Fire-Robbing Method

Hwageop-beop

한글 화겁법 · Pinyin Huo Jie Fa

火劫法

A procedure rather than a prescription, but the Bogam gives it its own heading among the formulas of 傷寒發狂, so it is registered as one.

Composition 構成

Heuktan Hei Tan
黑炭 흑탄 · Charcoal

—
Chief 君

a basinful, burning
Cho Cu
醋 초 · Vinegar

—
Deputy 臣

one bowl, poured onto the fire

Total 0 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

Rouses a raving patient through the nose
Settles mania by shock

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Mania in heat disease
Raving that will not yield to medicine

Biomedical correlates

Acute agitated delirium

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治發狂. 炭火一盆, 置病人之前, 將醋一椀, 急沃火內, 使烟氣衝入鼻內, 須臾自定. 又將凉水噀面亦可. 《入門》

Translation

Treats mania. Set a basin of burning charcoal before the patient, take a bowl of vinegar and dash it quickly into the fire so that the fumes rush up into the nose, and in a moment the patient settles of himself. Dashing cool water in the face will also do. — Immun 入門 (Donguibogam · Han, lower)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Hot vinegar fumes are acetic acid vapour, and the reflex they provoke is a sharp inspiratory gasp followed by a pause — the same mechanism as smelling salts, which is probably why the method survived. The Bogam's second option, cold water in the face, is the diving reflex and works on the same logic of interrupting the agitation rather than treating it. Neither does anything about the underlying heat, and the text places this among measures to take while the purgative is being prepared. Burning charcoal in a closed room carries a carbon monoxide risk that the Bogam had no way of knowing about. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.