Formulas · Clear Heat 淸熱 · Uihak Immun (醫學入門)

Black Slave Pill

Heungno-hwan

한글 흑노환 · Pinyin Hei Nu Wan

黑奴丸

Four of the eight drugs are soots and dusts — cauldron soot, flue soot, roof-beam dust and wheat smut — which is what the black of the name refers to. The prohibition against giving it without great thirst is the Hwarinseo's own.

Composition 構成

Mahwang Ma Huang
麻黃 마황 · Ephedra

80 g
Chief 君
Daehwang Da Huang
大黃 대황 · Rhubarb

80 g
Chief 君
Hwanggeum Huang Qin
黃芩 황금 · Scutellaria

40 g
Deputy 臣
Bujeomae Fu Di Mei
釜底煤 부저매 · Cauldron-Bottom Soot

40 g
Deputy 臣
Mangcho Mang Xiao
芒硝 망초 · Mirabilite

40 g
Deputy 臣
Baekchosang Bai Cao Shuang
百草霜 백초상 · Stove Soot

40 g
Assistant 佐
Yangsangjin Liang Shang Chen
梁上塵 양상진 · Roof-Beam Dust

40 g
Assistant 佐
Somaengno Xiao Mai Nu
小麥奴 소맥노 · Wheat Smut

40 g
Assistant 佐

Total 400 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

Treats yang toxin with blotches breaking out
agitation and great thirst and a surging rapid pulse
Given only where there is great thirst

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Yang toxin with heat blotches and great thirst
Extreme heat in the blood

Biomedical correlates

Severe sepsis with petechiae
Hyperthermia with purpura

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治陽毒發斑ㆍ煩躁ㆍ大渴ㆍ脉洪數. 麻黃ㆍ大黃各二兩, 黃芩ㆍ釜底煤ㆍ芒硝ㆍ竈堗墨ㆍ梁上塵ㆍ小麥奴各一兩. 右爲末, 蜜丸彈子大, 每一丸, 新汲水化服. 須臾振寒ㆍ汗出而解; 未汗再服. 《入門》 ○陽毒及懷傷寒, 醫所不治, 精魂已竭, 心下尙煖, 斡開其口灌藥下咽卽活. 若不大渴, 不可與此藥. 《活人》

Translation

Treats yang toxin with blotches breaking out, agitation, great thirst and a surging rapid pulse. Ephedra and rhubarb, 2 nyang each; scutellaria, cauldron-bottom soot, mirabilite, stove-flue soot, roof-beam dust and wheat smut, 1 nyang each. Powder, make honey pills the size of a bullet, and dissolve one in newly drawn water. After a while there is shivering and sweat comes out and it resolves; if no sweat comes, take it again. For yang toxin and for cold damage in pregnancy that physicians cannot treat, where the spirit is already spent but there is still warmth below the heart — prise the mouth open and pour the medicine down the throat and he lives. If there is not great thirst, this medicine must not be given. — Uihak Immun 入門 · Hwarin 活人 (Donguibogam · Han)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The strangest formula in the chapter and the one with the firmest contraindication: if there is not great thirst, it must not be given. Four of its eight drugs are soot and dust scraped from a kitchen — the black of the name — and whatever the tradition believed about them, what the formula actually delivers is two nyang each of ephedra and rhubarb with mirabilite, which is a violent purge and diaphoresis. The passage about prising open the mouth of a patient whose spirit is spent while there is still warmth below the heart is the chapter at its most direct about what it was for. Blotches with great thirst and a surging pulse is a purpuric sepsis, and nothing here would have helped. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.