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[Background Information]
Book: Qianjin Yi Fang (Supplement to the Thousand Golden Formulas)
Author: Sun Simiao
Dynasty: Tang Dynasty, Kaiyao Second Year
Chapter: Chapter 2: Ingestion of Pine and Cypress Resin
Category: Formula

Twenty Formulas, One Discourse

Method for Collecting Pine Resin:
On the day of Start of Summer, cut horizontal branches of pine trees pointing towards the southeast. The circumference should be two or three chi, and the length about one chi. Immediately lay them upside down on the ground, placing a vessel underneath to catch the resin as it flows out naturally. This process may occur three or four times; use this resin to mix with medicines. This resin is particularly suitable when combined with raw Realgar (Xionghuang). If the resin is hard, dissolve it in wine over fire. Once the juice comes out, pour it into cold wine to cool and warm it up. Mix with Realgar and Hengshan Pine Resin Paste. Usually, during the three months of spring, enter the shady side of Mount Heng, collect pine resin that has never seen the sun or moon, refine it, and ingest it. This will attract immortals without summoning. After taking it for one hundred days, one can endure extreme heat and cold. After two hundred days, the five Zang organs are nourished and benefited. After taking it for five years, the Queen Mother of the West will appear at various famous mountains. Among the three hundred and sixty-five mountains she inhabits, only those in the deep valleys on the shady sides are edible. This valley is located exactly four hundred and eighty li due east from the ridge of Mount Heng. There is a large stone crossing the ridge horizontally. Travel northeast, pass south of it, enter the valley for fifty li, and reach a cave with a stone city and white cranes. To the east of this place is a large stone over forty zhang high, resembling a white pine. Two zhang below the pine is a small hole leading into the mountain. There is Cinnabar (Dansha), which is edible. To the south, in the shade, there are over thirty large cypress trees, more than thirty in number, hidden from the sun and moon, all of which are suitable for ingestion.

Method for Extracting Broken Pine Resin:
At sunset time, break the shady side to extract its paste, and break the sunny side to extract its resin. Consume equal parts of both to communicate with spirits. Drill holes through the yin and yang aspects of the tree, making them one cun square and five cun deep. Cover the holes with bark to prevent wind from entering; if wind enters, it becomes inedible. Collect this during spring and summer. After collection, seal tightly to prevent leakage, and coat with mud. Travel northeast to the Yin Spring Water under the Cinnabar Cave, which is drinkable. This was done by Master Che of Hongnong in the first year of Yuanfeng, who entered this mountain to eat pine resin... [Text appears fragmented here in original]

Method for Collecting Pine Resin:
Chop old, dry, and fat pine wood, split it finely into pieces longer than one chi, and place it in a steamer basket (Zeng). Steam until full; the resin will flow down into the cauldron (Fu). Frequently collect the resin and place it in water to solidify. Repeat until finished; one day can yield dozens of jin. Dry knots are even better.

Another Method:
Take dry, fat pine, split it finely, and boil it in a cauldron. The resin will come out naturally. Collect it and place it in cold water to solidify; pulling it forms the desired consistency. If collecting resin directly from the tree in May, make two or three cuts on the shady side of the wood. Each cut yields several sheng. In autumn and winter, follow the boiling method. Do not boil fresh pine, as it yields little resin.

Method for Refining Pine Resin:
Use twenty jin of pine resin as one batch. Place water in a large cauldron and put a steamer basket on top. Seal the joints carefully to prevent leakage. Place straw on the basket as a base, then add a layer of raw earth and straw, one cun thick, on top. Put the pine resin on top and cook using mulberry firewood. Add water when the soup reduces. Collect the resin, stop it in cold water to solidify, and steam again as before. After three steamings, stop. The resin color resembles white jade. Use this to mix with medicines, such as forming pills with Chrysanthemum (Juhua) and Poria (Fuling). Change the earth each time you steam as before. Use a copper pan to catch the resin dripping from the bottom of the steamer; it should enter the pan like glue. Place it in cold water to solidify, then steam again. When removing the copper vessel from the cauldron, pre-place a small rope in the resin, then lower it into water to solidify. Then place it on charcoal. After a moment, it will soften after four cycles, and can be lifted. Continuously add water, adjust the fire according to judgment, do not make it too fierce. Just keep it going constantly.

Another Formula:
Boil pine resin in ash lye, pour it into basin water, let it solidify quickly, and cut it off. Boil it again in ash, repeating this three times, changing the water each time.

One Method: Refine pine resin twelve times, changing the liquid each time. If unable, five or six times is also acceptable for consumption.

Refining Pine Resin Method:
Pour thin mulberry ash lye to boil the resin for one or two boils. Collect and throw into cold water to solidify. Boil again. Repeat ten times total, and the resin is ready. If it is still hard, boil it in wine three or four more times to soften it. Take one qian before meals, three times a day. After ten days, hunger ceases; take more if hungry. After one year, nights feel like days.

Another Formula:
Pine Resin (ten jin)
Use two shi of mulberry ash lye in a cauldron, place a steamer on top. Line the steamer with straw, then yellow sand soil, about three cun thick. Steam it. The resin trickles into the cauldron. Cool it to solidify, collect, and steam again as before, three times. Replace ash lye with clear water, repeat as before, three times, remove water. Boil three jin of Licorice Root (Gancao) in one shi and five dou of deep, yin water to obtain one shi of juice. Remove dregs, add two jin of Beef Tallow (Niusu), place steamer on cauldron, and cook as before. Let the resin solidify in the Licorice juice, collect, and steam. Lower at night, rise three times, and it is complete. Bitter taste is removed, sweet and delicious like maltose. Take the paste in pills the size of quince seeds, three times a day. Long-term use leads to immortality.

