Diaphragm-Cooling Powder

太平惠民和劑局方

-- Treats adults and children with accumulated heat in the Zang-Fu organs, restlessness and much thirst, facial heat and dizziness, scorched lips and dry throat, swollen tongue and closed throat, red eyes and nosebleed, hardness in the jaw and cheeks, sores in the mouth and tongue, excess phlegm with poor passage, thick sticky nasal mucus and saliva, restless sleep, delirious speech and mania, dryness and astringency of the stomach and intestines, constipation and urinary retention, and all wind congestion; all are suitable to take it. (《Taiping Huimin Heji Ju Fang》)

Lianqiao 4 liang; Dahuang (wine-soaked); Mangxiao; Zhi Gancao 2 liang; Zhizi (stir-fried until black); Huangqin (wine stir-fried); Bohe 1 liang. (Yi Fang Ji Jie)

Grind the above drugs into coarse powder. Each dose is 2 qian (6 g); add one cup of water, seven pieces of Danzhuye, and a little honey; decoct until reduced to seven tenths; remove the dregs; take warm after meals. Children may take half a qian (1.5 g), and the dose should be adjusted according to age. After diarrhea occurs, stop taking. (Modern usage: Grind the above drugs together into coarse powder; each dose 6–12 g; add Danzhuye 3 g and a little honey; decoct in water. It may also be decocted as a Decoction; the dosage is determined according to the proportions of the original formula.)

湯劑

Drain fire and free the bowels; clear the upper and drain the lower.

Accumulated heat in the upper and middle burners, with restlessness and much thirst, facial heat and dizziness, scorched lips and dry throat, swollen tongue and closed throat, red eyes and nosebleed, hardness in the jaw and cheeks, sores in the mouth and tongue, thick sticky nasal mucus and saliva, restless sleep, delirious speech and mania, constipation, hot reddish urine; as well as infantile convulsions, red tongue with yellow coating, and a slippery rapid pulse.

High fever, thirst, and red swollen painful throat: add Jiegeng: 10, Shigao: 15. -- Macules with vexing heat: combine with Baihu Tang. -- Severe upper burner heat with mental restlessness and thirst: add Tianhuafen: 15. -- Severe heart heat with mouth and tongue sores: add Huanglian: 10, Digupi: 10.

Although this formula has the power to free the abdomen, it mainly emphasizes clearing heat in the chest and diaphragm. Therefore, clinically, even if there is no constipation, when there is burning heat in the chest and diaphragm as if on fire, it should still be used. If a pregnant woman has the pattern of this formula, Mangxiao and Dahuang in the formula should be used in reduced amount or not used.