Formulas · Release the Exterior 解表 · Uigam (醫鑑)

Sage Ward Off Pestilence Elixir

Seonseongbyeogon-dan

한글 선성벽온단 · Pinyin Xuan Sheng Bi Wen Dan

宣聖辟瘟丹

The transcription prints 盛諪器中; 諪 is not a word in this position and the sense requires 淨器, a clean vessel, which the translation follows. The hanja above is left as transcribed. The source label 醫鍳 is given in its standard form 醫鑑.

Composition 構成

Yuhyang Ru Xiang
乳香 유향 · Frankincense

—
Chief 君

one small lump for each person, steeped from the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth month
Jeonghwasu Jing Hua Shui
井華水 정화수 · Dawn-Drawn Well Water

—
Envoy 使

dawn-drawn well water, the steeping medium, warmed before taking

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

Frankincense steeped from the twenty-fourth of the twelfth month and swallowed on New Year morning
Held to keep a household free of seasonal pestilence for a year

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Seasonal pestilence (時疫) to be prevented for the year ahead
A whole household to be dosed together, from the youngest to the eldest

Biomedical correlates

Prevention of seasonal epidemic illness — historical prophylaxis

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

臘月二十四日平朝, 取井華水, 盛諪器中, 量人口多少, 浸乳香, 至歲朝五更, 湯令溫, 從少至大, 每人以乳香一小塊, 飮水一二呷嚥下, 則一年不患時疫. 《醫鑑》

Translation

At first light on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth month draw dawn-drawn well water and fill a clean vessel with it; reckoning how many mouths there are in the household, steep frankincense in it. At the fifth watch on New Year morning warm the water, and from the youngest to the eldest each person takes one small lump of frankincense with one or two mouthfuls of the water to swallow it down. Then for a year they will not suffer seasonal pestilence. — Uigam 醫鑑 (Donguibogam · On)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The shortest prescription in the warding section, and the only one with a single drug in it: frankincense, steeped for five or six days in water drawn at dawn, warmed at the fifth watch of New Year morning, and taken one lump to a person with a mouthful or two of the water. Almost all of it is calendar. The water must be the first drawn at daybreak, the steeping begins on the twenty-fourth of the twelfth month, the draught is taken before dawn on the first day of the year, and the household drinks in order of age — the same sequence as the 屠蘇飮 that opens the section. What the formula asks of the frankincense itself is modest, and the elixir name it carries is larger than the thing. It is recorded as the New Year observance of a household that expected pestilence and meant to meet it together. There is nothing hazardous in it. Frankincense taken as a lump in water is a resin, and the honest modern reading is that the protection claimed for the year was not available from it. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.