Library

(From *Bencao Shiyi* [Supplement to Materia Medica])

**Names**: Bili (Bili, from *Bencao Shiyi*), Mumantou [Wooden Mantou/Breadfruit-like Fruit] (from *Bencao Gangmu*), Guimantou [Ghost Mantou].
Li Shizhen stated: "Mulan" and "Mantou" describe the shape of its fruit. "Bili" (pronounced like 'bi-li'), origin unknown. It is written as "Caoli" in *Shanhaijing* [Classic of Mountains and Seas].

**Collected Explanations**:
Zang Xing said: "Bili climbs trees, gradually growing larger over thirty to fifty years, with lush branches and leaves. The leaves are round, two or three cun long, thick and dense like *Pyrrhosia lingua* (Stone Willow). It bears fruit resembling a lotus pod; when broken, it exudes white juice that turns black like lacquer after standing for a long time. Inside are fine seeds, ripening once a year. The seeds can also be used as medicine, collected at any time."
Su Song said: "Bili and *Trachelospermum jasminoides* (Luoshi) are extremely similar, with stems and leaves coarse and vine-like. Mulan is larger than Luoshi, and its fruit resembles a lotus pod."
Li Shizhen said: "Mulan grows by climbing trees and walls, remaining evergreen throughout the four seasons, with dense leaves and strong stems, larger than Luoshi. It fruits without flowering. The fruit is cup-sized, slightly longer than a lotus head, exactly resembling an unripe fig. In June and July, the inside of the fruit is hollow and red; after August, it fills with fine seeds, the size of barnyard millet, each seed bearing a single hair-like appendage. The taste is slightly astringent, the shell light and hollow. Crows, birds, and children all eat it."

**Leaf**
**Flavor and Nature**: Sour, neutral, non-toxic.
**Indications**: Treats back carbuncles; taken as dry powder, diarrhea ceases and recovery follows (Su Song). Treats wind-blood disorders, warms the waist and feet, prevents graying of hair and maintains vitality (cited from Zang Xing). Treats painful and difficult bloody dysuria. Take one handful of vine leaves and half a qian of roasted *Glycyrrhiza uralensis* (Licorice Root), decoct and take daily (Li Shizhen).

**Elucidation**:
Ai Sheng said: "*Tujing* [Illustrated Classic of Materia Medica] states that Bili treats back sores. Recently, I saw an elderly scholar in Yixing County, over seventy years old, suffering from a back carbuncle. There was no medicine in the village, so he urgently took fresh Bili leaves, mashed them, squeezed out the juice, mixed it with honey, and drank several sheng. He applied the residue topically, followed by other medicinal pastes, and eventually recovered. Its efficacy lies truly in Bili, proving that the words of *Tujing* are not false."

**Vine Juice**
**Indications**: Vitiligo, leprosy-like skin diseases, malignant sores, scabies, and tinea; apply externally (Meng Shen/Daming).

**Mulan (Fruit)**
**Flavor and Nature**: Sweet, neutral, astringent, non-toxic.
Li Shizhen said: "People in Lingnan say: consuming it induces miasma."
**Indications**: Strengthens sexual function, particularly effectively (Su Song). Consolidates essence, reduces swelling, dissipates toxicity, stops bleeding, promotes lactation, treats chronic dysentery and hemorrhoids, heart pain, and retracted penis (Li Shizhen).

**Attached Prescriptions**: Eight new prescriptions.
**Palpitations and Spermatorrhea**: Equal parts of Mumantou (stir-fried) and *Ipomoea batatas* white variety (Baqianni), powdered. Take 2 qian per dose, mixed with rice water (from *Qiankun Miyun*).
**Scrotal Swelling**: Mulan (i.e., Mumantou), calcined and powdered, taken with wine, 2 qian per dose. Another prescription: Equal parts of Mulan seeds and *Foeniculum vulgare* (Xiaohuixiang), powdered. Take 2 qian on an empty stomach with wine until effective (from *Jijian Fang*).
**Alcoholic Dysentery and Intestinal Wind**: Heisan Zi: Treats wind entering the viscera, or food toxicity and accumulated heat causing bright red blood in stool, painful anal prolapse, or chronic alcoholic dysentery. Calcined Mumantou, calcined palm bark, dried *Prunus mume* (Wumei, pitted), and roasted *Glycyrrhiza uralensis* (Fengcao), equal parts. Powdered. Take 2 qian per dose, decocted in one cup of water (from Yang's Family Prescription).
**Intestinal Wind Bleeding with Constipation**: Calcined Mumantou and stir-fried *Aurantii Fructus* (Zhike), equal parts. Powdered. Take 2 qian per dose, washed down with Sophora flower wine (from *Yangshi Jiacang Fang*).
**Rectal Prolapse**: Mulan (sliced with peel and stir-fried), *Poria cocos* (Fuling), and *Polyporus umbellatus* (Zhuling), equal parts. Powdered. Take 2 qian per dose, mixed with rice water. Also treats nocturnal emission, named Suoyang Dan (from *Puji Fang*).
**All Early-stage Carbuncles and Ulcers, regardless of location**: Use 49 Mulan fruits. Rub off the hairs, grind finely, dissolve in wine, and take warm. Its efficacy is comparable to *Lonicera japonica* (Rendongcao) (from Chen Ziming's *Waike Jingyao*).
**Blocked Lactation**: Two Mulan fruits and one pig foreleg. Boil thoroughly until soft, consume the meat, and drink all the broth. Flow resumes within one day. Childless women who consume it will also... [text cuts off, implying benefit for fertility or lactation].

**Appendix**: Dijin (from *Bencao Shiyi*)
Su Song said: Sweet, warm, non-toxic. Treats breaking old blood stasis, postpartum blood accumulation, emaciation in women, inability to eat, abdominal masses, lingering discharge, leukorrhea (red and white), and seasonal illnesses causing chest oppression. Decoct and take, or soak in wine. Grows under forests in Huainan, leaves like duck feet, vines creep on the ground, rooting at nodes, also climbing trees and rocks, surviving winter. Mountain people use it postpartum. Also known as Dijin.
Li Shizhen said: There is another herb called Dijincao, which is different; see Grass Section, Volume 6.