Formulas · Calm the Spirit 安神 · Sipsambang (十三方)

Cinnabar and Calomel Powder

Jubun-san

한글 주분산 · Pinyin Zhu Fen San

朱粉散

The transcription writes 蠍 for the scorpion where the corpus elsewhere prints 蝎 (127 instances against two); 蠍 is not covered by the corpus normalisation table, so the transcription's form is printed here as the base text rule requires. The transcription writes 為 for 爲; the corpus form is printed. The two interlinear glosses, 輕粉也 and 乳汁也, explain substances rather than pointing to another place in the book and are set in parentheses, not in a cross-reference span. The source label 十三方 is romanised Sipsambang, following the five entries already in the corpus that carry it.

Composition 構成

Jusa Zhu Sha
朱砂 주사 · Cinnabar (toxic)

—
Chief 君

one grain (一粒) · cinnabar, mercuric sulfide, toxic
Gyeongbun Qing Fen
輕粉 경분 · Calomel (toxic)

—
Chief 君

一片雪, one flake of snow, glossed in the text as 輕粉 · calomel, mercurous chloride, severely toxic
Baekgangjam Bai Jiang Can
白殭蠶 백강잠 · Silkworm

—
Deputy 臣

seven (七箇), lightly dry-fried and cooled
Jeongal Quan Xie
全蠍 전갈 · Scorpion (toxic)

—
Deputy 臣

three (三箇), lightly dry-fried and cooled · scorpion venom is a neurotoxin and dried scorpion cannot be dosed
Inyu Ren Ru
人乳 인유 · Human Milk

—
Envoy 使

母乳汁, the mother’s own breast milk, glossed in the text as the 生人血 of the verse, as the vehicle

Total 0 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 5 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

Treats acute and chronic fright wind
The composition is given as a mnemonic verse — one grain of cinnabar, one flake of snow, seven stiffened silkworms, three scorpions
The silkworms and scorpions lightly dry-fried and cooled, then ground to a fine powder with the two minerals
Stirred into the mother’s own breast milk and wiped inside the child’s mouth

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

急驚風 — acute fright wind
慢驚風 — chronic fright wind, the verse insisting the formula serves for either

Biomedical correlates

Febrile seizure in a child
Seizure of a depleted child after prolonged diarrhoea

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治急慢驚風. ○歌曰, 一粒朱砂一片雪(輕粉也), 七箇殭蚕三箇蠍, 不問驚風與慢風, 服時須用生人血(乳汁也). ○右先將蚕ㆍ蠍微炒燥, 取出待冷, 同砂ㆍ粉硏爲細末, 却以母乳汁調, 抹於兒口內, 立效. 《十三方》

Translation

Treats acute and chronic fright wind. ○The verse runs: one grain of cinnabar, one flake of snow — that is calomel; seven stiffened silkworms, three scorpions; ask not whether it is fright wind or the chronic kind; when it is given it must be taken with the blood of a living person — that is breast milk. ○Of the above, first take the silkworms and the scorpions and dry-fry them lightly, take them out and let them cool, then grind them to a fine powder together with the cinnabar and the calomel; stir the powder into the mother’s own breast milk and wipe it inside the child’s mouth. The effect is immediate. — Sipsambang 十三方 (Donguibogam · Soa)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Four substances, named in a four-line verse so that they could be carried in the head rather than looked up. Name what they are. 朱砂 is cinnabar, mercuric sulfide. 一片雪, the flake of snow, is glossed by the text itself as 輕粉 — calomel, mercurous chloride, the mercury salt that 雜方門 records being manufactured and 諸瘡門 records poisoning people. 殭蚕 is a silkworm killed by a fungal infection. 蠍 is a whole dried scorpion, three of them. The vehicle is called 生人血, the blood of a living person, and glossed as breast milk. So the preparation is two mercury compounds, one of them highly soluble and absorbable, stirred into breast milk and wiped directly into the mouth of a child small enough to still be nursing. The route could not be more efficient and there is no quantity anywhere in it: one grain, one flake, seven worms, three scorpions. **This formula is built on two mercury compounds. 朱砂 is cinnabar, mercuric sulfide; 輕粉 is calomel, mercurous chloride, which is far more readily absorbed and was the agent of the mercury poisoning this book records elsewhere. It also contains three whole scorpions, whose venom is a neurotoxin and whose dose cannot be measured. The patient is a child and the text gives no dose by weight anywhere — the quantities are a grain, a flake and a count of insects. Mercury injures a developing nervous system irreversibly at doses that leave an adult unharmed, and the injury does not reverse. This must not be prepared.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.