Formulas · Clear Heat 淸熱 · Uihak Jeongjeon (醫學正傳)

Two Yellows Decoction

Ihwang-tang

한글 이황탕 · Pinyin Er Huang Tang

二黃湯

The transcription prints 䑕粘子, normalized here to 鼠粘子 on the corpus’s usage. 並 is printed as the transcription has it. The second draught’s three drugs carry no weights beyond 等分 and are entered without grams.

Composition 構成

Hwanggeum Huang Qin
黃芩 황금 · Scutellaria

4 g
Chief 君

wine-stir-fried
Hwangnyeon Huang Lian
黃連 황련 · Coptis

4 g
Chief 君

wine-stir-fried
Daehwang Da Huang
大黃 대황 · Rhubarb

—
Deputy 臣

wine-soaked, for the second draught
Ubangja Niu Bang Zi
牛蒡子 우방자 · Burdock Seed

—
Deputy 臣

stir-fried, for the second draught
Mangcho Mang Xiao
芒硝 망초 · Mirabilite

—
Deputy 臣

in equal part, added to the second draught
Gamcho Gan Cao
甘草 감초 · Licorice

4 g
Envoy 使

raw

Total 12 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 3 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

Clears heat at the first rising of epidemic swelling of the head
Drains the fire downward in a second draught with rhubarb and mirabilite

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Epidemic swelling of the head at its first rising (大頭瘟初起)

Biomedical correlates

Early epidemic illness with incipient swelling of the head and face
Febrile facial swelling before it is established

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治大頭瘟初起. 黃芩ㆍ黃連(並酒炒)ㆍ甘草(生) 各一錢. 水煎, 小小呷服. 再用酒浸大黃ㆍ鼠粘子(炒), 煎成湯, 入芒硝等分, 亦時時細呷之. 《正傳》

Translation

Treats epidemic swelling of the head at its first rising. Scutellaria and coptis, both wine-stir-fried, and raw licorice, 1 don each. Decoct in water and sip it in small mouthfuls. Then use wine-soaked rhubarb and stir-fried arctium seed, decoct them into a draught, add mirabilite in equal part, and likewise sip it finely at intervals. — Jeongjeon 正傳 (Donguibogam · On)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Three drugs for the first draught and three more for the second, which is the whole of the prescription’s design. Wine-stir-fried scutellaria and coptis with raw licorice are sipped in small mouthfuls while the swelling is only beginning; then a separate decoction of wine-soaked rhubarb and stir-fried arctium seed, with mirabilite stirred in, is sipped at intervals to take the fire out below. 初起 — at its first rising — is the point of the leaf. The Jeongjeon is offering the lightest thing in the chapter, on the reasoning that a big-head swelling caught early does not need the fifteen-drug prescriptions. Sipping rather than drinking is the same instinct found all through these leaves: keep the medicine on the throat. There is nothing hazardous here, and the pairing of bitter colds above with a salt-and-rhubarb drain below is intelligible as pharmacology. **Swelling of the face and neck with fever should still be assessed for bacterial infection rather than watched.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.