《孫真人備急千金要方》Vol. 71

Essential Formulas for Emergencies Worth a Thousand Gold Pieces by Master Sun (Sun Zhenren Beiji Qianjin Yaofang), Scroll 71

The Five Types of Hemorrhoids, Third Section (one treatise, twenty-six formulas, two moxibustion methods)

The treatise says that the five types of hemorrhoids are called male hemorrhoids, female hemorrhoids, vessel hemorrhoids, intestinal hemorrhoids, and blood hemorrhoids.

Male hemorrhoids are fleshy growths around the anus, resembling a mouse’s nipple. They often rupture and discharge pus and blood. Female hemorrhoids cause swelling and pain at the anus, where sores develop. Vessel hemorrhoids are sores around the anus that itch and hurt. Intestinal hemorrhoids are hard lumps around the anus; when they hurt, they may also cause chills and fever. Blood hemorrhoids cause bright-red blood to pass with the stool, soiling the clothes.

Among the five types there is also Qi hemorrhoid. It flares up with changes between cold and hot weather, or after exertion or exposure to dampness. It can be treated with snake slough.

Male hemorrhoids form fleshy growths inside the anus, resembling an infant’s nipple. They sometimes protrude outside and obstruct bowel movements; they can be treated with turtle shell. Female hemorrhoids—called “wine hemorrhoids” in the Collected Formulas—grow from inside the anus and swell outward. After five or six days they rupture on their own and discharge pus and blood; they can be treated with hedgehog skin. Intestinal hemorrhoids protrude during bowel movements and take a long time to retract; they can be treated with the hanging hoof of the left hind foot of a sow. Vessel hemorrhoids discharge clear blood during bowel movements; they can be treated with a wasp nest.

Grind these five ingredients separately into fine powder and mix them in equal parts. Then, according to the condition, double the ingredient that treats it, making that ingredient three parts. Each morning, take half a square-inch spoonful with well water (an ancient measure of roughly a small spoonful). For severe cases, take it once in the morning and once in the evening; it may also be taken four or five times. While taking the medicine, avoid raw and cold foods, pork, raw fish, and raw vegetables, and abstain from sexual intercourse. Only dry white meat may be eaten. After recovery, wait one hundred days before resuming sexual intercourse.

Also, insert the medicine into the anus: if there is a sore, place it in the sore; if there is no sore, insert it into the anus. Burn wild kudzu to ash, take one knife-point measure (an ancient unit, roughly a small pinch), and add it to the medicine before taking it. The medicine begins to take effect after five days; recovery may come after twenty or thirty days. While hemorrhoids are painful, also continue to avoid water shield.

Formula for Treating the Five Types of Hemorrhoids That Physicians Cannot Cure

Qin Jiao, Bai Zhi, Hou Po, Zi Shen, tangled hair, and Zi Wan, one liang each; Lei Wan and Gao Ben, two liang each; Shi Nan and Zhe Chong, one liang each; Guan Zhong, three liang; gadflies, half a sheng; and fourteen hanging hoofs from pigs’ hind feet.

Pound these thirteen ingredients together and sift them into a fine powder. Then simmer and blend them with sheep marrow fat to make pills, each about the size of …

Form the pills to the size of parasol tree seeds. Take them with water on an empty stomach, fifteen pills each time, twice a day. If the condition is severe, take an additional dose at night. After four days, itching around the anus will stop. After eight days, the pus and blood will have cleared, and the mouse nipple-like growths will also have healed. After taking the pills for a full sixty days, it is said that the condition will not recur for the rest of one’s life. Long-term use is even better. Avoid fish, pork, and similar foods.

Huai Seed Pills, pills made with huai seeds as the principal ingredient, are used to treat dry and damp hemorrhoids. This prescription may be used for hemorrhoids whether they are classified as Yin or Yang.

Huai seeds, dry lacquer, Qin jiao, and the white bark of the root of Wu Zhu Yu, four liang each; Bai Zhi, cinnamon heartwood, Huang Qin, Huang Qi, Bai Lian, oyster shell, dragon bone, Lei Wan, cloves, Mu Xiang, Tribulus, and Fu Zi, two liang each.

Grind the sixteen ingredients into a fine powder and use honey to form pills the size of parasol tree seeds. Take twenty pills each time, three times a day. The Qianjin Yifang omits Bai Lian; the prescription recorded by Shen Shi omits Huang Qi. A note following the prescription says: This formula treats severe, sudden-onset hemorrhoids, including dry, swollen, painful anus; persistent bleeding; mouse nipple-like growths attached to swollen lumps; and restlessness and itching in the intestines. Such conditions may prove fatal if they persist for three to five years. Patients should avoid alcohol and strenuous activity; breaking these restrictions will cause the condition to flare up.

Small Huai Fruit Pills are used to treat hemorrhoids that have persisted for as long as fifty years.

Three jin of huai seeds, two jin of white sugar, one jin each of alum and sulfur, and ten liang each of rhubarb, dry lacquer, and dragon bone.

Of these seven ingredients, pound and sieve four of them. Finely chop the alum and sulfur, the two mineral medicines, together with the white sugar. Place them in a copper vessel and steam it over one shi of rice. After steaming, squeeze out the liquid through cotton cloth, mix it with the powdered medicines, and shape the mixture into pills the size of parasol tree seeds. Leave them in a shaded place to dry. Take with wine, twenty pills each time, three times a day, gradually increasing the dose to thirty pills.

