《孫真人備急千金要方》Vol. 76

On Venomous Creatures Such as Snakes and Insects, Part Two (Discussions, Remedies, and Moxibustion)

A method for treating a snake that crawls into someone’s mouth while they are sleeping soundly after seeking cool air in hot weather, and cannot be pulled out:

Make an incision in the snake’s tail with a knife and put in three raw Sichuan peppercorns. Then wrap the tail back up. After a while, the snake will come out.

The Handy Emergency Formulas (Zhouhou Fang) says: Apply moxibustion to the snake’s tail, and it will come out. If there is no fire, use a knife to cut around the tail, severing the outer skin, then pull the snake’s skin back. The snake will come out.

A method for treating a snake that crawls into someone’s mouth or one of the body’s seven orifices:

Cut the tip of a sow’s tail and drip its blood into the patient’s mouth. The snake will come out.

Another method: Measure the patient’s middle finger and cut a piece of a three-year-old pig’s tail to the same length. Catch the pig’s blood in a vessel. Pour the blood beside the snake, then pull the snake out.

A method for treating a snake that suddenly coils around someone and will not come loose:

Pour hot water on the snake. If there is no hot water, have someone urinate on it.

A method for treating stings or bites from snakes or scorpions:

Drink the juice of wild garlic and apply the crushed pulp to the wound. The Handy Emergency Formulas says this method can treat bites from pit vipers.

Another method: Pound sunflower leaves, squeeze out the juice, and drink it.

A method for treating snakebites:

Spread human feces thickly on a piece of cloth and wrap it around the wound. It is said that this will disperse the venom.

A method for treating snake venom:

Melt wax and drip it onto the wound. If there is no improvement, melt more wax and drip it on again.

Another method: Take the grime from inside a sow’s ear and apply it to the wound. The Handy Emergency Formulas says that grime from inside a cow’s ear can also be used.

A method for treating pit viper venom:

Have a woman step over the patient three times, then sit on the patient.

Another method: Apply shewang, an ancient poison, to the swelling. Once blood flows out, the patient will recover.

Another method: Pound fresh hemp leaves together with paper mulberry leaves, squeeze out the juice with water, strain out the pulp, and soak the wound with the liquid.

Another method: Have a woman urinate on the wound.

Another method: Grind fresh ginger into powder and apply it to the wound. Replace it when it dries.

Methods for treating venom from various snakes:

Take equal amounts of realgar and dried ginger, grind them into powder, and mix the powder with shewang. Store the mixture in a bamboo tube and carry it for emergencies.

Another method: Burn fourteen chicken droppings to ash, put the ash in wine, and drink it.

Another method: Use flour to make a ring around the wound, then have a boy urinate inside the ring. Heat an iron until red-hot and put it into the urine. When it cools, heat it red-hot again and put it back in, repeating this two or three times. It is said that the patient will recover.

Another method: Grind realgar into powder and apply it to the wound, replacing it once a day.

Another remedy: Take four liang of salt and one dou of water, and bring it to a boil ten times. Once the medicinal decoction has settled, use it to soak and wash the affected area. When it cools, replace it with a fresh batch.

Another remedy: Crush purple amaranth and squeeze out the juice. Drink one sheng, then apply the remaining pulp to the sore and rinse the affected area with a little water.

Another remedy: Take the grime from a comb and roll it into a lump as thick as a finger and about one cun long. Mix it with urine and apply it to the affected area.

Another remedy: Take equal amounts of closed-bud Sichuan pepper and coriander seedlings, crush them together, and apply them. It is said that either will cure the condition.

Another remedy: Take fourteen hairs from a man’s pubic area and hold them in the mouth. Once they become moist, swallow them. This is a secret remedy.

Another remedy: Apply copper verdigris—the green corrosion that forms on copper vessels—to the sore.

Another remedy: Crush garlic, mix it with lead powder, and apply it.

Another remedy: Chew soybean leaves in the mouth and spread them on the affected area. This works very well.

