《孫真人備急千金要方》Vol. 39

Sun Simiao’s Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand in Gold for Emergencies, Volume 39

(Edited by Lin Yi and others, including Court Gentleman for Service, Acting Junior Chamberlain of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, and Proofreader at the Secret Pavilion)

Formulas for the Gallbladder Viscera

Powders and Pills for Ten Thousand Ailments, Section Seven (Discussion and Formulas)

The discussion says: The way of the sages lies in rescuing all beings with compassion and widely seeking out medicines to prepare for accidents and sudden illness. In this way, remedies can be readily to hand in an emergency. This is why the book contains the Formulas for Ten Thousand Ailments. I found this formula scattered across many texts, making it difficult for scholars to locate and use. So I gathered its essential and ingenious contents into this section, hoping people can turn to it in an emergency. Those committed to medicine should remain mindful of danger in times of ease, and prepare and store remedies in advance during their free time, in case illness arises.

Yuanhua Powder, a powder whose principal ingredient is lilac daphne, is used to treat various forms of wind-cold, phlegm and fluid retention, abdominal masses and accumulations, and malaria. It is even said to cure many illnesses that other physicians cannot. It is also called “Immortal-Aspiring Wine” and “Three Strong Medicines Powder.”

The ingredients are as follows:

Lilac daphne, platycodon root, aster root, kansui root, cowherb seed, aconite, prepared aconite, Chinese aconite, atractylodes rhizome, Siberian ginseng bark, false daphne, langdu root, Chinese holly, Vitex fruit, trichosanthes root, azalea, ephedra, angelica dahurica root, schizonepeta, and skimmia, ten parts each; plantain seed, dendrobium, ginseng, Chinese photinia, and rock everlasting, seven parts each; cnidium seed, dioscorea spongiosa, achyranthes root, cibotium rhizome, dodder seed, cistanche, and gentian, four parts each; veratrum, five parts; Chinese yam, coix seed, morinda root, asarum, angelica root, Sichuan lovage rhizome, dried rehmannia root, food Sichuan pepper, eucommia bark, magnolia bark, astragalus root, Asiatic cornelian cherry, dried ginger, peony root, cassia bark, scutellaria root, evodia fruit, stephania root, polygala root, Sichuan pepper, pubescent angelica root, schisandra fruit, moutan bark, tangerine peel, tetrapanax pith, bupleurum root, arborvitae seed, ligusticum root, sweetflag rhizome, poria, and teasel root, two parts each.

There are sixty-four ingredients in all. (The Supplement to the Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand in Gold lists hemp flower, pinellia, red cart emissary, lesser galangal, and crape myrtle among the ingredients, but omits seven ingredients, including atractylodes and food Sichuan pepper.)

Use all the ingredients without any processing: do not sort them, roast them, or stir-fry them. Simply shake off the dust, pound them, and pass them through a coarse sieve; the powder is then ready to take. While taking the medicine, one may eat pork, chicken, the five pungent foods, cold or raw foods, vinegar, and greasy foods as usual; no dietary restrictions are needed. Only beans of all kinds can nullify the medicine’s effects.

Do not eat while taking the medicine.

Three liang of medicinal powder, two sheng of finely ground fermentation starter, three sheng of glutinous rice, and five sheng of genuine, unadulterated wine.

First, boil the glutinous rice in three large dou of water to make porridge, cooking it until fully done. In winter, toss the porridge to disperse the heat. In spring, let it cool somewhat. In summer, toss it until all the heat has dissipated and the porridge is completely cool. In autumn, let it become lukewarm. Then add the finely ground fermentation starter and knead until evenly blended, soft, and cohesive. Add the medicinal powder and continue kneading until the mixture is uniformly soft and well combined. Finally, add the genuine wine and knead again to loosen and blend the mixture.

Put the ingredients into a watertight container and stir them thoroughly with a clean wooden stick. Leave them overnight, and they will be ready to drink. Simply cover the container with a cloth; it does not need to be sealed.

Take each dose early in the morning on an empty stomach, stopping when the body begins to react. As soon as you slightly feel the medicine taking effect and spreading through your limbs and head, with a mild tingling sensation, do not increase the dose further. When taken as directed, the medicine’s effects will gradually dissipate within the body. If you increase the dose on your own, contrary to the instructions, it may cause severe vomiting and diarrhea.

