寶鑑Bogam

Formulas · Tonify Qi & Blood 氣血雙補 · Gangmok (綱目)

Roasted Licorice Decoction

Jagamcho-tang

한글 자감초탕  ·  Pinyin Zhi Gan Cao Tang

灸甘草湯

The transcription writes the name 灸甘草湯 at both the index and the leaf head, using 灸 for 炙 as it does throughout for roasted licorice (甘草灸), and that reading is printed here; the received name of the formula is 炙甘草湯, which the romanisation and the id follow. The Vessels chapter gives it a second name, 復脉湯, the Restore the Pulse Decoction. The weights here are the Bogam's, which differ from those usually printed for this formula: an earlier state of this entry carried 4 don of rehmannia and 2 don each of ophiopogon and cannabis seed.

Composition 構成

Total 40 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 2 ingredients 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

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

  • A bound or intermittent pulse with the heart stirring and throbbing
  • Qi and blood vacuity after a long illness

Biomedical correlates

  • Palpitations and arrhythmia-type presentations
  • Post-infectious cardiac fatigue

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治傷寒脉結代ㆍ心動悸. 凡見代脉, 卽宜服之. 甘草(灸) 二錢, 生乾地黃(酒炒)ㆍ桂枝ㆍ麻仁ㆍ麥門冬 各一錢半, 人參ㆍ阿膠珠 各一錢. 右剉, 作一貼, 入薑五片ㆍ大棗三枚, 水二分ㆍ酒一分, 同煎至半, 去滓, 入阿膠再一沸, 溫服, 日三. 《綱目》 ○一名復脉湯. 脉結代者, 血氣虛弱不能相續也; 心動悸者, 眞氣虛也. 成無己云, 補可去弱, 人參ㆍ大棗之甘, 以補不足之氣; 桂枝ㆍ生薑之辛, 以益正氣. 五藏痿弱ㆍ榮衛涸流, 濕劑所以潤之, 故用麻仁ㆍ阿膠ㆍ麥門冬ㆍ地黃之甘, 潤經益血ㆍ復脉通心是也. 《東垣》

Translation

Treats cold damage with a bound or intermittent pulse and the heart stirring and throbbing. Wherever an intermittent pulse is seen, this should be given at once. Roasted licorice, 2 don; dried fresh rehmannia (wine-fried), cinnamon twig, cannabis seed and ophiopogon, 1 don 5 fun each; ginseng and ass-hide glue rolled to pearls, 1 don each. Cut up, make one packet, add five slices of ginger and three jujubes, and decoct in two parts water to one part wine until reduced by half; strain, add the ass-hide glue and bring it once more to the boil, and take warm, three times a day. — Uihak Gangmok 綱目 ○ Another name is Restore the Pulse Decoction. A bound or intermittent pulse is blood and qi so vacuous and weak that they cannot keep continuity; the heart stirring and throbbing is the true qi being vacuous. Cheng Wuji said: supplementing can remove weakness, so the sweetness of ginseng and jujube supplements the qi that is insufficient, and the acridity of cinnamon twig and ginger boosts the upright qi. Where the five viscera are withered and weak and the construction and defence have run dry, a moistening agent is what moistens them, and so the sweetness of cannabis seed, ass-hide glue, ophiopogon and rehmannia is used — moistening the channels, boosting the blood, restoring the pulse and freeing the heart. — Dongwon 東垣 (Donguibogam · Maek)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The classical formula for a pulse that drops beats from sheer depletion — 結代, bound and intermittent, which is what the chapter is describing. The Bogam's version is lighter than the Jingui's and reaches for the dried rehmannia rather than the fresh, but the architecture is the same: a sweet, moistening core of rehmannia, ophiopogon, cannabis seed and ass-hide glue, with licorice as chief and only cinnamon twig and ginger to move it. Dongwon's gloss, printed with the leaf, is the clearest statement in the Bogam of why a moistening formula should be given for a failing pulse, and the wine in the decoction is there to carry it into the vessels. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.

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