Lecture 2: Smell, Processing and Contraindications of Traditional Chinese Medicine
"Shen Nong's Materia Medica" says: "The medicine has the five flavors of sour, salty, sweet, bitter, and pungent, and the four flavors of cold, heat, warm and cool." This is the earliest origin of the four flavors and five flavors.
Four Qi refers to: hot, warm, cool, cold. Because traditional Chinese medicine uses peace as the standard of cure, cold and cool medicines should be used for febrile diseases, and warm and hot medicines should be used for cold and cold diseases. This should not be difficult to understand.
The five flavors refer to: sour, salty, sweet, bitter and pungent. Among them, acid enters the liver, salt enters the kidney, sweet enters the spleen, bitter enters the heart, and pungent enters the lung. For example, why drinking coffee can refresh you? Bitterness enters the heart, and the heart governs the gods. Why do you sweat when you eat chili? Pungent enters the lungs, and the lungs govern the fur.
In addition, the five flavors also have special therapeutic significance. The pungent flavor can dissipate and act, and it is mostly used to relieve the exterior and relieve depression. The sweet taste can nourish and slow down, and is mostly used for tonifying deficiency and relieving pain. The sour taste can be absorbed or astringent, and it is mostly used for solidification. Bitterness can relieve energy and dryness, and it is mostly used for clearing away heat and dehumidification. The salty taste can lower and soften, and it is mostly used for dredging the internal organs and dispelling stagnation.
In addition, with the advancement of medicine, in the period of Li Shizhen, the light taste with penetrating power and the astringent taste with stronger astringent effect were officially added, and the four qi were also added with flatness. That is to say, modern Chinese medicine has five qi and seven flavors in terms of sex and flavor.
Some books also introduce the concept of Yin Yang and Five Elements to the Four Qi and Five Flavors. As an amateur beginner, if you don’t understand this, it will not affect your use of traditional Chinese medicine at all, so there is no need to spend effort to study it, just skip it. If the masters find it useful, let the masters use it, we are mortals.
There are also sayings about ups and downs in the properties of medicine. Ascent is to command the qi to rise, descending is to instruct the qi to descend, sinking is to instruct the qi to converge, and floating is to instruct the qi to diverge. You can just memorize this sentence, there is no need to memorize the ups and downs of each medicine, you can look it up in the book when you use it.
Chinese medicine does not belong to science, it belongs to philosophy. It is a method of treating human diseases by using natural items such as plants, animals, ores under the command of philosophy. There is a famous saying in philosophy called "where there are principles, there are exceptions." Therefore, although Chinese medicine has a strong logic, it is not 100% in line with the law. For example, medicines of general flowers, leaves, and branches tend to rise and float, while medicines of roots, stones, and seeds tend to sink. But "all the flowers ascend, and the spinner descends alone; all the sons descend, and the cocklebur rises alone." For example, white enters the lungs, yellow enters the spleen, red enters the heart, blue enters the liver, and black enters the kidneys, but Cortex Phellodendri only enters Kidney meridian and bladder meridian. Therefore, as an amateur, it is enough to understand these "rules", and one should not be superstitious and paranoid.
The processing of Chinese herbal medicines is the processing of Chinese herbal medicines, which can even change their medicinal properties and reduce their toxicity. Commonly used processing methods are repair system, water system, fire system and so on. For example, ephedra has obvious sweating effect only when the knots are cut off. Rhubarb is originally a laxative medicine, but after making it with wine, it increases the effect of promoting blood circulation. Raw land is originally a cool medicine, but after nine times of steaming and nine drying, it becomes a warm medicine. Gypsum is a medicine for penetrating heat, and after calcined, it becomes a medicine for restraining heat. Raw aconite is highly toxic, and the toxicity is greatly reduced after processing.
The processing of medicinal materials is a specialized discipline and process, and there are strict requirements on excipients, heat, and time, which cannot be mastered by ordinary people. For amateur beginners, it is good to buy ready-made medicinal materials, and do not concoct them by themselves.
Some medicines have the function of guiding the scriptures, that is, to lead the power of other medicines to a certain meridian, a certain viscera, or a certain area, so that the medicines are more targeted and targeted.
Commonly used citation drugs are as follows:
The lung meridian of hand Taiyin is bellflower, cohosh, scallion, and magnolia.
