Formulas · Regulate Qi 理氣 · Injae Jikji (仁齋直指方)

Ginger and Salt Decoction

Gangyeom-tang

한글 강염탕 · Pinyin Jiang Yan Tang

薑鹽湯

Composition 構成

Yeom Yan
鹽 염 · Salt

40 g
Chief 君
Saenggang Sheng Jiang
生薑 생강 · Fresh Ginger

20 g
Deputy 臣

sliced
Dongbyeon Tong Bian
童便 동변 · Child's Urine

—
Envoy 使

two cups, decocted with the drugs

Total g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 1 ingredient 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 dry sudden turmoil at the point of death
Induces vomiting to free the blocked middle

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Dry sudden turmoil with neither vomiting nor diarrhoea possible
Sudden abdominal distension and stabbing pain

Biomedical correlates

Acute gastric obstruction with intractable retching

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治乾霍亂欲死. 鹽一兩, 生薑(切) 半兩. 右同炒色變, 以童尿二盞同煎至一盞, 分二次服. 《直指》

Translation

Treats dry sudden turmoil at the point of death. Salt, 1 nyang; sliced fresh ginger, half a nyang. Dry-fry the two together until the colour changes, decoct with two cups of a boy's urine down to one cup, and give in two doses. — Jikji 直指 (Donguibogam · Gwallan)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Two kitchen materials and an emetic intent. In dry sudden turmoil nothing will come up and nothing will go down, and the chapter's whole strategy is to break that by making the patient vomit; strong salt water is what does it. The ginger is dry-fried with the salt to warm the middle, and the vehicle is a boy's urine, which the Bogam uses throughout for sudden collapse. **This is recorded for the text. Deliberately inducing vomiting in a patient with abdominal distension and obstruction is dangerous — it risks aspiration and oesophageal injury — and hypertonic salt solutions have caused fatal hypernatraemia. A patient in this state needs emergency assessment and intravenous fluids.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.