Grind White Stone Fat into a fine powder, warm it slightly, and apply it to the navel sore three or four times a day.

Prescription for a child with thrush who cannot nurse

Put goose-dropping juice into the child’s mouth.

Another prescription: Apply millet juice.

Another prescription: Take the child’s parent’s hair, wash it, and wind it around a peach branch. Dip it in well water drawn in the morning facing east. Facing east toward the sun, use the hair to wipe the white material inside the child’s mouth. Put what is wiped away into water and rinse it seven times. Do this once every morning.

Prescription for a child with heat in the heart, sores in the mouth, a swollen tongue, or thrush

Take five sheng of mulberry-leaved thorn root and chop it. If the root is unavailable, bow wood may be used instead. Add five sheng of water and boil until two sheng remain. Strain out the dregs, then continue boiling until five he remain. Apply small amounts repeatedly to the affected area. It works well.

Prescription for mouth sores covered with white patches

First wipe the child’s mouth with the father’s washed hair, then apply mulberry juice.

Prescription for a swollen, stiff tongue that cannot hold back saliva

Place a soybean-sized amount of powdered deer antler under the tongue three or four times a day.

Prescription for a child who cannot nurse

Another prescription: Burn snake slough to ash. Dip a chicken feather in strong vinegar, then in the powder, and gently wipe the tongue.

Treatment After Recovery

Remedies for a Child’s Double Tongue

Take a beehive from a field and burn it to ash. Mix the ash evenly with wine and apply it below the throat. This can cure the condition.

Another remedy: apply a silverfish to the tongue.

Another remedy: grind the yellow earth from beside or beneath a cooking stove into powder. Mix it evenly with vinegar and apply it to the tongue.

Another remedy: take pork from two households after slaughter, cut each piece to about the size of a finger, and rub the pieces against the tongue. The child should be able to cry immediately.

Another remedy: grind adzuki beans into powder, mix with vinegar, and apply it to the tongue.

Another remedy: burn a winnowing basket and apply its ashes beneath the tongue.

Another remedy: soak phellodendron bark in bamboo sap and extract the juice. Apply a little at a time to the tongue. This works well.

Remedies for a Double Tongue

Apply moxibustion at the Xingjian point, located in the web between the big toe and second toe. Set the number of moxa cones according to the child’s age.

Then apply three moxa cones above the outer ankle of each foot. One cone refers to one moxa cone being burned.

Remedies for Sores on a Child’s Tongue

Burn a beehive to ash, mix it in equal amounts with dust from inside the house, and apply the mixture.

Another remedy: take juice from mulberry root bark and smear it on the nipple, then let the child nurse and take it in.

Another remedy: take the marrow from a sheep’s leg bone, mix it evenly with hu fen, an ancient white powder, and apply it.

Remedies for a Swollen, Stiff Tongue and Discomfort Throughout the Mouth

Hold sweetened vinegar in the mouth. This works well.

Another remedy: drink the milk of a ram to be cured.

Remedies for a Child’s Mouth Sores and Inability to Nurse

Eighteen zhu of daqing and twelve zhu of coptis.

Chop the two ingredients, boil them in three sheng of water, and reduce the liquid to one sheng and two ge. Take one ge per dose, twice during the day and once at night. Zhu, sheng, and ge are ancient units of measurement.

Another remedy:

Two sheng of honey, three inches of licorice root, and one jin of cured pork fat from the twelfth lunar month.

Simmer the three ingredients together and mix well. Hold a date sized amount in the mouth each time, then swallow it slowly, three times a day.

Another remedy: put a piece of alum the size of an egg into vinegar. Apply the vinegar to the child’s soles fourteen times, and the condition should be cured.

Remedies for Sores at Both Corners of a Child’s Mouth

Burn hair to ash, mix it with pork fat, and apply the mixture.

Remedies for Yellow, Raw Sores Below a Child’s Mouth

Burn a ram’s beard to ash, mix it with cured pork fat from the twelfth lunar month, and apply it. A sheep’s horn can be used instead.

Remedy for Severe Sores Around the Mouth

Take equal amounts of ash from tangled hair, ash from cotton fluff, coptis, and dried ginger. Grind them into a powder and sprinkle it on the sores. Apply no more than three times.