Huai Seed Wine is used for the conditions described above.

Two dou of huai seeds, one shi of branches from the southeast side of a huai tree, cut into pieces, and three shi of roots from the southeast side of a huai tree, also cut into pieces.

Put the three ingredients in a large pot with sixteen hu of water and boil until five hu remain. Let the liquid settle, take the clear portion, and boil it down to one shi and six dou. Pour this liquid over two hu of millet and steam until cooked. Add twenty jin of wine starter to ferment it, stir well, and seal the vessel with mud for seven days. When the wine is ready, take the clear wine and drink in moderation, keeping yourself slightly intoxicated much of the time. To make the next batch, boil the remaining medicinal ingredients again and use the liquid to wash the rice and clean the vessels; do not use plain water. The prescription specifically emphasizes this point because fresh water is forbidden.

Another prescription: Apply bear bile to the affected area to cure it. Its effects are remarkable; no other prescription can match it.

Another prescription: On the seventh day of the seventh month, gather a large quantity of pagoda tree seeds and pound them to extract their juice. Put the juice in a copper vessel, cover it tightly with thick cotton cloth, and leave it to dry in the sun for more than twenty days on a high door in the house. Once it has been boiled down into medicine, roll it into pills the size of mouse droppings and insert them into the anus three times a day. This prescription also treats fistulas and various sores.

Another prescription: Take ten liang of fresh white pagoda tree bark and pound it thoroughly. Roll it into a ball the size of a projectile, wrap it in cotton cloth, and insert it into the anus. When suffering from this illness, eat knotweed leaves regularly, or cook them in soup or porridge. This works very well.

Another prescription: Take the intestines of three carp and roast them over a fire until fragrant. Wrap them in cotton cloth and insert them into the anus. After about the time it takes to eat a meal, the worms will come out to feed on the fish intestines. Replace the intestines regularly; after using all three, the illness will be cured. Another prescription says to roast the fish intestines until fragrant and sit on them, whereupon the worms will come out. This method has indeed proved effective.

Another prescription: tiger’s head and rhinoceros horn.

Grind these two ingredients into powder and mix them with lard that has not touched water. Apply a lump the size of an egg to the sore and continue until it is cured.

Prescriptions for Treating the Five Hemorrhoids and Rectal Prolapse

Two liang of white pagoda tree bark, half a jin of lard, ten seeds each of lacquer tree and peach, seven croton seeds, half a liang each of sweet flag, magnolia flower, licorice, and angelica dahurica, and six zhu of wild kudzu.

Cut up these ten ingredients and boil them three times, letting the mixture simmer for a while after it comes to a boil each time. Strain out the herbs, dip cotton cloth into the medicinal ointment, and insert it into the affected area four or five times a day. It kills worms, cures the condition, and relieves itching and pain. It works very well.

A Prescription for Treating the Five Hemorrhoids

One piece of hedgehog skin, about three finger-widths across, cut into small pieces; mineral realgar, a quantity the size of a date, ground into powder; and moxa, a quantity the size of an egg.

Mix the three ingredients evenly. Dig a hole in the ground, put the medicine inside, and fumigate until the smoke from the realgar can be sensed in the mouth. Stop once the heat has dissipated. Rest for three days, then fumigate again; three treatments in all are enough to cure the condition completely. During this time, avoid exposure to cold and drafts. You may nourish yourself with soup, but avoid pork, chicken, and similar foods.

Another prescription: Boil pagoda tree roots in water and wash the affected area.

Another prescription: Boil peach tree roots in water and wash the affected area.

Hedgehog Skin Pills, a Prescription for Treating Hemorrhoids (also effective for fistulas)

One whole hedgehog skin, two liang each of alum, Chinese angelica, forsythia, dried ginger, aconite, teasel root, and astragalus, and three liang of pagoda tree seeds.

Dried rehmannia root (five liang).

Grind the above ten ingredients into a fine powder and form it into pills the size of wutong seeds, using honey. Take fifteen pills per dose, twice a day, gradually increasing to forty pills per dose. (The Jiyan Fang omits the alum stone and rehmannia.)

Another formula: for bengzhong (heavy vaginal bleeding in women) and hemorrhoids

Hedgehog skin, ginseng, poria, angelica dahurica (baizhi), yuyuliang (limonite), dried rehmannia root, huai'er (pagoda-tree fungus), and xuduan (dipsacus root), three liang each; pu huang (cattail pollen), astragalus, Chinese angelica, mugwort leaf, tangerine peel, bailian (ampelopsis root), and licorice, two liang each; white horse hoof (soaked in wine overnight, then stir-fried until yellow) and niujiaosai (ox-horn gill), four liang each; twenty eel heads; and twenty-one suspended pig hooves and nails (stir-fried).

Grind these nineteen ingredients into a fine powder and form it into pills the size of wutong seeds, using honey. Take twenty pills per dose with wine, twice a day, gradually increasing the dose.

Formula for hemorrhoids

Grind one jin of huai'er (also called huaihuai, a fungus that grows on pagoda trees) into a fine powder. Take one fangcun bi per dose, three times a day. (The fangcun bi was an ancient measuring spoon, roughly one square inch in size, used as a unit of dosage.)

