Library

Also known as Shenhuo Cao (Caution Fire Herb). It clears heat and resolves toxicity.
Bitter, sour, and cold in nature. It is a purely yin substance. It enters exclusively the Heart Palace (Li Gong, referring to the Heart channel), specializing in clearing heat toxins. It treats various forms of fire carbuncles (herpes zoster or erysipelas-like eruptions) and all types of wandering wind pathogens. Crushed and applied externally, it treats snake bites. However, for those with interior cold, taking it causes great harm. (If one experiences visual hallucinations such as floating spots in the eyes, pain, and difficulty opening them, crush Jing Tian [Sedum sarmentosum] to extract juice and apply it to the eyes three to five times daily; this is effective.)

Also known as Xuejianchou (Blood Sorrow Herb). It promotes circulation, dissipates blood stasis, and stops bleeding.
Pungent and neutral in nature. It unblocks and flows through the blood vessels, capable of dissipating blood stasis and stopping bleeding. It treats bleeding from metal wounds or blunt trauma, bloody dysentery, lower gastrointestinal bleeding, uterine metrorrhagia, female yin hernia with blood accumulation, as well as carbuncles and malignant sores. (Li Shizhen stated: "It specializes in treating blood disorders, hence commonly called Xuejie [Dragon's Blood], also known as Jiangban Cao [Soybean Paste Leaf Herb] due to its leaf shape resembling soybean paste leaves. The stem exudes juice when broken, and Daoist practitioners harvest it in autumn when it turns yellow."] It should not be used unless there is blood stagnation or blood stasis. The above belong to the category of Stone Herbs.

It softens hardness and dissipates nodules.
Salty and cold in nature. It eliminates goiters and qi stagnation with knotting. (The *Yijian Zhi* records: "A monk in a temple in Henan suffered from goiter. A fellow monk from Luoyang, staying in the same quarters, ate dried seaweed with his meals every day. After several months, the monastic growths on the head disappeared. Thus, it was known that marine products can eliminate this disease.")

Raw form breaks blood; roasted form stops bleeding.
When used raw, it is pungent and neutral, breaking blood and unblocking menstruation. It treats fixed masses (zheng jia) and strangury with knotting. When roasted, it is pungent and warm, stopping bleeding. It treats intestinal wind and rectal prolapse. It grows on rocks, curling like a chicken's foot. Commonly known as Wannian Song (Ten-Thousand-Year Pine). Boil in salt water for half a day, then boil in well water for half a day, and dry-roast.

Light in texture, it resolves heat; externally applied, it treats sores.
Pungent and neutral. Light and void in texture. It clears the lungs, resolves heat, dissipates blood, and stops coughing. It treats throat obstruction (hou bi) and sore throat. (Blown into the throat, it is effective; alternatively, add alum or niter, sweep the throat to induce vomiting of phlegm, and it will heal.) It treats epistaxis and loss of voice. Externally applied to various sores, it is effective. (I often see cold-natured medicines used for applying to sores; although the sore heals, the heat toxin attacks internally, causing other diseases, which is quite harmful. This medicine is pungent, neutral, and dispersing, making it very safe and reliable.) It grows on damp, rotting wood. Its shape resembles the lungs and liver, purple in color, light and soft. When flicked, powder comes out. Harvest the powder. (For persistent chronic cough, grind Ma Bo [Lasiosphaera fenzhouensis] into powder, make pills the size of wu zi [Chinese quince seeds] with honey, take 20 pills each time with plain boiled water, and the cough will stop immediately. For persistent hematemesis and epistaxis during pregnancy, take half a qian of Ma Bo powder mixed with thick rice decoction.) The above belong to the category of Mosses/Lichens.