Library

(40 species, with 4 appended)

*Yi Jiuyou Shihua* records: It is found in the snow mountains of Balikun. Physicians use it as a medicine for the root of life and vitality. Military personnel compete to buy it; one piece costs dozens of taels of gold, and it is not easy to obtain. Zhu Tegu once saw it in Wumen (Suzhou), stating that its entire body has golden line patterns, and its shape resembles a toad.
Its nature is greatly hot. It tonifies the Mingmen (Gate of Vitality), benefits the Dantian (Elixir Field), can restore yang qi that has already ceased, and its efficacy combines that of Renshen (Ginseng) and Fuzi (Aconite Root). However, those with excessive fire should not take it.

*Mifang Jiyi* records the secret recipe for making Fuhu Dan (Tiger-Taming Pill): Used to stimulate yang, seed offspring, strengthen the kidneys, and assist spirit. Take Zhen Chuanbei (True Fritillaria Bulb) four liang. It requires four processing steps:
First step: Use one large Fuzi (Aconite Lateral Root), steam with one bowl of Tongbian (Child's Urine), cut into fine pieces, dry, then add three bowls of Shaojiu (Brewed Wine) and three bowls of Jiuzhi (Chive Juice). Put together in a clay pot, boil the Beimu (Fritillaria) until dry, remove the Fuzi and discard.
Second step: Use one liang of Xue Xama (Snow Toad). If unavailable, replace with one pair of Da Gejie (Large Gecko). Crush with stone, also add three bowls each of Shaojiu and Jiuzhi, boil together with Beimu until dry, remove the Gejie and discard.
Third step: Use one liang of Wu Zhuyu (Evodia Fruit), also add three bowls each of wine and chive juice, boil with Beimu until dry, remove the Zhuyu and discard.
Fourth step: Use five qian of Gong Dingxiang (Male Clove Bud), also add three bowls each of wine and chive juice, boil with Beimu until dry, remove the Dingxiang and discard. After processing, the Beimu becomes mushy like mud. Place in a stone mortar and pound. Then add one qian of Zhen Afuwu (True Opium), three qian of Ru Zhi Chansu (Milk-processed Toad Venom), and five fen of Shexiang (Musk). Mix evenly, form into strips, bake dry, and store. When used, grind with saliva and apply externally.
Xueli Xama (Snow Toad) is hot and slightly pungent in nature. It strengthens yang and dispels cold. It can treat impotence and weakness (*Yaoxing Kao*).

*Min Xiaoji* records: Sea cucumbers from Fujian are uniquely white, often stuffed with bamboo sticks, palm-sized, differing from those produced in Jiaozhou and Liaohai. Their taste is also lighter and inferior. For medicinal use, those from Liaohai are good; those from Hongqi Street are better than those from Lüqi Street. Those with spines are called Cishen (Spiny Sea Cucumber); those without spines are called Guangshen (Smooth Sea Cucumber). Large ones with spines are best for medicine. Also known as "Hai Nanzi" (Sea Man). There are two types: Jing (starchy/firm) and Nuo (glutinous/soft), among which the black and greasy ones are especially good. People consider the Kidney as the sea. This kind lives in the salty waters of the North Sea, and its black color corresponds to nourishing Kidney Water, seeking similarity in kind.
*Bai Cao Jing* records: Sea cucumbers are also produced in the mudflats of the South Sea. They are yellow, large, spineless, and have hard flesh, making them unsuitable for food. Locals call them "Haiguapi" (Sea Melon Skin), meaning they are as coarse and tough as melon skin. Stuffed into pork for cooking, they can strengthen the Spleen. For medicines tonifying Yin, only those from Liaodong must be used. They can also be boiled down to make paste or glue.
*Yaojian* records: Sea cucumbers from Fengtian in Shengjing are the first grade. Black meat, glutinous texture, many spines, named Liaoshen Cishen (Liaoning Spiny Sea Cucumber). Those from Guanghai are named Guangshen, yellow in color. Those from Fujian have white skin, starchy flesh, rough and dense, spineless, named Feizao Shen (Soap Sea Cucumber). Guangshen from Ningbo, Zhejiang, are large, soft, and spineless, named Guapicai Shen (Melon Skin Sea Cucumber), of even lower quality.
Han Zi's elegant words from Guandong: Sea cucumbers live in the East China Sea, varying in size. Their bodies are slippery like leeches, capable of extension and contraction. They live in groups on the seabed and swim rapidly. Collectors drip Haigouyou (Seal Oil) into the water, making the seawater clear to the bottom. Seeing a sea cucumber, they enter the water to catch it. This creature stops moving upon contact with human scent. First, grasp it with both hands, place it by the neck, then by the ribs, then between the legs and under the knees. Once it touches human scent, it becomes immobile. Then bring it out, cut open to remove intestines, pickle with Duan Shi (Forged Stone/Salt) to remove fishy slime, making the flesh tight. Dried, it shrinks to about one cun. Actually, fresh ones are as big as a melon, about one chi long. If dried ones are over one cun, fresh ones were undoubtedly larger.
Li Jinshi from Penglai says: Sea cucumbers are also produced in the seas of Dengzhou, bordering Liaodong. The local produce is also excellent. Locals say sea cucumbers often hide under large stones in the sea. The water is deep and invisible. Collectors must drip Haigouyou into the water, creating a spreading halo that clears the water to the bottom, then enter to catch them. They often suffer poison attacks from sharks, so their price is not cheap. Fresh bodies have much slippery slime. Intestines are removed, pickled with ash to remove fishy slime, dried for sale. They often retain an ash-salty smell.
Chen Lianghan from Fushan says: Those from the North Sea are the best, ranking first in the world. These海参 hide on the seabed. When the east wind thaws ice in February or March, they float to the surface, breeding in the shallow sand of tidal flats, making them easy to catch. However, after spawning, only empty skins remain. The skin is thin and loose, the taste is not very good, and the price is low. Experts despise them, naming them "Chunpi" (Spring Skin). In April and May, they move to deep sea waters holding onto rocks, making them slightly harder to catch, and their bodies are somewhat plump. By the Dog Days (Fu Month), they hide in the deepest parts of the sea under stones or in mud holes, difficult to catch. Their quality is plump, skin and spines glossy, taste most delicious. This is the first grade, named "Fupi" (Summer Skin), and the price is quite high. For medicine, this type is superior. In autumn and winter, they hibernate in the seabed and cannot be obtained.
*Wuzuazu* records: Sea cucumbers are found on the coast of Liaodong. Also named "Hai Nanzi" (Sea Man). Their shape resembles male genitalia, corresponding to dried mussels. Their nature is warm and tonifying, sufficient to rival Renshen (Ginseng), hence the name Haishen (Sea Cucumber).
*Yaoxing Kao* records: Those from Liaodong are the best. Those from Wu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong are plump but flavorless. For deficiency-fire and dry constipation, chop together with Mu'er (Wood Ear Mushroom), cook in pig large intestine. Song verse: Haishen is salty and cold, descends fire and nourishes the kidney, unblocks the intestines and moistens dryness, eliminates consumptive diseases. Liaodong small ones are good, with dense, brittle, hard spines. Southern ones are thick and large, but meat taste is slightly inferior.
Sweet and warm. Food compatibility and taboos: Sweet and salty in taste. Enters the Kidney meridian, benefits essence and marrow, resolves phlegm and saliva, controls urination, strengthens yang and treats impotence, kills parasites and sores.

