《孫真人備急千金要方》Vol. 51

Essential Formulas Worth a Thousand Gold Pieces for Emergencies by Master Sun (Sun Zhenren), juan 51, Formulas for the Spleen Viscera

Ninth: Dampness-Related Dysentery of Malnutrition

The text says that illnesses of the dampness-related malnutrition type often arise from eating too much rich, greasy food during hot weather, then seeking coolness while sleeping. The Book of Rites says that in midsummer one should eat lightly and avoid rich foods and fried or boiled cakes, since these foods are unsuitable for the body at that time. Those who cultivate health should take particular care; otherwise, they are prone to dampness-related dysentery of malnutrition.

Sores caused by malnutrition may develop on the gums, in the throat, or in the lower part of the body. They may also appear as ulcerations resembling “lunar eclipse” sores. The affected areas are usually painless, so patients may not notice them. The text records that one may burn to ash any one of the following: a toad collected on the fifth day of the fifth month, Artemisia plant, “moon-rescue” wood, or sediment from the water used to soak grains during the Cold Food Festival. Mix the ash with cured pig fat and apply it to the affected area; it is said to heal quickly. During treatment, take particular care with diet.

When suffering from malnutrition, avoid salt, soy sauce, vinegar, butter, dates, and similar foods. Plain rice, fermented beans, alfalfa, bitter lettuce, and turnips are not prohibited.

When blowing medicine into the lower part of the body, insert the bamboo tube only about a finger’s depth, and no farther.

Formula for Dampness-Related Malnutrition with Blackening of the Lower Part of the Body, When Treatment Has Failed and the Condition Is Critical

Take skull ash, realgar, cinnabar, indigo, rock salt, cloves, musk, alum, gardenia fruit, henbane seeds, iron scale, dried ginger, ash from an old shoe sole, a dried toad from the fifth day of the fifth month, asarum, root of the Chinese snake gourd, mustard seeds, Sichuan pepper, field pennycress seeds, and calamus—twenty ingredients in all. Grind them in equal amounts into a fine powder, sift, and set aside. Use a bamboo tube to blow the powder onto the affected area; leave an opening about the size of an almond at the tube’s tip. Grind the cloves and musk separately before mixing them with the other powders. Another version of the formula adds sediment from the water used to soak grains during the Cold Food Festival, “moon-rescue” wood, and Chinese catalpa leaves, making twenty-three ingredients in all.

If the condition is severe, use the following formula for administering medicine by enema.

Take three fen each of musk, cloves, licorice, and rhinoceros horn. Grind the four ingredients into a fine powder, mix, and set aside. Separately, take three he of salt, three he of Sichuan pepper, and two he of fermented beans. Add two sheng of water and boil down to one sheng. Strain out the dregs, add the powder prepared earlier, and mix well. Divide into two doses: administer one in the morning and the other in the evening.

For chronic diarrhea that does not improve after a month, when symptoms of gan disease (an ancient term for chronic illness, debility, and related conditions) appear and the anus becomes enlarged, treat it with this formula.

Use Eight-Ingredient Madder-Root Decoction to treat it. The ancients classified blood in the stool as “gu” (an ancient term for certain parasitic diseases or mysterious illnesses); this formula is used to treat it. (The formula appears earlier.)

(From the “Gu” chapter)

A formula for gan dampness, chronic diarrhea, and red-and-white dysentery that has resisted every treatment:

Rabbit skull, snake head, seeds of shepherd’s purse mustard, old crimson cloth (burn these together to ash), semen lepidii, raccoon bone (some say fox bone), dung beetle, “hundred herbs” (gathered on the fifth day of the fifth month), hanging herb, indigo, late-season silkworm moths, green vitriol, cloves, the crossbar of a bed, scorpion droppings, musk, sophora root, phellodendron bark, dried ginger, horned poppy, cinnabar, molded salt, “moon-saving wood,” cassia heartwood, iron rust, mirabilite, toad, yellow vitriol, and perilla seeds, in equal parts.

Grind these twenty-nine ingredients into a fine powder. Use a tube to introduce and blow the powder into the anus once or twice daily. It is highly effective.

A formula for gan dampness accompanied by inability to eat, heaviness in the body, heat in the heart, cold feet, and pain in the joints throughout the body:

Scutellaria root, peony, sophora root, licorice, Chinese angelica, Sichuan pepper, spikenard (some say fermented grain sediment), indigo, orpiment, and fermented black beans, two liang each; roots of a peach tree growing eastward and scallion whites, one handful each; salt, one ge; musk, half a fen; and two pig’s gallbladders.