The Spleen Meridian of Foot Taiyin is Cimicifuga and Atractylodes.
The Large Intestine Meridian of Hand Yangming is Angelica dahurica and Gypsum.
The Stomach Meridian of Foot Yangming is Angelica dahurica, Gypsum and Pueraria lobata.
The Heart Meridian of Hand Shaoyin is Asarum and Coptidis.
The Kidney Meridian of Foot Shaoyin is cinnamon and Asarum.
The Small Intestine Meridian of Hand Taiyang is Mu Tong and Bamboo Leaf.
The bladder meridian of Foot Taiyang is notopterygium.
The pericardial meridian of hand Jueyin is Bupleurum and Danpi.
The Liver Meridian of Foot Jueyin is Bupleurum, Chuanxiong, Qingpi, Evodia.
The Sanjiao Meridian of Hand Shaoyang is Forsythia and Bupleurum.
The Gallbladder Meridian of Foot Shaoyang is Bupleurum and Qingpi.
The head is Chuanxiong, the chest is Platycodon grandiflorum, the waist and legs are Achyranthes bidentata, and the two arms are cinnamon branches and mulberry branches.
Let's talk about the toxicity of traditional Chinese medicine. There are two meanings here. Toxicity in a broad sense means that all medicines are toxic. The common people have a saying that "there are three parts of the poison in the medicine", because all the medicines have biases, and Chinese medicine uses this bias to treat diseases, which is called "treating the bias with the bias". The greater the bias, the more powerful the drug, and the stronger the toxicity. In the case of wrong syndrome, the side effects caused by taking red ginseng are definitely greater than that of Codonopsis pilosula, and the side effects of taking Paofuzi are definitely greater than that of Guizhi.
The other is toxicity in a narrow sense, which means that the chemical components contained in the medicinal materials are not accepted by the human body, regardless of whether the differentiation is correct or not, they will directly cause damage to the human body, and must be used under special circumstances or after processing. Such as: datura, nuxonum, arsenic, lead powder, raw aconite.
In the narrow sense, there are poisonous medicinal materials. It is suggested that amateur beginners should not use them. Under normal circumstances, you can’t get these medicinal materials. Great God and professional doctors to do it. In a broad sense, the toxicity of medicinal materials will always exist. Apart from improving one's four diagnosis, syndrome differentiation, and prescription levels, there is currently no good solution.
Finally, let me talk about the incompatibility of traditional Chinese medicine. Here we mainly talk about the eighteen antis and the nineteen fears. Amateur beginners must memorize the "Eighteen antis verses" and the "Nineteen antis verses".
The "Eighteen Anti-Song Jue" was first seen in Jin Zhang Zihe's "Confucianism and Parents": "The Materia Medica clearly states the eighteen antis, the half-scalloped beetle and the attacking crow, the algae halberd and all the war weeds, and the ginseng Xinshao rebelled against the veratrum." Eighteen anti-refers to Aconitum (including Aconitum, Aconitum, Aconitum), Zhe Fritillaria, Chuan Fritillaria, Flat Fritillaria, Yi Fritillaria, Hubei Fritillaria, Gualou, Gualou Pi, Gualouzi, Trichosanthes , pinellia, white and white pomegranate; licorice anti-kansui, Beijing euphorbia, red euphorbia, seaweed, genkwa; hellebore anti-ginseng, American ginseng, Codonopsis ginseng, Salvia ginseng, Scrophularia scrophulariae, Nansha ginseng, Beisha ginseng, bitter Ginseng, Asarum, Paeoniae Alba, Radix Paeoniae Rubra.
"Nineteen Fearful Gestures" first appeared in Liu Chun's "Medical Classics Elementary School" in the Ming Dynasty: "Sulphur is the essence of fire, and Pu Nitrate fights at first sight. Mercury and arsenic are not to be seen. Wolf's poison is most afraid of Miduo monks. Croton is strong. The best thing is that it is not in love with the cow. Don’t see cloves with turmeric, and it’s hard to get along with Beijing Sanleng. Chuanwu grass and crow don’t go along with rhinoceros, and ginseng is most afraid of Wulingzhi. Guangui is good at adjusting the air conditioner. Shizhi will deceive each other. In general, the cultivation of harmony depends on the good and the bad, and the guns and làn are not dependent on each other.” Nineteen fears refer to: sulfur is afraid of Pak salt (glauber’s salt), mercury is afraid of arsenic, wolf’s poison is afraid of Amitabha, and croton is afraid of pulling Cattle, cloves are afraid of turmeric, Chuanwu and Caowu are afraid of rhinoceros horn, tooth salt (glauber's salt) is afraid of trigonum, guangui (cinnamon) is afraid of red stone fat, ginseng is afraid of Wulingzhi.
