Formulas · Release the Exterior 解表 · Junggyeong (仲景)

Ephedra, Aconite, and Asarum Decoction

Mahwangbujasesin-tang

한글 마황부자세신탕 · Pinyin Ma Huang Fu Zi Xi Xin Tang

麻黃附子細辛湯

Composition 構成

Mahwang Ma Huang
麻黃 마황 · Ephedra

8 g
Chief 君
Buja Fu Zi
附子 부자 · Prepared Aconite

4 g
Chief 君

blast-fried · toxic
Sesin Xi Xin
細辛 세신 · Asarum

8 g
Deputy 臣

Total 20 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

Releases the exterior with a warming agent
Rouses a patient who only wants to sleep

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Shaoyin disease wanting only to sleep with fever and a deep pulse
Exterior evil in a patient whose yang is already weak

Biomedical correlates

Febrile illness with obtundation in a debilitated patient
Influenza in the elderly

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治少陰病, 但欲寐ㆍ發熱ㆍ脉沉. 麻黃ㆍ細辛各二錢, 附子(炮) 一錢. 右剉, 作一貼, 水煎服. 《仲景》 ○傷寒無熱ㆍ惡寒者, 陰經病也. 今少陰病始得, 當無熱而反發熱, 但頭不痛爲異, 乃邪在表也. 脉雖沉, 尤宜溫劑發汗之. 《入門》

Translation

Treats shaoyin disease where the patient wants only to sleep, with fever and a deep pulse. Ephedra and asarum, 2 don each; blast-fried aconite, 1 don. Cut up, make one packet and decoct in water. — Junggyeong 仲景 ○ In cold damage, absence of fever with aversion to cold is a disease of the yin channels. Here the shaoyin disease is newly contracted and there ought to be no fever, yet fever has instead arisen; only the absence of headache marks the difference, and the evil is in the exterior. Though the pulse is deep, it is still right to raise a sweat with a warming agent. — Immun 入門 (Donguibogam · Han, upper)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The commentary is the formula's whole justification: a deep pulse normally forbids sweating, and this is the exception. Fever where there should be none, with no headache, means an exterior evil in a patient whose yang is too weak to mount a proper surface response — so warm the yang and sweat at the same time, which is what aconite in a sweating formula is for. Only three drugs, and asarum is the one that reaches both levels at once, being warm enough for the shaoyin and acrid enough for the surface. Aconite requires a properly processed product and a trained prescriber. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.