Another remedy: Mix lard with deer-horn ash and apply it.

Another remedy: Heat a comb until it sweats, then use it to warm the affected area.

How to Avoid Snakes When Entering the Mountains

Take equal amounts of dried ginger, musk, and realgar.

Crush these three ingredients into a coarse powder and place it in a small red pouch to wear on your person: men should wear it on the left, women on the right. If bitten by a snake, apply the powder to the wound. The Jiyan Fang says that if musk is unavailable, it can be replaced with shewang, a poisonous plant remedy. The Jiuji Fang says the powder may also be mixed with honey into a paste and applied to the bite.

Another remedy: Burn the horn of a ram regularly, letting the smoke rise; snakes will leave.

How to Treat Lingering Pain and Itching from Venom in the Flesh After a Snakebite Wound Has Healed

Take one sheng each of garlic and wild garlic.

Pound the two ingredients together, pour hot water over them, and strain out the juice. Then pour the juice into the wound. This works very well.

How to Treat Venomous Pain After a Snakebite, as Though a Snake Fang Were Embedded

Take a piece of iron filings the size of a soybean, put it into a tube, and blow it into the wound. It is said to work very well.

Another remedy: Burn a dead rat to ash, grind it into powder, and apply it to the affected area.

How to Treat Bites from Various Snakes

Apply twenty-one moxibustion cones to the wound. If mugwort is unavailable, take a burning ember about the size of the wound and cauterize it.

How to Treat a Tiger Bite

Simmer kudzu root until the liquid is concentrated, then use it to wash the wound more than ten times. Next, pound kudzu root into powder and swallow one square-inch spoonful with kudzu-root juice. Take this five times a day; in severe cases, take it twice more during the night.

Another remedy: Roll blue cloth tightly into a cord, leaving one end loose. Set that end alight, place it in a bamboo tube, and hold the tube over the wound to smoke and warm it. The text says this works very well.

Another remedy: Boil iron to make a concentrated liquid, and use it to wash the wound.

Another remedy: Chew chestnuts and apply them to the affected area. This works very well.

How to Avoid Tigers

Whenever you enter the mountains, burn water-buffalo horn or ram’s horn. Tigers, wolves, and snakes will all flee.

The Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold says: When you encounter poisonous creatures or animals that sting, do not harbor ill will toward them or kill them casually. If you kill them rashly, they may later sting you in return, and poisoning may then be difficult to cure. You must therefore be cautious.

Treating Scorpion Stings

Scorpions are male or female. A sting from a male scorpion usually causes pain in one spot; a sting from a female may cause pain that spreads to several places. For a male scorpion sting, apply mud from the bottom of a well to the wound, replacing it when it becomes warm. For a female scorpion sting, apply mud from beneath the drainage channel of a tiled roof. If it has not rained, pour freshly drawn water down from the roof and use the mud it washes down.

Other methods include applying food caught between the teeth to the wound; sealing the wound with pig fat; applying shewang, an ancient poison; or mixing naosha, a mineral medicine, with water and spreading it on the wound. These are said to bring quick relief and healing.

Another Method for Treating Scorpion Stings

If the sting is on a hand or foot, immerse the wound in cold water, replacing the water as soon as it becomes slightly warm. If the sting is elsewhere on the body, soak an old cloth in cold water and place it over the wound; replace it when it becomes slightly warm.

Another prescription is to grind raw aconite into powder, mix it with saliva, and apply it to the wound.

Treating Poisoning from Bee Stings

Take a piece of roof tile and rub it over the wound while spitting saliva onto the wound fourteen times. Then put the tile back where it was.

Another Method for Treating Bee Stings

Take five he each of pig fat and honey, and two liang of wax. Mix the three ingredients and simmer them into a salve. Let it cool, then apply it to the wound.

