Formulas · Invigorate Blood 活血祛瘀 · Dansim (丹心)

Black Dragon Elixir

Heungnyong-dan

한글 흑룡단  ·  Pinyin Hei Long Dan

黑龍丹

The five chief herbs are cut, packed into a sand crucible sealed with paper-fiber and salted clay, and calcined over ten geun of charcoal; when cool, the remaining five are added and all ground fine, then bound with a vinegar-and-wheat paste into pills the size of crossbow pellets. One pill is ground fine into ginger juice, child's urine, and warm wine, and taken. **Note on modern practice: obstructed labor, retained placenta, and postpartum hemorrhage are obstetric emergencies requiring immediate hospital management. Sulphur is not used internally in contemporary practice. This entry is recorded for textual and historical completeness only.**

Composition 構成

Total 232 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

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

  • Hard birth
  • a dead fetus not descending
  • the afterbirth not descending (産難 死胎不下 胎衣不下)
  • Afterpains
  • blood confusion and blood dizziness after birth
  • All critical cases on the point of death (一切危急垂死者)

Biomedical correlates

  • Obstetric emergencies — historical management
  • Retained placenta and postpartum hemorrhage of the era
  • Emergency care before modern obstetrics

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治産難, 及死胎不下, 胎衣不下, 産後兒枕痛, 血迷, 血暈, 一切危急垂死者, 灌藥得下, 無不活, 神驗不可言. 五靈脂ㆍ當歸ㆍ川芎ㆍ良薑ㆍ熟地黃 各一兩. 右剉, 盛砂盒, 紙筋鹽泥固濟, 炭十斤煆, 候冷取出, 却入百草霜 三錢, 硫黃ㆍ乳香 各一錢半, 花蘂石(煆)ㆍ琥珀 各一錢. 右硏細末, 醋麪糊和丸彈子大, 每一丸, 入薑汁ㆍ童便ㆍ溫酒中, 細硏服之. 《丹心》

Translation

Treats a hard birth, a dead fetus not descending, the afterbirth not descending, afterpains after birth, blood confusion and blood dizziness, and every critical case on the point of death: get the medicine down and none fail to live — its divine efficacy cannot be spoken. Flying-squirrel droppings, Korean angelica, cnidium, lesser galangal, and prepared rehmannia, 1 nyang each. Cut these, pack them into a sand crucible sealed with paper-fiber and salted clay, and calcine over ten geun of charcoal; when cool, take them out and add stove soot 3 don, sulphur and frankincense 1.5 don each, and calcined ophicalcite and amber 1 don each. Grind all to a fine powder and bind with a vinegar-and-wheat paste into pills the size of crossbow pellets; grind one pill fine into ginger juice, child's urine, and warm wine, and take. — Dansim 丹心 (Donguibogam · Buin)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The chapter's emergency of last resort, and its claim is unguarded — *in every critical case on the point of death, get the medicine down and none fail to live; its divine efficacy cannot be spoken.* The construction explains the name: five herbs sealed in clay and burnt over ten geun of charcoal until they blacken, then the minerals added. Before modern obstetrics, retained placenta and postpartum hemorrhage were among the commonest causes of maternal death, and this pill is what a practitioner reached for when nothing else was left. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.

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