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Shigao (Gypsum Fibrosum), with a pungent, sweet, and slightly cold nature, is recorded in the *Shennong Bencao Jing* (Divine Farmer's Materia Medica) to treat wind-stroke accompanied by alternating chills and fever, rebellious qi beneath the heart, palpitations with wheezing, dry mouth and scorched tongue, dyspnea, abdominal hardness and pain, expel evil spirits, treat postpartum conditions and lactation issues, and heal metal wounds. Zhang Zhongjing used Mahuang (Ephedrae Herba) combined with Shigao to release fluids from the Yangming channel; Baihu Tang (White Tiger Decoction) resolves thirst caused by Yangming dryness-heat, and also treats macules erupted due to wind-heat. Thus, both Shennong and Zhongjing employed it as a dispersing agent. This is because its flavor is pungent and sweet, and its texture is loose like muscle fibers, yet its nature is heavy and its color white like gold, allowing its action to go directly into the Yangming channel and reach the exterior. Later generations generally believed that Shigao clears internal heat and acts downward, which stems from a misunderstanding of classical principles and the nature of substances! In fact, any substance can ascend or descend depending on compatibility: it ascends when combined with dispersing herbs, and descends when combined with purgative or draining herbs. For example, Houpo (Magnoliae Officinalis Cortex), with a bitter and warm nature, is recorded in the *Bencao Jing* to treat wind-stroke and cold-pathogen causing headache, chills, and fever, making it a dispersing herb. In Zhongjing’s Chengqi Tang (Ordering Qi Decoction), it is combined with Zhishi (Aurantii Fructus), Dahuang (Rhei Radix et Rhizoma), and Mangxiao (Natrii Sulfas) to form an urgent purgative formula. The classics state: "Sour and bitter flavors induce vomiting and purging, belonging to Yin." Essentially, sour and bitter tastes can cause upward vomiting and downward purging. Combined with ascending drugs, it ascends; combined with descending drugs, it descends. The formulation and combination of prescriptions are the primary principle for physicians; how can they be neglected!

Nüzhenzi (Ligustri Lucidi Fructus) is a top-grade herb in the *Bencao Jing*. Its flavor is bitter and neutral. It tonifies the middle, calms the five zang organs, nourishes spirit, eliminates various diseases, and with long-term use, promotes robustness, lightens the body, prevents aging, strengthens yin, fortifies the waist and knees, turns white hair black, and improves vision. It comes from the wax tree (Cerae Tree). Around Lixia (Start of Summer), collect seeds of the wax insect and wrap them onto branches. After half a month, the insects hatch, crawl along the branches, and produce white wax, hard and white like congealed fat, similar to how silkworms eat mulberry leaves to spin silk. They continuously draw warmth and essence from the tree. Therefore, Sanggen Baipi (Mori Cortex Radicis) treats internal injury, five labors and six extremes, emaciation, metrorrhagia with severed pulses, and tonifies deficiency and boosts qi. Although Nüzhen shares the name with Dongqing (Ilicis Cornutae Fructus), their seeds and fruits differ. Dongqing is also called Dongqing (Frozen Green), has slightly round leaves, red berries, and insects do not produce wax on it, which serves as a distinction. Laypeople often confuse Dongqing with Nüzhenzi; in reality, these are two different substances with vastly different functions. Those who harvest and select herbs must distinguish between them carefully!