Another formula: take pu huang with water, one fangcun bi per dose, three times a day. It is very effective. The Waitai records this formula for changjiu (intestinal hemorrhoids), in which blood is often present with each bowel movement.

Another formula: make a soup from sang er (mulberry fungus) and eat it on an empty stomach, eating until full. Continue this for three days.

Formula for bleeding hemorrhoids and persistent bleeding after childbirth

Fuzi and hao fanshi (alum stone), one liang each.

Grind these two ingredients into a fine powder and form it into pills the size of wutong seeds, using white honey. Take two pills per dose with wine, three times a day, gradually increasing the dose. Bleeding usually stops within a few days. Continuing for one hundred days is said to prevent recurrence for life. (The Cui family formula adds one liang of dried ginger.)

Formula for external hemorrhoids, also used for malignant sores, growths, and hemorrhoids

Pearl, realgar, orpiment, one liang each; bamboo shavings, three liang; and pork fat, one jin.

Grind the five ingredients into a fine powder and mix them into the pork fat. Then cut a portion of loose hair about the size of half a chicken egg, add it, and simmer facing east. Simmer three times, pausing three times between sessions, until the hair is charred black. Remove it. First wash the affected area with salt water and dry it, then apply the ointment.

Formula for pus and blood discharge from the anus and for wormholes

Take one dan of huai bai pi (pagoda-tree bark), chop it into pieces, and boil it in a pot until the medicinal flavor is fully extracted...

Set a large basin in place, fill it with water of moderate temperature, and sit in it as if bathing. The worms will all come out. When the water cools, replace it with fresh water. Two or three changes will bring about a cure.

Prescription for Itching, Pain, and Swelling Around the Anus, with a Sensation of Flesh About to Grow About One Inch Inside

Three sheng of soybeans and seven sheng of water, boiled over a high flame until four sheng remain. Three sheng of white bark of Sophora japonica. Three liang of licorice.

Decoct these three ingredients in the soybean broth until two sheng remain. Soak an old cloth in the medicinal liquid and apply it to the affected area, changing the cloth when it cools. Apply three to five times a day.

Huaipi Gao: For Anal Itching, Pain, and Hemorrhoids

Five liang each of Sophora bark and chinaberry fruit (lianshi); two liang each of licorice and angelica dahurica (baizhi); three liang of Angelica sinensis (danggui); sixty peach kernels; and two ge of red adzuki beans.

Chop the above seven ingredients finely and decoct them with one jin of rendered lard over a low flame until the angelica turns yellow. Once the salve is made, apply it to the affected area twice a day. The Shanfan (Deleting the Superfluous) also records that the ointment may be inserted into the anus.

The formula recorded in the Shanfan omits Angelica sinensis. It is used when kidney deficiency and strain, or exposure to wind after drunkenness, damage the kidneys and cause swelling, pain, and sores around the anus. The text also mentions that when attacks are brought on by exhaustion from drinking, with diarrhea, blood in the stool, and anal pain, a honeycomb salve (fengfang gao) may be used.

Prescription for Anal Pain

Stir-fry dodder seed (tusizi) until yellow-black, mix it with egg yolk, and apply it to the affected area twice a day.

Another prescription: stir-fry apricot kernels until yellow, pound them into an oily paste, and apply it to the affected area.

Prescription for Sudden Pain at the Anal Opening, as if Pecked by a Bird

Take one dou each of soybeans and adzuki beans. Mix and crush them, divide them between two bags, and steam until very hot. Sit alternately on the hot bags until cured.

Moxibustion

For long-standing hemorrhoids accompanied by bodily cold and deficiency and by bleeding from the anus, one may moxibust the middle of the spine for one hundred zhuang. (Zhuang is a unit of moxibustion measure, denoting the number of moxa cones applied at each site.)

For hemorrhoids with bleeding and incontinence, one may moxibust the Huiqi (Return of Qi) point for one hundred zhuang. This point lies above the coccyx.

Chapter Four: Scabies and Tinea

The discussion holds that for treating scabies, two liang of black-snake flesh may be added to Xiao Qinjiao San (Lesser Gentiana Powder). Adding one chi of dried black-snake meat to Huangqi Jiu (Astragalus Wine) is also very effective. The Qianjin Yifang states that adding one chi of dried black-snake meat to Astragalus Wine, and adding wutou (aconite root), fuzi (prepared aconite), yinyu (epimedium), shinan (photinia), and mangcao in equal amounts to Da Qinjiao San (Greater Gentiana Powder), also produces good results.

(The "Sixteen-Ingredient Xiaoqinjiao Powder" (Shiliu Wei Xiao Qinjiao San) for scabies and itching may also be considered equivalent to this formula. For Huangqi wine, see Volume 24.)

For all scabies and itching, grind mercury together with pig fat until extremely fine, and apply the mixture to the affected area.

A prescription for sores and scabies on the waist, hips, hands, and feet:

Pueraria root (Gualou gen) four liang, and coptis (Huanglian), white peony root (Shaoyao), rose root (Qiangwei gen), sparrow plum root bark (Que Li gen pi), and phellodendron bark (Huangbo), each three liang. Bitter ginseng (Kushen), astragalus (Huangqi), scutellaria (Huangqin), and Ranunculus sceleratus (Shi Longrui), each two liang. Rhubarb (Dahuang), angelica (Danggui), and Dipsacus root (Xuduan), each one liang.

