Formulas · Dispel Wind 祛風 · Uihak Immun (醫學入門)

Cicada and Scorpion Powder

Seongal-san

한글 선갈산 · Pinyin Chan Xie San

蟬蝎散

The leaf opens without 治 — the head runs straight into 慢驚風陽證尙在, 宜用此藥 — and is transcribed as it stands. Three of the four drugs are given by count rather than weight and take no grams. The section prose at the head of 1.30 prescribes this leaf with 醒脾散 for the case that has passed into the chronic picture while yang signs remain, noting there that yang need not be restored and that it is enough to cut off the wind and settle the stomach.

Composition 構成

Jeongal Quan Xie
全蠍 전갈 · Scorpion (toxic)

—
Chief 君

seven of them · toxic
Seontoe Chan Tui
蟬退 선퇴 · Cicada Moulting

—
Deputy 臣

蟬退, twenty-one of them
Cheonnamseong Tian Nan Xing
天南星 천남성 · Arisaema

—
Deputy 臣

one of them · toxic raw
Gamcho Gan Cao
甘草 감초 · Licorice

1 g
Envoy 使
Saenggang Sheng Jiang
生薑 생강 · Fresh Ginger

—
Envoy 使

three slices
Daejo Da Zao
大棗 대조 · Jujube

—
Envoy 使

two jujubes

Total 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

Used for chronic fright wind where yang signs are still present
Cut as a coarse powder and decocted one don at a time with ginger and jujube

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Chronic fright wind with yang signs still present — the eight signs not yet gone

Biomedical correlates

Convulsion in a depleted child who is still febrile

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

慢驚風陽證尙在, 宜用此藥. 全蝎七箇, 蟬退二十一箇, 南星一箇, 甘草二分半. 右麄末, 每一錢, 入薑三片ㆍ棗二枚, 水煎服. 《入門》

Translation

For chronic fright wind where the yang signs are still present, this medicine should be used. Scorpion seven of them, cicada sloughs twenty-one of them, arisaema one, licorice 2 fun 5 ri. Make a coarse powder; for each 1 don add 3 slices of ginger and 2 jujubes, decoct in water and take. — Immun 入門 (Donguibogam · Soa)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Seven scorpions, twenty-one cicada sloughs, one arisaema corm and a little licorice. The indication is the transitional case — a child who has slipped into the chronic picture but still has fever and the other yang signs — and the section prose is explicit that in this case one should not reach for the aconite formulas: 不必回陽, 但與截風調胃, there is no need to restore yang, only cut off the wind and settle the stomach. That is a genuine piece of clinical discrimination, and it keeps aconite away from a child who does not need it. What is left is still a scorpion powder. Cicada slough is chitin and is inert. Arisaema is a toxic tuber. The child is the 慢驚風 child; see the note on `baekchul-san-soa`. **Contains scorpion, seven of them to a batch, and raw arisaema (天南星), given to a child. Dried scorpion is a neurotoxic animal venom whose potency cannot be standardised and arisaema is a severe mucosal irritant unless properly processed; the text gives no dose by weight for the patient anywhere, only a count of animals and a weight of powder. This must not be prepared or given.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.