To take the medicine as a powder, sift it finely and take one square-inch spoonful at a time, washed down with water, wine, or rice gruel; any of these will do. The dose may then be increased slightly, stopping when the body begins to react. To take it as pills, sift the medicine finely, mix it with honey, and form pills the size of Chinese parasol tree seeds. Take seven pills at a time. The medicine may be prepared as either pills or powder, but it must not be boiled into a decoction.

To nourish the body without causing vomiting or diarrhea, simply allow the medicine to work gradually within the body. The text says that its effects surpass those of the Five Minerals, the five mineral-based medicines cited in antiquity, and that it can drive out many kinds of illness.

The ailments listed in the text as suitable for treatment include the twelve forms of bi syndrome, involving numbness, pain, or impaired movement of the limbs; blurred vision caused by pathogenic wind entering the head; upward surging Qi, coughing, phlegm that rattles in the throat like a frog’s croak, and inability to sleep peacefully; food that fails to nourish the flesh; obstructed Qi in the Five Viscera; accumulations that do not disperse and block the flow; fullness and distension in the chest and abdomen, with gas extending to the chest and back; hard abdominal masses that spread into the limbs; fullness of Qi in the chest and diaphragm that comes and goes and persists for ten or twenty years; five kinds of dysentery, intestinal parasites, tapeworms, and other worms; imbalance of hot and cold above and below; long-standing accumulation of phlegm and fluid, leading to drowsiness, wasting, weakness, and illness that penetrates deep into the bones; edema; vomiting after eating; aching in the lower back and legs; heaviness in the limbs; and inability to walk or stand for long.

Women who are exposed to cold during childbirth may have cold enter the womb, leaving it unclean and obstructed. Blood stasis and cold may also remain in the uterus and fail to discharge, causing pain from time to time; this may also lead to infertility. The text also lists red and white dysentery in children, fox odor, deafness, and nasal congestion.

Three pills constitute one dose. No more than three doses should be taken...

It was said to cure every illness, with benefits too numerous to describe. Hence it was called the “Pill for Ten Thousand Illnesses.” Because its principal ingredient is ox gall, it was also called the “Ox Gall Pill.” And since Jivaka was reputed to be a skilled physician, it was also known as the “Jivaka Pill.”

Formula

Ox gall, musk, and rhinoceros horn, one fen each; mulberry root bark, poria, dried ginger, cassia bark, angelica, Ligusticum, peony, kansui, Scutellaria, Sichuan pepper, asarum, platycodon, croton, hog’s fennel, aster, cattail pollen, pepperweed, and saposhnikovia, one fen each; three segments of centipede; one cun each of stone lizard and ginseng; seven pieces each of cinnabar, realgar, Chinese goldthread, euphorbia, limonite, lilac daphne, and blister beetle.

There are thirty-one ingredients in all. (The formula recorded by Cui omits Scutellaria, mulberry root bark, platycodon, and saposhnikovia, and thus contains twenty-seven ingredients.)

Prepare each ingredient carefully. Grind the ox gall, musk, rhinoceros horn, cinnabar, realgar, limonite, and croton separately. Pound the remaining ingredients together and sift them through thick silk. Add white honey to combine the mixture, then pound it three thousand times. Seal it for storage.

On a day designated for “breaking through,” take three pills on an empty stomach at dawn, washed down with wine. Each pill should be about the size of a Chinese parasol tree seed. A mild laxative effect, with three sheng of “bad fluids” expelled, is considered appropriate. For a sudden acute illness, there is no need to restrict the dose to dawn; it may be taken in the morning or evening. Vomiting and diarrhea are given as signs that the medicine is taking effect. If there is no reaction, another pill may be added, up to three or five pills, until vomiting or diarrhea occurs; the number of pills need not be followed rigidly. When the illness is severe and the medicine’s effect strong, five doses are said to be enough to bring it under control.