Grind these thirteen ingredients into a powder and shape them into pills the size of wutong seeds using honey. Take twenty pills at a time with a decoction of rose, three times a day. The dose may be gradually increased to thirty pills. Stop taking it once the illness has healed. Those with dry scabies or white tinea should not take this formula. The Qianjin Yifang states that anyone suffering from carbuncles or deep abscesses should take this prescription.

A prescription for cold-heat sores, wind scabies, and various miscellaneous sores:

Thousand-year-old leek root, good alum (fanshi), realgar (xionghuang), veratrum (lilu), bitter melon stalk (guadi), and white lead (hufen), each one fen, and mercury three fen.

Among these seven ingredients, first grind the mercury in a wooden vessel of willow until it is completely dispersed. Take one sheng of pig fat, add the veratrum, leek root, and bitter melon stalk, and boil them three times. Filter out the dregs, then add the remaining ingredients and mix them evenly to make an ointment, which is applied to the affected area. The text reports that this formula is very effective. The Jiuji Fang records that this formula is also used to treat tinea sores.

Dao Ru Gao (Ointment of Dao Ru): a formula for treating all kinds of malignant sores, scabies, tinea, carbuncles, deep abscesses, fistulas, and ulcerous sores.

Dao Ru, wolf's tooth (Langya), bluish-green chaff (Qingxiang), Chinese burnet root (Diyu), veratrum (Lilu), angelica (Danggui), knotgrass (Bianxu), and sorrel root (Yangti gen), each two liang. Snake-bed seed (Shechuangzi) and Chinese bistort root (Bailian), each six fen. Fulu (Luofu) two fen.

Pound the above eleven ingredients into pieces and soak them overnight in bitter wine (in ancient times, vinegar). The next morning, add four sheng of pig fat that has been refined in advance, and simmer using the method of "three ascents and three descents," meaning bring the mixture to a boil, remove it from the fire, and repeat this three times. Once it is cooked, filter out the dregs and add the following ingredients:

Realgar (xiong huang), orpiment (ci huang), sulfur (liu huang), alum (fanshi), white lead (hufen), and pine resin (songzhi), each two liang, and mercury three liang.

Grind these seven ingredients finely until the mercury is completely dispersed, then pour them into the previously simmered ointment and stir several hundred times with ten chopsticks. Transfer the ointment into a porcelain vessel, seal it, and store it so that the medicinal vapors do not escape. When simmering the ointment, a low flame must be used; if the fire is too strong, the ointment will be unusable. When applying it, spread the ointment over the affected area.

Keep the plaster away from the eyes and genitals. First grind the realgar and other medicinals finely. Once the plaster has cooled slightly, mix it evenly and apply it.

A Formula for Jiju Ulcers and Various Sores

Mercury (shuiyin), hufen (lead powder), six fen each; huanglian and huangbo, eight fen each; jiang huang (turmeric), ten fen; fanshi (an alum-type mineral), fuzi (aconite root), kushen (sophora root), and chuangzi (cnidium seed), three fen each.

Grind the mercury and hufen separately into a paste, and reduce the remaining nine ingredients to a powder. Simmer pork fat into an ointment, then add the powdered medicinals, mixing and grinding them thoroughly. Apply to the affected area. The Qianjin Yifang omits jiang huang.

A Formula for Long-Standing Scabies and Ringworm

Cinnabar, realgar, orpiment (ciqing), washed human hair, pine resin, and white honey, one liang each; bianru (a medicinal herb), three liang; pork fat, two sheng; and fourteen croton seeds (bajiu). The Liu Juanzi formulary omits orpiment.

First simmer the hair until it has completely dissolved. Then add the pine resin and white honey, bringing the mixture to a boil and cooling it three times over. Strain out the dregs, add the powder made from the remaining ingredients, and bring to a boil once more. It is then ready to apply to the affected area. The Qianjin Yifang uses beeswax instead of honey.

Another Formula

Mercury, yushi (an arsenic-bearing mineral; some editions read fanshi), huanglian (some editions read realgar), and shechuangzi (cnidium seed), one liang each.

Grind these four ingredients into a powder and mix it with seven he of pork fat. Stir until no mercury globules can be seen, then form the ointment and apply. Another version adds one liang of lilu (veratrum), and some records include bianru.

A Formula for Various Long-Standing Sores and Scabies

Mercury, one jin; pork fat rendered in the twelfth lunar month, five jin.

Place both in an iron vessel. Build a stove and fire it continuously with horse dung for seven days and seven nights without interruption. When it has cooled, remove the ointment. The mercury remains and should be stored separately for later use. Spread the ointment on various sores, and it is said to show results quickly. The Qianjin Yifang records another method: mix mercury powder with pork fat and apply it to the affected area.

Another Formula

Ox urine and goat hoof root, five sheng each.

Soak the goat hoof root in the ox urine overnight, then remove it and dry it in the sun. Return it to the urine to soak again, repeating until all the urine has been used. Then grind the goat hoof root into a powder and apply it to various sores. The Qianjin Yifang states that the effect is improved by mixing in pork fat.