Other methods include burning a beehive into powder, mixing it with an ointment or fat, and applying it; or boiling the beehive, washing the wound with the resulting liquid, then burning the hive and applying it to the wound. One may also apply clarified butter or fatty ointment, or burn cow dung to ash, mix it with bitter wine (vinegar), and apply it. Other remedies include tooth tartar, mud soaked in pure vinegar, chewed salt, fresh human urine, or earth gathered by rubbing it between the backs of the hands.

Sores Caused by Earwigs

Earwigs, small insects commonly called “pincer bugs,” are said to urinate wherever a person’s shadow passes, causing sores. When the condition begins, a sudden sharp pain appears on the body, as if pricked by an awn or stung by an insect. Tiny clusters of spots then emerge, shaped like the fruit of the prickly ash. The area around them turns red, with white pus in the center about the size of millet or foxtail millet. The patient may also feel the flesh tightening and experience chills and fever. In severe cases, the sores spread in connected patches across the waist, flanks, and chest.

The text’s treatment is to grind rhinoceros horn into powder and apply it to the affected area as soon as the condition begins, to counter the poison. Afterward, treat it according to the method for fire erysipelas, a condition involving red, swollen, hot, and painful skin. The text then continues, “In the Wude era, I…” but the provided passage ends here.

Once, I came down with this affliction. After five or six days, I felt agitated and unwell, and other treatments had brought no improvement. Later, someone taught me to draw the shape of a qiusou—a small insect commonly called a jia ban chong—on the ground, then use a small knife to remove, bit by bit, the soil from its abdomen. This was to be mixed with saliva into a paste and applied to the affected area. After two applications, I recovered. Only then did I understand that all things in the world respond to one another, though the reasons behind this are truly difficult to fathom.

Remedy for injuries caused by qiusou insect urine

Burn the beard of a male goat to ash, mix it with pork fat preserved in the twelfth lunar month, apply it to the affected area, and bandage it.

Another remedy: Crush fermented soybeans and apply them to the affected area.

Another remedy: Mix lead powder, an ancient white powder whose main ingredient is lead, with vinegar, and apply it to the affected area.

Remedies for sores and injuries caused by qiusou insect urine

Burn antler to a powder, mix it with bitter wine (vinegar), and apply it to the sore. If it is already oozing, burn a worn-out rush mat from the roadside and apply the ashes.

Another remedy: Take half a jin of the white inner bark of a pagoda tree, chop it, and soak it in two sheng of bitter wine for half a day. Scrape away the flakes of skin around the sore, then wash the affected area with the soaking liquid five or six times a day. Next, grind adzuki beans into powder, mix them with bitter wine, and apply the paste; replace it when it dries. For a child, mix the powder with water.

Another remedy: Chew barley until soft and apply it to the affected area for three consecutive days.

Another remedy: Take the soil from a swallow’s nest, mix it with pork fat, and apply it.

Another remedy: Chew pear leaves, mix them with water, and spread the mixture on the affected area; replace it when it dries.

Another remedy: Pound verbena and apply it; replace it when it dries.

Another remedy: Take soil from beneath a root on the eastern side of a Wu Zhu Yu tree, mix it with vinegar, and apply it as a poultice.

Remedies for the poison of the three kinds of shegong insects

The book says: In the south of the Yangtze River there is a poisonous shegong insect, also called duanhu or yu. It resembles a beetle (the Waizai Mijue says it is entirely black and looks like a large flying insect). At the front of its mouth is a long horn with a bent tip, shaped like the stock of a crossbow. It can turn Qi into arrows and, using the force of the water, shoot and injure people. Sometimes people can hear it making a “bi-bi” sound in the water. It must wait until the water covers its mouth before it can shoot. This insect fears geese, which can eat it.

At first, the injured person feels cold and trembles; then chills and fever alternate, and the sinews and vessels tighten, making the illness resemble both cold damage and corpse poison. The patient may lose the ability to speak. In the morning, the symptoms may ease somewhat, but by evening they often worsen, with chills and fever, agitation, and restlessness. Treatment should begin at once, within three or four days of these symptoms appearing. If treatment is delayed, the patient will die by the seventh day.