The following entries give the amounts of pills to combine with wine and the method of taking them for different illnesses. “As above” means to follow the amount or method given earlier for the corresponding illness:

• For various cold disorders, accumulations of cold, and emaciation caused by accumulated cold: take four liang of the medicine with one dou of wine; for more severe cases, take six liang with one and a half dou of wine.
• For phlegm and fluid retention, shan jia (abdominal accumulations or disorders of the groin and lower abdomen), food retention, and vomiting: take four liang of the medicine with one dou of wine.
• For zheng jia (fixed abdominal masses), intestinal rumbling, and belching: take eight liang of the medicine with two dou of wine.
• For chronic zhu disorders (persistent, lingering illnesses) and chronic exhaustion: follow the method given above.
• For dian disorders, hemorrhoids, hard masses caused by cold, cough, and shortness of breath: take twenty liang of the medicine with five dou of wine.
• For ben tun (a disorder described in antiquity as Qi surging upward from the lower abdomen) and cold Qi: take six liang of the medicine with one and a half dou of wine.
• For obstruction in the throat and cold dysentery: follow the method given above.
• For sudden attacks of malevolent influence, zhu wu (sudden illness attributed to an invading influence), abdominal distension, and severe shortness of breath threatening death: three doses are said to bring the condition under control; take one cup each time. If there is severe vomiting with fresh blood, the same method is prescribed for miasmatic illness.
• For gu poisoning: five doses are said to bring the condition under control; take one cup each time.
• For warm malaria and intermittent malaria: follow the method given above, taking one cup each time for three doses; this is said to cure the illness.
• For women’s various wind disorders and other illnesses, follow the methods given above.

The terms fen, liang, mei, cun, and others are units of measure used in antiquity; the text provides no information that would allow them to be converted directly into modern doses. This formula contains potent or toxic ingredients such as croton, kansui, euphorbia, and lilac daphne. The vomiting and diarrhea described in the text are also severe reactions. The passage above is a plain-language rendering of an old medical text and should not be used as a basis for preparing or taking the formula.

For treating vaginal discharge (a gynecological disorder), use twelve liang of the medicine and mix it with three dou of wine. For uterine bleeding, use six liang of medicine with one and a half dou of wine. For stopped or obstructed menstruation, cold disorders, and infertility, take it according to the instructions above. For infertility caused by cessation of the menstrual flow, use eight liang of medicine with two dou of wine. Irregular periods that come early or late, or are sometimes heavy and sometimes light, can also cause infertility; use four liang of medicine with one dou of wine. For infertility after childbirth caused by exposure to wind and cold, use six liang of medicine with two dou of wine. For a more serious condition, use eight liang with two dou of wine; for a very serious condition, use sixteen liang with three dou of wine; and for an extremely severe condition involving uterine prolapse, use sixteen liang with four dou of wine.

The treatise says: I have searched widely through ancient books, but nowhere have I found this formula. A remarkable man named Li Xiaolong said that he obtained it in the early years of the Sui dynasty from the Daoist Hui Tong, who lived in the mountains of Dingzhou. He later used it to treat illness with excellent results, then kept the formula secret and did not pass it on. People could obtain the medicine but had no way of learning how it was prepared. I received the formula from the Daoist Jingzhi, and nearly thirty years have passed since then. The famous physicians of the time did not approve of it, but I used it many times and found its effects astonishing.

The order in which the ingredients are prepared is unusual, and the rules and methods for taking it are also far from ordinary. Yet when used in emergencies, its effects are especially remarkable. This shows that wondrous medicines can manifest their efficacy without necessarily following convention. When the highest principles resonate, their workings cannot be grasped by intellect alone. Just as a dragon’s cry brings forth clouds and a tiger’s roar stirs up wind, events unfold of their own accord even when people do not understand why; even sages find them hard to explain. For this reason, I have recorded the formula at the end of this work, so that scholars of later generations may examine it closely. My purpose is not only to treat illness, but also to broaden knowledge.

Taiyi Spirit Essence Elixir: It treats guest-attacking disorders (sudden fright accompanied by mental disturbance), cholera, abdominal pain, distension and fullness, corpse-injection disorders (infectious illnesses once attributed to ghosts or corpse influences), aversion to wind, mania, delirious speech, gu poison, malign spirits, warm-type malaria, and every other virulent illness. There is no illness it cannot treat. The formula is as follows:

Four liang each of cinnabar, tseng-ching, orpiment, realgar, and magnetite; two and a half liang of golden tooth stone.

