Formulas · Transform Dampness 化濕 · Piryongbang (必用方)

Mountain Essence Pill

Sanjeong-hwan

한글 산정환 · Pinyin Shan Jing Wan

山精丸

The mulberry quantity is given as 一斗 of juice. Joseon dry measure puts a mal at roughly six litres; the gram figure is a working conversion at that rate and should be read as an order of magnitude, not a weight.

Composition 構成

Changchul Cang Zhu
蒼朮 창출 · Black Atractylodes

1280 g
Chief 君 rice-water soaked 3 days, bark scraped off with a bamboo knife, shade-dried; then soaked in mulberry juice and sun-dried nine times over, powdered (2 geun)
Sangsim Sang Shen
桑椹 상심 · Mulberry Fruit

6000 g
Deputy 臣 black mulberries, 1 mal, juiced and the dregs discarded — used to process the atractylodes
Gugija Gou Qi Zi
枸杞子 구기자 · Goji Berry

640 g
Assistant 佐 1 geun
Jigolpi Di Gu Pi
地骨皮 지골피 · Lycium Root Bark

640 g
Assistant 佐 1 geun

Total 8560 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

Fortifies the spleen and dries damp phlegm
Clears fire without cold-damaging the center

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Damp phlegm with heavy, soft body
Fatigue and weakness with lassitude

Biomedical correlates

Chronic fatigue with fluid retention
Metabolic sluggishness

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

健脾, 淸火, 燥濕痰. 蒼朮(泔浸三日, 竹刀刮去皮, 陰乾) 二斤, 黑桑椹一斗(取汁去渣). 將蒼朮(浸汁曬乾, 如此九次, 擣爲細末), 枸杞子ㆍ地骨皮各一斤. 右爲末, 蜜丸梧子大, 每百丸, 溫湯呑下. 《必用方》

Translation

Fortifies the spleen, clears fire, and dries damp phlegm. Atractylodes lancea 2 geun — steeped three days in rice-washing water, the bark scraped away with a bamboo knife, shade-dried; black mulberries 1 mal, juiced with the dregs discarded. Steep the atractylodes in the juice and sun-dry it, nine times over, then pound to a fine powder. Lycium fruit and lycium root bark 1 geun each. Powder together, make honey pills the size of a firmiana seed, and take a hundred at a time down with warm water. — Piryongbang 必用方 (Donguibogam · Damum)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Nine cycles of soaking and sun-drying is the whole formula. Each pass loads more mulberry juice into the atractylodes, so that by the end the medicinal has been turned inside out — the drying root now carries a substantial charge of sweet, cooling, blood-enriching fruit. This is the classical answer to the problem Spirit Atractylodes Pill ran into: a full geun of atractylodes taken daily will scorch, and where that formula answered it afterward with gardenia, this one answers it in advance by rebuilding the medicinal itself. Lycium fruit and root bark then hold the corrected balance. Note the name — 山精, the essence of the mountains, an old epithet for atractylodes. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.