Formulas · Purge Downward 瀉下 · Gogeum Uigam (古今醫鑑)

Cinnabar Chamber Marvel

Danbanggisul

한글 단방기술 · Pinyin Dan Fang Qi Shu

丹房奇術

The section heading is 不服藥自去水方, medicines that draw water off without being swallowed; all three entries in it are navel applications rather than oral preparations.

Composition 構成

Padu Ba Dou
巴豆 파두 · Croton Seed

16 g
Chief 君

ground and the oil removed (硏去油) · toxic
Gyeongbun Qing Fen
輕粉 경분 · Calomel (toxic)

8 g
Deputy 臣

水銀粉 · toxic
Yuhwang Liu Huang
硫黃 유황 · Sulphur

4 g
Assistant 佐

raw (生) · toxic

Total 28 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

Draws water out through the navel without medicine being swallowed

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Swelling and distension where medicine cannot be taken by mouth

Biomedical correlates

Refractory ascites

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治腫脹, 不服藥自去水. 巴豆(硏去油) 四錢, 水銀粉二錢, 硫黃生一錢. 右同硏成餠, 先用新綿一片, 布臍上, 次以餠掩之, 外用帛縛, 如人行三五里許, 自然瀉下惡水, 待下三五次去藥, 以粥補住. 《醫鑑》久患者, 隔日取水, 一餠可救二三十人. 《活人》一方, 治水蠱. 商陸根, 赤者杵爛, 貼臍上, 以帛縛定, 水自小便出. 《丹心》

Translation

Treats swelling and distension, drawing the water off of itself without medicine being taken. Croton (ground and the oil removed) 4 don, calomel 2 don, raw sulphur 1 don. Grind them together into a cake. First lay a piece of new cotton wool over the navel, then cover it with the cake and bind it with cloth. After about the time it takes to walk three or five li, foul water passes downward of itself; when it has passed three or five times, remove the medicine and restore with congee. In long-standing cases draw the water on alternate days; one cake can save twenty or thirty people. Another method treats water gu: pound red pokeweed root to a pulp, apply it over the navel and bind it with cloth, and the water passes out through the urine. — Gogeum Uigam 醫鑑 (Donguibogam · Bujong)

Clinical commentary 臨床

A transdermal purgative. The cake is bound over the navel and produces watery stools within the hour, and the endpoint is counted in passages rather than measured. That one cake serves twenty or thirty patients tells you how little was thought to be absorbed — and how little was understood about what was. The section it belongs to is worth noting as a category: three preparations, all applied at the navel, for patients who cannot take medicine by mouth. Whether any of it worked by absorption or simply by counter-irritation is not answerable from the text. **This preparation must not be made or applied. Croton oil is a severe vesicant that blisters skin on contact, calomel is a mercury compound absorbed through broken skin, and sulphur compounds the irritation. Ascites requires medical diagnosis and treatment.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.