Pound each of the six ingredients separately and sift them through silk. Only the cinnabar, orpiment, and realgar are to be soaked in sour vinegar. Soak the tseng-ching in fine wine in a copper vessel, seal the opening with paper, and leave it in the sun for one hundred days. If it must be prepared in summer, five days will suffice; when there is no sunlight, warm it over a fire. Then grind each ingredient separately into a fine powder and mix with sour vinegar until the consistency is neither too wet nor too dry. Place the mixture in an earthen pot and seal it with liuyi clay (a clay used to seal elixir furnaces and vessels)…

After the medicine has been refined, do not let its vapors dissipate. Wait for the apparatus to cool, then set the iron ring in place and raise the furnace legs by one chi and five cun. Place the cauldron—the metal pot used for refining the medicine—on the ring. Next, add fuel gradually; the charcoal may be soft or hard.

At first, take two measures of charcoal that has burned through, each piece about four cun long, and place it over the cauldron. When two-thirds or one-third of the charcoal has burned away, add more. Do this three times. Once the fully burned charcoal has been used up, add fresh charcoal. After three rounds of firing with burned charcoal, continue adding fuel and gradually increase the amount. When the firing has lasted one fu and the flames are nearly reaching the cauldron’s sides, fill the space beneath the cauldron with charcoal. Add charcoal for two more rounds, then stop. Wait until the fire has gone out completely and the cauldron has cooled through before taking out the medicine.

The medicine’s essence will rise and condense on the cauldron. The best result is a condensation in five colors; three colors rank next, and a single color ranks below that. Even without five colors, a bright, snow-white appearance is considered superior. If the medicine has not fully risen, continue firing it according to the method described above. Then brush it down with a rooster’s wing. The amount may vary. Grind it finely, mix it with date paste, and shape it into pills the size of millet grains.

Another account says to use two jin each of cinnabar, zengqing, realgar, and orpiment. Soak the cinnabar in a large jar of vinegar, and the zengqing in fine wine. Seal the jar tightly with paper and expose it to the sun for one hundred days. Fry the realgar and orpiment separately in oil for nine days and nights. Remove the grease, then pound each several thousand times without grinding it. Separately, mix the medicines with vinegar until slightly damp. Place them in an earthenware cauldron in layers, in this order: realgar, orpiment, zengqing, and cinnabar. Seal it tightly with loess clay, leaving no gaps. When the clay is dry, fire it with hard charcoal. First keep the fire five cun from the cauldron for nine days and nights; then fire beneath its base for another nine days and nights. Next move the fire to within three cun of the cauldron’s belly and fire for a further nine days and nights, making twenty-seven days in all. Afterward, let it cool for one day and night. Use a small knife to score a circle around the rim of the cauldron and take out the elixir. Once refined, grind it into a fine powder and mix it with date paste. None of these elixirs should be mixed with honey; use only date paste. Those who study elixir refining should know this method. The old recipe did not use magnetite or gold teeth; these were added later.

This elixir is said to be most suitable for hemiplegia, severe wind disorders, serious illnesses, epilepsy, lijie (joint pain and difficulty bending or extending the limbs), and “ghost beating,” among other conditions. The prescribed dose is one pill, the size of a millet grain, taken on an empty stomach in the morning. The text goes on to say that it may also be taken by people with malaria that has resisted prolonged treatment, distention and fullness in the chest and abdomen, upward surging Qi, or swelling of the whole body, face, and feet, especially when the illness is critical. These claims about its effects are part of the original account.

After taking one pill, some people recover after vomiting, while others recover without vomiting. If you do not vomit and the illness has not yet cleared, you may take another pill and a half. If you are still not cured, increase the dose by half a pill the next day, raising it gradually until the illness is gone. When the medicine takes effect, you may also vomit up green, yellow, or white matter. In people with malaria who have developed lumps beneath the ribs—masses formed inside the abdomen—these too will dissolve.

If there is no distension or fullness in the chest and abdomen, you may begin with one pill and gradually increase the dose each day until it takes effect. It is not necessary to induce vomiting: sometimes one pill is enough to bring a cure. Do not combine several doses and take them all at once. You may also take the medicine once every three days; adjust the dose according to the circumstances. If there is fluid in the abdomen, it will be expelled immediately after taking the medicine; there is no need to be alarmed.