Remedy for Lockjaw

If the area affected by lockjaw is red, it is considered “heart lockjaw”; if it is white, it is considered “lung lockjaw.” Take chicken droppings that are white, about the size of a date, wrap them in cotton, and boil them in one ge of water until the liquid boils twice. Divide it into two doses.

Remedy for Lockjaw in a Child

Deer antler powder and soybean powder.

Take equal amounts of the two ingredients above and mix them thoroughly. Apply the mixture to the nipples, then let the child nurse.

Another formula: Two sheng each of donkey’s milk and pig’s milk. Combine the two milks and simmer until reduced to one sheng and five he (a half-sheng). Give a portion about the size of an apricot kernel four times a day, until the illness is cured.

Formula for Sparrow-Dropping Pills: Used to treat children who suddenly suffer a wind-stroke, with their jaws clenched and unable to swallow. Roll sparrow droppings into pills the size of hemp seeds and give them with water. It is said to take effect immediately. The white part of chicken droppings may also be used.

Formula for treating drooling in children: Place white sheep droppings in the child’s mouth.

Another formula: Take the saliva from the mouth of a cow walking eastward and apply it inside the child’s mouth and on the chin. The white sap of a mulberry tree may also be applied; it is said to cure the condition.

Formula for treating sudden toxic swelling in children, when the swelling extends to the throat and neck, the fever is severe, and nursing is impaired: One liang each of Cimicifuga (shengma), blackberry lily (shegan), and rhubarb. Cut the three ingredients into pieces and decoct them in one sheng and five he of water until reduced to eight he. For a child under one year old, divide the dose into three portions. Apply the dregs to the swelling; when they cool, warm them again before applying. For older children, increase the amount as appropriate.

Cimicifuga Decoction formula: For children’s sore throats; it may also be used for adults when severe toxic Qi causes the throat to close or makes swallowing difficult. Two liang each of Cimicifuga (shengma), ginger, and blackberry lily (shegan), and one liang of tangerine peel. Cut the four ingredients into pieces and decoct them in six sheng of water until reduced to two sheng. Strain out the dregs and divide the liquid into three portions.

Formula for treating swollen and painful throat impediment in children: Mix fourteen fish gallbladders with earth from beneath a stove and apply the mixture. It is said to cure the condition.

Formula for treating throat impediment in children: Half a liang each of cinnamon bark and apricot kernels. Grind them into powder, wrap the powder in cotton into a date-sized bundle, and hold it in the mouth, swallowing the liquid gradually.

Formula for treating cranial non-closure in children (a condition in which an infant’s fontanel is large and the skull bones have not fully joined): Roast shed snake skin and grind it into powder. Mix it with marrow from a pig’s lower jawbone and apply it to the crown of the head three or four times a day.

Another formula: Apply marrow from a pig’s lower jawbone to the fontanel. It is said to cure the condition.

Pinellia Fomentation formula: Used to treat children with a bulging head and an unclosed fontanel, accompanied by weakness and a yellow complexion, who are still unable to walk at four or five years of age. One sheng each of Pinellia, ginger, and lovage root; three liang of asarum; one chi of cinnamon bark; and ten aconite roots. Cut the six ingredients into pieces and soak them in five sheng of strong bitter wine for a full day and night. Bring the mixture to a boil three times, then strain out the dregs. Soak a piece of cotton cloth in the liquid and adjust it to a comfortable temperature…

After each warming treatment, wait for the affected area to cool, then warm the material again and continue. Repeat as before. Apply the treatment three or four times each morning and evening. After twenty days, stop; the illness should be cured.

Remedy for an enlarged fontanel in children using fresh crab legs

Use half a liang each of fresh crab legs and white ampelopsis root. Pound the two ingredients into powder, mix with breast milk, and apply it to the fontanel. It is said to take effect quickly.

Remedy for an enlarged fontanel in children using Asarum

Use half a liang each of Asarum and cassia bark, and eighteen zhu of dried ginger. Grind the three ingredients into powder, mix with breast milk, and apply it to the fontanel. When the medicine dries, apply it again. It takes effect when the child’s face turns red.

