Since March 9, the temperature has continued to drop. The lowest temperature in the Northeast has exceeded minus 20 degrees, and has even reached minus 30 degrees in some places. In such a cold weather, let me tell you about the problem of dispelling cold and relieving the cold!
In the traditional Chinese medicine treatment methods, there are roughly eight methods, namely, "sweating, vomiting, lowering, gentleness, warming, clearing, tonic, and elimination". Among them, the sweating method is the first method. It is a treatment method that relieves external evils by releasing internal organs, harmonizing camp and defense, and expelling evils through sweating. Therefore, it is also called the "external external method". As it says in "Suwen·Yin Yang Ying Xiang Da Lun": "If it is on the skin, it will be caused by sweating."
In clinical practice, sweating method has the functions of dispelling cold, reducing fever, clearing rash, eliminating edema, and dispelling rheumatism. The sweating method is divided into two categories: pungent-warm sweating and pungent-cool sweating. Those who feel cold evil use pungent warmth to sweat, and those who feel hot evil use pungent coolness to sweat.
Today, we are still talking about the sweating method when you catch a cold.
When a person with a strong body catches cold, the body will resist fiercely. Zhang Zhongjing uses the direct sweating method such as ephedra soup to treat it, because the body has sufficient righteousness and the cold evil can be sweated away.
For people whose health is insufficient and whose defenses are weak, Zhang Zhongjing uses another idea, which is the idea of Guizhi Decoction. This is something we should focus on learning, because how many modern people are so strong?
Let’s take a look at the original text of Guizhi Decoction in Treatise on Febrile Diseases:
"In a stroke caused by the sun, the yang is floating but the yin is weak. If the yang is floating, heat will occur spontaneously; if the yin is weak, sweating will occur spontaneously. For those who are averse to cold, aversion to wind, have fever in the body, rhinorrhoea and retching, Guizhi Decoction can treat it."
Here, we should pay attention to the four words "Yang is floating and Yin is weak", which is the core of Zhang Zhongjing's description of this situation. Among them, "weak yin" is very critical, because if yin is weak, yang energy cannot converge, so "yang floats".
This Guizhi Decoction is nothing more than five herbs, including cinnamon twig, peony, licorice, ginger, and jujube.
In this recipe, the amounts of cassia twig and peony are the same. However, if the amount of peony is doubled and caramel is added, it becomes Xiaojianzhong Decoction to strengthen the spleen. In "Fu Xing Jue", this recipe is called Jianzhong Bupi Decoction, and beef is added.
In Xiaojianzhong Decoction, the amount of peony is large, which can astringe the liver and soften the liver. If the liver is softened, the spleen and earth will be relaxed. Therefore, softening the liver and restraining yin to soothe the spleen and earth is an important idea in this recipe.
Therefore, when we use Xiaojianzhong Decoction to treat spleen and stomach problems caused by bad mood, the effect is often good, and this is why.
Therefore, in the description of the pathogenesis of Guizhi Decoction Syndrome, Zhang Zhongjing used the four words "Yang is floating and Yin is weak". Do you think these two words "Yin is weak" were written in vain? The medical sage considered it very carefully.
The difference between Guizhi Decoction and Xiaojianzhong Decoction lies in the presence of external evils. Therefore, the equal amounts of Guizhi and Peony are used to highlight the role of Guizhi in the path of passage.
The ginger and jujube in the prescription are used to harmonize the spleen and stomach, and the licorice also acts on the middle burner.
So, everyone will ask:
A prescription to dispel external cold, why pay so much attention to the spleen and stomach?
And this is basically a recipe for regulating the yin and yang of the middle burn, right?
This is where the medical sage is brilliant. He knows that people with this kind of physique have insufficient righteousness and incompatibility between camp and health. Therefore, at this time, the righteousness must be regulated first, and then the body can resist the evil on its own.
Therefore, after drinking Guizhi Decoction, you should "sip more than one liter of hot gruel to enhance the efficacy of the medicine. Warm it up for a while and spread it all over your body (zhí). Those who seem to be sweating will benefit."
Everyone, here, Zhang Zhongjing specially emphasized that we should drink some porridge. What is this for? This is to nourish stomach qi. Because "yin is weak", porridge juice is used to supplement stomach yin, which is the source of sweat. If the spleen and stomach are weak, sweating will not be possible, as "Suwen Commentary on Fever" says: "The reason why people sweat is because they are born in grains."
Then, Zhang Zhongjing told everyone to make their bodies sweat slightly, not to sweat profusely.
This kind of replenishing the spleen and stomach can restore the body's healthy energy and cause slight sweating. This is an important concept in the treatment of exogenous diseases, called "positive sweating".
For people who are weak, when they feel external cold, only by "normal sweating" can the external cold be cleared and the body recover. Mr. Li Shimao (mào), a famous traditional Chinese medicine expert of the older generation, believes: "The four criteria mentioned above are a slight resemblance of sweating, visible all over the body, continuous sweating, and the pulse is still and the body is cool. These four criteria are the criteria for normal sweating. If it is severe, Sweating, localized sweating, paroxysmal sweating, sweating without a calm pulse and a cold body are considered evil sweats.”
I haven't introduced you to the knowledge of Zhenghan before, because I always think it is too professional, but I see that many friends don't understand it, so I will talk about it here.
