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Apply lead powder to the antler until it appears golden in color. Furthermore, it can save lives, restore primordial Qi (vital energy), and tonify deficiency, damage, and exhaustion.

Take one yellow dog's spinal column (remove both ends, cut into five or seven segments, retaining a small amount of meat). Take one tael of good-quality sandstone, grind it finely. Use two sheng of fermented grain water (jiangshui), add the ground sandstone, and stir evenly in the water. Soak the bone for three days, then roast over charcoal fire until yellow. Dip it into the juice repeatedly until the juice is exhausted; at this point, the dog bone becomes crisp and brittle, then crush it into an extremely fine powder. (Subsequently add the other herbs) Cistanche Deserticola Stem (Cistanche Herba, 肉苁蓉) [remove sand, slice thinly, dry by roasting]; Dodder Seed (Cuscutae Semen, 菟丝子) [soak in wine for two days, sun-dry]; Eucommia Bark (Eucommiae Cortex, 杜仲) [remove coarse bark]; Cinnamon Twig (Cinnamomi Ramulus, 肉桂) [remove outer bark that is rough and astringent]; Prepared Aconite Root (Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata, 附子) [processed, remove skin and navel]; Deer Antler without Bone (Cornu Cervi Pantotrichum, 鹿茸) [quickly burn off hair, coat with clarified butter, lightly roast until yellow. Do not let it char]; Dried Ginger (Zingiberis Rhizoma, 干姜) [processed]. (Each of the above: one tael); Cnidium Fruit (Cnidii Fructus, 蛇床子) [half tael, lightly stir-fried]; Actinolite (Yangqishi, 阳起石) [half tael, boil in wine for one day, have several people grind continuously for one day].

Pound the first eight ingredients together, sift into powder. Then add the Actinolite and dog bone powder. Mix with five taels of ripe jujube flesh and one tael of clarified butter. Pound again for over a thousand strikes, adjusting consistency as needed, and form pills the size of small beans. Sun-dry them. Take twenty pills daily on an empty stomach with salted water.

The meats of other beasts mostly correspond to the Twelve Earthly Branches and the Eight Trigrams. In ancient times, the Yellow Emperor established Zi, Chou, etc., as the Twelve Earthly Branches to name months, and also used them to name beasts, assigning them to the branches. Therefore, gazelle and deer meat are considered the finest among meats, avoiding the taboos of the Twelve Branches. Its flavor also surpasses other meats; thus, dried venison was used in three major sacrifices, for this very reason.

Deer antlers are hardest to obtain if they are unbroken and retain their blood, because their potency lies entirely within the blood, and hunting often causes damage. To remove the hair from the antler, first apply a thin layer of clarified butter evenly, then quickly scorch it over a strong flame. If not coated with butter first, the flame may damage the antler. Once the hair is clean, lightly roast it before incorporating into medicine. Nowadays, some people counterfeit real deer antler using horse antler tips; this must be carefully distinguished. The head can also be used to brew wine, but when making the mash, slightly increase the amount of green onion and pepper. Antlers can be made into gelatin, following a separate method. According to the *Monthly Ordinances* (*Yueling*), at Winter Solstice, one Yang arises, and elk antlers shed; at Summer Solstice, one Yin arises, and deer antlers shed; each sheds according to the division and combination of Yin and Yang. Today, people treat elk antlers and deer antlers as the same thing, which is likely negligent.

All elk and deer antlers take no more than two months to grow from emergence to full hardness. Large ones weigh over twenty jin, hard as stone. Calculating this, they must grow several taels per day and night. No bone-like structure grows faster than this. Even plants, which grow easily, cannot match this speed. How can this be compared to ordinary human bones and blood? Elk antlers benefit tonifying Yang; deer antlers benefit tonifying Yin. When using antlers, they need not be too tender; those four to five cun long, with tips resembling the red of a horse, are best. They must be combined with other herbs to achieve efficacy.