Library

[Gao Liang Jiang / Galangal]
Efficacy: Dispersing, drying dampness, warming the stomach, and dispelling cold.
Nature and Flavor: Pungent, Hot.
Actions: Warms the stomach, dispels cold, resolves food stagnation, and revives from intoxication.
Indications: Cold pain in the epigastrium (Any single-point pain at the heart region, commonly called "Heart Qi Pain," is incorrect; it is actually caused by stagnation or parasites in the epigastrium, or triggered by anger and cold. Treatment involves washing Galangal Rhizome seven times with wine and Cyperi Rhizoma seven times with vinegar, then baking and grinding them into powder. For cases due to cold, use 2 qian of Galangal Rhizome and 1 qian of Aconitum Lateralis Preparatum; for cases due to anger, use 2 qian of Aconitum Lateralis Preparatum and 1 qian of Galangal Rhizome; for combined cold and anger, use 1.5 qian of each, taken with rice water, adding one spoonful of ginger juice and a little salt. Chu Lianggun suffered from Heart-Spleen pain and received this prescription in a dream from a deity; he took equal parts of these two herbs. Later, they were used in stir-fried formulas). Cholera with diarrhea and dysentery, vomiting, nausea, dysphagia, miasmic malaria, and cold masses. Contraindicated in cases of Heat in the Lung and Stomach.
Origin: Produced in Gaozhou, Lingnan.
Seed: Named Hong Dou Kou (Red Cardamom), warms the Lung, dispels cold, awakens the Spleen, dries dampness, resolves food stagnation, and relieves intoxication (Frequently used in Li Dongyuan's formulas for the Spleen and Stomach). It should be stir-fried with soil from the east-facing wall before use.

[Bi Ba / Long Pepper]
Alternative Name: Also written as "Bo".
Efficacy: Drying dampness, removing cold from the Stomach, dispersing floating heat.
Nature and Flavor: Pungent, Hot.
Actions: Dispels cold from the Stomach, warms the Middle Jiao, directs Qi downward, resolves food stagnation, and expels phlegm.
Indications: Watery diarrhea and Qi-type dysentery (can be taken with cow's milk), intestinal borborygmus due to deficiency-cold (also enters the Large Intestine Meridian), nausea due to cold-phlegm, vomiting of sour fluid, Pi syndrome, and Yin hernia.
Pungency disperses floating Heat in the Yangming channel, treating headache (for migraines, hold warm water in the mouth and insufflate one zi amount of powder into the nostril on the affected side for effective results), toothache (Cold toothache suits dried Ginger, Long Pepper, and Asarum; Heat toothache suits Gypsum and Natrii Sulfas; Wind toothache suits Gleditsiae Fructus, Bombyx Batryticatus, Vespa Nest, and Chuanwu/Caowu; Worm toothache suits calcined stone and Realgar), and Bi Yuan (nasal sinusitis). Excessive consumption depletes True Qi, stirs Fire in the Spleen and Lung, and damages the eyes.
Origin: Imported from Southern Barbarian lands; also found in Lingnan. Resembles mulberry fruit but longer, green in color; remove the stem and use only the head. Soak in vinegar. Scrape off the skin and tubercles to avoid injuring the Lung.

[Tobacco] (New Addition)
Efficacy: Dispersing, moving Qi, repelling cold.
Nature and Flavor: Pungent, Warm, Toxic.
Indications: Bi syndrome due to Wind-Cold-Damp, stagnant Qi and retained phlegm, and mountain miasma. Its aroma, upon entering the mouth, does not follow normal pathways but circulates through the entire body within moments, making the whole body feel comfortable. It can intoxicate the sober, awaken the drunk, make the hungry feel full, and make the full feel hungry.
People use it as a substitute for wine and tea, never tiring of it (hence the name Xiang Si Cao / Love-Grass). However, its fiery nature scorches and consumes blood, shortening lifespan, though people are often unaware of this. Those produced in Fujian are superior (water collected from tobacco pipes can antidote snake venom).