Mulberry Branch Decoction

Sangjijeon-tang

한글 상지전탕 · Pinyin Sang Zhi Jian Tang

桑枝煎湯

The leaf is headed 桑枝煎湯, a decoction of mulberry twig, but nothing in the method decocts a twig: what is used is 桑柴灰, mulberry-wood ash, steeped in boiling water and settled clear. The head and the method do not agree. A first-edition footnote stands on the date list, 七 : 六, the early printing giving six where this one gives seven. The clause for cold tearing is a separate prescription from the Gangmok, appended under the same head.

Composition 構成

Sangsihoejeup Sang Chai Hui Zhi
桑柴灰汁 상시회즙 · Mulberry Wood Ash Lye

—
Chief 君

1 hop of mulberry-wood ash, boiling water poured over it and left to settle clear in a porcelain vessel
Sangyeop Sang Ye
桑葉 상엽 · Mulberry Leaf

—
Deputy 臣

winter mulberry leaves that have not dropped, decocted in a copper vessel — the second method only

Total 0 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 green blindness
Washes the eye warm with a settled mulberry-wood ash lye
Stops cold tearing on facing the wind

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Green blindness, the eye dimmed with nothing to see on its surface (靑盲)
Cold tearing on facing the wind (迎風冷淚)

Biomedical correlates

Optic atrophy
Epiphora
Chronic marginal blepharitis

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治靑盲, 令視物如鷹鶻. 正月八日ㆍ二月八日ㆍ三月六日ㆍ四月六日ㆍ五月五日ㆍ六月二日ㆍ七月七日ㆍ八月二十五日ㆍ九月十二日ㆍ十月十二日ㆍ十一月二十七日ㆍ十二月晦日, 每遇上件神日, 用桑柴灰一合, 以沸湯沃之, 磁器中令澄淸, 稍溫洗之. 如冷再溫洗, 神效. 《本草》 ○迎風冷淚, 冬桑不凋葉, 銅器煎湯, 溫洗眼. 《綱目》

Translation

Treats green blindness, and makes the eye see as a hawk or a falcon does. The spirit days are the eighth of the first month, the eighth of the second, the sixth of the third, the sixth of the fourth, the fifth of the fifth, the second of the sixth, the seventh of the seventh, the twenty-fifth of the eighth, the twelfth of the ninth, the twelfth of the tenth, the twenty-seventh of the eleventh, and the last day of the twelfth. Whenever one of the spirit days above comes round, take 1 hop of mulberry-wood ash, pour boiling water over it, let it settle clear in a porcelain vessel, and wash the eye with it just warm; if it has gone cold, warm it and wash again. Wonderfully effective. For cold tearing on facing the wind, take the winter mulberry leaves that have not dropped, decoct them in a copper vessel, and wash the eye warm. — Boncho 本草 · Gangmok 綱目 (Donguibogam · An)

Clinical commentary 臨床

An eye wash kept to a calendar. Twelve dates are named, one to a month, and on no other day is the wash to be made — which is the oldest layer of this prescription and the part that carries no weight at all. What is washed into the eye is lye: wood ash steeped in boiling water, left until the solids drop and the clear liquor can be poured off, used at blood heat and warmed again if it cools. Green blindness is the chapter's name for an eye that has gone dim with nothing visible wrong on its surface — in modern terms optic atrophy or a retinal or optic-nerve loss — and it is the one eye condition a surface wash can do nothing whatever for. The second clause, mulberry leaves decocted in a copper vessel for tearing in the wind, is the gentler and more defensible of the two: a warm compress does help a blocked lid margin, which is what cold tearing in the wind usually is. **Wood-ash lye is strongly alkaline, and an alkali burn of the cornea is among the worst injuries an eye can take. This must not be used.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.