At first, there is no sore on the skin, only chills and trembling. Later, a sore develops, resembling an injury caused by qiusou insect urine or a biaozu, a severe suppurating sore. The sores caused by shegong insects are of three kinds. One kind is black in the center, like dark blue pigment, with a red ring around it, or…

A person wounded by a shegong (an imaginary venomous creature that the ancients believed lived in water, shot sand and shadows, and could injure people; also called “shadow shooter” or “water crossbow”) feels a stabbing pain, like being pricked by thorns, when the injured spot is touched. One kind develops into an ulcer; after some time, the ulcer breaks open, or the person suffers chills and fever toward evening. Another kind feels like a burn: the swelling rises suddenly and progresses rapidly. These cases are especially dangerous and may cause death within a few days. (The Beiji Fang says this illness has four forms, one of which swells suddenly and resembles a carbuncle.)

The following prescriptions treat injury from a shegong accompanied by alternating chills and fever, or by an ulcer appearing on some part of the body that differs from ordinary sores:

Take a handful of leaves of ghost-gate plant (a medicinal herb also known as eight-corner lotus), soak them in bitter wine (vinegar), pound them, and squeeze out the juice. Take one sheng each time, three times a day.

Another prescription: Take a handful of fresh stems and leaves of Sichuan pepper, remove both ends, and pound the middle portion. Add two sheng of water and boil until one sheng and seven ge remain. Drink it all at once.

Another prescription: Slice garlic and place it on the ulcer. Apply seven moxa cauterizations (one burning moxa cone counts as one cauterization).

Another prescription: Take one large centipede, roast it over a fire, and grind it into powder. Mix it evenly with vinegar and apply it to the ulcer.

Another prescription: Pound red amaranth and squeeze out the juice. Take one sheng each time, four or five times a day.

Another prescription: Take three white pieces from white chicken droppings, mix them with hot water, and apply the mixture to the poisoned area.

Another prescription: Take three liang of cimicifuga, two liang each of rhinoceros horn and black-fan root (that is, blackberry lily). Cut the three ingredients into pieces, add four sheng of water, and boil until one and a half sheng remain. Strain out the dregs and divide the liquid into two doses, taking them about as far apart as one meal. The herbs may be boiled again after the first batch is finished.

For injury from a shegong that has already developed into an ulcer: Pound mustard seeds, mix them with vinegar, and apply a thick layer to the ulcer. The pain should stop after about half a day.

Another prescription: Take the leaves of wolf-fang plant (use the root in winter), pound them, and apply a thin layer to the injured area. At the same time, drink four or five ge of the medicinal juice.

For the three kinds of ulcers caused by shegong injury: Take two liang of cimicifuga and three liang of black-fan root. Cut the two ingredients into pieces, add three sheng of water, and boil until one sheng remains. Let it cool to a suitable temperature, then drink it all. Apply the dregs to the affected area.

Five-Fragrance Powder treats poisonous vapors and malignant hard nodules (a kind of toxic sore with firm swelling beneath the skin) in the Jiangnan region, as well as sudden swelling and sores caused by shegong injury. The ingredients are four fen each of sea-snail shell, rhinoceros horn, turtle shell, cimicifuga, frankincense, black fan (that is, blackberry lily), clove, agarwood, goldthread, green-costus root, antelope horn, baical skullcap, licorice, and oyster shell; and three fen of Sichuan pepper and six fen of phellodendron bark. Combine these ingredients to make the powder.

Grind the sixteen ingredients above into a fine powder and sift it. Use it to treat Shegong poison and other poison injuries. Take one square-inch spoonful (about a small teaspoon) three times a day, mixed with water. You may also mix a little with water and wash the affected area. Mix the medicine with egg white and apply it to the swelling; replace it once it dries.

Wild-kudzu ointment treats malignant lumps caused by Shegong poison and sudden poison injuries. The ingredients are: one sheng of wild kudzu; five ge each of croton seed, aconite, and Sichuan pepper; one liang each of skimmia, azalea, aconite root, and cinnabar; and seven liang each of realgar and rhubarb.

