Formulas · Drain Dampness 利水滲濕 · Seui Deukhyobang (世醫得效方)

Four Sages Powder

Saseong-san

한글 사성산 · Pinyin Si Sheng San

四聖散

煆 is left as the transcription prints it; the corpus prints that form rather than 煅. The leaf calls the formula 補, supplementing, but names no supplementing drug: it stands as the second half of a two-stage course with Baeksa-san and is registered on that footing.

Composition 構成

Haejo Hai Zao
海藻 해조 · Sargassum Seaweed

40 g
Chief 君
Seokgyeolmyeong Shi Jue Ming
石決明 석결명 · Abalone Shell

40 g
Deputy 臣

calcined (煆)
Ganghwal Qiang Huo
羌活 강활 · Notopterygium

40 g
Assistant 佐
Gumaek Qu Mai
瞿麥 구맥 · Dianthus

40 g
Assistant 佐

Total 160 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts.

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 scrofula
Given after Baeksa-san has moved the bowel, to supplement in its place
Taken three times a day until clear water has all been passed down

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

瘰癧 — scrofula
The depleted state left after a purge

Biomedical correlates

Tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis — the follow-on course after a purgative

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治瘰癧. 用<a href='/formulas/baeksa-san'>白蛇散</a>取轉後, 用此補之. 海藻ㆍ石決明(煆)ㆍ羌活ㆍ瞿麥各一兩. 右爲末, 每二錢, 米飮調下, 日三服. 下淸水盡爲妙. 《得效》

Translation

Treats scrofula. After Baeksa-san has been used to move the bowel, use this to supplement. Sargassum, abalone shell (calcined), notopterygium and dianthus, 1 nyang each. Powder them; 2 don to a dose, stirred into rice gruel, three times a day. It is best when the clear water has all been passed down. — Seui Deukhyobang 得效 (Donguibogam · Jechang)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Four drugs at a nyang apiece, and the leaf calls them a supplement because they come after a purge, not because any of them builds anything. Sargassum is the softening drug for a neck mass, calcined abalone shell is a mineral astringent, notopterygium opens the surface and dianthus drains downward through the urine. The endpoint 下淸水盡爲妙 — best when the clear water has all come away — is a draining instruction, which is what the composition actually does. It is the chapter's recovery course for 瘰癧, tuberculous lymphadenitis, taken three times a day after the viper powder has emptied the bowel. Sargassum carries enough iodine to matter in a goitrous neck, and that is the one pharmacologically real thing here; against a tuberculous node it does nothing. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.