*Sheng Baimai Xue* (Generating Blood of All Vessels): Sheng Tianran, a Confucian physician from Lin'an, told me: I once visited a sick woman in Qingshanli. Her eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and hair roots were all bleeding, as was her lower body. She was unconscious. Asking her husband about the cause, he said she had been frightened a few days prior. At that time, the weather was extremely hot and drought-stricken, and she had absorbed dry and acrid qi, causing blood to overflow and surge, scattering up and down. It was incurable, and all physicians hung up their hands in despair. Sheng's great-uncle had obtained a prescription in the capital specifically for this condition, fortunately still remembered. Urgently, someone was sent to fetch a bucket of mountain spring water and one jin of Shaojiu (Brewed Wine). The woman was helped to sit up, her calves exposed. First, Shaojiu was poured over them, allowing the wine to drip from the ankles into the bucket. After pouring, the legs were placed in the water for the duration of a meal. The bleeding above and below stopped, the woman revived, and her complexion became pink like powder. Urgently, a young lactating woman was sought to breastfeed her. Then, half a jin of Haishen (Sea Cucumber) was sliced, baked, and ground into powder. Three qian were taken each time mixed with liquid, three times a day. Because Haishen can generate blood in all vessels, if there is excessive blood loss, it must be supplemented with this. Its blood-generating merit is faster than Danggui (Angelica Sinensis) and Shaoyao (Peony Root).

*Zhi Xiuxi Li* (Treating Intermittent Dysentery): Song Chunhui said: In Yuyao, there was a filial son whose father suffered from intermittent dysentery, critically ill for a year. The son walked to the temple daily, praying for medicine, for over a month. One day, he met an old man on the road who taught him to use Haishen (Sea Cucumber), decocted in soup daily. Within a few days, he was completely cured.

*Zhi Kuiyang Sheng Ju* (Treating Ulcers with Maggots): Yang Jingshan from Cixi said: Someone once suffered from a ruptured abscess with maggots growing inside, numbering in the hundreds. Treatment with insect-killing medicines was ineffective. An old doctor applied baked and powdered Haishen slices to the wound. The maggots turned into yellow fluid, then a flesh-regenerating ointment was applied, resulting in a cure. He stated that for all metallic wounds and carbuncles/sores that ulcerate internally due to summer heat and produce maggots, only Haishen powder can treat them. *Bu Yao Liangfang* (Good Prescription Without Medicine) records: In summer, ulcers producing maggots are transformed by yin dampness. Sprinkling Haishen powder, or sprinkling powder of processed Zaofan (Alum), will turn them into water.