Written By Jun Heo(許浚, 1539~1615), Translated by Namil Kim, Wung Seok Cha et al., Published by Ministry of Health & Welfare (Korea)
- ① The Inner Classic (內經) says the following. “Huangdi (黃帝) said, ‘There are people who get angry and become insane. Where does this disease come from?’ Qibo (岐伯) said, ‘It comes from yang.’ Huangdi (黃帝) said, ‘How does yang make one go mad?’ Qibo (岐伯) answered, ‘Because yang qi is suddenly broken and cannot pass through, one gets mad. The name of the disease is yang syncope.’ Huangdi (黃帝) asked, ‘How can it be cured?’ Qibo (岐伯) answered, ‘It can be cured if one is not allowed to eat food. Food enters through yin and nurtures qi in yang. Therefore, it can be cured soon if one is not allowed to eat food. Also, the patient should drink Pulvis Ferri (生鐵落). It lowers qi fast.'”
- ② It also says, “Being too much pleased is called epilepsy, and being too much angry is called manic psychosis.” It also says, “When yin is suppressed by yang, the flow of vessels become urgent, and when yin is merged to yang and become united, one becomes mad.” It also says, “One does not wear clothes properly, speaks odd words frequently, and challenges people without discriminating them from close people to mere acquaintances because the bright spirit is disorderly.”
- ③ It also says, “Huangdi (黃帝) said, ‘When the yang brightness disease gets severe, one runs without clothes on, climbs to a high place and sings, does not eat for days, and jumps over a wall and climbs the roof. It is a place so high that one cannot climb in ordinary times. How is it possible that he or she can do it once he or she has a disease?’ Qibo (岐伯) said, ‘The limbs are the base of all yang. When yang is prosperous, the limbs get stronger, and when the limbs get stronger, one can get to high places.’ Huangdi (黃帝) said, ‘Why is it that one runs without clothes on?’ Qibo (岐伯) said, ‘Because one’s body heat is severe, one tries to run without clothes on.’ Huangdi (黃帝) said, ‘Why is it that one talks recklessly without discriminating close ones from mere acquaintances while swearing and singing?’ Qibo (岐伯) said, ‘Because yang is prosperous, one talks recklessly and swears without discriminating close ones from mere acquaintances and rejects food. Because yang is prosperous, one tries not to eat, does not wish to eat, and one runs.'” It also says, “Madness occurs from pathogenic qi entering yang.”
- ④ The Classic of Difficult Issues (難經) says, “If the pulses of the cun region and the chi region are both yang pulses, it is manic psychosis. If they are both yin pulses, it is epilepsy.” It also says, “When first having a spasm from manic psychosis, one sleeps less, thinks of oneself as a noble, wise, discreet, smart and high person, and acts arrogantly. Also, the person laughs at any time, likes to sing songs, and wanders about everywhere endlessly. When first having a spasm from epilepsy, the mind is not pleasant and one faints with one’s eyes open. Yin and yang of the pulses of the three positions are both prosperous.”
- ⑤ Epilepsy is when one is different from one’s ordinary times; one looks silly and there is no order in one’s words. Manic psychosis is when one has gone crazy. When it is not so severe, one thinks of oneself as a high person, thinks oneself correct, and likes to sing and dance. When it is severe, one takes one’s clothes off and runs, jumps over walls, and climbs up the roof. Also, when it is severe, one pulls one’s hair out loose, shouts, goes through fire and water, and tries to kill
people. It is because phlegm Fire is prosperous. - ⑥ When yang is deficient and yin is excessive, epilepsy occurs. When yin is deficient and yang is excessive, manic psychosis occurs. Also, manic psychosis occurs when yang is prosperous. When one has manic psychosis, one runs around busily and yells. When yin is prosperous, epilepsy occurs. When epilepsy occurs, one feels dizzy and faints, losing consciousness.