Grind the ten ingredients above into a fine powder. Add them to three jin of lard and simmer, bringing the mixture to a boil three times and letting it rest three times. Strain out the dregs, then add the powdered cinnabar and realgar. Stir until the ointment sets. Take an amount the size of a jujube pit and rub it onto the painful area, keeping it away from the eyes. When preparing ointments of this kind, do not let pregnant women, women, children, chickens, dogs, or other domestic animals see the process. Keep the preparation area clean and quiet.

To treat sand flea poison, take two banmao beetles. Roast one and grind it to a powder, then swallow it. Burn the other until the smoke has stopped, grind it to a powder, and apply it inside the sore.

Another method: Take ten cloves of garlic, using no other ingredient. Roast them unpeeled in hot ashes until heated through, then peel them and cut off the tips. Press the hot garlic onto the affected area.

Another method: Pound musk and garlic together, mix them with mutton fat, and put the mixture in a small bamboo tube to carry with you. When needed, take some out and apply it to the sore.

Another method: Take equal parts realgar, cinnabar, and Changshan. Have a young boy prepare the mixture at noon on the fifth day of the fifth month, then apply it to the sore.

To treat stone leeches: Stone leeches live on plants in damp, shaded places near mountain streams. After attaching themselves to a person, they pierce and bite the skin and flesh, then move through the muscles. The affected area gradually swells, leaving a mark like the trail of a crawling insect. When walking through vegetation on mountain paths, regularly mix salt with lard from a pig slaughtered in the twelfth month and apply it to the lower legs, between the toes, the tops of the feet, and shoes and socks. This prevents stone leeches from attaching. If one has already attached itself, use moxibustion to burn through its path, and the condition will heal.

To treat water poison, the text says that poisonous creatures live in mountain streams. People wading through the water may be poisoned. The symptoms resemble Shegong poison, but the creature cannot be seen. At first, the person feels cold, has a mild headache and pain around the eyes, and feels restless and distressed. The limbs tremble and feel hot; the lower back, back, and joints throughout the body become stiff, and both knees hurt.

Some people may feel a slight warmth in the body and want only to sleep. They feel better on waking in the morning, but worse by evening. Their hands and feet grow cold; in severe cases, the cold reaches the elbows and knees. After two or three days, worms appear in the abdomen and gnaw at the area around the anus, where sores develop. These sores neither hurt nor itch, so the person may not notice them. Without prompt treatment, after six or seven days pus will flow from the lower body and the tissue will decay. The worms will spread upward and gnaw at the five viscera. The toxic heat will intensify, causing distress and unceasing diarrhea. By the eighth or ninth day, even a skilled physician will be unable to treat the illness.

Once the illness is suspected, examine the lower body at once. If there is a sore that is bright red, like flesh cut by a knife, this is the most dangerous form, Yang toxin. If the sore is shaped like a carp’s teeth, it is Yin toxin, and the illness is somewhat less severe. Either form can be fatal, however, and death may occur within twenty days of the onset.

To find out whether the illness is water poisoning—a kind of harm from water described by the ancients—boil five or six sheng of water, add five sheng of chopped wild garlic, and stir briefly without letting the water become too hot. Strain out the herbs and use the liquid for bathing. If it is water poisoning, red blotches should appear on the body. If no blotches appear, it is not water poisoning, and the illness should be treated as something else.

A formula for sudden water poisoning, with cold fingertips or coldness reaching the elbows and knees:

One sheng of Wu Zhu Yu; one and a half sheng of sliced ginger; two liang each of rhinoceros horn, Sheng Ma, and orange peel; fourteen dark plums.

Chop the six ingredients, simmer them in seven sheng of water, and reduce the liquid to two sheng. Take it in two doses.

Another formula: Dry duckweed in the sun and grind it into powder. Take one square-inch spoonful—about a spoonful of powder—with wine.

