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This condition arises from fear, sorrow, excessive worry, and incessant weeping, resulting from the transformation of residual toxic pathogens within the body. The pathogen agitates internally affecting the Zang organs (viscera) and manifests externally on the neck and nape. Its root lies in the Heart.

Another theory posits that the root is in the Bladder. Initially, it has no head or tail, swelling like a jujube pit, or it may move within the subcutaneous tissue, causing alternating chills and fever with chest fullness; its appearance resembles a honeycomb (fēng kē, a deep cavity resembling a bee hive) but is deeper, whereas a honeycomb is elevated and round. Qicao Li (Qí Cáo Lì, a chronic suppurative disease of the neck named for its resemblance to the larva of a beetle), measuring about five cun, causes severe pain, making the patient groan and cry out day and night. After three years, fistulas form, numbering perhaps a dozen; if occurring centrally, there may be hundreds. If untreated, it will cause death within five years.

Diao Niao He Luo (Diāo Niǎo Hè Luǒ, a specific type of cervical lymphadenitis or abscess): Initially, it swells like an inverted hand, accompanied by pain. After one year, dozens of fistulous tracts appear, discharging yellow fluid; after two years, they transform into tracts resembling cranes or water coins. Humans generally have five types of Shi Zhu (Shī Zhù, a category of consumptive or infectious diseases). When Shi Zhu activates within the abdomen, it causes abdominal distension and fullness, rapid breathing, qi rushing against the heart and chest, stabbing pain in the hypochondrium, leading to chills and fever. Scrofula (Luǒ Lì, cervical tuberculous lymphadenitis) forms knots below the neck and armpits; when pus breaks through, ulcers form, which may recur and aggravate, causing abdominal distension and pain, and stiffness and tension in the waist and spine.

This condition is caused by Wind pathogenic factors invading the meridians, leading to the accumulation and knotting of meridian Qi and Blood; or it arises when various sores are exposed to Wind and fail to heal promptly, transforming into this type of sore. Those caused by Wind result from sores being exposed to cold, preventing the complete discharge of pus. When Wind resides in the meridians, initially, the lesion appears swollen, resembling an inverted hand; scratching causes skin peeling and the discharge of red fluid. It fluctuates between swelling and subsiding, gradually taking root and hardening, attaching to the bone, with indistinct boundaries, eventually ulcerating. If it does not resolve or ulcerate after fifty days, it transforms into a Stone Carbuncle (Shí Yōng, a hard, stone-like carbuncle), known as Stone Carbuncle. Long-term non-treatment leads to chills and fever, malignant qi entering the abdomen, causing syncope and stabbing pain in the heart, and swelling of the throat and neck. After one year of non-treatment...

A painful and swollen carbuncle at its onset resembles a large peach or a tumor. Upon suppuration and ulceration, if untreated, it becomes a Stone Goiter (Shí Yǐng, a hard neck mass), generating worms and forming lateral fistulous tracts, commonly referred to in the world as...

This condition arises from the toxic miasma of Dung Beetles (Qiān Láng, Scarabaeus) present in diet and living environments, entering the Zang and Fu organs (viscera and bowels) and flowing into the meridians. Initially, it resembles a mouse hole extending straight downward, swelling like an inverted hand with itching, leading to numbness and pain upon scratching. By one hundred days, eighteen fistulous tracts appear, three cun deep, containing Dung Beetles, numbering up to one hundred. As the beetles mature tails, they cover themselves and pierce the human body, reaching the size of a Yu Sheng vessel. By three years, it causes death.