No. 26.—Lü Ch’un-yang’s Figure of sustaining the Pulse

Prescription.—Uses 1 wei-ling-hsien (#), Clematis sp., on the two days known as ping-ting (#) and wei-sze (#), horary characters, dry it in the shade, powder, pass through a sieve; 2 mace for a dose in warm wine; avoid tea. It is well, while cutting the drug, not to hear the sound of water. To be taken on an empty heart, and in summer there will be no epidemics, and in autumn no ague and dysentery, and all diseases will be banished easily and without trouble, as the title of the Prescription intimates.

Corresponds with Amiot's No. 7 for sustaining the health.

Footnotes

179:* Lü Tsu (#) or Yen (#), or Tung-pin (#), or Ch‘un-yang (#), for he is known by all these names, was born 755 A.D. He was one of the most prominent of the later patriarchs of the Tauist sect, of whose doctrines he was an ardent votary. He was invested with the magic formulas and a sword of supernatural powers with which he traversed the Empire, slaying dragons and ridding the earth of divers kinds of evils during a period of upwards of 400 years. In the 12th century, according to Mayers, temples were erected to his honour and were dedicated to his worship under the title Ch'un-yang, which he had adopted. Several such temples exist at Peking. He is worshipped especially by the fraternity of doctors and barbers. He and Ko Hsien-wêng (No. 18), each at 64 years of age, met their teachers and embraced the Doctrine. For an account of this patriarch, see the writer's articles on Medical Divinities and Divinities in Medical Temples (Chinese Recorder, Volume 3, 1870).