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[Harm] Bamboo shavings (Zhuru) have a cold and cooling nature. It is contraindicated for vomiting caused by stomach cold, as well as vomiting resulting from cold pathogen invasion combined with food stagnation.

[Benefits] Bamboo shavings are sweet, pungent, and bland in taste, and cold in nature. They enter the Heart, Lung, and Stomach meridians. They regulate adverse Qi flow to calm vomiting and dysphagia; they clear blood heat to treat hematemesis, epistaxis, and metrorrhagia.

Bamboo shavings from *Phyllostachys nigra* (Dan Zhu) are of the highest quality, while those from *Phyllostachys heterocycla* var. *pubescens* (Gan Zhu) are secondary. Whenever using bamboo shavings, bamboo leaves, or bamboo sap, one must select bamboo that has grown for exactly one year, as it is tender and potent. Scrape off the green outer skin and use the second layer as fresh bamboo shavings. When used in formulas to calm vomiting and rebellious Qi, stir-fry with ginger juice before use.

[Harm] Beimu (Fritillaria Bulb) is strictly contraindicated for all types of phlegm caused by wind-cold-dampness stagnation. Thus, although it enters the Lung to treat dryness, it is not favored by the Spleen system. Furthermore, it is contraindicated for coughs caused by food stagnation and phlegm-fire, nausea and retching due to damp-phlegm in the Stomach, chills and fever due to phlegm-fluid retention, dizziness due to spleen-stomach damp-phlegm, headache due to phlegm syncope, vomiting due to sudden evil attack, and diarrhea due to stomach cold. These conditions should legally be treated with acrid-warm and drying-hot herbs such as Pinelliae Rhizoma Preparatum (Nan Xing), Pinelliae Rhizoma (Ban Xia), Gastrodiae Rhizoma (Tian Ma), Atractylodis Rhizoma (Zhu Ru), and Poria (Fu Ling).

[Benefits] Beimu is bitter and pungent, with a slightly cold nature. It resolves phlegm and moistens the Lungs, washes away heat and clears the Heart. Therefore, it can resolve depression and nodules, treat cough, hyperpnea, hematemesis, hemoptysis, lung abscess, lung萎 (Lung Wei), and throat obstruction (Hou Bi).

Zhe Beimu, also known as Xiang Beimu, is hard in texture and bitter in taste; it is used to eliminate wind-phlegm from external contraction. Chuan Beimu transforms deficiency-phlegm. Tu Beimu is large in shape and bitter in taste; it treats surgical conditions involving phlegm-toxin. Their applications differ, but the heart must be removed in both cases.

[Processing] Harvest the rhizomes in August. The rhizome consists of cloves that are yellowish-white and shaped like clustered shells, hence the name Beimu. Sun-dry them. First, roast them in willow wood ash until yellow. Break open and remove the heart, which is about the size of a rice grain located inside near the mouth/nose area. Then, stir-fry with glutinous rice until the rice turns yellow. Discard the rice and use the herb.

[Harm] Shigao (Gypsum Fibrosum) is a crucial herb for resolving excess heat, dispelling summer-heat, scattering pathogenic heat, stopping thirst, and removing irritability. However, it severely damages the Stomach Qi. Warm-heat diseases often involve the Yangming channel. If the patient has headache and generalized bone pain without thirst or desire to drink, the pathogen is still in the Taiyang channel and has not transmitted to Yangming; Shigao should not be used. After seven or eight days, if the pathogen has consolidated internally with dry feces, presenting with alternating chills and fever, purgation is indicated, not Shigao. For summer-heat combined with dampness causing diarrhea, do not use it in patients with weak Spleen and Stomach. For malaria where the pathogen is not in Yangming, there is no thirst, so it is also unsuitable. For postpartum chills and fever due to Blood deficiency or incomplete expulsion of lochia; for tidal fever due to Spleen-Stomach deficiency-cold and insufficiency of Yin-Essence rather than external contraction; do not mistakenly use it. In Shaoyin disease with Yin excess repelling Yang, internal cold with external heat, green stool, and black tongue indicating cold syndrome, administering Shigao erroneously is incurable. Careful examination is required. Yellow-colored Gypsum causes strangury (Lin syndrome).

[Benefits] Its cold nature clears heat and descends fire; its pungency induces sweating and releases the muscle layer; its sweetness moderates the Spleen, generates fluids, and stops thirst. It clears heat from the Lungs and Stomach, making it an essential material for treating macules and papules (Ban Zhen).

Calcined Gypsum (Wei Shigao). Heating reduces its cold nature so it does not overly injure the Stomach.

[Processing] There are two types: soft and hard. Soft Gypsum occurs in large blocks within rocks, layered like flattened rice cakes, with each layer several inches thick. It comes in red and white colors. Red varieties are not for internal use; translucent white ones are superior. Grind into fine powder and levigate with Licorice Decoction. Because it damages the Stomach due to its cold nature, calcining it reduces this injury. However, if the dosage is too small, efficacy is hard to achieve. Mixing it with rock sugar prevents damage to the Spleen and Stomach.