Formulas · Calm the Spirit 安神 · Dansim (丹心)

Quiet the Heart Paste

Yeongsim-go

한글 영심고 · Pinyin Ning Xin Gao

寧心膏

治小兒不定 reads short — 不定 has nothing to qualify it, and a word such as 心氣 or 心虛 appears to have dropped out before it; compare the parallel openings elsewhere in this section. The transcription's reading is printed as it stands.

Composition 構成

Jusa Zhu Sha
朱砂 주사 · Cinnabar (toxic)

8 g
Chief 君

cinnabar — mercuric sulfide, toxic
Insam Ren Shen
人蔘 인삼 · Ginseng

4 g
Deputy 臣
Baekchul Bai Zhu
白朮 백출 · White Atractylodes

4 g
Deputy 臣
Baekbongnyeong Fu Ling
白茯苓 백복령 · Poria (white)

4 g
Deputy 臣
Boksin Fu Shen
茯神 복신 · Poria with hostwood

4 g
Deputy 臣
Sanyak Shan Yao
山藥 산약 · Chinese Yam

4 g
Assistant 佐
Ganghwal Qiang Huo
羌活 강활 · Notopterygium

4 g
Assistant 佐
Gamcho Gan Cao
甘草 감초 · Licorice

4 g
Envoy 使
Yongnoe Long Nao
龍腦 용뇌 · Borneol

1 g
Envoy 使
Sahyang She Xiang
麝香 사향 · Musk (prohibited)

1 g
Envoy 使

musk — a protected material
Bongmil Feng Mi
蜂蜜 봉밀 · Honey

—
Envoy 使

for binding

Total 38 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 1 ingredient 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

Quiets a child who startles, weeps and will not settle
Supplements the spleen and Heart qi behind the unrest

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Unsettledness with vagueness and disquiet, fearfulness and much crying (恍惚不寧恐畏多哭)
Night terrors in sleep (睡中驚魘)

Biomedical correlates

Night terrors and anxious crying in a child — historical management
Recorded for historical reference only

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治小兒不定, 恍惚不寧, 恐畏多哭, 睡中驚魘. 朱砂二錢, 人參ㆍ白朮ㆍ白茯苓ㆍ茯神ㆍ山藥ㆍ羌活ㆍ甘草各一錢, 龍腦ㆍ麝香各一字. 右爲末, 蜜丸芡實大, 以薄荷湯化下一丸. 《丹心》

Translation

Treats a child who will not settle, vague and disquieted, fearful and crying much, and terrified in sleep. Cinnabar 2 don; ginseng, atractylodes, white poria, poria-spirit, dioscorea, notopterygium and licorice, 1 don each; borneol and musk, 1 ja each. Powder them, bind with honey into pills the size of a gorgon-nut seed, and give one dissolved in mint decoction. — Dansim 丹心 (Donguibogam · Soa)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The one leaf in 急驚風 that is not about a convulsion. The indication is a behavioural picture — a child who will not settle, vague and frightened, crying a great deal, waking terrified — and the construction answers it with 四君子湯 (ginseng, atractylodes, white poria, licorice) widened by poria-spirit and dioscorea, with notopterygium to move and a 1 ja trace of borneol and musk on top. What it is describing is recognisable: night terrors, which occur in a few per cent of young children, come out of deep sleep in the first part of the night, and resolve on their own as the child grows. They need no drug. What helps is a regular sleep schedule, enough total sleep, and not waking the child during an episode. **Cinnabar is the chief drug here at 2 don, and cinnabar is mercuric sulfide. The patient is a child, the text gives no dose by weight, and mercury injures a developing nervous system irreversibly. This must not be prepared or given.** The musk is from a CITES Appendix I animal. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.