Another formula: Take leaves from a plum or peach tree, crush them, and squeeze out the juice. Drink about three sheng. If the leaves are dry, add a little water before squeezing out the juice. For a child who cannot drink it directly, smear the juice on the nipple and let the child suckle.

Another formula: Crush cocklebur to extract its juice and take one sheng. Then wrap a small stick in cotton, dip it in the juice, and insert it into the anus. Do this three times a day, and the illness will be cured.

Another formula: Crush a handful of knotweed, mix it with wine, and squeeze out the juice. Drink one sheng; no more than three doses are needed for a cure. The Waitai Miyao and Zhouhou Fang record “pear leaves” instead.

Another formula: Crush a handful of indigo plant, mix it with water, and apply it, rubbing it over the face, eyes, and whole body so that the juice covers the body.

Another formula: Grind the roots of mock strawberry into powder and take it with water; also insert some of the powder into the anus. If using fresh roots, use their juice instead. When traveling in summer, carry some of this powder. Before entering the water, scatter one square-inch spoonful upstream, and there will be no need to fear water poisoning. This method can also protect against the “shooting worker,” a kind of poisonous water creature described by the ancients. When bathing, put a little of the powder in the basin to avoid poisoning.

A formula for treating demonic illnesses such as cat ghosts and wild-rites afflictions, in which the patient weeps and moves involuntarily:

On the fifth day of the fifth month, take a red snake that has died naturally that day and burn it to ash. Mix the ash with fresh water drawn from a well and take one square-inch spoonful—the amount held by an ancient medicine measure—once a day. The acupuncture treatment is described in another volume.

Another prescription: Take the head of a small owl that died during the twelfth lunar month and burn it to ash. Swallow the ash with water, taking one qian-spoonful, an ancient unit for measuring medicine, twice a day.

Prescription for treating visions of cats and wildcats, and hearing various sounds, caused by cat demons

Take one seed each of jequirity, castor, and croton; four zhu each of cinnabar powder and wax. A zhu is an ancient unit of weight.

Pound the five ingredients together and form them into pills. First hold one pill in the mouth; it should be about the size of a hemp seed. Then, in front of the patient, draw a circle with ash and place a dou of burning ash inside it. Spit the medicine into the fire. When the fire begins to boil, draw a cross over it. The original text says that this will kill the cat demon.

Prescription for treating poisoning from a spider bite

Apply human urine, ointment, roasted fresh ginger, or monkey feces to the wound.

Another prescription: Mix sesame oil with hu-fen, an ancient white powder containing lead, into a paste and apply it to the wound. When it dries, replace it with fresh paste.

Prescription for treating toxic swelling, heat, and pain from a horse bite or kick

Take a two-inch length of a horsewhip tip and fourteen mouse droppings.

Burn the two ingredients to powder, mix with lard, and apply to the wound. The text says this will cure it quickly. According to the Waitai Miyao, this prescription is for wounds that have suppurated and resisted treatment for a long time. The Zhouhou Fang instead says to burn horsewhip hide to powder and mix it with lard for application.

Prescription for treating prolapse of the scrotum caused by a horse bite

Push the prolapsed part back inside, then twist mulberry bark into a fine thread and stitch the wound. Slaughter a black chicken, chop up its liver, and apply it to the wound. Refrain from urinating for a while; the original text says this will bring about a cure.

Prescription for treating bites from dogs or horses, injuries from horse bones, and horse blood entering an old wound

Heat ash-water—water in which plant ash has been steeped—and soak the wound in it. Keep a fire burning nearby to maintain the heat, and replace the ash-water frequently. Do not let the soaking soften or damage the person’s flesh; continue for three to five days. If the wound is swollen, apply a heated stone as a warm compress twice a day until the swelling subsides.

Prescription for treating horse blood entering a wound

Take human feces about the size of an egg, and also apply feces to the wound.

Another prescription: Apply menstrual blood to the wound. The original text says this is very effective.