Another Formula

Pull up ten fresh aconite roots, chop them, and decoct them. Wash the affected area with the liquid, and it is said to effect a cure.

Commentary: When various sores and ringworm first appear, or when itching and pain first begin, simple folk remedies may be tried first. One may chew salt and apply it to the affected area, apply the liquid from boiled grain, or mix garlic with ink and apply the paste. (The Qianjin Yifang gives "garlic mixed with su," meaning garlic blended with ghee.) Other options are applying turmeric, sprinkling powdered zha (carp pickled in brine), or smearing on the juice of wild plum. If these fail to cure the condition, the larger formulas described earlier should be used.

Remedy for Fine Ringworm

Cnidium seed, white salt (another version reads white clay, that is, white earth), and curly dock root, one sheng each; red kudzu root, bitter ginseng, and calamus, half a jin each; coptis and mangcao, three liang each. Chop all eight ingredients, boil them in seven sheng of water, and reduce the liquid to three sheng. Once the decoction has cooled to a suitable temperature, wash the body with it. The best duration is about as long as it takes to cook a dan of rice. When the liquid has settled and become clear, warm it slightly before use. Continue for three days, then stop.

Another formula: place curly dock root on a grinding stone and grind it with bitter wine (vinegar) to make a juice, then apply it to the affected area. Before applying, scrape the area, dry it over a fire, and then apply the medicine. Repeat four or five times.

The Qianjin Yifang says: pound curly dock root and place it in a ceramic vessel, then mix it with white honey. Before use, scrape the affected area until it breaks, apply the honey-mixed medicine, and wipe it off after about as long as it takes to cook a dan of rice. Then coat the area with garlic that has aged for two years. If the skin is not broken when the area is scraped, it will not heal.

Another formula: take five sheng of curly dock root, boil it four or five times in mulberry-wood ash water, and use the liquid to wash the affected area. In all formulas that call for curly dock root, it is best to harvest it before the sun rises.

Another formula: take five jin of calamus powder, steep it in five sheng of wine in a pot, and steam it so that the medicinal flavor fully infuses the liquid. Abstain from wine for one day beforehand, then take one sheng or half a sheng at a time.

Another formula: burn dried vitex fruit, place a vessel in the middle to catch the juice that runs out from both ends, and apply it to the affected area. Before use, scrape the area until it breaks, then apply the vitex juice.

Remedy for Ringworm

Take a pancake, apply it warm to the affected area, using as many as needed, once a day. It is effective. It can also treat spreading sores, which are skin sores that extend and spread.

Another formula: clean the affected area, mix fermented soybean paste with sparrow droppings, apply it, and stop once healed. The Qianjin Yifang says to mix the paste with urine and apply that instead.

Another formula: mix mercury, elm seed, and ghee, then apply.

Another formula: at noon, pound peach leaves to extract the juice and apply it to the affected area.

This text records various practical prescriptions for treating skin diseases:

For treating wet tinea (a fungal skin infection) and ulcerative sores: Apply hemp seed oil externally, and the condition will heal within five days. For chronic tinea that doesn't heal, burn a naturally deceased snake into ashes and mix with lard for application.

Special moxibustion methods for tinea: Treatment must be performed at noon, with moxibustion applied to the affected area's shadow under sunlight. During the procedure, recite incantations mentioning worms in the tinea that must be treated at midday. Another method involves having the patient kneel facing east at sunrise on the eighth day of the eighth lunar month, holding both hands level against a door frame while applying moxibustion to the depression below the shoulder blades—three to seven cones on each side, showing results within ten days.

Pediatric tinea treatment: Crush Cnidium monnieri fruits and mix with lard for external application. For itchy skin, apply a mixture of mercury and lead powder. For whitish tinea-like itching, use three Broussonetia papyrifera fruits, one pig pancreas, one liter of salt, and one liang of alum, pounded with vinegar and applied to the body.

Treatment methods for vitiligo-like conditions: Grind cuttlefish bone with three-year-aged vinegar, first rubbing the skin red with cloth before application. Another prescription uses sulfur ground with vinegar, or aconite mixed with sulfur applied before sleep. Alternatively, crush freshly deceased dung beetles found on roads and apply after rubbing until warm, then wrap overnight. Internal consumption of Ampelopsis japonica and frankincense resin powder is also effective. The final prescription combines equal parts sulfur, orpiment, burned oak bark, and snake slough mixed with clear lacquer for thin application—pre-treat white patches by rubbing with halved croton seeds until slightly broken skin appears.

These prescriptions emphasize the direct action of topical medications, with some incorporating specific timing and application techniques, reflecting ancient physicians' meticulous observation and therapeutic experience with skin conditions.

Then apply the medicine, no more than two or three times.

Another formula: Take equal amounts of sulfur, mercury, alum stone (fanshi), and stove soot (zaomo). Pound the four ingredients, sift them through a sieve, place them in a crucible, and blend and grind them with the juice of scallion leaves. Apply the paste to the affected area before sleeping.

