Formulas · Regulate Qi 理氣 · Danggye Simbeop (丹溪心法)

Escape Restraint Pill

Wolguk-hwan

한글 월국환 · Pinyin Yue Ju Wan

越鞠丸

Registered from the Danggye Simbeop before the Accumulations chapter was translated. The Bogam writes the first graph of the name in a form the compilers themselves glossed — 音弋, 細麪也, 'pronounced yeok, meaning fine flour' — and a translators' note records that the Bogam uses this form throughout and that it also serves as a variant of another graph. The base-text graph is retained in the chapter text; the composition, the alias 芎朮丸 and the source all identify the formula with 越鞠丸, to which this entry corresponds.

Composition 構成

Hyangbuja Xiang Fu
香附子 향부자 · Cyperus

6 g
Chief 君
Changchul Cang Zhu
蒼朮 창출 · Black Atractylodes

6 g
Deputy 臣
Cheongung Chuan Xiong
川芎 천궁 · Cnidium

6 g
Deputy 臣
Singok Shen Qu
神麴 신곡 · Medicated Leaven

6 g
Assistant 佐
Chija Zhi Zi
梔子 치자 · Gardenia

6 g
Assistant 佐

Total 30 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

Moves Qi to release the six constraints — Qi Blood phlegm fire damp and food

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Constraint syndrome with chest and epigastric oppression
Stifling fullness with belching and low mood
Digestive complaints born of frustration

Biomedical correlates

Stress-related digestive complaints
Functional chest tightness with low mood
Mixed stagnation presentations

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

解諸鬱. 蒼朮ㆍ便香附ㆍ川芎ㆍ神麴(炒)ㆍ梔子(炒) 各等分. 右爲末, 水和丸如菉豆大. 溫水下七九十丸. 《丹心》音弋, 細麪也. 麴丸, 一名芎朮丸. 凡願欲不遂, 如寡婦僧道之類, 名利不遂, 或先富後貧, 或久病不愈者, 皆宜服此. 《入門》

Translation

Resolves all depressions. Atractylodes lancea, child-urine-processed cyperus, chuanxiong, medicated leaven (stir-fried) and gardenia (stir-fried) in equal parts. Powder them, make pills with water the size of a mung bean, and take seventy to ninety down with warm water. The Leaven Pill is also called Gungchul-hwan. Whenever desires go unfulfilled — as with widows, monks and Daoists — or when reputation and profit are not attained, or when a person is rich first and poor after, or when a long illness will not heal, in all these cases this should be taken.

Clinical commentary 臨床

The parent of the whole section and one of the most quoted prescriptions in the tradition. Five medicinals in equal parts, one for each of five depressions — atractylodes lancea for damp, cyperus for qi, chuanxiong for blood, medicated leaven for food, gardenia for heat — with phlegm left out because the chapter holds that phlegm arises from the other five rather than standing beside them. The Immun's note on who should take it is worth reading and rarely quoted in full: those whose desires go unfulfilled, widows and monks and Daoists, those who fail at reputation and profit, those who were rich and are now poor, those whose long illness will not heal. That is a list of social and biographical circumstances offered as clinical indications, and it states plainly what the six depressions are a theory of. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.