寶鑑Bogam

Formulas · Text · Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

The Small Intestine

Sojangbu

한글 소장부  ·  Pinyin Xiao Chang Fu

The official of receiving and holding — three jang two cheok of coil to the left of the navel, sixteen folds, where the clear is parted from the turbid and sent to bladder and bowel

小腸腑

The third bowel chapter, and the shortest of them. The small intestine is measured like the stomach — three jang two cheok long, coiled sixteen times to the left of the navel, holding two mal four seung of grain and six seung of water — and given one job: to receive what the stomach has ripened, and at its lower mouth to part the clear from the turbid, sending water to the bladder and dregs to the large intestine. The Nanjing names that gate the 闌門, the gate of the rail. The organ is read from the lips and the philtrum, and from the skin, because it pairs with the heart and the heart rules the vessels; its disease is pain in the lower abdomen pulling on the testicles and up to the back, with heat in front of the ear; and because it is the heart's bowel, its treatment is to open and drain — Dojeok-san and Jeokbokryeong-tang, two formulas that send the heart's fire out in the urine. The signs of its end are hair standing like dry hemp and sweat that will not stop, and the nine simples are all things that make water pass.

9.1 The Form of the Small Intestine 小腸形象

9.1.1
Source원문

小腸長三丈二尺, 廣二寸半, 徑八分分之少半, 重二斤十四兩. 當臍左廻疊積十六曲, 盛穀二斗四升, 水六升三合合之太半. 《靈樞》

Translation영역
The small intestine is three jang two cheok long, two chon five pun around, and a little under eight pun across; it weighs two geun fourteen nyang. It coils to the left of the navel in sixteen folds stacked on each other, and holds two mal four seung of grain and six seung three and two-thirds hop of water.
Clinical note임상 주석
Three jang two cheok is some seven metres, and the small intestine is about six. The Lingshu's gut measurements are the closest thing in the classics to a dissection record, and the Ojangyukbu chapter's 1.10 gave their total.

Yeongchu 靈樞

9.2 The Position of the Small Intestine 小腸部位

9.2.1
Source원문

小腸後附脊, 當臍左環廻周葉, 積而下. 《靈樞》

Translation영역
The small intestine is attached behind to the spine, and at the level of the navel winds round to the left in circling leaves, stacking downward.

Yeongchu 靈樞

9.2.2
Source원문

胃之下口, 卽小腸上口, 名曰幽門. 臍上一寸水分穴, 卽小腸下口也. 《入門》

Translation영역
The lower mouth of the stomach is the upper mouth of the small intestine, named the dark gate; the point Subun one chon above the navel is the small intestine's lower mouth.
Clinical note임상 주석
幽門, the dark gate — the pylorus, and the tradition's name is still the anatomical one in Korean and Chinese. 水分, the water-parting, is the point where 9.3 says the clear and turbid separate, and the Oedema chapter moxas it for that reason.

Immun 入門

9.2.3
Source원문

關元一穴, 在臍下三寸, 小腸之募也. 在背則小腸兪, 在脊十八顀下兩傍, 此小腸部位也. 《銅人》

Translation영역
The point Gwanwon (關元, CV4), three chon below the navel, is the small intestine's alarm point; on the back, Sojangsu (小腸兪, BL27) is on either side below the eighteenth vertebra. These are the small intestine's territory.
Clinical note임상 주석
Gwanwon — the point the Qi chapter's 4.6.2 made the lower cinnabar field, and the Essence chapter's 3.18 moxaed for seminal loss. It is the small intestine's alarm point, and the tradition put the origin qi and the gut's sorting in the same place.

