Formulas · Clear Heat 淸熱 · Gogeum Uigam (古今醫鑑)

Three Yellows and Gypsum Decoction

Samhwang-seokgo-tang

한글 삼황석고탕 · Pinyin San Huang Shi Gao Tang

三黃石膏湯

Cited from this chapter by the 眼門 of this site, where the name was previously left unlinked. The ephedra and fermented soybean are the exterior-releasing remainder in an otherwise wholly cooling formula.

Composition 構成

Seokgo Shi Gao
石膏 석고 · Gypsum

12 g
Chief 君
Hwanggeum Huang Qin
黃芩 황금 · Scutellaria

6 g
Chief 君
Hwangnyeon Huang Lian
黃連 황련 · Coptis

6 g
Chief 君
Hwangbaek Huang Bai
黃柏 황백 · Phellodendron

6 g
Chief 君
Chija Zhi Zi
梔子 치자 · Gardenia

6 g
Deputy 臣
Damdusi Dan Dou Chi
淡豆豉 담두시 · Prepared Soybean

30 g
Assistant 佐

half a hop
Mahwang Ma Huang
麻黃 마황 · Ephedra

4 g
Assistant 佐
Saenggang Sheng Jiang
生薑 생강 · Fresh Ginger

—
Envoy 使

three slices
Seacha Xi Ya Cha
細芽茶 세아차 · Fine Tea Buds

—
Envoy 使

a pinch of fine tea

Total 70 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 2 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 yang toxin with blotches breaking out
a yellow body and red eyes
raving and wanting to run
delirious speech and six surging large pulses
Drains fire from all three burners

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Extreme heat in all three burners with delirium
Fire toxin with blotches and jaundice

Biomedical correlates

Severe sepsis with delirium
Hyperthermia with jaundice

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治陽毒發斑ㆍ身黃ㆍ眼赤ㆍ狂呌欲走ㆍ譫語ㆍ六脉洪大. 石膏三錢, 黃芩ㆍ黃連ㆍ黃栢ㆍ山梔仁各一錢半, 麻黃一錢, 香豉半合. 右剉, 作一貼, 入薑三片, 細茶一撮, 水煎服. 《醫鑑》

Translation

Treats yang toxin with blotches breaking out, a yellow body and red eyes, raving and wanting to run, delirious speech and all six pulses surging and large. Gypsum, 3 don; scutellaria, coptis, phellodendron and gardenia kernel, 1 don 5 fun each; ephedra, 1 don; fermented soybean, half a hop. Cut up, make one packet, add three slices of ginger and a pinch of fine tea, and decoct in water. — Gogeum Uigam 醫鑑 (Donguibogam · Han)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The chapter's great heat-draining formula and the one still prescribed. Gypsum for the yangming, the three yellows for the three burners, gardenia to take it out through the urine, and then a single don of ephedra with fermented soybean — which looks out of place in so cold a formula and is in fact the point: the heat is extreme but the exterior is still shut, and without opening it the cooling drugs have nowhere to send what they clear. A yellow body with red eyes and delirium is severe sepsis with jaundice, and the formula survives because the gypsum-and-three-yellows core does genuinely bring a temperature down. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.