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(From *Meng Quan*)

[Names] Qiu Bing (Autumn Ice). Li Shizhen stated: In *Huainanzi*, it is mentioned that when the elixir is refined, it is called "Qiu Shi" (Autumn Stone), referring to its white color and hard texture. In recent times, people refine "Ren Zhong Bai" (Human Urine Sediment) into a white solid, also naming it Qiu Shi, implying that it also originates from the remnants of essence and qi. If further subjected to sublimation, the most refined portion is called "Qiu Bing," which imitates the principle of boiling seawater to make salt. Some alchemists also produce fake products by heating salt in a furnace; these should be distinguished. Jia Mo stated: To prepare Qiu Shi, urine from young boys and girls must be collected in autumn. For each vat, add 7 qian of gypsum powder, stir with mulberry branches, let settle, and pour off the clear liquid. Repeat this two or three times. Then add one bucket of dew collected in autumn, stir, and let settle. Repeat several times until impurities are washed away and the salty taste is reduced. Spread thick paper on ash, dry in the sun, and collect completely. The light and clear part floating on top is Qiu Shi; the heavy and turbid part sinking at the bottom should be scraped off. The ancient name is based on this meaning. Males use urine from young girls, and females use urine from young boys, following the Dao of Yin and Yang. Modern physicians do not collect urine in autumn but gather human urine indiscriminately, clarifying it only with soap pod water and drying it. This is called "Yin Lian" (Yin Refining) if dried, and "Yang Lian" (Yang Refining) if heated. This completely deviates from the correct method and contradicts the name's meaning. Driven by profit and corrupting medical ethics, how can such methods cure diseases? Moreover, after fire refining, does the nature not become warm?

[Flavor and Nature] Salty, warm, non-toxic.

[Indications] Deficiency-wasting cold diseases, frequent urination or enuresis, spermatorrhea and leukorrhea (Li Shizhen). Nourishes Kidney Water, nourishes the Dantian, returns to the root and restores the origin, returns to the root and restores life, calms the Five Zang organs, moistens the San Jiao (Triple Burner), eliminates phlegm and cough,退了 bone-steaming fever, softens hard masses, brightens the eyes and clears the heart, prolongs longevity (Jia Mo).

[Elucidation] Li Shizhen said: The ancients only used Ren Zhong Bai and human urine for treating diseases, utilizing their functions of dissipating blood stasis, nourishing Yin and descending fire, killing parasites, and detoxifying. Nobles and dignitaries disliked its uncleanliness, so alchemists devised methods to refine it from Ren Zhong Bai to create Qiu Shi. Ye Mengde in *Shui Yun Lu* highly praised the subtlety of the Yin and Yang refining methods; whereas *Suo Sui Lu* claimed that Qiu Shi is salty and enters the blood, causing water to fail to control fire, leading to thirst disease with long-term use. This is likely because the substance becomes warm in nature after fire refining. Those who take it are often individuals with excessive sexual desire, using it to indulge, causing deficient Yang to flare up and True Water to dry up further, hence the thirst. Furthermore, severe cases involve adding Yang-tonifying drugs, aiding the pathogenic fire. Only those with deficiency-cold in the Dantian should take it. Observing patients with strangury (Lin syndrome), where extreme heat boils fluids into sand and stones; the refining of urine into Qiu Shi follows the same principle.

[Attached Formulas] One old formula, eleven new formulas.

**Qiu Shi Huan Yuan Dan (Autumn Stone Returning to Origin Pill):** Long-term use removes hundred diseases, strengthens marrow and bones, supplements essence and blood, benefits the heart and willpower, warms the lower Yuan, enhances complexion, and promotes appetite. With prolonged use, warmth like fire is felt below the umbilicus, and various cold diseases heal. Even those suffering severely from chronic cold-wasting deficiency become robust. Method: Use ten shi of male urine, more is better. Place a large pot in an empty room, cover the mouth with a deep earthen steamer, seal seams and joints with paper筋 and lime mud to prevent air leakage. When dry, fill the pot about 70-80% with urine. Boil over strong fire at the stove. If it surges out, add small amounts of cold urine. When boiled dry, it becomes Ren Zhong Bai. Put into a good jar, seal properly, and calcine in a charcoal furnace. Take 2-3 liang each time, grind into powder, mix with jujube paste, and form pills the size of mung beans. Take 5-7 pills initially, gradually increasing to 15 pills, taken with warm wine or salt water on an empty stomach. Keep the powder near fire for storage; occasionally re-heating for 3-5 days enhances efficacy. (*Experience Formula*)

