Formulas · Calm the Spirit 安神 · Gogeum Uigam (古今醫鑑)

Hostwood Poria Decoction (Women's chapter)

Boksin-tang

한글 복신탕 · Pinyin Fu Shen Tang

茯神湯

Cut and made into one packet, decocted in water and taken on an empty stomach. Note on modern practice: hallucinations or disordered speech warrant psychiatric and medical assessment.

Composition 構成

Boksin Fu Shen
茯神 복신 · Poria with hostwood

6 g
Chief 君
Baekbokryeong Fu Ling
白茯苓 백복령 · Poria (white)

4 g
Deputy 臣
Insam Ren Shen
人蔘 인삼 · Ginseng

4 g
Deputy 臣
Seokchangpo Shi Chang Pu
石菖蒲 석창포 · Acorus

4 g
Deputy 臣
Jeokjakyak Chi Shao
赤芍藥 적작약 · Red Peony

2 g
Assistant 佐

Total 20 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts.

Received this formula from your practitioner? Amounts shown here are classical reference values — granule and prepared products differ. Always follow your prescribed dosage and directions.

Actions 效能

Settles a spirit that has begun to see and say what is not there
Opens the orifices and supplements the Qi beneath the disturbance

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Wind vacuity in a woman
dreaming of intercourse with ghosts (夢與鬼交)
Seeing what is not there and speaking in disorder (妄有所見言語譫亂)
Disturbed sleep with vivid frightening dreams

Biomedical correlates

Vivid disturbing dreams with disordered speech
Sleep-related hallucinatory experiences
Agitation with depletion

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治婦人風虛, 夢與鬼交, 妄有所見, 言語譫亂. 白茯神一錢半, 白茯苓ㆍ人參ㆍ石菖蒲各一錢, 赤芍藥五分. 右剉, 作一貼, 水煎, 空心服. 《醫鑑》

Translation

Treats wind vacuity in a woman, with dreaming of intercourse with ghosts, seeing what is not there, and speech disordered and delirious. Hostwood poria 1.5 don; white poria, ginseng, and acorus, 1 don each; red peony 5 fun. Cut the above, make one packet, decoct in water and take on an empty stomach. — Uigam 醫鑑 (Donguibogam · Buin)

Clinical commentary 臨床

'Dreaming of intercourse with ghosts' is the classical name for a category of vivid, frightening, often sexual dream experience — the kind that modern sleep medicine would look at through sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucination. Five herbs, and the approach is neither exorcism nor sedation: hostwood poria and ginseng supply what is short, acorus opens the clouded orifices. The chapter treats the experience as a symptom of depletion rather than as a visitation, which is the more useful of the two available readings in any century. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.