Formulas · Tonify Yang 補陽 · Bonsabang (本事方)

Two Spirits Pill

Isin-hwan

한글 이신환 · Pinyin Er Shen Wan

二神丸

The Bogam records a variant reading that the nutmeg is roasted in dough rather than used raw.

Composition 構成

Bogolji Bu Gu Zhi
補骨脂 보골지 · Psoralea

160 g
Chief 君

stir-fried
Yukdugu Rou Dou Kou
肉豆蔻 육두구 · Nutmeg

80 g
Deputy 臣

raw; one text has it roasted in dough
Saenggang Sheng Jiang
生薑 생강 · Fresh Ginger

160 g
Envoy 使

sliced and boiled with the jujubes
Daejo Da Zao
大棗 대조 · Jujube

—
Envoy 使

forty-nine plump jujubes, boiled soft with the ginger; the flesh used to form the pills

Total 400 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 1 ingredient 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

Treats spleen and kidney vacuity diarrhoea

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Spleen and kidney yang vacuity with a loose stool
Dawn diarrhoea

Biomedical correlates

Chronic diarrhoea
Early-morning diarrhoea

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治脾腎虛泄. 破故紙(炒) 四兩, 肉豆蔲(生) 二兩. 右爲末, 肥棗四十九枚, 生薑四兩, 切片, 同煮爛, 去薑, 取棗肉, 入藥末和勻, 丸如梧子大, 空心, 鹽湯下三五十丸. 《本事》 ○一云豆蔲煨.

Translation

Treats spleen and kidney vacuity diarrhoea. Stir-fried psoralea, 4 nyang; raw nutmeg, 2 nyang. Powder; take forty-nine plump jujubes and 4 nyang of sliced ginger, boil them soft together, discard the ginger, take the jujube flesh, mix in the drug powder evenly, and form pills the size of a paulownia seed; take thirty to fifty on an empty stomach in salt water. One text says the nutmeg is roasted in dough. — Bonsabang 本事 (Donguibogam · Daebyeon)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The parent of the whole dawn-diarrhoea family: psoralea to warm the kidney, nutmeg to bind the spleen, and the jujube-and-ginger preparation to carry them. The chapter then builds outward from it in plain sight — three spirits adds costus, four spirits adds schisandra and evodia, six spirits adds atractylodes and poria — which makes this one of the best places in the book to watch a formula family grow by indication. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.