Formulas · External Application 外用 · Jeongui (精義)

Free the Qi Powder

Tonggi-san

한글 통기산 · Pinyin Tong Qi San

通氣散

《精義》 is a source label not otherwise attested in the corpus; it is romanised here as Jeongui. 二分半 is rendered as 2 fun 5 li and converted at 1 g.

Composition 構成

Hyeonhosaek Yan Hu Suo
玄胡索 현호색 · Corydalis

6 g
Chief 君
Jogak Zao Jiao
皂角 조각 · Gleditsia Pod

4 g
Deputy 臣
Cheongung Chuan Xiong
川芎 천궁 · Cnidium

4 g
Deputy 臣
Yeoro Li Lu
藜蘆 여로 · Black False Hellebore Root (toxic)

2 g
Assistant 佐
Cheokchokhwa Zhi Zhu Hua
躑躅花 척촉화 · Rhododendron Flower (toxic)

1 g
Assistant 佐

Total 17 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

Blown into the nose on a paper twist to provoke sneezing; not taken internally
Discharges toxic qi by seven or eight sneezes
Used by the attendant as well, so that he does not take the infection

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Epidemic swelling of the head (天行大頭瘟)
Head and face red and swollen, or the throat shut and blocked

Biomedical correlates

Nasal insufflation used for facial swelling and a blocked throat; external use only
Recorded as a preventive for those attending the sick

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治天行大頭瘟, 頭面赤腫, 或咽喉閉塞. 用此取噴嚏七八遍, 泄出毒氣則差. 看病之人用此取嚏, 亦不傳染. 玄胡索一錢半, 皂角ㆍ川芎各一錢, 藜蘆五分, 躑躅花二分半. 右爲末, 用紙撚蘸藥, 絍入鼻中, 取嚏, 日三五次. 《精義》

Translation

Treats epidemic swelling of the head that goes about with the season, the head and face red and swollen, or the throat shut and blocked. Use this to draw out seven or eight sneezes; when the toxic qi has been discharged, the patient improves. One who is attending the sick may also use it to draw a sneeze, and then he does not take the infection. Corydalis, 1 don 5 fun; gleditsia pod and chuanxiong, 1 don each; veratrum, 5 fun; rhododendron flower, 2 fun 5 li. Powder them, take a twist of paper, dip it in the powder, insert it into the nose and draw a sneeze, three to five times a day. — Jeongui 精義 (Donguibogam · On)

Clinical commentary 臨床

This is not a medicine that is swallowed. The powder is picked up on a twist of paper, pushed into the nostril, and the point of it is the sneeze — seven or eight of them, three to five times a day. Corydalis leads by weight, with gleditsia pod and chuanxiong behind it, and the two drugs that actually force the sneeze are veratrum and rhododendron flower in the smallest doses. The theory is stated plainly in the leaf: toxic qi shut in the head is discharged through the nose. The second sentence is the remarkable one. Whoever is attending the sick is told to take a sneeze from the same powder, and then he will not catch it. That is a prophylactic claim resting on the same expulsion logic, and it belongs with the chapter’s other warding measures rather than with its decoctions — but it also records a sixteenth-century physician thinking about how an attendant becomes a case. **Veratrum and rhododendron flower are both acutely toxic — veratrum is a violent emetic with cardiotoxic alkaloids, and rhododendron flower contains grayanotoxins. Insufflated into the nose they are absorbed. This must not be prepared.** It has no preventive value against any infection. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.