Library

For adults and children suffering from carbuncles, swelling, or erysipelas (acute skin infection with redness and heat), accompanied by unceasing fever and pain, there is another method: Face north and sit upright. Visualize the vast waves of snow in the North Sea and boundless icebergs. Inhale a mouthful of the intensely cold and chilling air, and blow it onto the affected area; the pain will stop immediately. The practitioner must strictly avoid five pungent vegetables (garlic, chives, leeks, onions, and asafoetida) and five forbidden meats. The patient must absolutely avoid chicken, pork, fish, rabbit, alcohol, vinegar, and wet dough. In places where medicine is unavailable, this method can be used for rescue.

Chilblains are caused by walking in ice and snow during cold months. For cases that have not healed for years, use pure soil from ponds or fields, dry it in the sun, crush garlic into a paste, mix it with the soil to form cakes, with a thickness similar to that of Daguan Tongbao coins. Apply the cake according to the size of the wound. Moxibustion is applied over the soil cake; the number of moxa cones is unlimited, stopping only when the soil cake dries. Remove the dried cake and replace it with a fresh moist one, securing it and continuing moxibustion regardless of the number of sessions. Some may require one or two days of moxibustion until itching and slight pain are felt inside the scab, indicating that the chilblain tissue is reviving. Then, hold clarified Jiangshui (fermented grain liquid) in the mouth, take ten to twenty chicken feathers, bind them into a brush, and clean the wound. After washing, the skin may feel slightly painful; wipe it dry with soft silk. Next, apply Muxiang Binglang San (Buddleja and Areca Nut Powder). This is highly effective for summer treatment.

For all injuries caused by knives or arrows, specific medicines exist. Use one jin (approx. 500g) of weathered calcined alum and four liang (approx. 125g) of dragon bone (fossilized mammal bones). Grind both into fine powder. Collect Cirsium japonicum (Japanese Thistle) four days before the Duanwu Festival (Dragon Boat Festival). On the morning of the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, pound and mix the herb in a mortar until well combined. Form into cakes resembling wine yeast cakes, with a hole in the center. Hang them in a shady place to dry naturally, then grind and sieve into fine powder. Sprinkle and apply this powder to the wound. It also treats internal and external ulceration and is highly effective for various swellings and sores.
There is also a spell-casting method. The spell states:
Today brings ill omens, injured by an object. First prohibition: no pain.
Second prohibition: no soreness. Third prohibition: no pus, no bleeding.
Act swiftly as per the law, by imperial decree, seize [the evil].
Recite the spell once, gather the qi with the right hand into the left hand. Repeat this seven times, then release the hand and blow away. Inhale a breath facing the sun and blow it onto the injury. If it is cloudy or at night, inhaling while facing the Big Dipper is also acceptable. The injured person must strictly avoid chicken, pork, fish, rabbit, alcohol, vinegar, hot noodles, and wind-aggravating foods. Consumption of these will cause the wound to flare up.
Another method involves visualizing the sunrise in the east. Inhale a breath when the sun first appears, another breath when half the sun is visible, and a third breath when the sun is fully round. Blow this qi onto the injured area. Repeat this three times. The practitioner has no dietary restrictions. The injured person's restrictions are the same as above. This can be used where medicine is unavailable.