Formulas · External Application 外用 · Jikji (直指)

Black Numen Powder

Heungnyeong-san

한글 흑령산 · Pinyin Hei Ling San

黑靈散

The leaf gives the preparation in two stages and repeats 右 for the second, which is kept as written. 油髮灰 is entered under 頭髮 through the 油髮 and 髮灰 aliases. The name 黑靈, black numen, describes the colour the powder takes after the roasting rather than any ingredient. The leaf gives no interlinear notes.

Composition 構成

Nobongbang Lu Feng Fang
露蜂房 노봉방 · Hornet's Nest

20 g
Chief 君

露蜂房, 5 don
Moryeo Mu Li
牡蠣 모려 · Oyster Shell

10 g
Deputy 臣

牡蠣粉, oyster shell burnt and ground, 2 don 5 fun
Hwangdan Huang Dan
黃丹 황단 · Red Lead (toxic)

10 g
Deputy 臣

黃丹, red lead, 2 don 5 fun · lead, toxic
Yuhwang Liu Huang
硫黃 유황 · Sulphur

10 g
Deputy 臣

硫黃, ground (硏), 2 don 5 fun
Baldu Tou Fa
頭髮 발두 · Human Hair

10 g
Assistant 佐

油髮灰, oily hair burnt to ash, 2 don 5 fun, stirred in after roasting · human material
Sahyang She Xiang
麝香 사향 · Musk (prohibited)

—
Envoy 使

麝香少許, a little · musk, a CITES-protected material

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

Roasted together until the smoke is spent, then dusted on the sore
The general external treatment of the section — 通治漏瘻

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

漏瘻 — the fistula and the sinus together, without distinction of kind
A discharging tract needing to be dried

Biomedical correlates

Chronic draining sinus or fistula — historical absorbent dressing powder
Chronic suppurating wound

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

通治漏瘻. 露蜂房五錢, 牡蠣粉ㆍ黃丹ㆍ硫黃(硏) 各二錢半. 右同炒, 烟盡爲末, 入油髮灰二錢半ㆍ麝香少許. 右和勻糝付. 《直指》

Translation

The general treatment for fistula and sinus. Hornet's nest 5 don; oyster shell powder, red lead and ground sulphur, 2 don 5 fun each. Roast these together until the smoke is spent and grind them to powder, then stir in 2 don 5 fun of oily hair burnt to ash and a little musk. Mix the above evenly and dust it on. — Jikji 直指 (Donguibogam · Jechang)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The 直指's general dressing for a fistula, and the one preparation in the section with a method worth attention: the minerals and the hornet's nest are roasted together 烟盡, until the smoke is spent, before anything else is added. Roasting to the end of the smoke is how a worker without a thermometer knows the organic matter has fully charred; what comes out is black, dry and finely divisible, and that is where the name comes from. As a dressing it is absorbent and astringent — charred hornet's nest, burnt oyster shell and hair ash are all alkaline and take up discharge. Sulphur and red lead are the medicinal claim. The musk goes in last and in trace, as it does throughout this chapter. **Contains red lead, which is a lead oxide and is absorbed from an open sore; roasting does not remove it, it concentrates it. It also contains musk, a CITES-protected material, and ash of human hair applied to a wound. This must not be prepared.** Held against the section's own doctrine — 苟有宿膿朽骨停蓄其間皆爲之漏 — a powder that dries the mouth of a tract is treating the visible end of the problem; the tract stays while retained pus or a dead bone sits at the bottom of it. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.