Polygala Wine

Wonji-ju

한글 원지주 · Pinyin Yuan Zhi Jiu

遠志酒

The transcription writes 欝 for 鬱, 癕 for 癰, 隂 for 陰, 温 for 溫 and 𤍠 for 熱; the standard forms are printed, and 淸凉 is printed as the transcription and the corpus both have it.

Composition 構成

Wonji Yuan Zhi
遠志 원지 · Polygala

12 g
Chief 君

泔浸去心, steeped in rice-washing water and the core removed, powdered; 3 don stirred into a cup of warm wine

Total 12 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 an abscess formed from the seven affects bound up within
The clear wine is drunk and the dregs are applied to the affected place
The response to the application is read as a diagnostic sign

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Abscess formed from the seven affects bound up within (七情內鬱成癰疽)
Dead Blood and yin toxin seated in the middle — painless, but painful on application
Seven affects bound within — unbearable pain, relieved by application
Steaming heat stored within — untouchable by hand, cooled by application

Biomedical correlates

Abscess with no clear external cause
Painful or indolent soft-tissue swelling — historical diagnostic test

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治七情內鬱成癰疽. 遠志(泔浸去心)爲末. 溫酒一盞, 調末三錢, 澄淸取飮, 以滓傅患處. ○有死血ㆍ陰毒在中, 則不痛, 而傅此卽痛. ○有七情內鬱, 則痛不可忍, 而傅此卽不痛. ○或蘊熱內蓄, 則手不可近, 傅此必淸凉. 《三因》

Translation

Treats an abscess formed from the seven affects bound up within. Polygala, steeped in rice-washing water with the core removed, powdered. Stir 3 don of the powder into one cup of warm wine, let it settle clear and drink off the clear part, and apply the dregs to the affected place. If there is dead Blood and yin toxin seated in the middle, then it is not painful, but on applying this it becomes painful at once. If there are the seven affects bound up within, then the pain is unbearable, but on applying this it stops hurting at once. Or if there is steaming heat stored up within, then the hand cannot come near it, but on applying this it is sure to turn cool. — Samin 三因 (Donguibogam · Ongjeo)

Clinical commentary 臨床

One drug, split in two: the wine is settled and the clear part drunk, the dregs are put on the sore. The internal half answers the indication — polygala is a Heart drug and 七情內鬱, the seven affects bound up within, is a Heart-and-Qi diagnosis — and the external half is a poultice of the same material. The three ○ clauses are the reason this leaf matters, and they are doing something unusual: the response to the application is used as a *diagnostic*, not as a treatment effect. If the swelling was painless and applying the dregs makes it hurt, the cause is read as dead Blood and yin toxin seated deep; if the pain was unbearable and applying the dregs stops it, the cause is read as the seven affects bound within; and if the place could not be touched at all and the application cools it, the cause is read as steaming heat stored up. One poultice, three different causes distinguished by which way the sore answers. That is a test rather than a therapy, and it is a genuinely interesting piece of reasoning — the chapter had no way to see inside a swelling, so it provoked it and read the reply. It will not stand as a test now: whether a poultice hurts tells you about the skin and about expectation, not about what is under it, and ultrasound answers the same question directly. The clause worth attention clinically is the third one — a swelling too tender to touch — because pain out of proportion to the visible findings is the warning sign for necrotizing infection, and it is the one presentation here that must not be poulticed and watched. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.