Cut the fifteen ingredients into pieces and boil them in one dou and eight sheng of water until reduced to four sheng. Divide the decoction into two portions. Administer one portion as an enema, warmed to body temperature. Then add the musk and one pig’s gallbladder, and administer it as well. After the enema, eat scallion-and-black-bean porridge. The next day, administer the other portion in the same way. For seven days, avoid raw, cold, and toxic foods. Avoid oily foods, sauces, dairy products, and vinegar for thirty days; this is best.

A secret formula for gan erosion (an ancient category of destructive, eroding illness) and red bloody dysentery occurring in various parts of the body that has not improved after prolonged treatment:

Dried toad (gathered on the fifth day of the fifth month; take one and burn it to ash, then grind it into powder), human feces ash (some say hair ash), and gold-and-silver earthenware pots, five liang each; musk, one fen. [The original text ends here.]

Silver filings, an amount the size of a small bean.

Grind the five ingredients above into powder and sift it. Apply it to the sore, and it will take effect immediately. Observe the dietary restrictions mentioned earlier and avoid the prohibited foods for twenty-one days. For someone with dysentery, blow the powder into the anus.

A prescription for persistent dysentery caused by intestinal parasites

Ku Shen (Sophora root) and Gan Cao (licorice root), two liang each; fermented soybeans, one and a half sheng; white scallion stalks, five; Sichuan peppercorns, thirty.

First grind and sift the Ku Shen, Gan Cao, and smoked sulfur separately. Boil the scallion stalks, fermented soybeans, and Sichuan peppercorns in five sheng of water until three sheng remain. Take a three-finger pinch of Ku Shen powder, along with a pinch each of Gan Cao powder and smoked sulfur powder, and add them to the liquid. When it has cooled to a suitable temperature, first drink a little of the fermented soybean broth, then eat a mouthful of rice. Lie on your side and slowly administer the liquid into the anus. Afterward, remain lying down as long as possible without expelling it. If you cannot hold it in, pass it onto clean ground. If you see intestinal worms—an ancient term for the parasites or pathogenic agents associated with this illness—that look like white horsehair with black heads, this indicates that the prescription is working.

For severe cases in which the anus is swollen and the illness difficult to cure, take a peach branch, wrap cotton around its tip, and dip it in the liquid described above. When it is at a suitable temperature, apply it as a warm compress to the affected area, close to the back. Apply the compress thirty times each session, and the condition will be cured; the effect is said to be miraculous.

Another prescription

Cui says that in the Jin region, three kinds of intestinal parasites often attacked people’s internal organs. In severe cases, the spine could even be seen, and pus and blood were discharged. Patients suffered pain and irritation in their hands and feet, weakness in their limbs, and restlessness when lying down at night. They also lost blood, grew sallow, experienced pain in the shoulders and thighs, and developed swelling in the face, hands, and feet. Sometimes they passed blood in their stool, and they could even die. The prescription for treating this is as follows:

Realgar and Qing Xiang (Celosia seed), two liang each; Ku Shen, three liang; alum, orpiment, iron scale, and Li Lu (veratrum), one liang each; musk, two fen, ground separately into a fine powder.

Grind the eight ingredients into powder and sift it. Use a bamboo tube to blow the powder deep into the anus. For an adult, use an amount the size of a date pit once a day, no more than three times in total. For a child, use an amount the size of a soybean. This prescription is said to save patients in critical condition.

Yet another prescription

Hemp seeds and sesame seeds, one and a half sheng each.

Fry the two kinds of seeds together until yellow. Take a clay bottle with a capacity of three sheng and coat its outside thickly with an inch of clay. Once the clay is dry, fill the bottle with the seeds, insert four or five reed tubes into its mouth, and seal it tightly with clay. Dig a pit to make a stove, then invert the bottle over the stove opening and place a pottery vessel beneath it to catch what drains out. Pack the stove opening tightly so the ground is level, then pile charcoal around the bottle and enclose it with bricks. Light the fire after sunset and burn it until the following morning, then open it and take out…

For treating dampness and sores with a warm or cold medicinal enema, introduce one he of the liquid into the lower bowel. Soon afterward, sensing the medicinal vapors in the throat is a favorable response, but do not use too much, as an excessive amount can cause harm. Give an enema every other day. For more severe cases, give two or three additional enemas. If the person feels extremely weak from morning until evening after an enema, there is no need to be surprised. This method is used not only to treat dampness and sores; it can also be used to wash or apply medicine to various hard-to-diagnose ulcers, scabies, and ringworm.

