"Shen Nong's Materia Medica": Milkvetch Root cures sores and nourishes deficiency
"ShenNong Materia Medica" listed Milkvetch Root as "top grade", saying that it is "sweet in taste and slightly warm. It is mainly used for carbuncles, chronic ulcers, drainage of pus, pain relief, strong wind, leprosy, five hemorrhoids, and rat fistula. Tonic, children's diseases From the perspective of the whole paragraph, Milkvetch Root is used to treat surgical diseases more often, but the function of "tonifying deficiency" does not seem to be too prominent. In fact, Milkvetch Root's function of "reinforcing deficiency" is aimed at the deficiency of long-term illness, just as Chen Xiuyuan said: "It is called tonic, which is a summary of the above-mentioned symptoms, which will cause deficiency after a long time, and this can make up for it." People with severe diseases such as "carbuncle and chronic ulcer" are definitely not ordinary deficiency, such as postpartum deficiency or after sweating, but the deficiency caused by poison and evil for a long time. This kind of deficiency can be called "big deficiency". Later generations used Milkvetch Root for sores, carbuncles and various diseases. For example, Zhang Yuanyun in the Yuan Dynasty said Milkvetch Root: "Drain pus and relieve pain, activate blood and generate blood, internally support yin gangrene, and external sores are the holy medicine." Chen Shigong in Ming Dynasty "Surgery Authentic" Pusan, Tuoli Toupu Decoction in "Yi Zong Jin Jian" in Qing Dynasty, Nei Tuo Sheng Ji San in Zhang Xichun's "Medicine Zhong Shen Xi Lu", etc., all use Milkvetch Root tonify Qi and pus as the main medicine, and belong to the category of surgical tong method , if there is no righteousness Tori, how can sepsis be discharged.
Zhang Zhongjing: Milkvetch Root tonic, tonifying yang, protecting
Zhongjing used Milkvetch Root membranaceus, which was found seven times in "Synopsis of the Golden Chamber", but 113 prescriptions in "Treatise on Febrile Diseases" were not used. Why? Later generations of physicians have discussed it, but Mr. Yue Meizhong's cognition is the most pertinent. He said: "Zhong Jing never used Milkvetch Root in "Treatise on Febrile Diseases", and rarely used Sini in "Synopsis of the Golden Chamber", because Milkvetch Root must be taken for a long time to be effective, unlike aconite and dried ginger, which are only swallowed." Then its effect is immediately obvious... It can be said with certainty that Milkvetch Root has no power to save people from acute debilitating diseases like aconite, but it has a certain curative effect on debilitating venereal diseases." (See "Yue Meizhong Lun." It can be seen that the use of Milkvetch Root in "Treatise on Febrile Diseases" is not without corresponding evidence, but that Milkvetch Root is mild in nature and slow in strength, not as aggressive and powerful as aconite and dried ginger, which can save lives in an instant. So far, it has been explained that Zhongjing does not use Milkvetch Root to treat acute diseases, but uses Milkvetch Root to treat miscellaneous diseases, with the intention of slowly receiving power.
Zhongjing used Milkvetch Root in "Synopsis of the Golden Chamber", which has three meanings. One is to tonify deficiency and relieve fatigue: such as Huangqi Jianzhong Decoction to treat "constraints, urgency, and insufficiencies"; Zhiwuwu Decoction treats "Blood Arthralgia", etc.; the third is to protect and dehumidify: such as Fangji Huangqi Decoction, Fangji Fuling Decoction, Huangqi Shaoyao Guizhi Bitter Wine Decoction, Guizhi Jiahuangqi Decoction and Wutou Decoction to treat "feng shui" and "skin water" "Yellow Khan", "Calendar Festival" and so on.
Zhongjing used Milkvetch Root to strengthen the body and eliminate pathogenic factors. On the basis of replenishing qi and invigorating deficiency, he combined it with medicines for reducing oozing and dampness, medicines for dredging meridian and activating collaterals, medicines for dispelling wind and cold, etc., to treat difficult diseases. In the prescription he formulated, Milkvetch Root not only travels on the surface of the muscles but also enters the viscera, and it can stop sweating and produce sweat. Is it contradictory? No. This is the unique function of Milkvetch Root membranaceus. After analyzing Zhongjing’s use of Milkvetch Root, Zou Shu’s "Benjing Shuzheng" in the Qing Dynasty said: "I don’t know that Milkvetch Root specializes in nourishing and defending the second qi. It rises and falls, and falls and then rises again. It is on the body for fifty weeks a day and one night. It rises and falls. The source of the disease is the root of the ascending. For those who are ill, camped and defended, and have two parts up and down, only this can make them not stagnant in one side, which is neither ascending nor descending.” It can be seen that Milkvetch Root is not the only one that can nourish deficiency. A single direction, later generations of physicians have played a lot in this regard.