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Hemp Seed (Huomazi)

Sweet in flavor, neutral in nature. Non-toxic. Found in villages everywhere, usually planted along the edges of flat lands. The roots, fruits, flowers, and stems are harvested at appropriate times according to the season. Each part has its specific uses without waste. Hemp stalks can serve as wicks for torches, and hemp fibers can be spun into cloth. For medicinal use, the processing of hemp seeds must be meticulous. Initially, wrap them in silk and soak them in boiling water; after cooling, remove them; place them in a well, ensuring they do not touch the water directly. They must be soaked overnight. Then take them out and dry them in the sun. Once dry, place them on a level surface, press with a heavy board, and wipe clean the husks. Select the fine kernels and utilize them according to their therapeutic effects. They may be mixed with japonica rice to make porridge, or combined with blood-nourishing herbs to form pills. The medicinal action enters the Yangming Large Intestine Channel and the Taiyin Spleen Channel. It treats wind-heat in the large intestine causing constipation and difficulty in defecation. It relieves thirst and promotes urination, breaks up accumulated blood, and facilitates blood circulation. It corrects abnormal fetal position (transverse lie), making it easier to deliver, and eliminates various residual ailments postpartum. Combined with Acorus Tatarinowii Rhizome (Changpu) and Podophyllum Hexandrum Root (Guijiu) to form pills, swallowing them allows one to see spirits/ghosts. (For those wishing to see spirits, use equal parts of these ingredients, pound them, and form pills the size of marbles. Take one pill facing the sun every morning; after 100 days, one will see spirits.) Mixed with beans and human hair and thrown into a well, while reciting incantations, it can ward off plague demons. (On New Year's Eve at the fourth watch, take fourteen hemp seeds, fourteen beans, and a small amount of family members' hair, throw them into the well to moisten. Long-term consumption makes one robust and healthy, preventing aging and leading to immortality. Pressing heavily to extract oil, it can also be used for lubrication. Hemp flower is bitter in flavor and hot in nature, capable of regulating amenorrhea. It drives away severe wind manifesting as black discoloration over the body and disperses various wind pathogens causing unbearable itching. Boiling and consuming hemp root further promotes the passage of urinary stones. It treats difficult labor, leukorrhea, metrorrhagia, and expels blood stasis from fractures and bruises. Crushing hemp leaves to extract juice kills roundworms. If bitten by a scorpion, applying it externally yields immediate results. Hemp boiling decoction specifically treats deficiency heat, and soaking hemp juice effectively relieves thirst and dissipates irritability.

Medicated Leaven (Shenqu)

Sweet in flavor, neutral in nature. Non-toxic. Manufactured on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month is most suitable. After drying in the sun, it should still be piled and stored for a long time; for medicinal use, it must be stir-fried until yellow. It assists the body's true qi, enters the Yangming Stomach Channel. It directs qi downward and regulates the middle jiao, stops diarrhea, and opens the appetite. It transforms food and fluids, digests retained food, breaks up masses, and expels accumulated phlegm. It treats restless fetus in women and fullness/hardness of the chest and abdomen in children. Wine leaven is made from a combination of medicines; it is pungent in flavor and greatly warm in nature. It induces abortion and expels "ghost fetus," directs qi downward, and drives away cold qi. It particularly scavenges wine-phlegm and completely eliminates retained food. If livestock accidentally eat too much rice, causing bloating and near-death distress; grinding and decocting it into juice and forcing it down immediately detoxifies and restores life. Bran leaven is cool in nature and is also used for digesting food. Red yeast rice is red in color; one must know its ability to promote blood circulation.
(Chen Jiamo) Commentary: Manufacturing Shenqu on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month is said to be because all deities gather on this day. The medicinal materials used each symbolize a deity's name. Only when manufactured on this day can it be named Shenqu. If manufactured after this date, not only will it lack efficacy, but it cannot bear the name "Shen." The formula uses 100 jin of white leaven base to symbolize White Tiger; three sheng of fresh juice from Xanthium Strumarium Herb (Cang'ercao) to symbolize Gouchen; four sheng of fresh juice from wild smartweed (Yeliao) to symbolize Tengshe; three sheng of fresh juice from Artemisia Annua Herb (Qinghao) to symbolize Azure Dragon; four sheng of Apricot Kernels (Xingren) peeled and tipped to symbolize Black Tortoise; three sheng of adzuki beans cooked soft, peeled, to symbolize Vermilion Bird. Following the standard method of making leaven, prepare, dry, store, and await use. Current sellers only use smartweed flour to make it, neither following the formula nor the date, how can they expect efficacy? Doctors, seeing its impurity, often substitute it with common wine leaven, thereby losing the original intent of its manufacture.