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(Brewing Category) Resolves heat pathogens in the Kidney and toxins from various foods.

Doujiang (Soybean Paste) (Specifically enters the Kidney Meridian). It is made by steaming soybeans and wheat flour, fermenting them, and then adding salt and water for sun-drying. Although it undergoes heating and prolonged processing, its flavor is salty and its nature is cold. The fire element cannot overcome the water element. Therefore, it remains an agent for clearing heat, resolving toxicity, and purging fire. Consequently, medical texts record that for all types of fish, meat, vegetables, and mushroom poisoning, this should be used to harmonize; for snake and insect bites, bee stings, dog bites, scalds, arsenic poisoning, and gu poison, this should be used to resolve. Regarding finger spasms and pain (soak with warm mixture of paste liquor and honey); stubborn skin sores and tinea (wipe daily with mixture of paste liquor and fine powder of sulfur); constipation (enema with paste juice); flying insects entering the ear (instill paste into the ear to expel them); impetigo and tinea (apply mixture of bean paste pieces and human urine); calomel poisoning (rinse mouth with water dissolved from three-year-old aged paste); dryness of the body (apply medicine containing soybean paste); conditions such as lower bleeding and hematuria during pregnancy (for lower bleeding, use two sheng of soybean paste, remove the liquid, stir-fry the beans, grind into powder, take one fangcun chi per dose; for hematuria, boil soybean paste until dry, mix with two liang of powdered Rehmanniae Radix, take one qian per dose, swallow with rice soup). There is no condition unsuitable for treatment with this. However, since its qi is salty and nature is cold, excessive consumption by children may generate phlegm and disturb qi; if pregnant women consume it with sparrow meat, it may cause the child's face to turn dark. These situations should be avoided. Aged soybean paste is preferred. (Wheat paste diminishes medicinal efficacy and is inferior to soybean paste.)

(Non-vegetarian/Pungent Category) When Celery has more pungency than bitterness, it can treat cold-dampness; when it has more bitterness than pungency, it can treat heat-toxicity.

Qincai (Celery) (Specifically enters the Lung, Stomach, and Liver meridians). Grows in the earth, divided into wild celery (Zhanqin) and water celery (Shuiqin). Its flavors vary among bitter, sweet, pungent, and sour. According to Zhang Lu: Wild celery grows by receiving the Qingyang (Spring Yang) qi, possessing a pungent and dispersing aroma, capable of regulating damp-turbidity in the Stomach. Water celery grows by receiving excessive damp qi, possessing a pungent but turbid aroma. According to *Bencao Gangmu*: Wild celery has a sweet and cold flavor, capable of clearing vexatious heat below the heart; water celery has a sweet and neutral flavor, capable of treating leukorrhea in women. These two theories are completely different. Is it not known that among wild celery varieties, some receive strong yang qi, thus having a pungent and drying taste; others receive weak yang qi, thus having a bitter and damp taste. Among water celery varieties, those receiving the strongest yang qi have a turbid yet clear qi; those dominated by yin qi have a bitter and turbid taste. One cannot assert that all water celery belongs to the Yin category or all wild celery to the Yang category. Only by observing whether pungency exceeds bitterness can one determine that celery is mostly drying and not cooling; if bitterness exceeds pungency, celery is mostly cold and not warming. When pungency exceeds bitterness, treatment should follow the *Shennong Bencao Jing*, stating it treats female leukorrhea, allowing turbid dampness to leave, Stomach qi to clear, and essence and blood to rely on it, making people robust and increasing appetite. When bitterness exceeds pungency and the texture is sticky and slippery, treatment should follow the *Tang Bencao*, stating it treats carbuncles and horse venom, rather than entering the Spleen to aid digestion, entering the Yin to assist essence, or entering the Liver to preserve blood! However, since celery grows in water, one must beware of insects between the leaves. (Around spring and summer, lizards and venomous snakes often leave semen here.) Invisible to the naked eye, this causes the face and hands to turn blue, abdominal distension resembling pregnancy, unbearable pain, termed "Jiaolong Pain." One must consume two to three jin of hard maltose syrup; vomiting will bring recovery. The root of celery that is white and reaches one chi in length is called "Ma Qin" (Horse Celery); consuming it causes sores and scabies because its damp-heat qi is most abundant. Consuming it with vinegar damages teeth; persons with Bie Jia (turtle-shaped abdominal mass) should not eat it.