Remedy for incomplete closure of a child’s fontanel

Use one and a half liang of Saposhnikovia root, and one liang each of arborvitae seed and bletilla rhizome. Grind the three ingredients into powder, mix with breast milk, and apply it to the fontanel once a day. It takes effect after ten days and cures the condition after twenty.

Another remedy: Take a pig’s lower jawbone, simmer it to obtain the marrow, and apply the marrow to the fontanel.

Remedy for a sunken fontanel in children

Apply moxibustion at points half a cun above and below the navel, at the tip of the dove’s tail bone (near the lower end of the sternum), and at points on the Foot Taiyin channel. Apply one moxa cone at each point (burning one portion of moxa once).

Remedy for pediatric fox hernia and scrotal swelling after an injury

Use eighteen zhu of cassia bark, one liang and eighteen zhu of atractylodes rhizome, and two and a half liang of Kochia fruit. Grind the three ingredients into powder and mix with honey to make pills. Take seven pills with white liquor each time; each pill should be the size of an adzuki bean. Take three times daily. This remedy is also used for adults.

Another remedy: Use eighteen zhu each of peony root and poria, half a liang each of Stephania root (some editions read “Saposhnikovia root”) and rhubarb, and six zhu each of pinellia, cassia bark, and Sichuan pepper. Grind the seven ingredients into powder and mix with honey to make pills. Take one pill each time, about the size of a soybean, five times daily; gradually increase the dose to three pills each time.

Five-Ingredient Pills: Remedy for one testicle in a child being enlarged, swollen, and hard

Use two liang each of phellodendron bark, fermented black soybeans, peony bark, Saposhnikovia root, and cassia bark. Grind the five ingredients into powder and mix with honey to make pills the size of soybeans. For a three-year-old child, take five pills with water each time, gradually increasing to ten. Reduce the dose as appropriate for younger children, or place the pills on the nipple for the child to suck.

Remedy for swollen testicles in children

Take six chicken wings and burn them to ash, then administer the ash. If the swelling is on the left or right side, use the feathers from the wing on the same side as the swelling. The Collected Proven Remedies from Past and Present says this remedy is used to treat scrotal swelling as large as a bushel.

Formula for treating swollen testicles or hernia in children:

Take one liang each of trichosanthes root, peony root, and Chinese angelica. Chop the three ingredients and simmer them in two sheng of water until one sheng remains. Take five he of the decoction each time, twice a day.

Another formula: On a day of the Chu period in early March—a day in the old lunar calendar for removing the old and ushering in the new—take white-flowered pulsatilla root and pound it. Apply it to the affected area. An open sore will form overnight, and the condition should heal within twenty days.

Formula for treating qi hernia:

Use acupuncture or moxibustion on Dadun, the “Great Mound” point on the Liver channel of Foot Jueyin, located on the outer side of the big toe. For an ailment on the left, apply moxibustion on the right; for one on the right, apply it on the left. Apply one moxa cone to each side.

Formula for treating sores on a child’s genitals:

Apply ash made by burning human feces to the affected area. Dog feces ash, dog bone ash, or powdered horse bone may also be applied.

Formula for treating sores with discharge where a child’s thigh meets the scrotum: The condition first itches, then becomes painful. It usually heals on its own within five to ten days, but may recur after half a month or a month and continue year after year.

First apply moxibustion to the affected area, then scrape off the scab and wipe the area dry with a cloth. Spread honey over it. Separately, make a flatbread from flour and water and bake it. Spread maltose on the bread and, while it is hot, press it against the affected area. Remove it once the bread cools. Repeat once, and the condition should heal.

Formula for treating a child’s swollen scrotum:

Roast the genitalia of a fox, grind them into powder, and take the powder with wine.

Another formula: Apply seven moxa cones to Dadun.

Another formula: Split open a mulberry branch and apply its white sap to the affected area.

Another formula: Pound turnip and apply it to the affected area.

Another formula: Pound wall moss and apply it to the affected area. Silverfish may also be applied.

Another formula: Take five sheng of pig feces, boil them in water, wrap them in cloth, and apply the bundle to the swelling.

Formula for treating sores on a child’s genitals:

Simmer wolf’s-bane herb in a strong decoction and use the liquid to wash the affected area.