Dongin 銅人

9.3 What the Small Intestine Passes and Receives 小腸傳受

9.3.1
Source원문

凡胃中腐熟水穀, 其滓穢自胃之下口, 傳入於小腸上口. 自小腸下口, 泌別淸濁, 水液入膀胱上口, 滓穢入大腸上口. 難經曰, 小腸大腸會, 謂之闌門, 言由關闌分隔也. 《入門》

Translation영역
Water and grain rotted and ripened in the stomach pass as residue from the stomach's lower mouth into the small intestine's upper mouth; at the small intestine's lower mouth the clear is parted from the turbid — the fluid enters the bladder's upper mouth and the residue enters the large intestine's upper mouth. The Nanjing says: where the small and large intestines meet is called the gate of the rail, meaning that they are divided as by a barrier rail.
Clinical note임상 주석
泌別淸濁 — parting the clear from the turbid. The small intestine's one function, and the tradition's account of absorption: water to the bladder, waste to the colon, at a single gate. The Urine chapter's whole theory of where urine comes from is this sentence.

Immun 入門

9.4 The Outer Signs of the Small Intestine 小腸外候

9.4.1
Source원문

唇厚人中長, 以候小腸.

Translation영역
Thick lips and a long philtrum are the signs by which to judge the small intestine.

Yeongchu 靈樞

9.4.2
Source원문

心應脉. 皮厚者脉厚, 脉厚者小腸厚. 皮薄者脉薄, 脉薄者小腸薄. 皮緩者脉緩, 脉緩者小腸大而長. 皮薄而脉沖小者, 小腸小而短. 諸陽經脉皆多紆屈者, 小腸結也. 《靈樞》

Translation영역
The heart answers to the vessels. Thick skin means thick vessels, and thick vessels a thick small intestine; thin skin means thin vessels, and thin vessels a thin small intestine; slack skin means slack vessels, and slack vessels a large, long small intestine. Thin skin with vessels that are weak and small means a small, short small intestine. Where the yang channel vessels are all much bent and crooked, the small intestine is knotted.
Clinical note임상 주석
Skin → vessels → small intestine: a chain of three, because the heart rules the vessels and the small intestine is the heart's bowel. The Lingshu reads the bowel through its viscus, as it read the gallbladder through the liver's nails.

Yeongchu 靈樞

9.5 The Patterns of Small Intestine Disease 小腸病證

9.5.1
Source원문

中氣不足, 腸爲之苦鳴.

Translation영역
Where the centre qi is insufficient, the intestines suffer from rumbling.

Yeongchu 靈樞

9.5.2
Source원문

小腸病者, 小腹痛, 腰脊控睾而痛睾, 陰丸也, 時窘之候, 當耳前熱.

Translation영역
In small intestine disease there is pain of the lower abdomen, the lumbus and spine draw on the testicles 睾 is the testicles with pain, at times with a sense of urgency, and there is heat in front of the ear.
Clinical note임상 주석
Pain from the groin to the back, with the testicles pulled — the small intestine's channel runs through the pelvis, and the Lingshu's picture is the pain of the gut felt in the scrotum. 當耳前熱, heat in front of the ear, is where the channel ends.

Yeongchu 靈樞

9.5.3
Source원문

小腸控睾, 引腰脊, 上衝心, 邪在小腸也. 《靈樞》

Translation영역
Where the small intestine draws on the testicles, pulls on the lumbus and spine, and surges up to the heart, the evil is in the small intestine.

Yeongchu 靈樞

9.5.4
Source원문

小腸爲泄. 《內經》

Translation영역
The small intestine makes for diarrhoea.

Naegyeong 內經

9.5.5
Source원문

小腸有氣, 則小腹痛. 小腸有血, 則小便澁. 小腸有熱, 則莖中痛. 《入門》

Translation영역
Where the small intestine has qi, the lower abdomen pains; where it has blood, the urine is rough; where it has heat, the penis pains within.
Clinical note임상 주석
Three signs sorted by what is stuck — qi, blood, heat — and the last two are the Urine chapter's strangury. The small intestine's disease shows in the water it sends to the bladder.

Immun 入門

9.6 The Treatment of Small Intestine Disease 小腸病治法

9.6.1
Source원문

小腸者, 心之府也. 有病宜通利, 用導赤散ㆍ赤茯苓湯.