**Yin Yang Er Lian Dan (Yin-Yang Dual Refining Pill):** Most refiners of Qiu Shi only know the fire-refining method. This medicine requires both Yin and Yang refining to be supreme. Fire refining is Yin within Yang; it coagulates with fire and dissolves in water, having no fixed form when dry, representing "Qi leaves, flavor remains," corresponding to the emptiness in the Li Trigram. Water refining is Yang within Yin; it coagulates with water and moistens under exposure, remaining unchanged for millennia, representing "Flavor leaves, substance remains," corresponding to the fullness in the Kan Trigram. Both substances originate from the Heart and Kidney Zang organs and flow into the Small Intestine, containing the righteous Qi of Water, Fire, Snake, and Black Tortoise. They borrow Heaven and Earth's Water and Fire to coagulate into form. Taking them tonifies the Taiyang and Xianghuo (Ministerial Fire) Zang organs, truly being the foundation of life preservation. Take Yang-refined pills on an empty stomach, and Yin-refined pills at noon. This method is extremely labor-saving and far superior to common methods; chronic diseases heal with long-term use. Someone with wasting disease and cough, unresponsive to other prescriptions, healed immediately upon taking this. Another patient with mania and abdominal distension, worsening with asthma and fullness, nearing death, was also stabilized by this.

**Yang Lian Method:** Use over ten shi of human urine, stored in separate buckets. Add one bowl of soap pod juice to each shi, stir vigorously with a bamboo stick for thousands of strokes, let settle, discard clear liquid, keep sediment. Combine all sediments into one bucket, stir and settle as before. Take 1-2 dou of concentrated liquid, filter clean, boil in a pot until dry, scrape down, and pound fine. Dissolve in clear water, filter through paper-lined sieve, boil again. Repeat until color is white as snow. Seal in a clay box, fire-refine into solid, pour out. If not fully formed, refine once or twice more until color resembles glazed jade, then grind finely. Seal in a cinnabar box, nurture with fire at the top for seven days and nights, take out, spread on earth to remove fire toxicity, grind to powder, mix with jujube paste, form pills the size of paulownia seeds. Take 30 pills with warm wine on an empty stomach.

**Yin Lian Method:** Use 4-5 shi of human urine, store in a large vat. Add half fresh water, stir 1,000 times, let settle, discard clear liquid, keep sediment. Add fresh water again, stir and settle, until odorless, and sediment resembles talcum powder. Dry in the sun. Scrape down, grind again, mix with male infant milk to form paste, dry in fierce sun (borrowing solar true Qi). Repeat nine times, grind to powder, mix with jujube paste, form pills the size of paulownia seeds. Take 30 pills with warm wine after noon. (Ye Shilin, *Shui Yun Lu*)

**Qiu Bing Ru Fen Wan (Autumn Ice Milk Powder Pill):** Secures Original Yang, strengthens muscles and bones, prevents aging, dispels hundred diseases. Use 5 qian of Qiu Bing, 5 qian of powder from first-born male infant milk, 5 qian of powder from first-born female infant milk, 2.5 qian of Frankincense (Ruxiang), 1 fen of Musk (Shexiang). Grind to powder, mix with refined honey, form pills the size of euryale seeds, coat with gold foil, wrap in Wujin paper, seal in yellow wax, prevent gas leakage. Each month, dissolve one pill in milk and take, while drinking milk daily to assist.

