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The Zi Rong (Purple Velvet, referring to the tender shoots of *Arnebiae Radix et Rhizoma*) used in the department of smallpox (痘科) is actually the tender shoot of Zicao (*Arnebiae Radix et Rhizoma*). The *Huoyou Xinshu* (New Book for Living Infants) states: Zicao has a cold nature; it can be used for children with solid spleen-stomach conditions, but for those with deficient spleens, it may instead cause diarrhea. Ancient prescriptions only used Zi Rong, taking advantage of its initial acquisition of Yang Qi, applying the principle of "like affecting like," to promote the eruption of smallpox lesions. Nowadays, during the first four stages of the disease, to cool blood and open orifices, Zicao is used; if after the lesions have fully erupted, Zi Rong is switched to, this is because the heat in the blood has not yet cleared, and within the action of cooling blood, there is simultaneously an intention of ascending and venting. What is currently used in pharmacies, which is purple in color and shaped like pine resin, is actually a foreign resin, completely different from Zi Rong. Physicians do not examine this carefully before using it, so it is urgent to clarify this deception.

Yujin (Curcuma Aromatica Rhizome) is a single herb produced in Sichuan. Wild ones are black in color and hard to obtain in large quantities. Those cultivated in Sichuan are white on the outside and yellow inside, which is what people nowadays mistakenly call Jianghuangzi (the seed of Turmeric). As for the Chuan Yujin used in pharmacies, it is actually the seed of Ezhu (*Zedoary Rhizome*) picked out from Ezhu. Because its color is black, it resembles the wild Yujin from Sichuan and is confused with it. Physicians do not investigate the origin, and instead wrongly refer to the originally cultivated yellow Yujin from Sichuan as Guang Yujin (Guangdong Yujin) or call it Jianghuangzi, which is truly laughable. When I entered Sichuan at the age of twenty, I had deeply studied this herb. One should consider the cultivated variety that is white outside and yellow inside as correct, and not adhere to the theory of Jianghuangzi to the point of discarding it.

Dadou Huangjuan (Sojae Semen Praeparatum) was rarely used by ancient practitioners. The *Bencao* records its properties as treating damp-bi syndrome, tendon spasms, knee pain, insufficiency of the five zang organs, benefiting qi and harmonizing the stomach, breaking up evil blood in women, removing accumulated heat in the stomach, and dissipating water retention and distension. Even in the Shuyu Wan (Dioscorea Pill) from the *Jinkui Yaolue* (Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Cabinet), under the section on Deficiency Consumption, it is used as an assistant in formulas that tonify both qi and blood. Later commentators who explained these formulas discussed its ability to diffuse Kidney Qi, but none claimed it was a surface-releasing agent. Why have recent practitioners mistakenly treated it as a surface-releasing drug? It is likely because people in our Wu region prefer light-formula prescriptions. In the past, when seeking medicine from physicians, it was said that Mr. Ma Yuanyi would pre-soybeans in Mahuang Tang (Ephedra Decoction) to sprout them. Whenever Mahuang was clinically indicated, he would prescribe Doujuan (Sprouted Soybean) instead, so that patients would not feel suspicious or fearful. This allowed him to administer the correct medicine effectively while satisfying the patient's preference, a well-intentioned compromise. Later physicians, unaware of the details, assumed that Doujuan belonged to the same category as Douchi (Fermented Soybean) and openly treated it as a surface-releasing agent. However, are the Doujuan in pharmacies really sprouted via soaking in Mahuang Tang? Even analyzing it through the lens of empirical investigation, beans sprouting upon contact with water might slightly disperse dampness, but they cannot serve as a universal surface-releasing drug. If two or three qian of Doujuan could induce sweating, and since common people eat it as a vegetable, consuming full bowls regularly, why do they not sweat to the point of Yang collapse? What a joke!