Formulas · Warm the Interior 溫裏 · Bonsa (本事)

Sichuan Pepper and Aconite Powder

Chobu-san

한글 초부산 · Pinyin Jiao Fu San

椒附散

Composition 構成

Buja Fu Zi
附子 부자 · Prepared Aconite

30 g
Chief 君 one large tuber, blast-fried, skin and umbilicus removed, powdered; 2 don per dose
Cheoncho Chuan Jiao
川椒 천초 · Sichuan Pepper

2 g
Deputy 臣 20 grains, packed with white wheat flour, removed after decocting
Baengmyeon Bai Mian
白麪 백면 · White Wheat Flour

5 g
Assistant 佐 to pack the pepper
Saenggang Sheng Jiang
生薑 생강 · Fresh Ginger

7 g
Envoy 使 7 slices
Baegyeom Bai Yan
白鹽 백염 · White Salt

0.5 g
Envoy 使 added at the end

Total 44.5 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

Warms and supplements Kidney yang
Leads counterflow Qi back to its channel
Frees the nape and upper back

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Kidney Qi surging up against the nape and back
Neck and back pain unresponsive to wind medicines
Pain dragging into the scapula with inability to turn

Biomedical correlates

Cervicothoracic pain with a deficiency picture
Chronic neck pain unresponsive to anti-inflammatory treatment

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治腎氣上攻項背, 不能轉移. 大附子一箇, 炮去皮臍末之. 右末, 每二錢, 好川椒二十粒白麪塡滿, 水一盞半, 薑七片, 煎至七分去椒, 入鹽, 空心, 溫服. 《本事》

Translation

Treats Kidney Qi surging upward to assail the nape and back so that it cannot be turned or shifted. One large aconite tuber, blast-fried, skin and umbilicus removed, powdered. Of this powder take 2 don each time; pack twenty grains of good Sichuan pepper with white wheat flour, add 1.5 jan of water and 7 slices of ginger, decoct down to seven tenths, remove the pepper, add salt, and take warm on an empty stomach. — Bonsa 本事 (Donguibogam · Gyeonghang)

Clinical commentary 臨床

A neck formula with no wind medicines in it at all, which is the whole point — the accompanying case records a patient whose neck and scapular pain had failed every wind formula tried, and resolved on one dose of this. The reasoning is that Kidney Qi ascending along the spine has met an obstruction and backed up; Sichuan pepper is used not to warm the neck but to lead the counterflow downward and return it to its channel. The pepper is packed in flour, decocted, and then removed — its action is imparted to the liquid rather than ingested. Aconite is toxic and must be properly blast-fried; the 2 don per dose is of the processed powder. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.