People who have had malaria for only a short time and are still in good spirits may, as appropriate, combine two pills into one dose and take it at once. After taking the medicine, wait until the afternoon to eat. Avoid cold or excessively hot foods; fermented soybean liquid and porridge may be eaten freely.

People with malaria who have night sweats and are weak should take one pill each day. If they vomit within three days, stop taking the medicine. People with malaria who do not sweat, have labored breathing, and have cold feet should take one pill daily for three days. If they still do not sweat, but their breathing has recovered, their feet have warmed, and they begin to sweat lightly, there is no need to wait out the full three days: once they have vomited, they may stop taking it. In people with malaria whose complexion is poor, it will improve after three days of taking the medicine. Some recover only after vomiting; others are cured by a small dose alone. In some people with strong constitutions, the medicine takes longer to show its effects, and its action may not be felt until after three or four pills.

People’s constitutions differ, so no single rule applies to everyone. At first, take only a small amount, the size of a millet grain, then gradually increase the dose until it takes effect. Once you are sure the medicine has taken effect sufficiently, do not take too much at once. Be especially careful to avoid greasy foods, wheat flour products, fish, meat, and garlic. Keep your diet plain while taking the medicine.

People who have been ill for a long time without recovering, and who are bedridden and emaciated, with a distended or swollen abdomen or diarrhea, are often in mortal danger. They may still be treated with the medicine, and perhaps three or four out of ten will recover. Another account says that to treat abdominal masses and accumulations, take one knife-tip measure, an ancient small unit of medicine, with rice-water.

This medicine is also used to treat sudden death, illness caused by an abrupt invasion of malign influences, acute conditions resulting from fright or shock, cholera, abdominal distension and fullness, and the Five Corpse Infestations—a class of illnesses described in ancient times as recurring attacks seemingly caused by ghostly intrusion—as well as aversion to wind, spirit-possession disorders, outbreaks in which an infectious illness causes people to die one after another, mania, and incoherent speech. If a person has stopped breathing but the area over the heart is still faintly warm, raise the head and pry open the mouth with an object. If the mouth will not open, knock out two teeth, then administer the medicine with rice-water. Once the medicine has been swallowed, the person will revive.

People with various chronic illnesses should take one knife-tip measure each day, then cover themselves to bring on sweating. After they sweat…

If the illness has not yet cleared, take the medicine no more than twice again. Some people recover even without sweating. If there is neither sweating nor recovery, take the medicine as described above, increasing each dose by half a daogui, an ancient unit for a very small quantity, until the illness has passed.

For everyday use, place nine daogui of the powdered medicine in a crimson pouch and wear it on your person: men on the left, women on the right. For children, tie it on the head to ward off miasma, toxic vapors, and epidemics. When a child is ill, the medicine may also be mixed with bitter vinegar, an ancient kind of vinegar, and spread on a piece of paper about one square cun in size. Apply the paper to the child’s chest or abdomen so the medicine rests against the body.

Some people who have stopped breathing can be revived by taking this medicine, even after two days in winter or one day in summer, provided it can be made to enter the stomach. If it cannot enter the stomach, they cannot be revived. If goldstone and magnetite are added to the medicine, taking it will certainly induce vomiting and diarrhea within five doses; these symptoms will then settle on their own.

Begin with a dose about the size of a small bean, then gradually reduce it; do not increase it again. For severe wind disorders and malignant leprosy, the medicine may be taken twenty times. The same applies to hemiplegic wind, joint disorders, various severe wind disorders, epilepsy, and similar conditions. Most other serious illnesses usually require only one or two doses. Adjust the amount according to the severity of the patient’s illness and the strength of their constitution; do not give too much.

To relieve discomfort caused by the medicine, cook fatty pork until tender and eat it. After taking the medicine, one may sometimes experience a slight headache and a warm sensation in the body. For a day or two, food may seem to have little taste; this gradually passes, and after five days one can eat normally. If the medicine greatly increases the appetite and one eats too much, moderate the amount. If the chest or abdomen feels unsettled after taking it, or the mind feels disturbed, boil a decoction of Mu Fangji and drink it; the symptoms will then subside.