Translation영역
The small intestine is the heart's bowel. Where it is diseased it should be opened and drained, using Guide Out the Red Powder and Red Poria Decoction.
Clinical note임상 주석
One rule — open and drain — and two formulas for it, both registered. The bowel that parts the clear from the turbid is treated by helping it pass, and both formulas send the heart's heat out through it. The Heart chapter's 3.11 used the same two for the heart's repletion.

Donguibogam · Sojang

9.7 The Signs of the Small Intestine Expiring 小腸絶候

9.7.1
Source원문

小腸絶六日死, 何以知之. 髮直如乾麻, 不得屈伸, 自汗不止. 《脉經》

Translation영역
The small intestine expiring, death in six days — how is it known? The hair stands straight like dry hemp, one cannot bend or stretch, and spontaneous sweat does not stop.
Clinical note임상 주석
Hair like dry hemp — the sign the Hair chapter reads as the blood's end, and the small intestine's expiry is read on the hair because it is the heart's bowel and the heart's bloom is the complexion and the hair's is the blood.

Maekgyeong 脉經

9.8 Simple Medicinals 單方

9.8.1
Source원문

凡九種.

Translation영역
Nine kinds in all.

Donguibogam · Sojang

9.8.2
Source원문

澤瀉 通小腸, 利小便. 水煎服之. 《本草》

Translation영역
Alisma (澤瀉): Opens the small intestine and frees the urine. Decoct it in water and take.

Boncho 本草

9.8.3
Source원문

木通 通小腸, 下水. 水煎服之. 《本草》

Translation영역
Akebia (木通): Opens the small intestine and brings water down. Decoct it in water and take.

Boncho 本草

9.8.4
Source원문

瞿麥 通心經, 利小腸爲最要. 水煎服之. 《本草》

Translation영역
Dianthus (瞿麥): Opens the heart channel, and for freeing the small intestine it is the most essential of all. Decoct it in water and take.
Clinical note임상 주석
通心經, 利小腸 — the heart channel and the small intestine in one breath, because the two are paired as viscus and bowel, and heat in the heart is drained by way of the small intestine and out in the urine. Every drug in this short section works on that axis, and 導赤散 is the formula built on it.

Boncho 本草

9.8.5
Source원문

連翹 通小腸. 水煎服之. 《本草》

Translation영역
Forsythia (連翹): Opens the small intestine. Decoct it in water and take.

Boncho 本草

9.8.6
Source원문

茯神 治小腸不利. 水煎服, 或末服. 《本草》

Translation영역
Poria with hostwood (茯神): Treats a small intestine that does not free. Decoct it in water and take, or take as a powder.

Boncho 本草

9.8.7
Source원문

黑豆 煮汁飮, 除腸中淋露. 又治腸痛, 熬浸酒飮之. 《本草》

Translation영역
Black soybean (黑豆): Boiled and the liquid drunk, it removes dribbling seepage within the intestine. It also treats pain of the intestine: parch it, steep it in wine and drink.

Boncho 本草

9.8.8
Source원문

梔子 療小腸熱. 水煎服之. 《本草》

Translation영역
Gardenia (梔子): Cures heat in the small intestine. Decoct it in water and take.

Boncho 本草

9.8.9
Source원문

冬瓜汁 利小腸. 可飮之. 《本草》

Translation영역
Wax gourd juice (冬瓜汁): Frees the small intestine. It may be drunk.

Boncho 本草

9.8.10
Source원문

煮葵汁 滑小腸. 作羹作茹食之. 《本草》

Translation영역
Boiled mallow liquid (煮葵汁): Makes the small intestine slippery. Make a soup or a vegetable dish of it and eat.

Boncho 本草

About this translation 凡例

Base text: Donguibogam (東醫寶鑑, 1613 first edition), Inner Landscape, Volume 3, The Small Intestine chapter. The Chinese text is collated against the public-domain Wikisource transcription and a printed edition; original character forms (脉, 人參) are retained. Terminology follows Wiseman & Feng, A Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine. Translation and clinical notes are original to this site. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.