典藏书目

Pediatric gan syndrome (a chronic consumptive disease caused by improper feeding or various diseases leading to spleen-stomach damage and depletion of qi, blood, and body fluids) is mostly due to excessive consumption of sweet, sticky, and greasy foods. These foods stagnate and accumulate in the Spleen, failing to be digested, thus transforming into gan. The character "gan" consists of the radical for disease and the character for sweet, meaning "sweet." The Spleen favors sweetness, and all things belonging to the sweet flavor are associated with the Spleen. Hence, it is named gan. Its symptoms include constant low-grade fever, sallow and emaciated appearance, urine turbid like rice washings, abdominal distension, yellowish and sparse hair, white patches on the face, nausea with desire to vomit, and food failing to nourish the muscles and skin. Alternatively, there may be sores and itching on the head and face. These are the general symptoms of gan. This is a disorder of the Spleen itself. Since the Spleen is affected first and then transmits the pathogen to other zang-fu organs, there are names for five types of gan.

When affecting the Heart, it is called Jing Gan (Gan due to fright). If not exhaustively detailed, symptoms such as high fever throughout the body, weakness in the four limbs, sallow complexion with red cheeks, aversion to cold and preference for warmth, and dryness of the mouth and nose occur. This is caused by fright or physical shock, known as Jing Gan.

Symptoms such as shaking the head and rubbing the nose, white membranes covering the eyes, excessive tearing when wiped, bluish discoloration on the face, generalized sores and tinea, and brittle, upright hair are caused by contracting wind pathogens, known as Feng Gan (Gan due to wind).

Difficulty digesting food, craving dirt, abdominal distension with visible veins, sparse hair, yawning and sighing, lack of joy with frequent crying, and sour-smelling dysentery are caused by dietary injury, known as Gun Gan (also referred to as Gu Gan, Gan due to food stagnation).

Frequent crying, coughing, and rebellious qi; sores on the nose and neck; drowsiness; emaciation; loose stools; weakness in the four limbs; pale complexion; and vomiting of pus or blood are caused by damage to Qi, known as Qi Gan (Gan due to qi deficiency).

Simultaneous diarrhea and dysentery with vomiting and regurgitation; rectal prolapse; high fever; cold hands and feet; and inability to eat indicate an urgent condition, known as Ji Gan (Urgent Gan). Among the five types of gan, Ji Gan is the most difficult to treat because of insufficient Kidney Qi, where Earth overacts on Water. In summary, all return to the Spleen. When Spleen Earth becomes deficient, it cannot control the Qi of the Five Zang organs, leading to such severe conditions.

Baoming Dan: Highly effective for treating various types of gan accumulation.
Ingredients: Cicada slough (2 pieces, split open, stuffed with 5 qian each of Amomi Fructus Rotundus and Picrorhizae Rhizoma, sewn up, wrapped in mud, and roasted until cooked); Gleditsia Sinensis Fruit (2 pods, charred to ash); Arcae Concha (3 qian); Moschus (3 fen); Crataegus Seed (1 liang).
Preparation and Administration: Grind all ingredients into fine powder. Use Qu Shenqu paste to form pills the size of millet seeds. Take 1 qian per dose, washed down with ginger decoction.

Fei'er Wan: Treats gan accumulation, muscle emaciation, large abdomen with prominent veins, loss of appetite, or diarrhea with thirst.
Ingredients: Black cicada slough (select large ones, place in a deep vat, add maggots from a cesspit, allow them to feed on the slough for five days, retrieve from fecal water, hang upside down to dry in shade, roast until crisp, and grind into powder, 3 liang); Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma (1 liang); Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma; Amomi Fructus Rotundus; Crataegus Seed; Hawthorn Fruit Flesh (each 1.5 liang); Scutellariae Radix; Picrorhizae Rhizoma; Poria; Aloe; Lotus Seed (each 8 qian).
Preparation and Administration: Grind all ingredients into fine powder. Use aged rice paste to form pills. Take 1 qian per dose, dissolved in rice drink.

Ji Rou Wan: Treats gan-lao (chronic gan progressing to consumption) with high fever, emaciated body, closed eyes, shrinking limbs, and enlarging abdomen.
Ingredients: Scutellariae Radix (stir-fried with ginger); Bupleuri Radix; Pyrethri Flos; Gentianae Macrophyllae Radix; Anemarrhenae Rhizoma (wine-fried); Scutellariae Radix (wine-fried); Crataegus Seed (roasted); Aloe (each 1 liang); Terminaliae Chebulae Fructus (5 qian).
Preparation and Administration: Grind all ingredients into fine powder. Feed one yellow hen with hemp seeds for seven days, then strangle it. Remove feathers, clean thoroughly, make an incision at the tail, extract the intestines, wash and dry them. Fill the intestines with the powdered medicine, remove bones, and mash into pills. Add a little wine if too dry. Form pills the size of hemp seeds. Take 10 pills per dose; children aged five take 20 pills. Adjust dosage according to the child's size.

Bai Ji Gan San: Treats gan accumulation causing unclear vision and obscured cornea/membranes.
Ingredients: Rooster Liver (one piece); Syringae Ramulus et Folium; White Clay (each 2 qian, ground into powder, i.e., rice flour).
Preparation and Administration: Cook the chicken liver together with the two powders until done. Consume only the liver, one per day. Recovery occurs after seven doses.