The text gives two explanations of the measure called a “daogui”: one says it is the quantity of six millet grains, and the other, the quantity of three small beans.

How to Make an Earthen Pot

Take two earthenware basins, each holding about two dou. Coat the inside of each with gan-tu, a suitably sticky clay, and let them dry thoroughly. Another method is to make one earthenware pot and one iron pot, each holding about nine sheng, with the earthenware pot above and the iron pot below. The pots may be made larger or smaller according to the quantity of medicine; there is no need to follow the dimensions given here exactly.

Another book also records this method: crush and sift fine gan-tu, then add water and knead it into clay with the consistency used for shaping pottery. Wrap each sheng of clay in fine paper and tamp it down to make a pot that can hold ten jin; the size can also be adjusted according to the quantity of medicine. Dry it in the shade for thirty days, then leave it in the sun for thirty days, turning it morning and evening so that it dries thoroughly. The text next says, “When dry, put five shi of bran into the pot,” but the passage that follows is not included.

Place the cauldron in the chaff and bank earth around it on all sides, so that the chaff surrounds it completely. Cover it above and below with layers seven inches thick. Build a fire beneath it and keep it burning for five days and five nights. Do not let anyone approach. After it has cooled for one day and one night, take it out and wipe it clean. Mix litharge (lead oxide) with vinegar until it is thin and porridge-like, then coat the inside of the cauldron to a thickness of about one fen. Put the medicines inside afterward.

This cauldron is used to prepare the Nine Elixirs, the Eight Minerals, Soul-Summoning, the Great Purity, and other great elixirs for becoming an immortal. Even after ten thousand repeated uses, the coating will not come off. Discard the Six-and-One clay (sealing clay made from several minerals) and iron cauldrons used in the old method; do not use them again. A single cauldron made this way can be used dozens of times without damage, and the longer it is used, the stronger it becomes. This method was originally a secret that my master guarded closely. I hope that Dao learners throughout the world in later generations will understand it, so I have recorded it in detail.

How to Make Six-and-One Clay

Two ounces each of red halloysite, oyster shell, talc, arsenic-bearing stone, yellow alum, salt-bearing earth, and earthworm castings.

Use as much vinegar as needed. If salt-bearing earth is unavailable, use salt instead.

First prepare clay from sweet earth. Wrap each of the five minerals listed above separately in it, forming lumps of clay, and make sure no vapor can escape. Firing them for three days is best, though one day will also do. Take them out, break open the clay lumps, and pound the medicines inside separately. Sift them through silk. Then mix them in equal quantities with the earthworm castings and salt-bearing earth, and use vinegar to make a thick, porridge-like paste. If the vinegar is of good quality, mix two parts vinegar with one part water. Take the earthenware basin used earlier and coat it with this clay.

For blue-green copper ore, the best kind resembles earthworm castings in shape and coptis root in color. If this material is scarce, use fine Kunlun green ore (a mineral name) instead, though it is somewhat less effective. If cinnabar is also scarce, millet cinnabar may be used in its place. The old method did not use lodestone or gold teeth; these are now added to treat various severe wind disorders, with very good results. Anyone who has been ill for many years and has not recovered despite prolonged treatment should prepare this formula. All these procedures should be carried out on a Wangxiang day (a day considered auspicious in traditional divination) when the weather is clear. Fast and bathe, then prepare the mixture according to the rules.

Supplement

In ancient times, immortals used this method to help people and deliberately kept it strictly secret. During the Daye era, I prepared it several times, but had difficulty obtaining realgar and blue-green copper ore. Later, in Shu, I found realgar at a very low price, and obtained large quantities of blue-green copper ore around Feiwu and Xuanwu. People in Shu did not recognize this mineral. To identify it now, simply learn to recognize it; any size will do. It need only be shaped like earthworm castings…

This is the method described earlier. A medicine so precious that even a thousand pieces of gold could not buy it was later compounded into a cauldron at the Wei family’s home in Shu County. Its effects in treating illness were wondrous beyond words. People suffering for years from chronic ailments and pathogenic wind were cured after taking it for a hundred days. I have therefore written this preface to record it.