Another formula: Take equal amounts of Coptis and lead powder, mix them with fragrant ointment oil, and apply the mixture to the affected area.

Formula for treating swollen lymph nodes with fever in a child when the condition is excess in nature:

Take eighteen zhu each of Aucklandia, licorice, gypsum, and kansui; three zhu of musk; one liang each of rhubarb and hogfennel root; and half a liang of baical skullcap root. Chop the eight ingredients and simmer them in seven sheng of water until one sheng and nine he remain. Take three he each time, four times during the day and twice at night.

Softshell Turtle Head Pills: For a child with long-term diarrhea caused by accumulated cold, where the diarrhea has stopped but rectal prolapse remains and the anus cannot be returned, accompanied by coldness in the abdomen and pain in the anus:

Take two softshell turtle heads and roast them until charred; four liang of lodestone; three liang of cassia bark; and one small hedgehog skin, roasted until charred.

Grind the four ingredients above into a fine powder and mix with honey to make pills the size of soybeans. Children aged three to five should take five to ten pills each time, three times a day. For older children, the dose may be increased as appropriate.

Formula for Treating Rectal Prolapse in Children

Apply three moxa cones at the whorl on the crown of the head—the center of the hair whorl. The prolapsed anus will then retract. Apply another three moxa cones at the coccyx, then apply a number of cones at the navel appropriate to the child’s age.

Formula for Treating Damp Sores in Children with Gan Disease

Place iron residue—the rust or scale from an iron object—on the affected area below, and it will heal.

Another formula: Apply seven moxa cones on each side of the fifteenth vertebra, alongside the spine. If the condition has not healed, apply another seven cones on each side.

Formula for Treating Gan Sores in Children

Mix lard with lead powder and apply it to the affected area. Repeat five or six times.

Another formula: Chew hemp seeds and apply them to the affected area six or seven times a day.

Another formula: Mix the gallbladders of two sheep thoroughly with soy sauce and pour the mixture into the lower opening. Lard may also be used.

Formula for Treating Damp Sores

Boil Chinese gromwell root down to a thick liquid and use it for bathing twice a day.

Formula for Treating Persistent Dysentery in Children, with Pus and Blood in the Stool and Damp Sores

Take five sheng of mugwort leaves and add one dou of water. Boil down to one and a half sheng, then divide into three doses.

Pills to Clear Heat from the Intestines

Used to treat children with accumulated heat in the intestines, who pass yellow-red discharge and foam, with fish-brain-like material and mixed blood in the stool, ulceration of the anus, and itching caused by parasites.

Coptis rhizome, cork tree bark, bitter gourd root, ghost drumstick, Chinese angelica, tangerine peel, peony, and donkey-hide gelatin, half a liang each.

Grind the eight ingredients above into a fine powder and use indigo juice and honey to make pills the size of small beans. Take five to ten pills a day. In winter, when indigo juice is unavailable, pound one he of indigo seeds and mix with honey to make the pills.

Formula for Treating Roundworms in Children

Shave off the green outer bark from a chinaberry tree, simmer it in water, and give the resulting liquid to the child. Adjust the dose according to the child’s age and build. This medicine is mildly toxic.

Formula for Treating Wasting in Children with Roundworms

Take two liang of Huanlu, add one sheng of water and two ge of rice, and cook until the rice is done. Strain out the herbs and give the liquid to the child.

Another formula: Take three liang of knotgrass and add one sheng of water. Boil down to four he and give in divided doses. The expressed juice may also be taken.

Another formula: Take three liang of peach white bark and four liang of the white bark of the east-growing root of Wu Zhuyu. Chop them, soak them overnight in one sheng and two he of wine, then give the liquid to the child gradually until the condition is cured.

Another formula: Give the child lard to take. (It is also said that this formula treats pinworms.)

Another remedy: Crush Chinese scholar tree seeds and insert them into the anus until the illness is cured. (Another account identifies this as a remedy for pinworms.)

Another remedy: Take one chinaberry fruit and insert it into the anus. (Another account identifies this as a remedy for pinworms.)

Remedies for tapeworms

Take a handful of bark from a pomegranate tree growing eastward. Add one sheng of water and boil it down to three he. Take the liquid in divided doses.

