Mnemonic Verses on Classical Formulas: Cold Damage

Mnemonic Verses on Classical Formulas is a work on Cold Damage and the Golden Cabinet by the Qing dynasty physician Huang Yu (1817–1886, courtesy name Tianjin, sobriquet Baochen, a native of Bishan, Sichuan). Completed in 1871 (the tenth year of the Tongzhi reign), it survives in a 1893 (nineteenth year of the Guangxu reign) Yunjingtang block-printed edition. Huang Yu held that Zhang Zhongjing's formulas largely derived from Yi Yin's Classic of Decoctions, that they "reveal the secrets of yin and yang in creation and clarify the principles of generation, restraint, transformation, and change," and that their ingredients, dosages, and decoction and administration methods all contain profound meaning. Since Chen Xiuyuan's earlier mnemonic verses were constrained by rhyme and made formula names hard to identify, Huang composed his own rhymed verses: each begins with the formula name, formulas of the same type are grouped together, modifications are appended, dosages and decoction and administration methods are noted, and explanations from various authorities are attached afterward, with his own views occasionally interspersed. The work is divided into two volumes. The upper volume is devoted to Cold Damage formulas, roughly following Xu Dachun's order by formula category, dividing the formulas of the Treatise on Cold Damage into eleven categories—Cinnamon Twig Decoction, Ephedra Decoction, Pueraria Decoction, Bupleurum Decoction, Heart-Draining Decoction, Qi-Guiding Decoction, White Tiger Decoction, Five-Ingredient Powder with Poria, Four-Negative Decoction, Center-Regulating Decoction, and miscellaneous formulas—totaling 115 formulas. The lower volume follows the original order of the Essentials of the Golden Cabinet, summarizing miscellaneous-disease formulas in verse, with small-character annotations and commentary from physicians of successive dynasties. The verse form facilitates recitation and memorization and combines the strengths of category comparison and explanation of formula meaning; it is an important primer for studying Zhang Zhongjing's classical formulas and mastering their combinations, dosages, and decoction and administration methods.