Library

[Background Information]
Book: Yangsheng Leyao (Essentials of Health Preservation)
Author: Wu Zhenglun
Dynasty: Ming
Chapter: Formulas for Treating Mouth Grasping / Qiebing Yanshou Dan (Pill to Eliminate Disease and Extend Life)
Category: Health Preservation

[English Translation]

After the umbilical cord is cut in infants, if they are invaded by wind-dampness pathogens, or if urine soaks into the swaddling clothes, it may result in Umbilical Wind (Neonatal Tetanus). Symptoms include a red face, rapid breathing, and an inability to cry. This condition is called "Shekou" (Mouth Grasping/Cuo Kou Feng). This formula is used to treat this condition.

Gecko Centipede with bare feet and golden head (one), Scorpion tail (four tails), Jiangcan (Bombyx Batryticatus, seven pieces), Dianthus superbus root (Qumai, five fen).
Grind the above herbs into a fine powder. First, use a goose quill to blow one fen of the powder into the infant's nose to induce sneezing and crying; this indicates that the condition is treatable. Subsequently, mix three to five qian with mint decoction and administer orally. It takes effect immediately.

For infants who have just been born and suffer from obstruction of both urination and defecation, abdominal distension severe enough to feel like death, immediately have a woman rinse her mouth with hot water and suckle the infant at seven locations: the anterior chest, posterior back, below the umbilicus, and on both hands and feet. Suckle each location three to five times until the skin turns reddish. The bowels will naturally open soon; otherwise, there is no hope for survival. If such symptoms occur, treating according to this method can save the life.

Tianyi Wan (Heaven One Pill): Treats various diseases in children; adjust the guiding herbs according to specific symptoms.

Jiedengcao (Juncus effusus, heartwood): Take one jin of clean herb, wash with rice water, dry, and grind into powder. Place in water; take the floating portion, dry again, yielding two liang five qian. Discard the sinking portion. Chifu Ling (Red Poria) and Baifuling (White Poria) along with Fushen (Poria with Hostwood): Remove peel and core, clean, two liang each, totaling six liang. Huashi (Talcum): Boil with two liang of Mudanpi (Moutan Cortex) for half a day, remove Moutan Cortex, dry thoroughly, yielding six liang. Zexie (Alisma Rhizome): Five liang, remove hairy roots, select white ones. Zhuling (Polyporus): Remove black skin, five liang.
Grind the above five herbs into a fine powder. For external use or as a binder: Renshen (Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma, six liang), Baizhu (Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma, six liang), Gancao (Licorice Root, four liang) are boiled into a paste to form pills the size of longan seeds. Coat with Zhusha (Cinnabar) and apply gold leaf. Administer one pill per dose, guided by the disease condition. Generally, the origin of infant life lies in the wonder of "Heaven generates One [Water]." Therefore, in treating pediatric diseases, ensuring the free flow of water passages is the most expedient approach.

In elderly people, feeling a decrease in urine volume indicates disease progression; this formula should be taken.

Renshen (Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma, one qian), Baizhu (Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma, one qian), Niuxi (Achyranthis Bidentatae Radix, one qian), Baishaoyao (White Peony Root, one qian), Baifuling (White Poria, one qian), Chenpi (Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium, one qian), Shanzha Rou (Crataegi Fructus flesh, pitted, one qian), Danggui (Angelicae Sinensis Radix, five fen), Xiao Gancao (Licorice Root, five fen).
Decoct the above herbs with two slices of fresh ginger in water. Take on an empty stomach.
In spring, add Chuanxiong (Ligusticum Chuanxiong Rhizoma, seven fen); in summer and autumn, add Huangqin (Scutellariae Radix) and Maidong (Ophiopogonis Radix, one qian each); in winter, add Ganjiang (Zingiberis Rhizoma, two fen) and double the dosage of Danggui. Stop taking when urine volume returns to normal. If urine becomes short again, resume taking this pill. This is Danxi's Formula for Nourishing Parents; as children, one must know this. It can also be made into honey pills the size of Sophora seeds. Take seventy to eighty pills per dose on an empty stomach with clear rice soup.