Another remedy: Crush peach leaves, squeeze out the juice, and drink it.

Remedies for the three kinds of worms in children

Take equal parts of Thunder Roundworm (Leigongteng) and Ligusticum chuanxiong (Chuanxiong). Grind them into a fine powder. Take one qianbi (an ancient measure for powdered medicine taken by spoonful), three times a day.

Remedies for blood in the stool after defecation

Take one softshell turtle’s head and roast it until yellow-black. Grind it into a fine powder and swallow five fenbi of the powder with a drink. Adjust the amount to the child’s age and build. Take it three times a day.

Another remedy: Heat a metal fitting from a cart until red-hot, put it into one sheng of water, and drink the water in two doses.

Another remedy: Burn a strap from a grain steamer to ash and grind it into powder. Apply the powder to the nipple and let the child suckle.

Remedies for blood in a child’s urine

Burn a magpie’s nest to ash and mix it with water drawn from the surface of a well. This also treats bedwetting.

Another remedy: For blood in the urine, apply moxibustion five cun to either side of the seventh vertebra (the seventh segment of the spine, counting downward from the top). The number of moxa cones used at each point should be determined by the child’s age. Each time a moxa cone is lit counts as one cone.

Remedies for bedwetting in children

Dianthus superbus, Pyrrosia, gentian, Chinese honeylocust, cinnamon bark, chicken-intestine herb, ginseng, and plantain seeds. Use half a liang each of Chinese honeylocust and cinnamon bark; one liang of ginseng; and one liang plus six zhu of plantain seeds. The original text does not specify the amounts of the other herbs.

Grind the eight ingredients into a fine powder and make pills with honey. Take five pills after each meal, each about the size of a red bean, three times a day. The dose may then be increased gradually to six or seven pills.

Another remedy: Crush adzuki bean leaves, squeeze out the juice, and drink it.

Another remedy: Burn chicken intestines to ash and grind them into a fine powder. Mix one square-inch-spoonful of the powder with rice-washing water and take it three times a day. Another account says to face the Northern Dipper while taking it.

Another remedy: Apply moxibustion one and a half cun below the navel, using a number of moxa cones appropriate to the child’s age. Then apply three cones at the Dadun acupoint. This also treats blood in the urine.

Kochia fruit decoction

This remedy treats cases in which heat toxin enters the bladder and suddenly makes urination impossible. The child feels an urgent, painful need to urinate but cannot pass urine, or passes only a small amount. The urine may look like blood, then begin to flow again after a while.

Take six zhu each of Kochia fruit, Dianthus superbus, anemarrhena, baical skullcap, immature bitter orange, cimicifuga, mallow seeds, and polyporus. Take three zhu each of tetrapanax pith, seaweed, and dried tangerine peel; and eighteen zhu of rhubarb.

Cut the twelve ingredients into pieces, add three sheng of water, and boil down to one sheng. The original text breaks off here and does not record the subsequent directions for use.

On the seventh day, give the child one he (a traditional measure) at each dose, divided into three doses. From the eighth through the fifteenth day, give one and a half he at each dose, divided into three doses. From the sixteenth through the twentieth day, give two he at each dose, divided into three doses. After forty days, continue with this dosage. For children over fifty days old and under seven years old, the amount of medicine and water may be increased as appropriate.

Remedies for childhood urinary dribbling

Boil one sheng of plantain seeds in two sheng of water. Reduce to one sheng of liquid and give in divided doses.

Another remedy: boil winter-mallow seeds and give the juice.

Another remedy: burn a wasp nest and tangled hair to ash. Give one qianbi (an ancient small spoon for measuring medicine) with water, twice a day.

Remedies for childhood inability to urinate

Chop one sheng of plantain leaves and add one sheng of wheat. Boil in two sheng of water until one sheng and two he of liquid remain. Strain out the solids, then use the liquid to cook porridge. Give it three or four times a day.

Another remedy: boil one sheng of winter-mallow seeds in two sheng of water. Reduce to one sheng of liquid and give in divided doses, then add six zhu of powdered talc (an ancient unit of weight).

Remedy for childhood paralysis

Burn a lizard to ash, grind it into powder, and give it with wine.

