Library

Treating various sores such as Qi leakage and Cold leakage.

Guixin (Cinnamomi Cortex, 桂心) one tael, Fuzi (Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata, 附子) [prepared by cracking, soaking in rice vinegar, re-frying, quenching three to five times, removing skin and tip] one tael, Houpo (Magnoliae Officinalis Cortex, 浓朴) [processed with ginger juice] one tael, Gancao (Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma Praeparata cum Melle, 甘草) [roasted] one tael, Baizhu (Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma, 白术) one tael, Muxiang (Aucklandiae Radix, 木香) one fen, Ruxiang (Olibanum, 乳香) two qian [separately ground].

Grind the above ingredients into powder, mix with refined honey to make pills the size of a wutong seed. Take twenty to thirty pills on an empty stomach with rice water.

The characteristic of a carbuncle (Yong, 痈) is thin skin with high swelling; the characteristic of a gangrenous sore (Ju, 疽) is thick skin with hard swelling. In the initial stage, moxibustion is suitable for both. Only when a carbuncle suppurates should acupuncture be used, and only when a gangrenous sore suppurates should cauterization be applied. If one can carefully examine its name and syndrome, treat it early, and use herbs to attack the root and tonify/support the interior, there is no need to consult a physician; self-management will also lead to recovery. However, people often neglect it. Medical texts place carbuncles and gangrenous sores before miscellaneous diseases because they are known to be serious illnesses. Empirical physicians lose the order of treatment, causing confusion and disorder, often leading to premature death, which is truly lamentable. Therefore, these effective moxibustion methods have been collected to pass on to learners, so as to avoid blind medication.

For the initial onset of carbuncles, gangrenous sores, and back abscesses (Fabeii, 发背), there is a miraculous moxibustion method that has proven effective in repeated trials. This was recorded on a stone tablet unearthed at Ziji Guan in Jiangning Prefecture.

When a person first feels discomfort in the back, and a lump is forming but not yet consolidated, with redness, heat, swelling, and pain, first cover the area with wet paper. Observe immediately; the place where the paper dries first is the head of the carbuncle. Take garlic, slice it to a thickness equivalent to about three qian, place it on the head of the sore, and apply large moxa cones for moxibustion. After three zhuang (moxa burns), replace with a new garlic slice. If painful, moxibustate until the pain ceases; if painless, moxibustate until pain arises, then stop. The most important aspect is early detection and early moxibustion. On the first or second day, ten treatments yield ten recoveries; on the third or fourth day, six or seven recoveries; on the fifth or sixth day, three or four recoveries; after the seventh day, moxibustion is no longer applicable. If several heads grow together, grind garlic into a paste, form it into a thin cake, place it on the head, and burn moxa on top of the garlic cake; this can also save lives. If the back initially shows redness and swelling, with a single spot resembling a yellow millet grain in the middle, take a single-clove garlic, cut off both ends, take the middle half-inch thick portion, place it directly on the sore, and apply moxibustion on the garlic for fourteen zhuang, up to forty-nine zhuang.