Jiujiang Powder: This treats vitiligo (baidianfeng) and what the ancient texts call the "two hundred and sixty kinds of great wind," a historical umbrella term for many severe skin diseases. The formula calls for dang gui (Angelica sinensis) seven fen, shinan six fen; aconite root (fuzi), dichroa flower (zhuchu), Chinese thoroughwort (qin jiao), chrysanthemum, dried ginger, saposhnikovia root, realgar, musk, cinnabar, and Spanish fly (banmao) four liang each; Sichuan pepper, forsythia, guijian yu, shichangsheng, and anemarrhena eight fen each; guijiu eleven fen; ginseng, wangbuliuxing, dendrobium, tian xiong (Chinese aconite), wutou (monkshood), duhuo, fangji, and mangcao thirteen fen each; one hundred leeches; three centipedes; and ten each of gadfly (mengchong) and blister beetles (didan).

These thirty ingredients total thirty items. Remove the legs and wings from the insect materials, roast or stir-fry everything until thoroughly cooked, and then grind the mixture into a powder. Take it with wine, one fangcun bi (a small measuring spoon of the period) twice a day. If the condition spreads to the hair and causes it to turn white, the cure takes one hundred days, and the hair will regain its black color.

Another formula: Take tian xiong three liang, bai lian (ampelopsis root) three liang, and huang qin (Scutellaria root) three liang; dried ginger four liang; fuzi one liang; and shangLu (pokeweed root) and dichroa flower one sheng each. Grind the seven ingredients fine, sift them, and take the powder with wine, five fen at a time, three times a day.

A formula for vitiligo: Take equal amounts of alum stone and sulfur, grind them into a powder, mix with vinegar, and apply to the affected area.

Another formula: At dawn, collect dew from the leaves of Chinese chives (jiu cai) by hand and apply it to the affected area. The results are very good.

Another formula: Take one ge of raw sesame oil with wine, three times a day, gradually increasing the dose until each dose reaches five ge. Avoid raw and cold foods, as well as pork, chicken, fish, and garlic. After taking it for one hundred days, with a total of five dou consumed, the condition can be cured.

Another formula: Boil luomo grass (luomo cao) to make a decoction and wash the affected area with it. Alternatively, rub the affected area until the skin breaks, then apply the white sap that seeps out.

Another formula: Treat with lime, pine resin, and wine. The full recipe appears in the final volume of this book.

Another formula: Heat snake slough until warm and rub the affected area with it several hundred times. Afterward, discard the slough in the grass.

Another formula: Take cinnamon bark, wash it with water collected from a tree hollow, grind it into a powder, mix it with saliva, and apply it to the affected area three times a day.

Another prescription: Repeatedly rub the affected area with mercury until it becomes warm. Once the mercury has disappeared, the disease will be cured, and the rubbing should stop at that point.

Another prescription: Moxa three cones (zhuang, each one a single cone of moxa) on the hollow just outside the knuckle of the middle finger of each hand. If the condition has not healed, moxa once more.

A method for treating white patches that gradually spread over the body, resembling ringworm but without open sores:

Take eel fat (manli yu zhi). First rub the affected area until it hurts, then apply the fish fat.

A method for treating purplish-red spots and moles on the skin, and for removing black moles and stains:

Dried lacquer (ganqi), orpiment (ciheng), and alum stone (fanshi), three liang each; realgar (xionghuang), five liang; fifteen croton seeds (badou); two jin of charcoal skin (tanpi).

Grind these six ingredients into a fine powder and mix it with egg white. Spread it on an old cloth, apply it to the affected area, and change the dressing twice a day.

A method for treating red spots:

Mix ink, crushed garlic, and eel blood, and apply the mixture to the affected area.

A method for treating growths, spots, and moles:

Realgar, sulfur, pearl, alum stone, croton seed, a rare herb romanized ru, and veratrum (lilu), one liang each.

Grind these seven ingredients into a fine powder and mix it into a paste with true lacquer. Dab it onto the affected area until an open sore forms. This is used to remove dark facial spots and purple skin patches. Those who cannot tolerate lacquer should not use true lacquer and may instead mix the powder with egg white.

A method for removing warts:

On the seventh day of the seventh month, take one he (a small measure) of soybeans and rub them over the wart three times. The person with the wart should plant the beans themselves at the second rain-drip point from the eastern end of the southern room's eaves. When the bean sprouts have four leaves, pour hot water over them to kill the seedlings, and the wart will heal.

Another prescription: Mix pine resin with cypress resin and apply it. Overnight, the wart will fall off.

Another prescription: Rub the wart with powdered sulfur six or seven times.

Another prescription: Burn apricot kernels until black, grind them into a paste, and apply it to the wart.

Another prescription: Rub the itchy area with lard until it bleeds slightly, and the wart will heal. The text states that this method is clearly effective, but the area should not be rubbed excessively.

Another prescription: On the fifteenth day of each month, when the moon is full, face the moon and sweep the wart twenty-one times with a broom whose handle has been worn smooth. The wart will heal.

Another prescription: Soak lime in vinegar (kujiu) for six or seven days, then drip the extracted liquid onto the wart. Once the wart rises slightly, it will fall off.

Another prescription: Apply saliva from a cow's mouth repeatedly to the wart, and it will fall off on its own.

Another prescription: Place a moxa cone (a small column of moxa wool used in moxibustion) on the wart and moxa it three times, and the wart will be removed.