The Treatise says: During an eclipse of the sun or moon, people must abstain from food and drink. Otherwise, worms will grow in the abdomen. If a couple has sex at that time, their child may be underdeveloped and will certainly suffer from “lunar-eclipse sores,” a type of severe ulcer described by the ancients. Children must not be nursed during an eclipse either. Once the eclipse has passed, these restrictions no longer apply. Bad breath, receding gums that expose the teeth, frequent bleeding, and sores on the tongue were all said to result from violating these taboos. During an eclipse, people must make an effort to rescue the sun or moon; if they do not, they will encounter a violent rainstorm when they go out. Keep the staff used to rescue the moon in storage: it is a miraculous remedy for worm diseases. Prepare it in advance so it can be used to treat those who fall ill.

Remedy for Severe Lunar-Eclipse Sores and Polyps

Sulfur, lüru, and blister beetles, in equal amounts.

Grind these three ingredients into a fine powder and apply it to the sore. If the affected area is dry, mix the powder with pork fat before applying it. Apply it three times during the day and once at night.

Another Remedy

Roots of diyu, rose, and Wu zhuyu.

Take three liang of each ingredient and grind them into a fine powder. First wash the sore with salt water, then apply the medicine three times a day.

Tenth: Dysentery in Children (Remedies)

Warming the Middle Decoction: This treats cases in which children become chilled and cold accumulates in the summer—for example, from bathing too often, or from a wet nurse bathing in cold water and then feeding the child cold milk; or when a child who is already hot-bodied is suddenly chilled by a heavy rainstorm. If the child has watery diarrhea, weak Stomach Qi, a bluish complexion, cold flesh, sunken eyes, or dry retching, first administer this remedy to regulate the Stomach Qi, and the diarrhea will stop.

One fen each of dried ginger and magnolia bark; three fen each of Chinese angelica, cinnamon bark, and licorice; two fen each of ginseng, poria, white atractylodes, and balloon flower root.

Cut the nine ingredients into pieces, add two sheng of water, and boil until nine he remain. For infants aged sixty to one hundred days, give two and a half he per dose. For children of other ages, adjust the dose according to their age.

Warming the Middle with Rhubarb Decoction: This treats children who are suddenly chilled and then pass water and food together in their diarrhea, or develop diarrhea after drinking cold milk, passing green, clumped, undigested stools. It also treats cold stagnation, vomiting and diarrhea, dry retching and distress, as well as red… caused by cold stagnation.

When there is dysentery with white stools—or stools mixed with red and white—this formula is preferable. If purgatives have already been taken, the excess pathogenic factor may have been cleared, but the Stomach has become weak and cold, causing watery diarrhea, dry retching, sunken eyes, and agitation. In this situation, further purgation is unsuitable, and Rhubarb should be omitted.

If a nursing mother feeds her child after bathing while moisture from the bath still clings to her body, the child may develop cholera—a term used in ancient texts for illnesses involving vomiting and diarrhea. In this case, use Rhubarb alone. When a child has cholera and genuinely needs purgation, use Rhubarb; when purgation is unnecessary and gentle treatment is appropriate, omit it.

Formula ingredients:

Rhubarb, six fen; Cinnamon bark, Magnolia bark, Licorice, and dried Ginger, one fen each; Ginseng, Poria, Atractylodes, and Chinese Angelica, two fen each; Platycodon, three fen.

Boil the ten ingredients in two and a half sheng of water and reduce to eight ge. For children aged thirty to sixty days, give two ge per dose; for those aged seventy to one hundred days, two and a half ge; for those over two hundred days, three ge.

Phellodendron Decoction: Treats children who are suddenly exposed to cold in summer. The cold pathogen blocks the body’s intense internal heat, and the heat enters the Stomach, causing diarrhea with stools mixed with red and white, stool resembling fish brain, high fever, headache, warmth of the body, and vexing heat in the hands and feet. The explanation is that the Qi of the Taiyang channel is attacked by external cold, and heat consequently enters the Stomach. This formula is suitable.