- ⑦ Manic psychosis is to talk recklessly and to jump about. Epilepsy is to faint and lose consciousness. The Classic (經)
mentions ‘Manic psychosis-epilepsy’ or ‘Epilepsy is manic psychosis’ It means that epilepsy and manic psychosis have come together. - ⑧ When Fire is prosperous and it turns into epilepsy and manic psychosis, one should use an Angelica Coordinate Qi Decoction, Three Yellows Drain Heart Decoction [the prescription is shown in the chapter on Cold Damage], Coptidis Rhizoma Purge Heart Decoction, or Cattle Gallstone Drain Heart Decoction. When phlegm Fire has been blocked and turned into epilepsy and manic psychosis, one should use a Cattle Gallstone Clear Heart Formula. [The prescription is shown in the chapter on Wind]. Or Clear Heart and Rid Phlegm Pill. [The prescription is shown previously]. When wind phlegm has confused the heart and blocked holes, causing epilepsy and manic psychosis, one should use Iron Powder,
Turmeric Pill, or Unblock Drains Powder. When one is frightened and one’s ethereal and corporeal spirits have escaped, causing epilepsy, one should use a Calm Heart Elixir, Embrace Gallbladder Pill, Ye’s Realgar and Cinnabar Pill, or Inebriation Paste. When epilepsy and manic psychosis have occurred because the spirit is too exhausted, one should use a Cinnabar Stabilize the Will Pill, must be attacked.’ Then he ground 5 don of good Melonis Pedicellus (瓜蔕), put it into Aqua Pura (井華水) by 1 don, and fed it to the patient. She soon vomited a lot. After vomiting, she was put to sleep and was not disturbed. She did not have the diseases afterwards.” This is like Melon Peduncle Powder mentioned in the Effective Formulas Handed Down for Generations (得效方).
• Calm Heart Elixir 鎭心丹 진심단
It cures symptoms similar to being possessed by ghosts because one has lost one’s ethereal and corporeal spirits because of epilepsy and manic psychosis. Cinnabaris (辰砂) (levigated) and Alumen (白礬) (heated) (all the same amounts). Grind these and make them into pills the size of Euryales Semen (芡實) with water. Take 1 pill at a time with water decocted with Ginseng
Radix (人參).
• Ye’s Realgar and Cinnabar Pill 葉氏雄朱丸 섭씨웅주환
It cures craziness caused by fright and anxiety, and the accumulation of phlegm and saliva in the pericardium due to heavy thinking and manic behaviour. Cinnabaris (顆塊朱砂) (1.5 don), Aconiti Koreani Tuber (白附子) (1 don), and Realgar (雄黃) (1.5 don). Grind these, knead with blood from the heart of a pig, make it into pills the size of the seed of the royal foxglove tree,
and coat them separately with Cinnabaris (朱砂). Take 3 pills at a time with water decocted with Ginseng Radix (人參) and Acori Gramineri Rhizoma (石菖蒲). This relieves ethereal and corporeal spirits as well as tonifies heart qi.
• Inebriation Paste 一醉膏 일취고
It cures epilepsy and manic psychosis caused by a heart disease. 2 bowls of Alcohol sine Calcaria (無灰酒) and 4 nyang of good sesame oil. Mix these well, stir with 20 sticks of a willow tree, stirring 100~200 times with a stick, and then using another stick. When the oil and wine are mixed and become paste-like, boil it down until 70% remain. Force the patient to take this, and get him/her to sleep well. One may vomit or not. One will collect one’s mind when one wakes up.
• Cinnabar Calm Will Pill 辰砂寧志丸 진사영지환
It cures damage in the heart blood caused by the exhaustion of spirit, palpitations, throbbing, and uncomfortable dreams. It also cures feeling of someone coming after oneself, which develops into heart disease, and epilepsy and manic psychosis, if serious. Cinnabaris (辰砂) (2 nyang) (decocted with 2 doe of fine wine until the wine is boiled down to 2 cups), Polygalae Radix (遠志) (put into the juice of Zingiberis Rhizoma Crudus (生薑汁) and dried), Acori Gramineri Rhizoma (石菖蒲), Zizyphi Semen (酸棗仁) (parched), Olibanum (乳香) (roasted), Angelica Gigantis Radix (當歸) (cleansed with wine), Hoelen cum Radix (白茯神) and Poria Sclerotium (白茯苓) (7 don each), and Ginseng Radix (人參) (5 don). Grind these. Put the powder in the powder made by grinding a pig heart, decoct it, knead with Cinnabaris (辰砂) and wine, and make it into pills the size of mung beans. Take 60~70 pills at a time with water decocted with Zizyphi Fructus (大棗) before going to sleep.
• Stabilize Will and Dissolve Phlegm Decoction 寧志化痰湯 영지화담탕
It cures the early stages of epilepsy and manic psychosis. Bovis Fel Preparata Arisaematis Rhizoma (牛膽南星), Pinelliae Tuber (半夏), Citrus Unshius Pericarpium (陳皮), Poria Sclerotium (茯苓), Coptidis Rhizoma (黃連) (soaked in the juice of Zingiberis Rhizoma Crudus (生薑汁) and parched), Gastrodiae Rhizoma (天麻), Ginseng Radix (人參), Zizyphi Semen (酸棗仁) (parched), and Acori Gramineri Rhizoma (石菖蒲) (1 don each). Chop these, make them into 1 package, and decoct them in water with 5 pieces of Zingiberis Rhizoma Crudus (生薑). Take a Maintain Blood and Clear Heart Decoction to have tonifying and nurturing
effects.
