Formulas · External Application 外用 · Dansim (丹心)

Four Yellows Powder

Sahwang-san

한글 사황산 (탕화창) · Pinyin Si Huang San

四黃散

治同上 carries over from the 氷霜散 leaf above, 治湯火熱油所傷皮爛肉痛. The id carries the chapter tail because 四黃散 and the 海藏瀉黃散 registered as sahwang-san yield the same romanisation, a clash the differing characters hide and that the same-name list could not see; the registered entry keeps the bare id. The leaf writes 白芨 where the herb list heads the drug 白及.

Composition 構成

Daehwang Da Huang
大黃 대황 · Rhubarb

—
Chief 君

等分, equal parts
Hwanggeum Huang Qin
黃芩 황금 · Scutellaria

—
Chief 君

等分, equal parts
Hwangnyeon Huang Lian
黃連 황련 · Coptis

—
Chief 君

等分, equal parts
Hwangbaek Huang Bai
黃柏 황백 · Phellodendron

—
Chief 君

等分, equal parts
Baekgeup Bai Ji
白及 백급 · Bletilla

—
Envoy 使

白芨, 等分, the binder

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 the same as the formula above — a scald, a burn or hot oil with the skin broken
Powdered and spread on with fresh water

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

湯火熱油所傷 with the skin broken and the flesh painful

Biomedical correlates

Burn and scald injury — external use

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治同上. 大黃ㆍ黃芩ㆍ黃連ㆍ黃栢ㆍ白芨各等分. 右爲末, 新水調塗之. 《丹心》

Translation

Treats the same as above. Rhubarb, scutellaria, coptis, phellodendron and bletilla, equal parts of each. Powder them and spread on with fresh water. — Dansim 丹心 (Donguibogam · Jechang)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The four yellows of the name are rhubarb, scutellaria, coptis and phellodendron — the standard bitter-cold quartet — with bletilla as a fifth drug that is there to bind. It is the plainest of the five burn powders at 2.15, with no minerals at all and nothing toxic in it. It is also, with 赤石脂散, the one of the five that a modern reader can leave alone. The four barks and roots are the traditional antiseptics, several of them with demonstrable antibacterial activity, and bletilla mucilage forms a film that holds moisture on the wound — which is the principle of every modern burn dressing. Nothing here will heal a burn faster, but a cool bitter paste on a superficial burn is reasonable care. **The chapter's first aid at 2.15 is not: 急向火灸 and 愼勿以冷物搨之, hold it to the fire and keep anything cold off it, are both the reverse of what a burn needs.** Twenty minutes of cool running water, within the first three hours, limits the depth of the injury and relieves the pain; further heat extends the burn. The honey of the 單方 at 2.15.1 is the only remedy in the section with current evidence behind it. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.