Honeysuckle Wine

Indong-ju

한글 인동주 · Pinyin Ren Dong Jiu

忍冬酒

癕 is given above as 癰, and 甁, 椀 and 砂盆 are printed as the transcription has them. 忍冬藤 is the stem of the honeysuckle and is registered under 忍冬, with the part named in the prep; the same drug serves both the external paste and the internal decoction, and the grams are entered for the 五兩 of the decoction. The earthenware basin, the earthenware jar and the water and wine are the apparatus and media of the preparation and are not ingredients. 文武火 is the moderate-then-brisk fire of the corpus.

Composition 構成

Indong Ren Dong Teng
忍冬 인동 · Honeysuckle Vine

200 g
Chief 君

忍冬藤(生) 一把 ground to a paste for the application, and 五兩 pounded up for the decoction
Gamcho Gan Cao
甘草 감초 · Licorice

40 g
Envoy 使

一兩, raw (生), cut up

Total 240 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 every abscess and malignant sore wherever it has broken out
Given at the first rising, the leaf claiming a hundred hits in a hundred
Applied as a paste around the swelling with a vent left at the centre, and drunk as a wine decoction

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Every abscess and malignant sore, back abscess and breast abscess (一切癰疽惡瘡, 背癰乳癰)
No matter where it has broken out (不問發在何處)
At the first rising (初發便當服此)

Biomedical correlates

Carbuncle and mastitis — historical framing
Early soft-tissue infection, topical and internal
Cellulitis before abscess formation

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治一切癰疽惡瘡, 背癰乳癰, 不問發在何處, 初發便當服此, 百發百中. 忍冬藤(生) 取一把, 以葉入砂盆, 硏爛, 入酒少許, 調和塗付四圍, 中心留一口. 又取五兩槌碎, 甘草(生) 一兩剉, 入砂甁內, 水二椀, 文武火煎至一椀, 入好酒一大椀, 煎數三沸, 分三服. 田父野老最宜服此. 《丹心》

Translation

Treats every abscess and malignant sore, back abscess and breast abscess; no matter where it has broken out, at its first rising this should be taken, and it hits a hundred times in a hundred. Take a handful of fresh honeysuckle vine, put the leaves in an earthenware basin and grind them to a pulp, add a little wine and mix, and spread it around the swelling, leaving an opening at the centre. Then take 5 nyang of it pounded up, and raw licorice 1 nyang cut small, put them in an earthenware jar with 2 bowls of water, decoct over a moderate then brisk fire down to 1 bowl, add 1 large bowl of good wine, bring it to a boil three or so times, and divide into three doses. For the farmer in the field and the old man in the country this is the fittest thing to take. — Dansim 丹心 (Donguibogam · Ongjeo)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The same plant as the pill, used two ways at once. A handful of fresh vine ground to a pulp with a little wine and spread in a ring around the swelling, with the centre left open — the vent is deliberate, and it is the same thinking as Nokgak-san earlier in the chapter: enclose the swelling, leave its head free, let it discharge. Then five nyang pounded up and decocted with raw licorice down to a bowl, a large bowl of wine added, boiled briefly, and taken in three doses. Inside and outside, the same medicine. The closing line is the most human sentence in the chapter: 田父野老最宜服此 — for the farmer in the field and the old man in the country, this is the fittest thing to take. Honeysuckle grows wild everywhere in Korea, and that is the point. A formula needing no pharmacy is a formula a village can actually use, and the Bogam says so without embarrassment. 百發百中, a hundred hits in a hundred, is of course not true. But early cellulitis before an abscess has formed is the one stage at which a topical and oral anti-inflammatory might plausibly change the course, and that is exactly the stage the leaf specifies — 初發便當服此, take it at the first rising. A breast abscess or a carbuncle that has formed needs drainage and antibiotics, and the wine in the preparation is not helping anything. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.