If purgatives are mistakenly used, or the Spleen is purged with a warming decoction, the condition will worsen. If frequent discharge of red fluid resembling decayed flesh follows purgation, or the illness does not improve after purgation, astringent, mildly warming medicines should be used to stop the diarrhea. If the diarrhea continues and the high fever grows worse, this formula will be effective. It is also suitable for a febrile illness with intense heat when sudden exposure to cold drives the heat inward into the abdomen, causing bloody stools or stools resembling fish brain.

Formula ingredients:

Phellodendron bark, Coptis, Cimicifuga, Bai Tou Weng (also given as Bai Lian), Chinese Angelica, Oyster Shell, Pomegranate Peel, Scutellaria, Parasitic Mistletoe, and Licorice, two fen each; Rhinoceros Horn and Mugwort Leaf, one fen each.

Cut the twelve ingredients into pieces, boil them in three sheng of water, and reduce to one sheng and two ge. For children aged one hundred to two hundred days, give three ge per dose; for those over two hundred days up to one year old, three and a half ge.

Zhongjie Colon Pill: Treats cold congealing in the colon, with diarrhea containing red, white, and green matter; stools resembling fish brain; prolapse of the anus; an illness lasting many days; and persistent abdominal pain.

Red Halloysite, five fen; Evodia, three fen; dried Ginger … (The source text ends here; the remainder is missing.)

Grind aconite, dong quai, magnolia bark, atractylodes, magnolia bark, white-headed wormwood, coptis, pomegranate rind, and amur corktree bark into a fine powder. Use honey to make pills the size of soybeans. Give a two-year-old five pills per dose, a child over three ten pills, and a child over ten twenty pills. For sudden diarrhea, a small dose will bring relief; for diarrhea that has persisted for a long time, prepare and administer a second batch after the first is finished.

Gardenia Pills: For Persistent Heat Dysentery in Children

Take seven gardenia fruits, four jujubes (roasted until black), three fen of amur corktree bark, five fen of coptis, and four fen of alum. Grind into a fine powder and use honey to make pills the size of small beans. Give five pills per dose, three times during the day and twice at night. If they have no effect, gradually increase the dose to ten pills.

Veratrum Pills: For Watery Diarrhea in Children

Take two fen each of veratrum and coptis, and one fen of aconite. Grind into a fine powder and use honey to make pills the size of hemp seeds. Give two pills with rice porridge liquid; they should take effect quickly.

Four-Grain Soup: For Persistent Diarrhea in Children

Take three sheng each of broomcorn millet, rice, and millet, along with a piece of wax the size of a pellet. First, boil the broomcorn millet in five sheng of water. After it comes to a boil three times, strain out the grains. Then cook the rice in the millet broth; after it boils three times, strain out the grains. Finally, cook the millet in the broth; after it boils three times, strain out the grains. Add the wax to the broth and stir. Once the wax has melted, give the broth to the child to drink. The original text says this method has been tried many times and proven effective.

Dragon Bone Decoction: For High Fever, Excessive Thirst, and Diarrhea in Children

Take two liang each of dragon bone, licorice, rhubarb, red halloysite, trichosanthes root, gypsum, cold-water stone, and cinnamon bark. Process the ingredients into a coarse powder and sift. Take two ge of the powder, decoct it with five ge each of wine and water, and strain out the dregs after it has boiled twice. Adjust the dose according to the child’s age and build.

Rhubarb Decoction: For Diarrhea and Fever in Children with Loss of Appetite, or Illness from Overeating or Improper Feeding

Take one liang each of rhubarb, licorice, and ophiopogon, and cut them into pieces. Decoct in two sheng of water until one sheng of liquid remains. Give a child aged two or three the dose in three or four portions.

Fresh Gold and Coptis Decoction

Used to treat persistent diarrhea in children that leads to seizures. The original text gives only the formula’s name and provides neither its ingredients nor instructions for use.

Native gold (three zhu; another version of the formula uses six zhu. If native gold is unavailable, refined gold may also be used. In principle, the gold should be made into small flakes, but the medicinal gold in the formula book appears to have been made into implements); bovine bezoar (three zhu); ephedra (two fen); coptis; dried ginger, ginseng, and licorice (one fen each); asarum (half a fen).

Coarsely chop the eight ingredients. Boil them in one sheng and six ge of water until reduced to eight ge, then strain out the dregs. Just before administering the medicine, grind the bovine bezoar and stir it into the prepared decoction. If you are concerned that the child may become too hot after taking it, dried ginger may be replaced with fresh ginger. The native gold mentioned today may simply be gold made into an implement; two or three liang may be used.