Normal sweating occurs when the body's righteousness returns, the Yingwei qi begins to run normally again, and the qi and blood flow smoothly. This sweating is definitely not forced from the body, but a natural manifestation of sufficient righteousness. To achieve normality, Sweating requires four conditions - sufficient yin, sufficient yang, harmony of the spleen and stomach, and unobstructed meridians.
Therefore, I always emphasize that sweating is not the purpose, nor is there really any evil energy that will flow out of the body with sweat. If it is really evil energy that flows out with sweat, then patients with Guizhi Decoction Syndrome will have symptoms. One of them is spontaneous sweating. If you exercise a little, you will sweat more, and the evil spirits should have been drained away long ago!
Sweating is just a sign that the body's healthy energy is sufficient: Yin and body fluids are replenished, Yang energy is sufficient, spleen and stomach vitality has been restored, and the meridians have begun to unblock! At this time, because the body has not been running normally for a long time, once it is running normally, it will emit a slight "positive sweat", which just marks the return of healthy energy. At this time, the body's righteous energy will drive away cold evil.
Therefore, when a person with a weak body feels cold evil, according to the patient's deficiency, nourishing yin, warming yang, regulating the spleen and stomach, unblocking the meridians, and restoring the patient's righteousness in a targeted manner can dispel cold and induce sweating. If you can realize this, you can enter the house.
It is easy for us to understand that warming yang and dispersing cold can help dispel cold. Do you think nourishing yin can dispel cold?
Everyone may be confused at first, but once we understand the truth, we will know that for people with insufficient yin and fluid, the body is unable to resist evil, so nourishing yin can dispel cold! Otherwise, why use peony in Guizhi Decoction?
What about replenishing the spleen? What about opening meridians? Of course it can also dispel the cold.
These are methods commonly used by the ancients. I have introduced them before. I said that you can drink warm yam water as soon as you catch a cold, which can dispel the cold. Today, I will just talk to you about another medical case. Let’s take a look. Look, even ginseng and atractylodes, which can strengthen the spleen, can dispel cold and induce sweating!
medical records
This medical record belongs to Lu Liuliang in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.
Speaking of this person, he was a well-known person in those days, a famous person who opposed the Qing Dynasty and restored the Ming Dynasty. He actually organized a team to fight against the Qing Dynasty. After his death, his coffin was opened and his body was slaughtered by the Qing court, and all his family members were beheaded. This was a famous literary prison case in the early Qing Dynasty. Later, his granddaughter was named Lu Siniang. According to folklore, this Lu Siniang killed Yongzheng to avenge the family. But this should be a legend, but it also shows how famous his family is.
Most literati in the past knew medical skills, and Lu Liuliang was very skilled in medicine. He even wrote a book called "Dongzhuang Medical Cases", which recorded such a case that he treated -
At that time, there was a man named Shen Ningzhi. His concubine was suffering from typhoid fever and felt the cold evil. I had a high fever, so I invited a doctor to treat it with diaphoretic and evacuation methods. As a result, my illness became more and more serious. I guess I used diaphoretic medicines such as ephedra at that time. As a result, I felt "drowsy and insomnia".
Shen Ningzhi then asked Lu Liuliang to come for treatment. Lu Liuliang said that this is an external infection and there is no need to worry. "However, it arises from fatigue and should not focus on deficiency." This means: However, due to the lack of righteousness caused by fatigue, if you sweat and evacuate when the righteousness is insufficient, it will make the weak body even weaker. . So what should we do at this time? He prescribed ginseng, atractylodes, and other spleen-tonifying and qi-tonifying medicines. As a result, the patient immediately began to sweat and his expression became clear.
Then, Lu Liuliang drank Rehmannia glutinosa, and the patient's stool became smooth and he began to sleep soundly. At this time, only a little bit of deficient heat was still there, so I added Zhigancao to the prescription. With just one penny, the heat subsided.
Everyone who saw it at that time felt very strange. How could ginseng and atractylodes be used to induce sweating and dispel cold? "With these methods of treating infectious diseases, there are no patients who do not find it objectionable to use tonics, and there are no observers who do not regard the use of tonics as strange. Even when quack doctors see it, there are no people who do not spit out their tongues in shock." He said that the patient's family members and Onlookers would find it strange, and those quack doctors would stick out their tongues in horror, feeling very surprised.
In fact, this is to first adjust and replenish the middle burner to restore the spleen and stomach Qi. If the spleen and stomach Qi are strong, the Yingwei Qi will be naturally strong, the meridians will be unobstructed, and sweating will occur naturally. In this way, the body will expel evil spirits.
Therefore, Lu Liuliang said: "There is a wonderful meaning in it: If the symptoms of coldness arise from fatigue, they cannot help the evil." This means that the cold on the outside is caused by weakness. At this time, the healthy qi cannot be replenished. , then why should we get rid of evil spirits? "He just doesn't know the meaning, so he thinks it's strange."
Such medical records can be found everywhere in ancient medical records. I just thought of one at random and compiled it for everyone. Modern people are full of people with insufficient righteousness. Therefore, it may not be necessary to talk so much about the symptoms of Ephedra Decoction. However, the idea of Guizhi Decoction to strengthen the body and expel evil spirits should really be understood by us.
Zhang Zhongjing placed Guizhi Decoction as the first prescription in "Treatise on Febrile Diseases" with profound intentions. I have never dared to talk about this prescription because the connotation is too deep and I worry that I am not knowledgeable enough. Let’s share it with everyone while learning from now on.