Remedies for childhood vomiting of blood

Burn shed snake skin to ash, grind it into powder, and give it with milk. It is also said to treat “double tongue,” a group of symptoms involving swelling beneath the tongue and restricted tongue movement.

Another remedy: mix three parts oil with one part wine and give in two doses.

Remedy for childhood nasal congestion and nasal polyps

Use one liang each of tetrapanax pith and asarum. Grind the two ingredients into powder. Take a small amount about the size of a bean, wrap it in cotton, and place it in the nose twice a day.

Remedy for childhood nasal blockage and runny nose

Use half a liang of apricot kernels, and six zhu each of Sichuan pepper, aconite, and asarum. Chop the four ingredients and soak them overnight in five he of vinegar. The next day, add five he of pork fat and boil until the aconite turns yellow. Strain out the solids to make an ointment. Spread the ointment on cotton wool and place it in the nostrils twice a day, while also massaging the crown of the head.

Remedy for pus draining from a child’s ear

Grind sulfur into powder and sprinkle it into the ear once during the day and once at night.

Remedies for childhood ear sores

Burn horse bone to ash and apply it to the affected area.

Another remedy: put white chicken droppings in a bamboo tube and burn them, then blow the smoke into the ear.

Remedies for a child’s teeth failing to grow back long after falling out

Take twenty-seven soybeans found in cow dung. Slightly pare one end of each bean, press the pared end against the tooth root, and repeat several times. The teeth are said to grow back.

Another remedy: take twenty-seven droppings from a male rat and rub one against each tooth root.

After twenty-one days, male rat droppings will appear, with pointed tips.

Treating children aged four or five who still cannot speak

Grind adzuki beans into powder, mix with wine, and apply beneath the tongue.

Another method: Moxa-burn each ankle three cones (each cone is one burning piece of moxa).

Treating children who are several years old and still cannot walk

Take food secretly from a family preparing for a funeral, before they have opened the door, and feed it to the child three times a day. The child will then begin to walk.

Treating children who cannot suckle

Take four sparrow droppings, grind them into powder, and smear it on the nipple before feeding the child. When the child is older, use ten droppings.

Puhuang Decoction: Treating children who have fallen from a bed or onto the ground and may have blood stasis, with a cold or hot sensation in the abdomen, refusal to suckle, and incessant crying

Prescription: Puhuang, Maidong, Dahuang, and Huangqin, ten zhu each; Gancao, eight zhu; Mangxiao, seven zhu; and Huanglian, twelve zhu.

Chop the seven ingredients. Boil them in two sheng of water until reduced to one sheng, then strain out the herbs and add the Mangxiao. Give in three doses. Reduce the amount by half as appropriate for the child’s weakness and thinness. If blood appears in the urine or stool, the illness will be cured. Avoid raw and cold foods.

Treating children who eat without knowing when they are hungry or full

Take fourteen mouse droppings, burn them to ash, grind into powder, and give to the child to swallow.

Treating children who eat dirt

Tie a pound of meat with a cord and drag it along the ground for several miles. Do not wash it. Roast it over a fire and feed it to the child.

Treating hiccups in children

Take five he of fresh ginger juice and five he of cow’s milk. Boil until reduced to five he, and give in two doses.

Another method: Take one sheng of cow’s milk, boil until reduced to five he, and give in five doses.

Treating childhood zhu illness

Mix equal amounts of hearth ash and salt, heat in a pan, and apply as a warm dressing to the affected area.

Treating children who have accidentally swallowed a needle

Have the child swallow or hold in the mouth a lodestone the size of a date pit. The needle will then come out.

Treating children who have accidentally swallowed iron or other objects

Take a handful of mugwort, chop it, and boil it in five sheng of water until reduced to one sheng. After it is taken, the foreign object will be expelled.

Treating children bitten by a house centipede, when the wound circles the abdomen and may prove fatal

Pound the leaves of puncture vine and apply them to the wound. If there are no leaves, its seeds may also be used.

Another method: Take earth from a swallow’s nest, mix it with lard, and apply it. Replace the dressing when it dries.

—Sun Zhenren’s Essential Remedies for Emergencies, juan 14