Formulas · Clear Heat 淸熱 · Seonmyeongnon-bang (宣明論方)

Wheat Decoction Powder

Maekjeon-san

한글 맥전산 · Pinyin Mai Jian San

麥煎散

Coarse powder, bulk amounts: 3 don a dose, decocted with fifty grains of wheat. The transcription prints 熱 in its variant form 𤍠, normalised here to the corpus graph. Not the Dansim formula registered as napjeon-san, which shares only the second and third graphs of the name.

Composition 構成

Byeolgap Bie Jia
鼈甲 별갑 · Turtle Carapace

40 g
Chief 君

vinegar mix-fried (醋灸), 1 nyang
Siho Chai Hu
柴胡 시호 · Bupleurum

40 g
Chief 君

1 nyang
Saengjihwang Sheng Di Huang
生地黃 생지황 · Raw Rehmannia

40 g
Chief 君

1 nyang
Danggwi Dang Gui
當歸 당귀 · Korean Angelica

40 g
Deputy 臣

1 nyang
Baekchul Bai Zhu
白朮 백출 · White Atractylodes

40 g
Deputy 臣

1 nyang
Seokgo Shi Gao
石膏 석고 · Gypsum

40 g
Deputy 臣

1 nyang
Jeokbongnyeong Chi Fu Ling
赤茯苓 적복령 · Poria (red)

40 g
Assistant 佐

1 nyang
Geonchil Gan Qi
乾漆 건칠 · Dried Lacquer

40 g
Assistant 佐

1 nyang
Sangsan Chang Shan
常山 상산 · Dichroa Root (toxic)

40 g
Assistant 佐

1 nyang · toxic
Daehwang Da Huang
大黃 대황 · Rhubarb

40 g
Assistant 佐

roasted (煨), 1 nyang
Gamcho Gan Cao
甘草 감초 · Licorice

20 g
Envoy 使

half a nyang
Somaek Xiao Mai
小麥 소맥 · Wheat

—
Envoy 使

fifty grains, decocted together with each dose

Total 420 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 steaming-bone heat with sallow emaciation
Clears the heat that drives the night sweats and the foul breath

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Steaming bone with yellow emaciation (骨蒸黃瘦)
Foul breath with heat in the flesh (口臭肌熱)
Night sweats on a steaming-bone ground (盜汗)

Biomedical correlates

Chronic low-grade fever with wasting
Night sweats with weight loss
Tuberculosis-adjacent presentations of the era

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治骨蒸黃瘦, 口臭, 肌熱, 盜汗. 赤茯苓ㆍ當歸ㆍ乾漆ㆍ鼈甲(醋灸)ㆍ常山ㆍ大黃(煨)ㆍ柴胡ㆍ白朮ㆍ生地黃ㆍ石膏各一兩, 甘草半兩. 右麄末, 每服三錢, 小麥五十粒, 同煎服. 《宣明》

Translation

Treats steaming bone with yellow emaciation, foul breath, heat in the flesh and night sweats. Red poria, Korean angelica, dried lacquer, soft-shelled turtle shell (vinegar mix-fried), dichroa, rhubarb (roasted), bupleurum, white atractylodes, raw rehmannia and gypsum, 1 nyang each; licorice half a nyang. Make a coarse powder of the above; for each dose take 3 don with fifty grains of wheat and decoct them together. — Seonmyeong 宣明 (Donguibogam · Hwa)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The wheat in the name is the draught, not the medicine — fifty grains boiled up with each three-don dose, which is how the chapter handles the sweating that comes with steaming bone. Wheat, and particularly the light floating grain, is the tradition's standard agent for a body that leaks at night, and putting it in the name tells the dispenser not to leave it out. Behind it is one of the broadest formulas in the chapter: turtle shell and bupleurum for the bone heat, rehmannia and gypsum for the fluid and the flesh heat, atractylodes and poria to hold the middle, and then dried lacquer, dichroa and roasted rhubarb — three hard, breaking medicines that belong to the older understanding of 骨蒸 as something lodged and parasitic rather than simply hot. The sallow emaciation, the foul breath and the night sweats together describe the wasting disease of the era, and this is a formula that attacks as much as it clears. **Contains dichroa (常山), which is a powerful emetic and is hepatotoxic. Dried lacquer is a strong sensitiser.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.