C14 Chinese medication chart: Pestilence and damp stroke

Medication chart: Pestilence and damp stroke. From a manuscript copy of Shanghan diandian jin shu (The Gold-dust Book of Cold Damage) dated '1st year of the Zhengyuan reign period of the Yuan dynasty' (1341), section entitled Shanghan diandian jin yongyao muji (Cold Damage Gold-Dust Repertory of Medication).

The text states: To treat pestilence (wenyi, lit. warm epidemic), common prescriptions are: Powder of the Deities (shenming san), Firefly pills (yinghuo wan), Powder of the Sages (sheng san zi san), Detoxicating powder (baidu san), etc. If the pestilence is contracted in the spring, it is generally treated with cohosh powder (shengma san) or Muscle-Releasing decoction (jieji tang). If it is contracted in the summer, it is generally treated with Centre-Regulating decoction (tiao zhong tang), belamcanda decoction (shegan tang), liquorice decoction (gancao tang), pinellia and cassia twig decoction (banxia guizhi tang), etc. If it is contracted in autumn, it is generally treated with White Tiger Five-Drug powder with atractylodes and capillary artemisia (baihu jia congshu yinchen wu ling san). If it is contracted in winter, ginger flower (jiangrui) is used.

To treat damp stroke (zhong shi) conditions, common prescriptions are atractylodes and aconite decoction (zhu fu tang), ephedra decoction with atractylodes (mahuang tang jia cangzhu) to cause sweating, liquorice and aconite decoction (gancao fuzi tang), and Five-Drug powder with steatite (wu ling san jia huashi) to produce diuresis.

The table summarises the information given under 'Description of image content'