Sanzi Yangqin Tang (Three Seeds Decoction for Nourishing Elders): Suitable for elderly people with physical decline, suffering from phlegm-wheezing, coughing, rapid breathing, chest fullness, and difficulty eating. Do not recklessly administer harsh purgatives, as this may consume true qi. I formulated this after careful contemplation upon requests to treat elders. It has proven effective every time. These three seeds originate from old gardeners; their nature is mild and harmonious, pleasant to the senses, good at assisting digestion, and nourishing the spleen and stomach, bringing joy to relatives without needing medicine. Thus, benevolent persons adopt it.

Zisuzi (Perilla Seed): Mainly treats wheezing and coughing; purple, authentic, aged ones are best. Luobozhi (Radish Seed): Mainly treats epigastric fullness and regulates qi; white varieties are used. Baijiezhi (White Mustard Seed): Resolves phlegm, directs qi downward, and relieves chest fullness; white ones are best, purple ones are not used.
Wash each herb clean, remove sand and soil, dry, and lightly stir-fry on paper before grinding finely. Based on the affected meridian, use the primary herb as the Jun (Emperor) herb, followed by others. Each dose does not exceed three qian. Place in a small bag made of raw silk or fine cloth, boil in water to make a tea. Drink it freely with delicious food, without strict timing. Do not over-boil to avoid bitter and pungent taste. If constipation is usual, add one spoonful of cooked honey; in winter cold, adding one slice of ginger is excellent.

Jiawei Dihuang Wan (Modified Rehmannia Pill): Treats elderly patients with yin deficiency leading to flaccidity and weakness of sinews and bones, lackluster or dark complexion, poor appetite, excessive phlegm, coughing or wheezing, frequent or painful urination, impotence, weakness in feet and knees, emaciation. These are often due to long-term kidney qi deficiency causing emaciation, night sweats, fever, and thirst.

Huai Shudihuang (Prepared Rehmannia Root, wine-steamed, four liang), Shanzhuyu (Cornus Officinalis Fruit, pitted and cleaned, two liang), Shanyao (Dioscorea Rhizome, stir-fried with ginger juice, two liang), Mudanpi (Moutan Cortex, removed woody center, one and a half liang), Yizhiren (Alpinia Oxyphylla Fruit, shelled and salt-water stir-fried, one liang; ancient formulas use Zexie), Wuweizi (Schisandra Fruit, stems removed, □ liang - original text missing character), Maidong (Ophiopogonis Radix, core removed, one liang).
Grind into powder, bind with refined honey into pills the size of Sophora seeds. Take seventy to eighty pills per dose on an empty stomach with salted water.
In summer, do not use salt. For lower back pain, add Lurong (Deer Antler Glue), Danggui, Mugua (Chaenomelis Fructus), Xuduan (Dipsaci Radix, one liang each). For Xiao Ke (Wasting-Thirst), remove Fushen and double Maidong and Wuweizi. For elderly patients with cold in the lower yuan, bladder torsion causing urinary retention, abdominal distension and sharp pain, lethargy for four to five days nearing death, use Zexie (two liang), remove Yizhiren. For various Lin syndromes (dysuria) with frequent urges but obstruction, double Fuling and Zexie, halve Yizhiren. For Hongzhijiao (Foot Qi/Gout) pain radiating to waist and hips, add Niuxi and Mugua (one liang each). For frequent nocturnal urination, halve Fuling based on this formula. For toothache due to deficiency stagnation, loose teeth unable to chew, tinnitus, and deafness, remove Maidong, add Fuzi (Processed Aconite Root) and Guixin (Cinnamon Bark, cleaned, one liang each). If deafness is accompanied by roaring sounds like waves or bells, use forty-nine Quanchexie (Scorpions), stir-fry until slightly yellow, grind into powder. Take three qian per dose, mixed with warm wine and one hundred pills, on an empty stomach.