Prescription for treating a life-threatening attack of poison after being pierced by a horse bone while skinning a dead horse

Immediately apply feces from the horse’s intestines to the wound. The text says this is very effective. The Waitai Miyao records that horse feces may be burned to ash and taken in doses of one square-inch spoonful.

Prescription for treating swelling and pain, potentially fatal, after horse sweat or hair enters a wound

Wash the wound by soaking it in water, changing the water repeatedly, and the condition will improve. You can also apply lime to the wound.

Another method: drink strong wine until you pass out; it is said that this will bring a cure.

Another method: burn chicken feathers to ash, then swallow a small measure of the powder—about the amount held on the tip of an ancient medicine spoon—with wine.

Another method: wash the wound in hot water at a suitable temperature until it heals.

The treatise says: In late spring and early summer, dogs often go mad, so children and frail people must be warned to carry sticks as a precaution. If someone is nevertheless bitten, the most important treatment at the time is moxibustion (a therapy that stimulates acupuncture points with the heat of burning mugwort), continued for one hundred days without missing a day, in the hope of avoiding disaster. It is most dangerous to assume someone is cured as soon as the wound scabs over and the pain stops: calamity may strike at any moment, and death may come soon after.

Anyone bitten by a rabid dog may become rabid as well, and their mental state may change. How can this be known? During moxibustion, if the person feels clear-headed and lucid as soon as the first moxa cone is applied, that is how one knows the illness has developed after the bite. This must be understood thoroughly. The disease is extremely serious, yet people often dismiss it and pay it no heed. As a result, people die from it every year.

When I first began studying medicine, before I practiced it as a profession, someone came to ask me about such a case, and I could not answer at all. Later, more than one person I treated died. From then on, I resolved to study medicine diligently. After mastering this method, everyone I treated recovered. Only then did I understand that many people in the world die needlessly because there are no good doctors—indeed, perhaps half of them. This is no exaggeration. Those who study medicine after me should not learn only this one method; they must also reflect carefully on and study other prescriptions and techniques if they are to gain true understanding. To grasp one or two methods and then suppose you understand everything is a grave mistake. I take this opportunity to add a brief reminder at the end of the prescription, though these words still do not fully express what I mean.

It is also said that anyone bitten by a rabid dog may have an attack every seven days. If no attack occurs for twenty-one days (three times seven), the person is temporarily out of danger, but must still wait until one hundred days have passed before being considered safe. On each seventh day, press out the juice of Chinese chives and drink one to two liters. In addition, abstain for life from dog meat and silkworm pupae; eating them is said to bring on the illness, which then cannot be treated. While the wound remains unhealed, also avoid raw fish, all greasy foods, and cold or raw foods. Even steaming fish on top of rice, or eating from a dish that has held fatty meat, may trigger the illness. Alcohol should also be avoided; if possible, abstain for a year. The Jiyan Fang says: If the illness flares up again, eating raw slices of toad meat is said to be very effective; the meat may also be roasted before eating. But this must be done as soon as the toxic wound is first noticed after the bite, to prevent later attacks.

The above presents ancient medical prescriptions and claims recorded in the original text, and is offered only as an interpretation of its meaning. The treatments and prohibitions described here are not modern medical advice; dog bites should be washed immediately and treated by a medical professional as soon as possible.

Treatment for Bites from a Rabid Dog

Use equal parts hair and hedgehog skin. Burn them to ash, mix the ash with water, and drink one cup. If the patient’s jaws are clenched shut, pry the teeth apart and place the medicine inside.

Another method: Crush garden burnet, an herb, and squeeze out its juice to apply to the wound. If fresh herb is unavailable, boil dried garden burnet in water and drink the liquid, or grind it into powder and take one square-inch spoonful, an ancient measure of about a teaspoon, three times a day. Apply the powder to the wound as well, and continue treatment for one hundred days before stopping.

Another method: Crush Chinese chives, squeeze out the juice, and drink one sheng, an ancient measure, three times a day. Stop once the wound has healed. This method is also used if symptoms recur after the wound heals.

