Formulas · External Application 外用 · Uihak Immun (醫學入門)

Life-Preserving Stick

Bosaeng-jeongja

한글 보생정자 · Pinyin Bao Sheng Ding Zi

保生錠子

The transcription writes 冷䓗湯 twice; the corpus prints 葱 and the corpus form is given above. The collation line at the 011b–012a page boundary, 䓗 : 葱(初刊本), stands among the lines of the 金銀白芷散 leaf but annotates a 䓗 earlier on page 011b — this leaf's 冷䓗湯 and the 䓗白煎湯 of 神仙解毒丸 — and is apparatus, not text. 盖, 揷 and 呑 are printed as the transcription has them. 靑桑皮, the fresh green mulberry bark, has no entry of its own in this corpus and is registered under 桑白皮, the mulberry bark; the interlinear 生者 is set in parentheses. The cinnabar coating and the scallion decoction carry no weights, and the 六分 of the stick and the 八分 taken by mouth are a stick weight and a dose rather than ingredient amounts.

Composition 構成

Seomsu Chan Su
蟾酥 섬수 · Toad Venom

12 g
Chief 君

蟾酥三錢 — toad venom, cardiotoxic
Unghwang Xiong Huang
雄黃 웅황 · Realgar

8 g
Chief 君

雄黃二錢 — realgar, an arsenic sulfide
Sangbaekpi Sang Bai Pi
桑白皮 상백피 · Mulberry Root Bark

80 g
Deputy 臣

靑桑皮(生者) 二兩 — two nyang of fresh green mulberry bark, pounded in with the powder to make the body of the stick
Jusa Zhu Sha
朱砂 주사 · Cinnabar (toxic)

—
Envoy 使

朱砂爲衣 — cinnabar as the coating, no weight given; mercuric sulfide
Chongbaek Cong Bai
蔥白 총백 · Scallion White

—
Envoy 使

冷葱湯 — cold scallion-white decoction, the vehicle the stick is ground down in and swallowed with

Total g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 2 ingredients measured by count or used as a vehicle, shown as —.

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

A moulded stick coated with cinnabar and shade-dried, six fun to the stick
Eight fun of it ground down in cold scallion decoction and swallowed
The same stick pushed into the needled head of the 疔 from outside, the patient then covered up to sweat
Held to make the core soften and come away in two days
Singled out for the depleted, the delicate and well-born, and women before and after childbirth, where the toxin is shallow

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

疔瘡 — the nail-sore
體虛 — a depleted constitution
淸貴人 — the delicate and well-born
婦女胎前後 — women before and after childbirth
毒淺者 — a case in which the toxin is shallow

Biomedical correlates

Furuncle or carbuncle with a necrotic core — historical escharotic insert
Skin and soft-tissue infection in a frail or peripartum patient — historical

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治疔瘡. 蟾酥三錢, 雄黃二錢, 爲末. 用靑桑皮(生者) 二兩, 同擣如泥, 六分重捻作錠子, 朱砂爲衣, 陰乾. 以冷葱湯磨服八分, 仍用冷葱湯呑下. 外用鍼刺疔頭, 將錠子揷入, 被盖出汗, 二日爛出卽愈. 體虛淸貴人及婦女胎前後毒淺者最宜. 《入門》

Translation

Treats the nail-sore. Toad venom 3 don and realgar 2 don, powdered. Take 2 nyang of green mulberry bark, the fresh kind, pound it in with them to a mud, and roll sticks of six fun weight; coat them with cinnabar and dry them in the shade. Grind eight fun down in cold scallion decoction and take it, following with more cold scallion decoction to send it down. On the outside, needle the head of the nail-sore and push the stick in; cover the patient with bedding so that he sweats, and in two days it softens and comes out, and he is cured at once. It suits best the depleted, the delicate and well-born, and women before and after childbirth where the toxin is shallow. — Immun 入門 (Donguibogam · Ongjeo)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The fourth of the 疔 sticks, and the one with a dose rather than just a procedure. Toad venom and realgar are powdered and pounded into two nyang of fresh green mulberry bark, which gives the stick a fibrous body; the sticks are rolled to six fun each, coated with cinnabar and dried in the shade. Then both routes are used at once — eight fun ground down in cold scallion decoction and swallowed, and a whole stick pushed into the needled sore while the patient is covered up to sweat. What sets this leaf apart is the last sentence, which names who it is for: 體虛淸貴人及婦女胎前後毒淺者最宜 — best for the depleted, for the delicate and well-born, and for women before and after childbirth, where the toxin is shallow. That is 入門 selecting the gentlest member of a violent family for the frailest patients, and the reasoning is visible: no arsenic trioxide, no croton, no cantharides, and two nyang of mulberry bark diluting what is there. 疔疽治法 confirms the placement, giving 賽命丹 for the robust and 保生錠子 for the depleted. **Contains toad venom, which contains cardiac-glycoside bufadienolides and has killed at ordinary doses; realgar, an arsenic sulfide; and cinnabar, which is mercuric sulfide. This must not be prepared or taken.** Being the mildest of four arsenical and cardiotoxic sticks is not mildness. Pregnancy is the one circumstance in which arsenic and mercury exposure is least acceptable, since both cross the placenta, so the leaf's own recommendation points at exactly the patients who must not receive it. A sore like this is incised and drained. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.