Formulas · Calm the Spirit 安神 · Uihak Immun (醫學入門)

Quiet the Spirit Paste

Yeongsin-go

한글 영신고 · Pinyin Ning Shen Gao

寧神膏

Powdered; 1 don stirred into a decoction of rush pith and jujube — or bound with honey into pills the size of crossbow pellets, one pill dissolved in a mint decoction. **Note on modern practice: cinnabar is a mercury sulfide and is omitted from contemporary preparations. Confusion or disordered speech after childbirth is a medical emergency — postpartum hemorrhage, infection, and eclampsia must be excluded urgently.**

Composition 構成

Sanjoin Suan Zao Ren
酸棗仁 산조인 · Sour Jujube Seed

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

40 g
Chief 君
Jeokbokryeong Chi Fu Ling
赤茯苓 적복령 · Poria (red)

40 g
Deputy 臣
Hobak Hu Po
琥珀 호박 · Amber

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

20 g
Assistant 佐
Yuhyang Ru Xiang
乳香 유향 · Frankincense

20 g
Assistant 佐

Total 190 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 spirit left unmoored by the blood a birth has taken
Restores speech and sleep to a mother who has neither

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Blood lost after birth with the Heart spirit clouded and oppressed (産後亡血心神昏悶)
Speech gone out of order (言語失常)
Unable to lie down and sleep (不得睡臥)

Biomedical correlates

Postpartum delirium or confusion — historical management
Severe postpartum insomnia
Post-hemorrhagic confusion

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治産後亡血, 心神昏悶, 言語失常, 不得睡臥. 酸棗仁(炒)ㆍ人參ㆍ赤茯苓各一兩, 琥珀七錢半, 朱砂ㆍ乳香各五錢. 右爲末, 燈心大棗煎湯調下一錢, 或蜜丸彈子大, 薄荷湯化下一丸. 《入門》

Translation

Treats blood lost after birth, with the Heart spirit clouded and oppressed, speech gone out of order, and inability to lie down and sleep. Dry-fried sour jujube seed, ginseng, and red poria, 1 nyang each; amber 7 don 5 fun; cinnabar and frankincense, 5 don each. Powder the above; take 1 don stirred into a decoction of rush pith and jujube — or bind with honey into pills the size of crossbow pellets and dissolve one pill in a mint decoction. — Immun 入門 (Donguibogam · Buin)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The postpartum chapter's answer to a state it describes without flinching: blood gone, the spirit clouded, speech no longer making sense, and no sleep at all. The construction is spare — sour jujube seed and ginseng to fill, amber to settle, and a little frankincense to move what stagnates. What is notable is the reading behind it: this is not treated as madness but as *emptiness*, the mind unmoored because the blood that anchored it is gone. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.