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Bai Sha Tang (White Rock Sugar), also known as Shi Mi (Stone Honey), is produced by pressing sugarcane juice and sun-drying it until it solidifies like stone yet remains lightweight. Its taste is sweet, its nature is cold, and its therapeutic action targets the Spleen. Therefore, it primarily treats heat distension in the heart and abdomen, clears heat, generates fluids, relieves thirst, and addresses cough with excessive phlegm. However, excessive consumption can harm the Spleen due to its overly sweet flavor.

Hei Sha Tang (Black Rock Sugar) is derived from clarified sugarcane juice, boiled and refined until it turns purple-black. It shares the sweet-cold taste and efficacy of Bai Mi (White Honey), but possesses a stronger cold-purgative effect. Additionally, it has functions of moistening dryness, harmonizing blood, resolving stasis, and transforming stagnation. Thus, postpartum women take it dissolved in water or mixed with wine to promote the resolution of blood stasis; for children, it is used to mix pills or powders to facilitate the transformation of food stagnation. Excessive intake damages teeth, promotes worm infestation, induces Gan syndrome (pediatric malnutrition disorder) and abdominal fullness, causes heart pain, and when consumed together with Malva verticillata (Kui), bamboo shoots, or crucian carp, may trigger Gan-Xuan (Gan-type tinea). Sugarcane inherits the balanced Qi of the earth; hence, it is sweet, cold, and non-toxic, entering the Hand-Taiyin Lung Meridian, Foot-Taiyin Spleen Meridian, and Foot-Yangming Stomach Meridian. Sweetness corresponds to the transformation of agriculture (Jia-Se); its flavor first enters the Spleen, thereby assisting Spleen Qi and harmonizing the Middle Jiao. Its sweet-cold nature clears heat and moistens dryness, thus treating qi descending, promoting large intestine function, relieving heart and stomach irritability, reducing phlegm, quenching thirst, managing dysphagia (Ye-Ge) and regurgitation, alleviating dry constipation, and detoxifying alcohol. All these effects stem from its ability to clear heat, generate fluids, and moisten dryness. The common belief that sugar causes internal heat is unfounded, as evidenced by the verse: "After eating one's fill, do not worry about internal heat; the Grand Officials still have sugarcane syrup to cool them."

Sha Tang (Sugar), made by boiling sugarcane juice, has functions similar to white sugar, but red sugars excel more at harmonizing blood. They kill parasites causing Gan syndrome, moisten the lungs, clear cold and heat, and cool the Heart. Consuming it with bamboo shoots may cause hematemesis (vomiting blood); consuming it with Malva verticillata may induce lethargy or skin disorders. For children, excessive consumption damages teeth and wastes muscle tissue. Sugarcane is sweet and cold, clearing fire; when used medicinally, it is crushed to extract juice, aiding Spleen Qi, harmonizing the Middle Jiao, resolving alcohol toxicity, stopping thirst, directing rebellious Qi downward, treating dysphagia, benefiting the small and large intestines, tonifying Qi, and curing manic states caused by epidemic fevers. It should not be taken with wine, as this induces phlegm production. It is contraindicated for those with cold-stomach vomiting, middle-jiao fullness, or loose stools. Juice extracted from pits where various manures were stored in the twelfth lunar month and retrieved in summer is particularly effective for treating manic states due to epidemic fevers.

[Analysis of Smallpox and Rashes] Indications: When smallpox rash initially presents with fever, folk practice suggests feeding sugarcane to the patient because its nature dispels epidemic febrile diseases. However, it is advisable to drink the extracted juice rather than chew it directly, and intake should be limited to avoid damaging the mouth and tongue.