Fifth Section: Malignant Great Wind (Severe Wind Disease)

One treatise and ten prescriptions.

The treatise states that malignant great wind has many types, each different from the others. When it first appears, even if the disease has already spread throughout the body, …

Leprosy patients (the disease the original refers to simply as "this illness") differ greatly in their conditions and symptoms. Some have lost their eyebrows and beards and show extensive damage across the body. Others look normal almost everywhere, with only numb, hardened patches on the limbs, abdomen, or back, and in severe cases the fingers and toes have fallen off. Some feel bitterly cold and cannot get warm even under heavy clothing, while others run a constant fever and never cool down, even briefly. Some are emaciated and withered, or lose fluids steadily from their bodies. Others have dry, itchy skin that itches to the bone; scratching sheds white flakes like bran and can open sores under the nails. Some are covered in layer upon layer of ulcers and suffer unceasing pain day and night, while others are so numb that they feel neither pain nor itch at all. Their complexions also vary, showing blue, yellow, red, white, or black tones, some glossy and others dull and dark.

Although their symptoms and appearances differ, whether the disease can be cured depends above all on the patient, not entirely on the physician. Once this illness takes hold, the patient, whether wise or foolish, is usually hard to persuade. They agree in words but do not accept the physician's instructions in their hearts. They hope only that the medicine will work and refuse to change themselves, which is why the disease is hard to treat. Recovery rests mainly on whether the patient is willing to cooperate, not on the physician and medicine alone.

I have personally treated more than six hundred patients, and about one in ten was cured. I ccared for each of them myself, so I came to understand their conditions and their responses in fine detail. When I first spoke with a patient and found that they could not communicate and would not listen to advice, I stopped treating them. Forcing treatment on such a person may harm them further, and in the end the disease is still not cured and the effort is wasted.

The Biographies of Divine Immortals (Shenxian zhuan) records dozens of people who, suffering from grave illness, took up the path to immortality. They were able to do so because they abandoned worldly entanglements and held the aspiration to withdraw from society, like Chao Fu and Xu You, the recluses of antiquity. As a result, they not only recovered from their illnesses but also turned misfortune into good fortune. Among the patients I have seen were scholar-officials and men of standing. Yet after falling ill, they remained attached to their wives and children, could not let go of them, refused to seek change within themselves, and hoped only for the medicine to take effect. If such people could cut off their indulgences and release their attachments, they might not only cure their disease but also use it as a means to cultivate the self and seek the Dao.

I once asked patients why they had fallen ill. Most of them said that in the past they had done unrighteous things, and over time had committed utterly disgraceful wrongs. Even when they verbally repented, their hearts had not truly reformed, and some still wished to continue. If someone sincerely repents, follows a teacher's guidance, and takes the medicine on schedule, how could the illness fail to be cured? In the Zhenguan era, I took a patient into the mountains and taught him to take...

Pine resin (songzhi) taken for nearly a hundred days will cause beard and eyebrows to grow. From this we can see that one must seek remedies for illness oneself and not rely solely on medicine.

Some people suffered from numbness and stiffness of the body for many years, but they were ashamed to let their wives and children see, and they told no one. Later, as the illness worsened and its symptoms and appearance became obvious, they admitted that they had suddenly fallen ill after accidentally taking medicine. All of this was self-inflicted. Even when this illness is advanced, it can still be cured if treated at its onset. Once contracted, the illness proves fatal within ten years at most, and within five or six years if the course is shorter. Yet patients often believe they will live a hundred years, which is truly lamentable.

Once one contracts this illness, one must abstain from salt and regularly take pine resin. Public and private affairs must all be set aside, relinquished as completely as one would take off one's shoes. All kinds of food must be especially avoided, and grain should be gradually cut off. One should no longer engage in worldly affairs, and should not attend celebrations or condolences, but retreat to hidden valleys and mountain crags. Living this way for a year, the illness will be cured. After recovery, one must be careful for life to restrain sexual activity; if one violates this, the illness will recur. The "auspicious and inauspicious" mentioned here carries two meanings. If one cultivates goodness after falling ill, the outcome can turn to auspiciousness; if one continues to live like a common person, disaster is certain. The causes of the illness and methods of treatment are briefly described here for later scholars to read and reflect upon.

Bean Formula for Treating Malignant Disease

Take small black beans (heidou, black soybeans) and select them by rubbing them by hand; use only those whose skins do not come off. In the third and fourth months, gather the seedlings and roots of tianxiong (Aconitum sp.) and wutou (Aconitum carmichaelii). Remove the soil without washing them with water, pound them, and press out the juice. Use this juice to soak the beans overnight, then remove them and dry them in the sun. Repeat this process seven times, and only then may the beans be taken. Begin with three beans, gradually increasing to six or seven, taken once a day. Sexual activity must be completely forbidden, and pork, fish, chicken, and garlic must also be avoided. The text says that if these conditions are observed, body hair will grow; if the taboos on the medicine are violated, the illness cannot be cured.

Qibo Shensan (Qibo's Divine Powder)

This powder treats a wide range of conditions, including yongju (suppurating carbuncles and ulcers), lai (leprosy), scabies and tinea, wind-wasting (fengwei), decay of bone and flesh, joint pain, loss of eyebrow and hair, numbness and twitching of the body, eye pain with ulceration at the corners of the eyes, deafness, worm-eaten teeth, and hemorrhoids and fistulas.

