Formulas · Regulate Qi 理氣 · Jeongyo (精要)

Solitary Victory Powder

Dokseung-san

한글 독승산 · Pinyin Du Sheng San

獨勝散

The Donguibogam has two formulas named 獨勝散 — this is the one in the abscesses chapter, and the other, from the sweating chapter, is registered as dokseung-san (五倍子ㆍ白礬, packed into the navel). The transcription writes 凈 for 淨, 晒 for 曬, 蘓 for 蘇, 癕 for 癰 and 為 for 爲; the standard forms are printed, and 盖 is printed as the transcription and the corpus both have it.

Composition 構成

Hyangbuja Xiang Fu
香附子 향부자 · Cyperus

8 g
Chief 君

pounded and the skin and hairs rubbed clean off, steeped a night in ginger juice, sun-dried and powdered; 2 don to a dose
Gamcho Gan Cao
甘草 감초 · Licorice

—
Envoy 使

in the alternative vehicle, decocted with perilla leaf to take the powder down
Jasoyeop Zi Su Ye
紫蘇葉 자소엽 · Perilla Leaf

—
Envoy 使

in the alternative vehicle, decocted with licorice to take the powder down

Total 8 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

Treats an abscess knotted hard, with the toxin gathered and painful
Aimed at the sore that was brought on by anger
After several doses the hardness disperses of itself and any pus comes straight out

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Abscess knotted hard with gathered toxin and pain (癰疽結硬聚毒作痛)
A disease mostly got from the Qi of anger (怒氣)

Biomedical correlates

Indurated abscess or cellulitis
Soft-tissue swelling with no clear external cause

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治癰疽結硬聚毒作痛. 盖此疾多因怒氣得之, 宜服此. 香附子, 杵去皮毛淨, 薑汁浸一宿, 曬乾爲末. 每二錢, 白湯調下, 或甘草ㆍ紫蘇葉煎湯調下. 數服腫硬自消, 有膿卽出. 《精要》

Translation

Treats an abscess and deep-rooted abscess knotted hard, with the toxin gathered and painful. Now this disease is mostly got from the Qi of anger, and this should be taken for it. Cyperus, pounded and the skin and hairs rubbed clean off, steeped a night in ginger juice, sun-dried and powdered. Two don to a dose, stirred into plain hot water, or taken down stirred into a decoction of licorice and perilla leaf. After several doses the swelling and hardness disperse of themselves, and if there is pus it comes straight out. — Jeongyo 精要 (Donguibogam · Ongjeo)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Cyperus alone, which is what 獨勝, solitary victory, names. The preparation is the formula: the root is pounded until the skin and the hairs come clean off, steeped a whole night in ginger juice, then sun-dried and powdered, so that the ginger has gone into it before it is ever dosed. Plain hot water carries it, or a decoction of licorice and perilla leaf if something milder and more aromatic is wanted. 盖此疾多因怒氣得之 — this disease is mostly got from the Qi of anger — is the leaf's whole justification, and it places the formula in the chapter's internal-cause group with 遠志酒 against the external-cause group of 黃甘散 and 連翹敗毒散. Cyperus is the Donguibogam's first drug for bound Liver Qi, so a single-drug Qi-moving powder is a consistent answer to a swelling read as anger held in. The chapter makes the same move for 發鬢, the abscess at the temples, which it attributes to 怒火 and treats with 柴胡淸肝湯. 數服腫硬自消, 有膿卽出, the promise that the hardness disperses and the pus comes out of itself, is the claim to treat carefully: a collection of pus that is not draining will not be resolved by a Qi-moving powder, and an indurated, painful swelling needs ultrasound and, where there is pus, drainage. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.