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Clear heat, resolve toxicity.
Sweet and cold in nature. Treats diarrhea and dysentery of cold, hot, red, and white types; abdominal cramping pain caused by internal heat toxin. Resolves toxicity from various meats, vegetables, fruits, medicines, and fungi (fungi, pronounced jùn, grow on rotting wood and damp ground. Also known as xùn, pronounced with rising tone). Expels insect larvae entering the abdomen (e.g., if horse leeches or similar insects are accidentally ingested and lay eggs causing harm, use earth slurry to expel them). Revives those who have suddenly died from heatstroke (take hot soil from the road, surround the navel, induce urination into the navel, mix equal parts of hot soil and garlic, crush, add water, strain, and administer orally to revive). Preparation: Pour fresh water onto yellow soil, stir until turbid, let settle, and use the clarified liquid. (For all traumatic injuries, take clean soil, steam it until hot, wrap in cloth, and apply alternately to the injury site. Do not make it too hot to avoid breaking the skin. Even in cases of blood stasis accumulation and near-death due to qi exhaustion, revival is possible. When Emperor Shenzong of Song’s son suffered from convulsions, imperial physicians could not cure him. Qian Yi prescribed Huangtu Tang [Yellow Earth Decoction], resulting in recovery. The Emperor asked for the reason, and he replied: "Earth controls water; when water is balanced, wind naturally ceases.")

Clear heat, generate fluids, astringe, dry dampness.
Bitter and astringent in taste. Clears upper jiao diaphragm heat, transforms phlegm, generates fluids, stops bleeding, dries dampness, relieves pain, and promotes tissue regeneration. Applied externally to metal wounds (mixed equally with borax) and mouth ulcers; treats yin gan [pediatric ulcerative condition of the lower body] and hemorrhoid swelling. Originates from Southern Fan, reportedly made from fine tea powder placed in bamboo tubes, buried in soil for a long time, then taken out, crushed, juiced, and boiled into a paste. Small and moist pieces are superior; large and dry pieces are inferior.

Light, stops bleeding, resolves accumulation.
Pungent and warm in nature. Stops bleeding (for epistaxis, apply with water; red stops upon contact with black, as water overcomes fire); resolves accumulation. Treats various bleeding disorders, yang toxicity from shanghan [cold damage] with macules, jaundice, ge syndrome [obstruction in the chest/diaphragm], malaria, dysentery, sore throat, tongue lesions, scalp tinea capitis, and various sores (Li Shizhen stated: these methods also employ the principle of treating fire with fire-like substances). This refers to soot from the flue of a stove.

Pungent and warm in nature. Stops bleeding and promotes tissue regeneration. For silk fibers or dust particles entering the eye, grind thickly and apply as drops; applied to the nose to stop epistaxis; mixed with pig bile and applied to various carbuncles and swellings (vinegar grinding is also acceptable). Mixed with wine and taken orally to treat retained placenta.

Heavy, harmonizes the middle, stops bleeding, dries dampness, reduces swelling.
Pungent and warm in nature. Harmonizes the middle jiao, stops bleeding, removes dampness, and reduces swelling. Treats cough with reverse flow of qi and vomiting, hematemesis, epistaxis, metrorrhagia, leukorrhea, hematuria, spermatorrhea, intestinal wind, and carbuncles/swellings (apply with vinegar), umbilical sores (apply powdered form), erysipelas (mix with lard from the twelfth lunar month or egg white), and induces labor/expulsion of dead fetus (Bojiu Fang records: for a dead fetus in the womb, take three qian mixed with water; the earth will emerge above the fetus's head). This is yellow soil from the center of an axe handle used for many years, or alternatively, soil from inside the stove lip where fire qi has accumulated over time, forming a stone-like mass that is red outside and yellow inside. Finely ground and processed using the water-flying method.