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The *Huangdi Neijing* (Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon) states: "Excessive consumption of rich and sweet foods is sufficient to generate severe Ding sores (hard, deep-seated infections)." This refers to people of wealth and status. They consume strong-flavored foods daily to augment their Yang Qi, but this Yang Qi fails to navigate the orifices to circulate along the Yang pathways; instead, it moves along the Yin pathways, causing excessive dampness in the Spleen Earth. According to the Five Elements theory where "the child can make the mother full," Heart Fire becomes excessively blazing. With Fire and Earth both flourishing, Kidney Water is depleted and injured. Damp-heat rises upward and inevitably manifests in the Taiyang Bladder Meridian, resulting in severe conditions such as Nao Ju (brain carbuncle) and Fa Bei (back carbuncle). Therefore, during illness, one should not consume rich and strong-flavored foods, as this would aid the accumulated latent heat. For poor families, however, this is not the case; their condition arises merely from Qi stagnation. Generally, grains nourish Yin, while meats tonify Yang. Commoners usually do not receive the nourishment of meat; if they strictly adhere to various taboos against eating meat, what reliance do they have for tonification? Thus, one cannot discuss this through a single perspective.

(A poor scholar suffered from a back carbuncle but lacked the funds to buy Ren Shen (Ginseng) tonics; he recovered by consuming meat wontons daily.)

(Attachment: Prevention)
Sores and ulcers invariably arise from the consumption of rich and sweet foods, or from anger and emotional depression leading to Qi stagnation, causing toxic fire to accumulate within. One gradually feels restless, irritable, and hot, with extreme thirst in the mouth, drinking incessantly, and feeling hungry immediately after eating. These are signs that an abscess or carbuncle is about to erupt. One should urgently take herbs that clear fire and detoxify to prevent this disaster. If, after the onset of the disease, pus discharge depletes body fluids, it also leads to unceasing thirst. Regardless of whether the initial stage was mild or severe, if thirst occurs after ulceration, use Zhuye Shigao Tang (Bamboo Leaf and Gypsum Decoction); if the pulse is rapid and forceless, and the mouth is dry, use Buzhong Yiqi Tang (Tonify the Middle and Augment the Qi Decoction); if constipated, use Qingliang Yin (Cooling Drink); if the Chi position pulse is surging and large but forceless upon deep pressure, use Jiaban Bawei Wan (Modified Eight-Ingredient Pill). If the mouth is dry, the tongue coating is yellow, and there is a desire to drink water, this pill is particularly effective. "Thirst" differs from "dry mouth"; using mineral pills to forcibly suppress symptoms will bring disaster swiftly. Only by decocting tender mulberry branches together with Wuweizi (Schisandra Berry) and drinking the soup can one rescue cases of thirst caused by Yang deficiency affecting water metabolism.

(Garlic-Separate Moxibustion, Fermented Soybean Cake Moxibustion, Pure Earth Moxibustion)
Using moxibustion for sores and ulcers has the power to revive the dying. For all types of carbuncles, toxic swellings, and back carbuncles in their early stages, characterized by redness, heat, swelling, and pain, moxibustion can draw out and disperse stagnant Qi, as well as attack and scatter stagnant blood. It will certainly be effective. For the elderly and weak who have deficient and cold Yuan Qi (Original Qi), failure to use moxibustion will lead to demise. First, cover the area with wet paper; immediately observe where the paper dries first, which indicates the head of the carbuncle. Use garlic-separated moxibustion; a single large clove of garlic is preferable. Slice the garlic to a thickness of about three Sanqian coins, place it on the sore, and apply large moxa cones. After three Zhuang (units of moxa burning), replace the garlic. For painful lesions, moxa until the pain ceases; for non-painful lesions, moxa until pain is felt. Within one to two days, ten applications yield ten cures; within two to four days, six to seven applications yield six or seven cures; within five to six days, three to four applications yield three or four cures; after more than ten days, moxibustion is ineffective. If there are ten or more heads, grind the garlic into a cake and apply concentrated moxibustion, which can also cure the condition. If the sore is large, moxa day and night; if there are one or twenty pepper-eye-sized spots, moxa each spot individually. Using garlic combined with Dan Dou Chi (Fermented Soybean) and Xurong (Frankincense) pounded into a cake for moxibustion is particularly effective. In the early stage, if there is a central head resembling a yellow millet grain, take a single garlic clove, cut off both ends, place it on the sore, and moxa fourteen Zhuang, up to forty-nine Zhuang. One person suffered from a back carbuncle that worsened after a month; moxa was applied directly to the sore from morning till evening, totaling 150 Zhuang before pain was perceived. The next day, black scabs were removed with tweezers, and after applying medicine and taking oral medication, the patient stabilized. If no garlic is available, pound Dan Dou Chi into a cake; if neither is available, use pure earth mixed with saliva from many people, or add green onion juice or spit, kneading it into a cake. The size should match the sore, with a thickness of one to two fen. Increase thickness if painful; reduce thickness if not very hot. Replace the cake after each Zhuang, moxa for forty-nine Zhuang, stopping when efficacy is observed.