"Jing Sanleng Wan" for Breaking Hardness and Dissipating Nodules

The Taiping Shenghui Fang (Imperial Grace Formulas of the Taiping Era) contains a pill formula named "Jing Sanleng Wan". Its composition is: jing sanleng (today's medicinal sanleng, common burreed rhizome) 7 qian 5 fen (22.5 g), bie-jia (soft-shelled turtle shell, coated in vinegar and broiled until yellow) 1 liang (30 g), chuandahuang (Sichuan rhubarb, crushed, lightly stir-fried) 1 liang 5 qian (45 g), muxiang (costus root) 5 qian (15 g), danggui (angelica root, filed, lightly stir-fried) 7 qian 5 fen (22.5 g), baizhu (atractylodes macrocephala rhizome) 7 qian 5 fen (22.5 g), houpo (magnolia bark, coated in ginger juice and broiled until fragrant and cooked) 1 liang (30 g), wuzhuyu (evodia fruit, soaked in hot water seven times, dried, lightly stir-fried) 5 qian (15 g), hezi (terminalia fruit, earth-baked, with skin) 1 liang (30 g), zhi-qiao (bitter orange, stir-fried with bran until slightly yellow) 1 liang (30 g), maiya (germinated barley, stir-fried until slightly yellow) 1 liang (30 g), shenqu (medicated leaven, filed, lightly stir-fried) 1 liang (30 g), guixin (cinnamon bark) 1 liang (30 g), and binglang (areca nut) 1 liang (30 g).

Grind the above herbs into a powder, refine with honey into pills the size of a parasol tree seed. Each time take 30 pills, washed down with congee water, regardless of the time; it may be used 2-4 times a day. This formula has the actions of activating blood and dispelling stasis, and of moving qi and dispersing accumulation. It is indicated for qi stagnation and blood stasis causing xipi (string-like subcutaneous nodules) and pi blocks that do not disperse over a long time, with chest and abdominal fullness and distension, periodic pain attacking the heart and back, indigestion of food, counterflow vomiting, and lack of appetite.