The last sentence "炒爁烧煿" refers to the four pharmaceutical methods. According to rumors in the Jianghu, Pao is to stir-fry the medicine in a pot, 爁 is to roast it with fire, Sun is to roast the medicine and juice-like auxiliary materials together, and 酿 is to dry the medicine completely.
Can oppositely feared drugs be used together? My opinion is that experts are free to use it, and amateur beginners are best not to use it together. There are four reasons:
1. There should be some truth to the opposite fear that the ancients concluded.
2. After all, it is a violation of the Pharmacopoeia.
3. On the contrary, it is difficult to catch the drugstores that are afraid of each other.
4. The presence of opposite and fearful medicines in the prescription means that people can ask you for compensation, regardless of whether you have cured his illness or not.
Speaking of this, some people will definitely want to stand up and say that the 18th Anti-19th Fear is fake, and it’s okay to use it by yourself. Some medical records use the opposite anti-fear. Indeed, many doctors use opposite and fearful combinations. For example, in "Synopsis of the Golden Chamber", aconite is used together with pinellia, and kansui is used with licorice; In Tiao Bian, ginseng and five spirits are used together; in the Ming Dynasty's "Puji Fang", 248 prescriptions containing opposites and fears are recorded. I myself used aconite, pinellia, and trichosanthes in one prescription at the same time. But I still want to advise amateur beginners, don't use it like this at this stage.
Some contradictory drugs do have toxicity. For example, seaweed and licorice are generally used to treat scrofula, but when these two medicines are fried together, they will produce liver toxicity. Although this toxicity was discovered in animal experiments, I will ask amateur beginners: Do you dare to treat scrofula? Dare to use? Do you dare to use it for your family? The great gods are of course free.
Finally, a word about pregnancy medication. Modern people often don't take any medicine after pregnancy, and take it hard when they get sick. This is not necessary. In the theory of western medicine, it seems that there are only 28 kinds of western medicine that cannot be eaten. There is no saying in TCM theory that pregnant women should not take medicine. In TV dramas, queens and concubines are often played to drink anti-fetal drugs.
In ancient times, due to frequent wars and insufficient population, the government hoped that women would be able to conceive, keep their lives, and give birth. Therefore, since the time of Zhang Zhongjing, there have been a lot of medicines suitable for pregnant women. With the advancement of medicine, more and more pregnancy medication methods and prescriptions have been summed up and created by doctors. For example, pregnancy nausea, that is, nausea during pregnancy, is such an uncomfortable experience (although I have not experienced it as a male). Today's pregnant women are basically dying, but the ancient pregnant women were very happy. There are many prescriptions for the treatment of pregnancy resistance, and it is comfortable to drink. This technique is not a lost technique. My friend’s daughter suffered from severe vomiting during pregnancy. I introduced a gynecological Chinese medicine doctor to her. Three doses of vomiting were relieved, and she easily passed the first trimester of pregnancy. I just hate how my wife didn't know this doctor when she was pregnant.
Another example is pregnancy fever, pregnancy low back pain, pregnancy abdominal pain, pregnancy hypertension, pregnancy hyperglycemia, eclampsia, uterine swelling, subcough, dysentery during pregnancy, fetal leakage, and fetal slippage. Now Chinese medicine has treatment methods.
But not all medicines can be used by pregnant women. Some medicines that are usually non-toxic can cause toxicity when placed on pregnant women, or are harmful to the mother or to the fetus. "Chinese Materia Medica" has a detailed description in the chapter "Contraindications for Medication in Pregnancy". You can check it out, and I will not copy and paste it.
It is necessary to supplement the medicines not mentioned in the three flavors book: persimmon stalks, acacia, and trichosanthum. Don't ask why, because of the protection of pregnant women, this cannot be said.
That's all for today, and from the next class, I will tell you the specific ideas of using various traditional Chinese medicines.
