Formulas · Calm the Spirit 安神 · Hwaje Gukbang (和劑局方)

Quiet the Will Paste

Yeongji-go

한글 영지고 · Pinyin Ning Zhi Gao

寧志膏

Powdered and bound with refined honey into pills the size of crossbow pellets; one pill dissolved in warm wine, or in a jujube decoction. **Note on modern practice: cinnabar is a mercury sulfide and is omitted from contemporary preparations.**

Composition 構成

Sanjoin Suan Zao Ren
酸棗仁 산조인 · Sour Jujube Seed

80 g
Chief 君 dry-fried
Insam Ren Shen
人蔘 인삼 · Ginseng

40 g
Deputy 臣
Jusa Zhu Sha
朱砂 주사 · Cinnabar (toxic)

20 g
Assistant 佐
Yuhyang Ru Xiang
乳香 유향 · Frankincense

10 g
Assistant 佐

Total 150 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

Settles a sleep broken by dreams of danger
Quiets the will with four ingredients in a honey pill

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Vacuity vexation with inability to sleep (虛煩不得睡)
Dreaming of crossing into danger and peril (夢涉危險)
Sleep unquiet and restless

Biomedical correlates

Insomnia with anxious or frightening dreams
Nightmare-disturbed sleep
Restless sleep with anxiety

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治虛煩不得睡, 或夢涉危險, 睡臥不寧. 酸棗仁(炒) 二兩, 人參一兩, 朱砂五錢, 乳香二錢半. 右爲末, 煉蜜和丸彈子大. 每一丸, 溫酒化下, 大棗湯亦可. 《局方》

Translation

Treats vacuity vexation with inability to sleep, or dreaming of crossing into danger and peril, the sleep unquiet. Dry-fried sour jujube seed 2 nyang; ginseng 1 nyang; cinnabar 5 don; frankincense 2.5 don. Powder the above and bind with refined honey into pills the size of crossbow pellets; dissolve one pill in warm wine, or in a jujube decoction. — Gukbang 局方 (Donguibogam · Mong)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The indication is exact about what kind of insomnia this is — not simply lying awake, but sleep broken by dreams of crossing into danger. Two ounces of sour jujube seed lead; ginseng supplies what the broken nights have spent. The name says the aim: quiet the *will*, meaning the faculty that holds a purpose steady, which is what frightening dreams unsettle. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.