All realgar must be fried in oil for nine days and nine nights before it is added to an elixir. Otherwise it is poisonous, so never use it raw. Elixirs are inherently prone to causing heat and toxicity; if taken improperly, they can become intolerable. Great care is essential.

Cang Gong Powder: Used to treat conditions that suddenly arise, such as “ghost strike,” “ghost numbness,” and “ghost stinging.” These include pain in the chest and abdomen as if pricked by needles; fainting and loss of consciousness after vomiting blood; nightmares or oppression during sleep; bites to the heel that go unfelt; and various illnesses caused by pernicious, toxic influences. The note on the formula’s name says it was devised by Chunyu Yi, the Grand Granary official during the reign of Emperor Wen of Han, and was named after him.

Ingredients: special arsenolite, Chinese honey locust, realgar, and hellebore, in equal quantities.

Grind the four ingredients into a fine powder and sift it. Take a portion about the size of a soybean, place it in a tube, and blow it into the patient’s nostril. If the patient sneezes, this shows that the breath is flowing freely, and the patient will regain consciousness. If there is no sneeze, blow in a little more, repeating until the patient sneezes. The source claims that this medicine can bring the dead back to life.

Small Golden Tooth Powder: Used to treat southern miasma, epidemic disease, weakness in the legs, pathogenic wind, and so-called “ghost infestation”—illnesses that people in ancient times believed were caused by the intrusion of ghosts.

Ingredients: gold tooth, five fen; realgar, Tokoro vine, baical skullcap, Sichuan pepper, youba root, cassia bark, Chinese wolfsbane, Chinese aconite, cinnabar, musk, and aconite, two fen each; bezoar, one fen; one centipede six cun long; Chinese wild ginger, fragrant Solomon’s seal, rhinoceros horn, and dried ginger, three fen each; Chinese goldthread, four fen.

Grind the nineteen ingredients into a fine powder. Separately pound together the bezoar and musk, then pound the mixture a total of three thousand times. Take it with warm wine, five to seven qian per dose, three times during the day and twice at night, continuing until the illness responds. The powder may also be put in a red pouch and worn: men on the left, women on the right. Another instruction says to take one level square-inch spoonful each time. When visiting the sick or offering condolences to bereaved parents, one need not avoid traveling at night. When traveling and meeting people on the road, or in the mist and dew of dawn or dusk, apply the medicine inside the nose and to the philtrum.

Large Golden Tooth Powder: Used to treat various forms of “gu poisoning,” “hundred infestations”—a range of illnesses that people in ancient times attributed to the intrusion of ghosts—and illnesses regarded as inauspicious, including conditions that even doctors could not cure.

Ingredients: gold tooth, crane bone, and gypsum, eight fen each; blister beetle, seven fen; huo cao seed, swallow droppings, white atractylodes, thunder ball, and dragon tooth, six fen each; the nose of a bronze mirror, gardenia seed, dried lacquer, tortoise shell, softshell turtle shell, ghost courier, peach bark, and rhubarb, four fen each; cassia bark. The source breaks off here; the remaining ingredients and directions are not preserved.

Peony root, Cynanchum paniculatum, antelope horn;

Belamcanda rhizome, Cimicifuga rhizome, and iris;

“Horse-eye toxic root,” wasp nest, and Asarum;

dried ginger, mirabilite, and “Youba”;

rhinoceros horn, licorice root, and Langdu;

dung beetle, gentian, and “wolf’s tooth”;

realgar and pearl (three fen each); lilac daphne;

poisonous star anise, arrow poison, and smoked plum (one fen each);

snake slough (one chi), iron essence, and red adzuki beans (one he each);

ground beetles, Chinese blister beetles, and blister beetles (seven of each);

peach seed gall and croton seeds (twenty-eight of each).

Grind these fifty medicinal ingredients into a fine powder. Take one dao-gui measure (a small portion held by an ancient measuring implement), gradually increasing the dose to two dao-gui measures. Carrying this medicine on one’s person can ward off various malevolent influences and treat the ninety-nine kinds of “zhu” (a category of chronic or contagious illness in ancient belief). Another record includes musk and omits white atractylodes.

Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand in Gold for Emergencies, juan 39.