Zeqi and Evodia Decoction: Treats children who are suddenly exposed to cold in summer. The cold enters the stomach, causing sudden diarrhea with watery stools. After the limbs are chilled, they become stiff and uncomfortable; a high fever follows and persists for many days. After about a month, the illness changes again: the whole body becomes swollen, with abdominal pain and a fine, weak pulse. After one dose of this decoction, the diarrhea gradually lessens and the child’s spirits slowly settle.

Zeqi, Qingmu xiang, and seaweed (two fen each); Evodia fruit, poria, atractylodes, platycodon, peony, and Chinese angelica (three fen each); rhubarb (one fen).

Coarsely chop the ten ingredients. Boil them in four sheng of water until reduced to one sheng and five ge. For children aged two hundred days to one year, give two and a half ge per dose; for children aged one to under two years, give four ge per dose.

Immature Bitter Orange Powder: For children with persistent diarrhea, incomplete bowel movements, shapeless stools mixed with water, and weakness so severe that they cannot tolerate a stronger decoction, use this formula.

Grind two liang of immature bitter orange into a fine powder. For children over three years old, give one square-inch spoonful per dose; for younger children, reduce the amount as appropriate. Give three doses a day.

Formula for Treating Profuse, Sudden Diarrhea in Children (“profuse, sudden diarrhea” means a large flow of watery stools):

Take two sheng of tribulus fruit, pound it to extract the juice, and serve warm until the illness is cured.

Another formula: Take and drink quince juice.

Another formula: Burn sour pomegranate to ash and grind it into powder. Give half a qian-inch spoonful per dose, three times a day.

Another formula: Roast granary rice, grind it into powder, mix with water, and administer.

Another formula: Burn a dog’s skull to ash and mix it with water for administration.

Another formula: Use sheep-bone ash or deer-bone ash. Mix either with water for administration; use whichever is available.

Another formula: Dry-fry fermented soybeans until scorched, pour water over them to collect the liquid, and administer it; the text says it works remarkably well. If the child has been chilled, pour wine over the beans instead and administer the liquid.

Another formula: On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, gather a hundred kinds of herbs, pound them into powder, and blow the powder into the anus.

For treating red-and-white dysentery in children (diarrhea mixed with pus, blood, or mucus):

Take one handful of Chinese chives and one sheng of fermented soybeans. Add three sheng of water and simmer until two sheng remain. Divide into three doses.

Another remedy: Take one sheng each of arborvitae leaves and hemp-seed powder. Add five sheng of water and bring to a boil three times. For an infant one hundred days old, give three he each time.

Another remedy: Crush a pomegranate and take its juice.

Another remedy: Burn the bony base of an ox horn to ash, mix it with water, and take it. The dose is three square-inch spoons, an ancient measure for powdered medicine, about one spoonful.

Another remedy: Burn a wasp nest to ash, mix it with water, and take it.

Another remedy: Mix equal parts ash from burnt hair and ash from deer antlers. For a three-year-old child, mix three qian-spoons with water and give for seven days.

For treating red-and-white dysentery in children:

Take five he each of white ginger-lily root juice and fresh Rehmannia juice. Warm over a low flame until it comes to a boil once, then give it.

A simple remedy: Give one he of fresh Rehmannia juice.

Another remedy: Burn a toad collected on the fifth day of the fifth month to ash. Give half a qian-spoon each time, with water.

For treating heat-type dysentery in children:

Boil Chinese quince leaves and drink the resulting liquid.

For treating cold-type dysentery in children:

Crush water pepper leaves to extract the juice, and give an amount suited to the child’s age and size. Another account recommends mustard greens.

Another remedy: Crush garlic and apply it to the soles of both feet.

For treating sudden-onset diarrhea in children:

Burn a small crucian carp to ash, grind it into powder, and take it. This may also be used for adults.

Another remedy: Burn carp bones to ash, grind them into powder, and take it. Another account recommends dragon bone, a term used in antiquity usually for fossilized bones of large mammals.

Another remedy: Mix azuki bean powder with wine and apply it to the soles of the feet three times a day. It may also be mixed with oil.

For treating gu-poison dysentery in children, which the ancients believed was caused by gu poison:

Take one sheng and two he of indigo plant juice, divided into four doses.

For treating thirst-associated diarrhea in children:

Crush a winter melon to extract the juice and drink it.