• Maintain Blood and Clear Heart Decoction 養血淸心湯 양혈청심탕
Angelica Gigantis Radix (當歸) and Rehmanniae Radix Crudus (生地黃) (1.5 don each), Ginseng Radix (人參), Atractylodis Rhizoma Alba (白朮), Hoelen cum Radix (茯神), Polygalae Radix (遠志) (put into the juice of Zingiberis Rhizoma Crudus (生薑汁) and dried), Zizyphi Semen (酸棗仁) (parched) and Cnidii Rhizoma (川芎) (1 don each), and Glycyrrhizae Radix (甘草) (5 pun). Chop these, make them into 1 package, and decoct them in water.
• Tripe and Placenta Meat 牛車肉 우거육
It cures epilepsy and manic psychosis. Cleanse Hominis Placenta (紫河車) cleanly and boil it well. When mixed with boiled cow stomach and taken as one wishes, it has mysterious effects.
• Cinnabar Powder 辰砂散 진사산
- ① It cures talking and running around like a madperson, which are the results of various epilepsy and manic psychosis, lost ethereal and corporeal spirits, and insufficient sleep. Cinnabaris (辰砂) (ones that shine and look like a wall) (1 nyang), Zizyphi Semen (酸棗仁) (slightly parched), and Olibanum (乳香) (ones that shine brightly) (5 don each). Grind these finely. Check the
patient’s drinking capacity first, then put the patient in a silent room, and have him take the forementioned medicine all at once. Put the medicine in a cup of warm wine, have the patient drink it all at once so one could get drunk, but do not let him/her vomit. If the patient does not drink alcohol well, get him/her to get drunk according to his/her capacity, and get him/her to sleep comfortably on the bed after taking the medicine. It takes half a day to a full day for those with the light disease to be cured, and 2~3 days of sleep for those with the serious disease. Have the family members look in on them quietly, and do not let them call for, frighten, or wake up the patient. When one waits for the patient to wake up, the spirit of the patient are relieved. If by chance the patient wakes up out of fright, he/she can never be cured again. - ② A priest came to suffer from epilepsy all of a sudden and could not sleep. No medicine was effective. Sun Zhao (孫兆) said, “If he goes to sleep today, he will be cured the day after tomorrow. Give the priest salty food at his will, and come talk to me if he feels thirst.” At night, the priest certainly felt thirst. Sun Zhao (孫兆) put medicine in a cup of warm wine and had the priest drink it. After a while, the priest asked for the wine again, and he was given half a cup. After the priest slept for 2 days and 2 nights, he became normal like he had been before. When someone asked the reason, Sun Zhao (孫兆) said, “People know only of comforting spirit and do not know of putting it to sleep by confusing it.” This is the Cinnabar Powder mentioned in the Formulas of the Divine Field (靈苑方). People did not know this.
Treat Manic Psychosis by Inducing Diarrhea 大下愈狂 크게 설사시켜 광병을 고친다
- ① A person was driven mad with yang syncope, and he got angry, swore, sang songs, or cried out. His six pulses were weak, his outer body was cold as ice, and he yelled loudly when he was having a spasm. Zhang Yilao (易老) says, ‘It can be cured if one is not given food.’ Therefore, he was not given food and was treated with purgation 5~7 times by using a Great qi Coordinating Decoction. [The prescription is shown in the chapter on Cold]. When several doe of filthy waste were drawn out, his body became warm, his pulses revived, and he was cured.
- ② When an old man was put to labor, he felt tightness in the chest and pain, and suddenly showed signs of manic psychosis. He had a feeling similar to that of insects crawling on the mouth and nose, so he scratched them for many years, but it did not get well. The pulses were all surging and large, just like a rope. Zhang Congzheng (張從正) said with certainty, “The liver commands conceiving and the gallbladder commands decision. Because the old man could not exempt himself from the labor with money, the liver kept thinking but the gallbladder could not make a decision. Because there was nowhere he could complain about the unfairness or pour his anger to, the heart Fire burned up and got on Metal, which is yang brightness. However, the stomach is primarily Earth, the liver is Wood, and the gallbladder is ministerial Fire. One goes insane all of a sudden because Fire enters the stomach alongside with Wood qi.” He was treated by drawing out sweat three times in a warm room and by inducing diarrhea about 20 times with a Regulate Stomach and
Coordinate Qi Decoction. [The prescription is shown in the chapter on Cold]. After a mixed compound of bloody water and static blood was drawn out, he became comfortable the next day. He was treated with Sagely Unblocking Powder afterwards.
