Formulas · External Application 外用 · Uibang Yuchwi (醫方類聚)

Divine Immortal Azure Mist Elixir

Sinseonbyeokha-dan

한글 신선벽하단 · Pinyin Shen Xian Bi Xia Dan

神仙碧霞丹

The 五家粽尖, the tips of rice dumplings taken from five households, is the binder and has no herb entry; it is named here rather than in the ingredient list. 榛子 and the hazelnut size are a measure, not a drug. 猫 and 裹 are printed as the transcription has them.

Composition 構成

Padu Ba Dou
巴豆 파두 · Croton Seed

12 g
Chief 君

東方; 去皮油, 另硏, husked, the oil removed, ground separately — croton seed, toxic
Yukgye Rou Gui
肉桂 육계 · Cinnamon Bark

12 g
Deputy 臣

南方官桂; 另末, powdered separately
Unghwang Xiong Huang
雄黃 웅황 · Realgar

12 g
Deputy 臣

中央; 另硏, ground separately — realgar, arsenic
Baekban Bai Fan
白礬 백반 · Alum

12 g
Assistant 佐

西方; 另硏, ground separately
Cheongdae Qing Dai
靑黛 청대 · Natural Indigo

12 g
Assistant 佐

北方; 另硏, ground separately

Total 60 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

Turns a malaria away by plugging the nostril on the morning of the paroxysm
Arranges five drugs by the five directions and compounds them at the Duanwu hour

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Every kind of malaria treated by the warding method (禳法)
Malaria to be turned away rather than treated
Recurrent paroxysms resistant to decoctions

Biomedical correlates

Malaria — historical ritual therapy
Recurrent febrile paroxysms

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

東方巴豆(去皮油, 另硏) ○南方官桂(另末) ○中央雄黃(另硏) ○西方白礬(另硏) ○北方靑黛(另硏) ○右各三錢. 五月五日早朝修治, 各盛盤, 依方排定, 勿令猫犬婦人見之. 至其日午時, 取五家粽尖和勻, 丸如榛子大. 令患者綿裹一丸, 當發日早朝, 塞於男左女右鼻中. 仍淸靜將息, 勿雜飮食. 《類聚》

Translation

The east: croton seed, husked, the oil removed, ground separately. ○ The south: cinnamon bark, powdered separately. ○ The centre: realgar, ground separately. ○ The west: alum, ground separately. ○ The north: natural indigo, ground separately. ○ Of each, 3 don. Process them early on the morning of the fifth day of the fifth month, set each in its own dish, lay them out according to their directions, and let no cat, dog or woman see them. At the noon hour of that day take the tips of rice dumplings from five households, mix them in evenly, and make pills the size of a hazelnut. Have the patient wrap one pill in silk floss and, on the morning the paroxysm is due, plug it into the nostril — the left for a man, the right for a woman. Then keep quiet and rest, and eat nothing miscellaneous. — Yuchwi 類聚 (Donguibogam · Haehak)

Clinical commentary 臨床

This is the first of the two prescriptions under 禳法, the warding method, and it is a charm before it is a medicine. Five drugs are assigned to the five directions and laid out in their places, compounded at noon on the Duanwu day, kept from the eyes of cats, dogs and women, and bound with the tips of rice dumplings begged from five separate households. The finished pill is not swallowed: it is wrapped in silk and pushed into one nostril, left for a man and right for a woman, on the morning the fever is due. The chapter is explicit that this belongs to a different order of treatment from the decoctions before it, and nothing in the drug choice answers to the 寒熱 reasoning of the earlier sections — azure mist and five directions are what the name and the method are about. It is printed here because it is part of the record of how an untreatable recurring fever was faced. **Contains croton seed, which is violently toxic, and realgar, which is arsenic. This whole preparation is one we would not reproduce under any circumstances. Malaria requires modern antimalarial treatment.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.