Another method: Scrape a tiger’s tooth or bone, grind it into powder, and take one square-inch spoonful each time. The Xiaopin Fang says that wolf’s teeth or tiger bone may also be scraped and ground into powder for consumption. If the patient has already become as frenzied as a rabid dog, taking this medicine is said to cure them.

Another method: Burn tiger bone and apply it to the wound; it may also be used to warm the injured area. Separately, lightly fry apricot kernels, crush and grind them finely, and take the juice; this is considered effective. Oil remaining in a lamp may also be poured into the wound. With all these methods, avoid alcohol, pork, fish, and raw vegetables.

Another method: Take two Chinese chive roots and two old combs. Boil them in two sheng of water until the liquid is reduced to one sheng, then drink it all at once.

Another method: Take a handful of white bark from a peach tree branch on its southeast side. Boil it in two sheng of water until the liquid is reduced to one sheng, then drink it in two portions. The text says that after drinking it, the patient will vomit something called a “dog offspring.”

Another method: Apply the brain of a rabid dog to the wound. It is said to prevent the illness from developing again.

Another method: Take toad ash with gruel.

Another method: Take seven henbane seeds, a day. Henbane is a poisonous medicinal plant.

Another method: Grind plums into powder and take it with wine.

Another method: Apply the clear liquid from fermented soybean paste to the wound three or four times a day.

Treatment for Bites from a Rabid Dog

Take one strip of dried snake meat, roast it, remove the head, and grind it into powder. Take five fen, an ancient measure, three times a day for seven days.

Another method: Crush henbane root, mix it with salt, and apply it to the wound three times a day.

Another method: Drink three sheng of liquid extracted by soaking blue cloth in water.

Another method: Drink one or two sheng of donkey urine.

Treatment for Ordinary Dog Bites

Fry five he of apricot kernels until black, then crush and grind them into a paste and apply it to the wound.

Another method: Sprinkle hot ash from a stove onto the wound, then wrap it with cloth.

Another method: Burn a snake that died naturally until charred, grind it into powder, and pack it into the wound.

Another method: Grind mouse droppings into powder, mix them with pig fat preserved in the twelfth lunar month, and apply the mixture to the wound. The Waitai Miyao says that a mouse may also be fried together with pig fat and the mixture applied.

Another method: Drink one sheng of raw ginger juice. The Xiaopin Fang says this can be used for bites from rabid dogs; the Waitai Miyao says Chinese chive juice is also effective.

(Another version says this can also be used when a wound has healed and then reopened.)

Another remedy: Wash the wound with water and let it bleed; do not stop the bleeding. Once it has been washed until the blood no longer flows, let the bleeding stop on its own, then wrap the wound in cotton cloth. It will heal.

Another remedy: Mix ash with boiling water and apply it to the wound.

Another remedy: Burn a dog’s tail to ash, apply the ash to the wound three times a day.

Another remedy: Take a small amount of scalp grime and put it into the wound.

Another remedy: Heat a candle and pour the melted wax into the wound.

Another remedy: Apply hot cow dung to the wound; it works well.

Another remedy: Mix vinegar with ash and apply the mixture inside the wound.

Remedies for a Child Bitten by a Dog

On the first day of the month, give the dog one sheng of water to drink. Do not let its owner beat it. On the last day of the month, give the dog three sheng of water.

Moxibustion

For any bite from a rabid dog, if the poisoned blood has not yet been fully drained, apply one hundred moxa cones to the wound. (“Cone” is a unit for counting moxibustion, usually referring to one burning of a moxa cone.)

After that, apply one cone each day. If the wound does not bleed, pierce it to release blood. Continue moxibustion for one hundred days before stopping. During this period, avoid alcohol, pork, and dog meat.

Remedies for a Pig Bite

Process pine resin into a cake and place it over the wound.

Another remedy: Apply mud that has accumulated beneath the eaves to the wound.