**Qiu Bing Method:** Use one bucket each of urine from young boys and girls, boil dry in a large pot with mulberry wood fire. Scrape down, dissolve in one bucket of river water, filter through paper. Boil and scrape again, refine with water filtration. Repeat seven times until color is frost-like, yielding about one jin. Put in jar, cover with iron lamp saucer, seal with salt mud, sublimate for three incense sticks' time. Check if Qiu Shi is white as jade, grind again, sublimate again. Slowly wipe water on the saucer; too much prevents coagulation, too little prevents rising. From Chen hour to Wei hour, extinguish fire and cool. The substance rising on the saucer is Qiu Bing, tasteless and fragrant, the essence of Qiu Shi. It nourishes Kidney Water, secures Original Yang, and descends phlegm-fire. What does not rise is ordinary Qiu Shi, salty and bitter; eating it with meat provides minor benefit. (*Yang's Yizhentang Experience Formula*)

**Zhizhi Qiu Shi Wan (Directing Guide Autumn Stone Pill):** Treats turbid Qi interfering with clear Qi, essence scattering into creamy strangury, urine appearing yellow, white, red, or dark, resembling fat, honey, or oil. Use 0.5 liang each of Qiu Shi, Deer Horn Glue (Chao/Stir-fried), and Tang Shen (Zhi/Processed); 1 liang of Poria (Baifuling). Grind to powder, mix with rice cake paste, form pills the size of paulownia seeds. Take 50 pills with Ginseng decoction. (*Renzhai Zhizhi Fang*)

**Qiu Shi Jiao Gan Dan (Autumn Stone Interaction Elixir):** Treats leukorrhea and spermatorrhea. Use 1 liang of Qiu Shi, 5 qian of Poria, 5 qian of Dodder Seed (Tusizi, Chao/Stir-fried). Grind to powder. Mix one cup of boiling water and one cup of well-water (Jinghua Shui), cook into paste, form pills the size of paulownia seeds. Take 100 pills with salt water. (*Zheng Family Inherited Formula*)

**Qiu Shi Si Jing Wan (Autumn Stone Four Essence Pill):** Treats excessive thought and sexual desire damaging Heart Qi, spermatorrhea, and frequent urination. Use 4 liang each of Qiu Shi and Poria; 2 liang each of Lotus Seed (Lianrou) and Euryale Seed (Qianshi). Grind to powder, mix with steamed jujube flesh, form pills the size of paulownia seeds. Take 30 pills with salt water on an empty stomach. (*Yonglei Qianfang*)

**Qiu Shi Wu Jing Wan (Autumn Stone Five Essence Pill):** Regular use tonifies. Use 1 liang of Qiu Shi, 6 liang of Lotus Seed, 5 qian of Sichuan Pepper Red (Chuanjiaohong), 5 qian of Fennel (Xiaohuixiang), 2 liang of Poria. Grind to powder, mix with jujube flesh, form pills the size of paulownia seeds. Take 30 pills with salt water or warm wine on an empty stomach.

**Qiu Shi Preparation Method:** Select clean young boys and girls without body odor or illness, bathe and change clothes, collecting one shi of urine each. Provide clean diet and salt water, avoiding garlic, scallions, leeks, ginger, spicy, and fishy foods. When vats are full, stir with water to clarify, collect Ren Zhong Bai. Use Yangcheng clay jars, seal with salt mud, tie with iron wire, burn for one incense stick's time. Change wires continuously, burn seven times. Weigh male and female portions equally, mix, grind, dissolve in river water, filter through seven layers of paper, boil back into Qiu Shi, color snow-white. Mix with clean, fragrant milk, sun-dry by day and moon-expose by night. Add milk whenever dry, absorbing solar and lunar essence, completing forty-nine days, then store for compounding. (Liu's Baoshoutang Experience Formula)

**Edema Avoiding Salt:** Season food only with Qiu Shi. Once edema subsides, calcine salt in a jar and use sparingly. (*Zhaixuan Fang*)

**Red and White Leukorrhea:** Grind real Qiu Shi to powder, mix with steamed jujube flesh, form pills the size of paulownia seeds. Take 60 pills with vinegar water on an empty stomach. (*Zhaixuan Fang*)

**Dysphagia and Regurgitation:** Qiu Shi, 1 qian each time, taken with plain boiled water. Excellent. (*Yifang Jiangyao*)

**Fever from Taking Elixirs:** Someone took too many Huofu (Fire-subduing) elixirs, developing sores on the back of the head with rising heat. A Daoist advised moxibustion on Fengfu (GV16) acupoint dozens of times, curing him. Recurrence led to advice of taking Yin-refined Qiu Shi with Soybean Sprout (Da Dou Huang Juan) decoction, resulting in cure, harmonizing Yin and Yang. (*Wang Qingming Yu Hua Fang*)