Formulas · Invigorate Blood 活血祛瘀 · Bonsa (本事)

Chinese Quince Decocted Paste

Mogwa-jeon

한글 목과전 · Pinyin Mu Gua Jian

木瓜煎

Composition 構成

Mogwa Mu Gua
木瓜 모과 · Chinese Quince

300 g
Chief 君 2 whole fruits — cap cut off, pulp scooped out, used as the vessel
Molyak Mo Yao
沒藥 몰약 · Myrrh

18.75 g
Deputy 臣 ground
Yuhyang Ru Xiang
乳香 유향 · Frankincense

9.4 g
Assistant 佐 ground
Saengjihwang Sheng Di Huang
生地黃 생지황 · Raw Rehmannia

30 g
Envoy 使 juice, half a jan, mixed with 2 jan of good wine as the vehicle

Total 358.2 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

Relaxes tense sinews
Quickens Blood and dissipates stasis
Restores rotation of the neck

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Sinew tension with the nape unable to turn
Stiff neck worse in the late afternoon
Sinew disorder of Liver origin

Biomedical correlates

Acute torticollis
Cervical muscle spasm
Myofascial neck pain

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治筋急, 項不得轉側. 木瓜兩箇(取盖去瓤), 沒藥五錢, 乳香二錢半(幷硏). 右二味, 入木瓜中, 用盖盖了. 竹簽簽定, 飯上蒸三四次, 硏爛成膏, 每服三五匙, 地黃酒化下. 酒法, 地黃汁半盞, 好酒二盞相和用, 溫服. 《本事》

Translation

Treats tense sinews with the nape unable to turn to either side. Two Chinese quinces (cut off the caps and scoop out the pulp), myrrh 5 don, frankincense 2.5 don (both ground). Put the latter two into the quinces and close them with their own caps, fixing them with bamboo pins. Steam over rice three or four times, then grind to a smooth paste. Take three to five spoonfuls each time, dissolved down with rehmannia wine. For the wine: half a jan of rehmannia juice mixed with 2 jan of good wine, taken warm. — Bonsa 本事 (Donguibogam · Gyeonghang)

Clinical commentary 臨床

The hollowed quince is not decoration — it is the cooking vessel, and the repeated steaming drives the resins of myrrh and frankincense into the fruit's own flesh so that the whole becomes one paste. Chinese quince is the classical sinew-relaxing agent, and pairing it with two Blood-quickening resins targets the tense, unmoving neck rather than the painful one. Note the delivery in rehmannia wine, which supplies the Blood that tense sinews lack. The accompanying case describes onset every day from early afternoon into dusk — see the chapter text at 項强 for Heo Sukmi's reading of that timing. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.