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Winter melon, also known as white melon.

[Harm] Winter melon is cold in nature and slippery in property; it is suitable for those with heat in the zang-fu organs. For those with cold constitutions, eating it may cause emaciation. It should not be consumed by individuals with kidney yang deficiency and cold, or those suffering from chronic loose stools, as it may induce regurgitation. It is best consumed after the first frost.

[Benefit] It is sweet and neutral in nature. It tonifies the liver and brightens the eyes, clears the lungs, and moistens to resolve phlegm. The whole fruit is cold and drains heat, sweet and benefits the spleen, promotes urination and defecation, relieves thirst (Xiao Ke), reduces edema, and dissipates heat toxins and carbuncles. The peel is sweet and cold, benefits the spleen, and "treats the skin with the skin," thus promoting urination and defecation, reducing edema, draining heat toxins, and relieving thirst. The leaves treat thirst, malaria, and alternating chills and fever.

[Preparation and Storage] Harvested in the seventh and eighth lunar months, collected after the frost descends. It can be stored for years without spoiling. It can be used as a vegetable or medicinal material. Contact with lacquer, musk, or glutinous rice will cause it to rot. The seeds are arranged in rows within the pulp; remove the pulp, slice open, and dry in the sun for use. All "melon seeds" used in herbal medicine refer to winter melon seeds.

Chicken.

[Harm] Chicken meat is hot in nature and tends to stir wind. It is contraindicated for those recovering from febrile diseases, those with unruptured carbuncles and sores, and those who habitually have wind-phlegm. Old chickens kept for many years have toxic brains; consuming them can trigger ding sores (furuncles). If poisoning leads to ding sores, it can be resolved using Yushu Dan (Jade Pivot Pill). Chicken comb blood is warm in nature. For patients with pustular eruptions due to deficiency-cold, it can indeed help the eruption rise. However, if the eruptions are dry, scorched, and black due to blood-heat, misuse will worsen the condition. It is a mistake for people to frequently use chicken comb blood and silkworm borers to promote eruptions without distinguishing between cold and heat patterns. Chickens come in five colors. Black chickens with white heads, six-toed chickens, four-spurred chickens, chickens whose legs do not straighten after death, and capons that crow are all unsuitable for consumption, as they harm the body.

[Benefit] Chicken meat is sweet and warm, belongs to Xun (Wind) and Wood, tonifies deficiency, warms the middle, but stirs wind. Its boiled juice is slippery and moistening. Black-bone chicken is sweet and neutral, belongs to Water, tonifies the liver and kidneys, clears heat, tonifies deficiency, and treats diseases of the liver and kidney blood levels.

The chicken comb occupies a high and pure position; its blood is the gathering of essence. Male red combs belong to Yang, thus treating sudden fright and evil invasion (Zhong E Jing Wu). Dripping fresh blood into the mouth, applying it topically, or blowing it into the nose works because "that which originates from heaven tends to move upward," hence it is applied to treat facial paralysis (deviation of mouth and eyes).

Chicken egg is sweet and neutral, calms the heart and anchors the five zang organs, supplements qi and blood, dissipates heat, calms fright, stops coughing, and stops dysentery. However, excessive consumption causes chest fullness and oppression.

Eggshells from hens that have been brooding treat recurrence of labor after recovery from Shang Han (Cold Damage). Powdered externally for under-sore (Xia Gan); mixed with sesame oil for topical application for poison from smallpox/variolous eruptions, which is miraculous.

Phoenix clothing (inner membrane of the eggshell) treats chronic cough, qi stagnation, and loss of voice. White chicken droppings are slightly cold, direct qi downward, resolve accumulation, and promote urination and defecation. The *Nei Jing* uses it to treat Gu distension; stir-fried with rice to treat mass disorders (Zheng Jia); mixed with vinegar and applied topically for bites from earthworms and centipedes.

Chicken gizzard lining, also known as Ji Nei Jin, or (pronounced "Pi Chi"), is sweet, neutral, and astringent. It is the spleen of the chicken. It promotes water metabolism, kills parasites, clears heat, relieves irritability, opens the small intestine and bladder, treats diarrhea and dysentery, frequent urination, enuresis, hematuria, metrorrhagia and leukorrhea, intestinal wind, diaphragmatic thirst, regurgitation, and pediatric food-stagnation malaria. Males should use female gizzard linings, and females should use male gizzard linings.

Chicken intestines treat enuresis and uncontrollable frequent urination.

Chicken liver treats dim vision due to liver deficiency and qi obstruction with indigestion.

Do not eat brooding hens in the fourth month, as this causes carbuncles and fistulas, leading to weakness in both men and women. Children under five years old who eat raw chicken meat develop roundworms. Chicken meat should not be eaten with garlic, mustard greens, plums, dog liver, dog kidneys, or rabbit meat, lest it cause diarrhea and dysentery. Eating it with fish sauce forms heart masses (Xin Jia); eating it with carp causes carbuncles and boils; eating it with otter meat causes Dun Kou (a type of oral disease); eating it with raw green onions causes hemorrhoids caused by parasites; eating it with glutinous rice generates roundworms.

[Preparation and Storage] Although chicken belongs to Wood, when analyzed and matched: Red roosters possess the image of Li Fire and Yang Ming; white roosters possess the image of Geng Metal and Tai Bai. Thus, they are suitable for dispelling evil and malice. Black roosters belong to Wood; black hens belong to Water, making them suitable for pregnancy and childbirth. Yellow hens belong to Earth, making them suitable for the spleen and stomach. Black-bone chickens obtain the essence of Water and Wood, making them suitable for deficiency-heat conditions. Feathers-growing-inward chickens treat regurgitation, each utilizing their specific correspondences.