Another Formula:
Good Pine Resin (one dan)
Calcined Gypsum Juice (San Shi - *Note: Text likely implies a specific mineral solution or typo for another ingredient, literal translation kept*)
Build a stove in a clean place, place a large cauldron, cut white reeds as a lining. Place resin in the steamer and cook. Let the resin flow down into the cauldron, remove the steamer completely. Collect and put in cold water, fan it. Two people pull it thirty times, steam again as before, completing three rounds. Change ash lye three times. Refine with three shi of white vinegar slurry three times, changing the slurry each time. Refine once with wine, following the same method. Finally, simmer over low heat until it resembles maltose. Suitable for all ages.

Another Formula:
Pine Resin (two and a half jin), Water (five sheng). Boil it. The juice becomes yellow and turbid. Pour it out and throw into cold water. Repeat this one hundred and twenty times, though this is not a fixed rule. Change the water every forty insertions. After changing water three times, it is complete, soft like clay, white in color, and ready for treatment. Add one jin of Poria (Fuling), mix well into the medicine.

Another Formula:
Pine Resin (seven jin), Mulberry Ash Lye (one shi). Boil the resin for three boils, collect and place in cold water. Solidify, then boil again. Repeat ten times until the resin is white. Make into powder, three liang per dose, divided into three servings. Above ten liang prevents hunger; take again if hungry. After one year, vision improves at night; long-term use prevents death.

Discourse: Refining pine resin can be done in spring and summer, but not in autumn and winter. It is the best for practicing Bigu (Grain Avoidance) and treating leprosy-like conditions. If you wish to eat, do not take it. It also eliminates the Three Corpses (Sanshi).

Method for Powdering Pine Resin:
Pine Resin (ten jin)
Boil in Red Millet Ash Lye, collect and place in cold water twenty times, then grind into powder. It is also good to mix with Micaceous Iron Ore powder (Yunmu Fen) and form pills with honey.

Method for Ingesting Pine Resin:
To practice Bigu, take three liang. If hungry, take more, stopping when hungry, up to one jin. Those not practicing Bigu should take one liang. Take before meals; wait until the medicinal power is exhausted before eating other food. Eating mixed foods causes discomfort and vomiting. Long-term use extends life and removes hundred diseases.

Another Formula:
Pine Resin (ten jin), Pine Nuts (Songshi, three jin), Cypress Seeds (Baishi, three jin), Chrysanthemum (Juhua, five sheng)
Sift the four ingredients, mix with honey, and form pills the size of quince seeds. Take thirty pills, divided into three doses. After more than one hundred days, hunger ceases. Taking it for one year makes a hundred-year-old person look thirty or forty. Long-term use grants longevity equal to heaven and earth.

Another Formula:
Steam Taxus Parasitica (Sangjisheng) until cooked, mix with refined Pine Resin to form pills the size of quince seeds. Take one pill daily, and hunger ceases.

Ingestion Method:
Collect pine resin on the day of Summer Solstice. Eat one sheng daily, consuming no other food. Drink water freely. This prevents hunger. Long-term use allows one to live without eating. In Shaoshi Mountain, Henan, there are large pines. Cut them in shady places, place in vessels, and steam; the paste flows out naturally. Refine to remove bitter odor, mix with white honey, and eat one sheng daily. After three days, take pills the size of quince seeds. Drink water when thirsty. This prevents aging; collect at any time.

Another Formula:
Pine Resin (five jin), Sheep Fat (Yangzhi, three jin)
First refine the pine resin until melted, add sheep fat. Take one piece the size of a chess piece daily. Prevents hunger; long-term use leads to immortality.

Shouzhong Formula (Different from previous):
White Pine Resin (seven jin, refined three times), White Beeswax (Baila, five jin), White Honey (San Sheng), Poria Powder (Fuling Fen, three jin)
Steam these three ingredients together for the time it takes to cook one shi of rice. Take pills the size of quince seeds, ten per dose. Take again if hungry, one pill daily. Do not eat anything else; alcohol is allowed, no more than one ge. Observe fasting rules. Chew five fragrant herbs, boil in water for one boil, remove dregs, and throw the medicine into the boiling water. For those wishing to attract Divine Maidens, take Mugwort roots, extract juice, mix with it, steam, and ingest; the Divine Maiden will arrive.

Another Formula:
Pine Resin refined with mulberry ash one hundred times until pure white. Put it into maltose honey, repeatedly taking it out. Take two pills the size of quince seeds. After one hundred days, the body feels light; after one year, Jade Maidens come to serve.

Method for Collecting Cypress Resin:
On the sixth day of the fifth month, carve the sunny side of twenty trees. Each tree yields half a sheng. Refine and ingest. For Bigu, increase to six liang. For non-Bigu, one and a half liang. Prohibit Five Pungent Spices, fish, meat, vegetables, salt, and soy sauce. Treats hundred diseases. Long-term use refines the form and extends life. The refining method is the same as for pine resin.