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[Properties and Actions]
Pungent, cold (Li Shizhen stated: dry, toxic). Kills parasites and treats sores; eliminates phlegm and resolves accumulation (can eliminate phlegmatic accumulation. Adding Da Huang, Qian Niu, and Qing Fen to Shi Zao Tang is called San Hua Shen San), enters the meridians well, and is frequently used in formulas treating spasms. Do not overdose or use for long periods (Li Shizhen stated: Mercury Yin is toxic; it is extracted from Cinnabar using fire. With added salt and alum, it is refined into Qing Fen. Its nature is light, dry, and acrid; it moves freely without staying put. Currently, people use it to treat yaws. Although it can force wind-phlegm-damp-heat out through the gums, temporarily relieving pathogenic stagnation, the toxin invades the meridians, depleting the sinews, bones, and blood. The sinews lose nourishment, leading to tendon spasms and bone pain. Abscesses, gan ulcers, and fistulas become chronic disabilities, causing endless harm. The upper and lower gingiva belong to the Hand and Foot Yangming Stomach and Large Intestine meridians. Toxins ascend along the meridians and exit at the thin and tender gingival tissue. Tu Fu Ling, Huang Lian, Hei Qian, Tie Jiang, and Chen Jiang can restrain its toxicity.)

[Heavy Gypsum - Chong Shi Gao]
Heavy, brightens the eyes.
Sweet, sour, cold. Benefits the Liver, brightens the eyes, opens orifices, and promotes urination. Produced in copper mines. Those that are large, hollow in the center, and contain water are of good quality.

[Yun Mu - Mica]
Tonifies the Middle Jiao.
Sweet, neutral, associated with Metal, white color enters the Lung. Descends Qi, tonifies the Middle, strengthens muscles, and reconnects severed tissues. Treats labor injury, malaria, dysentery, abscesses, and carbuncles (boiled with Huang Dan to make a paste for external application. *Qian Jin Yi Fang*: used for dressing metal wounds. Kang Daofeng, a hermit from Qingcheng Mountain, had a formula of Yun Mu powder that could treat hundred diseases). There are five colors; those that are white and lustrous are superior. Ancients also refined and ingested it (Mica does not burn even after long exposure to fire, nor does it rot when buried in soil, hence it was said to promote longevity). Paired with Ze Xie. Adverse to mutton.

[Raw Gypsum - Sheng Shi Gao]
Heavy weight, drains Fire Qi; light texture, releases the muscle layer.
Sweet, pungent, bland; heavy in texture and descending. It is a great-cold herb for the Foot Yangming (Stomach) meridian. White color enters the Lung; it also enters the San Jiao (it is an herb for regulating Qi in all meridians). Coldness clears heat and descends fire; pungency induces sweating and releases the muscle layer; sweetness moderates the Spleen, benefits Qi, generates fluids, and stops thirst. It treats Shaoyang constraint with no sweat, Yangming headache, fever with aversion to cold, afternoon tidal fever. Muscular high fever (The Classic states: Excess Yang generates external heat); red and turbid urine, extreme thirst with desire to drink; summerheat stroke with spontaneous sweating (can induce sweating but also stop spontaneous sweating); scorched tongue (thick coating without fluid); toothache (Yangming meridian heat; powdered and applied to teeth to strengthen them). Furthermore, since the Stomach governs muscles and the Lung governs skin and hair, it is a key herb for treating macules and papules (Red like brocade patterns are macules; faint red spots are papules; macules are severe, papules are mild. Mostly caused by Stomach heat, but there are both Yin and Yang syndromes. For Yang syndromes, Shi Gao is suitable. In cases of internal injury Yin syndrome presenting with macules/papules, they are faint red and sparse, indicating extreme deficiency of Stomach Qi forcing rootless Fire to wander externally. One should tonify Qi and Blood to provide an internal anchor, preventing Qi from wandering and Blood from scattering. If treated as Heat, death or life depends on a moment's decision; physicians must be cautious). However, if used in small doses, efficacy is hard to achieve (Bai Hu Tang uses it as the Sovereign herb, increasing from 1 liang to 4 liang; Zhu Ye, Mai Dong, Zhi Mu, and Jing Mi are increased fourfold; in severe cases, Huang Qin, Huang Lian, and Huang Bo are added, called San Huang Shi Gao Tang; for deficiency, Ren Shen is added, called Ren Shen Bai Hu Tang). Yet it can chill the Stomach; it is contraindicated in weak Stomach, Blood deficiency, and when pathogens have not entered the Yangming meridian (Cheng Wuji explained Da Qing Long Tang: Wind, a Yang pathogen, injures Wei Qi; Cold, a Yin pathogen, injures Ying Blood. When Ying, Wei, Yin, and Yang are all injured, light agents alone cannot disperse them; heavy and light agents must be used together to disperse both Yin and Yang pathogens, harmonizing Ying and Wei. Shi Gao is a heavy agent that specifically reaches the muscle surface. Heavy in substance but light in Qi, Cheng classified Gui Zhi and Ma Huang as light agents and Shi Gao as a heavy agent. Dong Yuan stated: Shi Gao is a Foot Yangming herb. Zhong Jing used it to treat Yangming syndrome of Shang Han, characterized by fever, eye pain, nasal dryness, and inability to sleep. The pathogen is in Yangming, and the Lung is constrained by Fire, so pungent-cold herbs are used to clear Lung Qi, hence the name Bai Hu (White Tiger), as the Lung governs the West. Note: Yangming governs muscles, hence fever; meridians intersect at the forehead, hence eye pain; meridians originate at the nose and run along the lateral side, Metal is dry, hence nasal dryness; Stomach disharmony leads to restless sleep, hence inability to sleep.
However, there are also Yin deficiency with fever, Spleen/Stomach deficiency exhaustion, and Shang Han Yin excess repelling Yang (internal cold with external heat) or conditions resembling Bai Hu Tang syndrome; misapplication here is incurable.
Note: Yin excess repelling Yang and Yang excess repelling Yin are extremely difficult to differentiate. When Yin excess is extreme, it repels Yang outward, resulting in external heat but internal cold; when Yang excess is extreme, it repels Yin outward, resulting in external cold but internal heat. This corresponds to the Classic saying: Extreme Yin transforms to Yang, extreme Yang transforms to Yin; extreme cold becomes heat, extreme heat becomes cold. Differentiation should be based on urination: clear urine indicates external dryness/heat but internal actual cold; red urine indicates external cold limbs but internal actual heat. Also observe moisture in the mouth and depth of tongue coating: yellow or black coating indicates heat, suitable for Bai Hu Tang; however, black coating can also indicate cold if there are no prickles on the tongue and saliva is present. In such cases, warming is urgent; misusing cold herbs will cause death). Also known as Han Shui Shi (Li Shizhen stated: Ancient formulas referred to Ning Shui Shi as Han Shui Shi; Tang and Song formulas referred to Shi Gao as Han Shui Shi. Ning Shui Shi is formed when salt essence penetrates the soil over years, crystallizing clearly with edges, dissolving instantly in water. Pungent, salty, great-cold; treats epidemic heat excess, thirst, and edema). Those that are clear and white are best. Finely ground and processed by levigation with Gan Cao water. Modern practitioners, due to its coldness, sometimes calcine it with fire to prevent stomach injury, but this makes the flavor bland and active ingredients hard to extract. If decocted, it must be boiled first for dozens of boils; Ji Zi (Egg White) is the guide. Contraindicated with Ba Dou and Iron.