Ingredients: tianxiong, fuzi (processed aconite), yinyu (recorded as xiaocao in the Waitai Miyao), zhizhu (Rhododendron sp.), xixin (asarum), wutou, shinan, and ganjiang (dried ginger), one liang each; shujiao (Sichuan pepper), fangfeng (saposhnikovia), and changpu (acorus), two liang each; baizhu (atractylodes) and duhuo (angelica), three liang each.

Grind the thirteen ingredients above into a fine powder. Take one fangcun bi (an ancient small spoon measure) with wine, three times a day, without increasing the dose.

Langdu Powder (Wolfsbane Powder)

This powder is used to treat malignant disease. Take equal parts of langdu (wolfsbane) and qinjiao (gentian).

Grind the above two ingredients into a fine powder, sift it, and take it with wine. Each dose is one fangcun (a spoonful measured with an ancient dosing vessel), three times a day. Taking it continuously for fifty days will bring a cure.

Another prescription: refine pine resin, plunge it into cold water twenty times, and then shape it into pills with honey. Take two pills at a time, whenever hungry, three times a day. For those whose nasal bridge has already broken and fallen away, taking it for two hundred days will effect a cure. During this period one must abstain from salt, all kinds of mixed foods, and sexual activity. One may also steep tianmendong (asparagus root) in wine and take it; a course of one hundred days will cure the condition.

Lime Wine: for promoting hair growth in the eyebrows and beard, and also a prescription for dispelling great wind.

One shi of lime (dampened with water and steamed until the vapor is abundant), ten jin of refined pine resin (ground to powder), one dou and two sheng of wine yeast, and one shi of broomcorn millet.

First, stir-fry the lime in a large pot, inserting wooden sticks into the lime; stop when the sticks catch fire. Chop wolfberry (gouqi) roots, take five dou, add one shi and five sheng of water, and boil until nine dou of decoction remain; filter out the dregs. Pour the medicinal decoction over the lime three times. When the lime has settled, take the clear lime liquor. Soak the wine yeast in this liquor, judging the amount of liquid by the usual method of brewing wine. When the process is complete, seal the vessel for twenty-eight days, and only then open it to drink. While taking the wine, the body should be kept continuously smelling of alcohol, and one must avoid exposure to wind. The rice rinse and rice dregs left over from brewing must not be eaten by people, livestock, dogs, or rats; all of them must be buried deep.

This wine is brewed beginning in the ninth month and is finished by the second month. For those worried about heat in the diaphragm, take three to five mouthfuls of cold rice after drinking to settle it. For women who have been unable to eat or drink for many years, with a yellowed, emaciated complexion, and for those suffering postpartum wind-stroke, no more than one shi of this wine is needed to effect a cure. The pine resin powder should be sprinkled evenly over the rice when the first batch of ingredients is added and the rice is spread out, and the rice is added only after it has cooled. The rice must be cool; otherwise the wine will turn sour.

Prescription for treating great wind, loss of eyebrows and beard, red and white scabies, the eight winds and twelve impediments, tense sinews and vessels, limp limbs and loose joints, as well as flying corpse, lingering pathogen, edema, carbuncles and ulcers, scabies and ringworm, malignant sores, leg cramps, broken hands, dim eyes, diarrhea, phlegm-fluid, retained rheum, and cold ailments.

Wine yeast twenty-five jin, shangluo root twenty-five jin, and horse ears (as written in the original; to be chopped).

Place the above medicines in a jar and soak them in one hu of water. Steam one shi of broomcorn millet and brew it as in ordinary household winemaking, so that both the yeast and the rice are submerged in the water, adding the ingredients in three batches. After all the ingredients are added, seal the jar for twenty-eight days. When it is opened, if the yeast has floated to the surface and the wine is ripe, clarify it and take it warm: two sheng for mild illness, three sheng for severe illness. If vomiting or diarrhea occurs after the medicine takes effect, this is considered a good reaction. One should eat soft-cooked rice, along with beef, mutton, or venison.

Meat broths should avoid raw or cold foods, vinegary flavors, and sticky, slippery foods. One should also avoid eating pork, dog, chicken, fish, and other meats.

Remedies for Wind-Induced Sensations of Insects Crawling over the Body

Take one dou of salt and one dan of water, and simmer until the water is reduced by half. After it has settled and clarified, let it cool and use it for bathing. Washing three or four times is sufficient. This method is also used to treat various wind disorders.

Another remedy: wash the face with thick lye water (concentrated ash water), and results can be seen within a month.

Another remedy: soak soybeans in rice-washing water, and each morning wash the face and hair with warm water. If the grime cannot be fully removed, a small amount of wheat flour may be added. After washing, do not rinse with plain water. Do this no more than ten times.

Another remedy: take equal amounts of refined realgar and pine resin, mix them with honey, and form pills the size of wutong (parasol-tree) seeds. Take ten pills each time, three times a day. After one hundred days of use, the condition will be cured. During the course of treatment, avoid alcohol, meat, salt, and fermented soybeans (douchi).

Sun Zhenren (Sun Simiao), Beiji Qianjin Yaofang (Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand in Gold for Emergencies), juan 71.