Tested Marvelous Formulas

The Experiential Marvelous Formulas in Two Volumes was compiled by Zhou Zixiang in the Qing dynasty and first published in 1898, the twenty-fourth year of the Guangxu reign. The current common edition is the one included in Volume 9, "Formulas, Category A," of Zhenben Yishu Jicheng (Compendium of Rare Medical Books), edited by Qiu Jisheng, printed by Shanghai World Book Company in 1936 and later reproduced in facsimile by Shanghai Scientific and Technical Publishers. The book contains more than 120 single-ingredient and proven formulas for treating a wide range of conditions. It is concise in content and does not adopt an elaborate classification; instead, it is organized by grouping formulas under diseases and listing them according to syndromes, so that readers can readily find what they need by opening the book.

The upper volume focuses on prepared medicines and external treatments. It includes such pills, powders, ointments, and pellets as the Immortal Fruit Powder attributed through planchette to Patriarch Jidian, the Immortally Transmitted Three-Marvel Ointment, the Universal Ointment, the Yellow Wax Ointment, the Pig Gallbladder Ointment, the Three-Marvel Ointment, as well as the First Spirit Treasure Elixir, the Universal Ten-Treasure Elixir, the Three-Immortal Elixir, the White Descending Elixir, and the Purple Gold Ingot. These are mostly used for carbuncles and deep-rooted sores, abscesses and swellings, throat disorders, and infantile convulsions. The lower volume focuses on emergencies and miscellaneous conditions across various specialties. It begins with first aid for poisoning from opium, arsenic, and brine, as well as scalds and burns; continues with difficult labor, postpartum flooding, menstrual abdominal pain, breast nodules, and hernia; and further covers dry cholera, cholera with vomiting and diarrhea, throat obstruction and tightly bound throat wind, malaria, dysentery, headache, wind-fire eye disorders, infantile slow convulsions and noma, scrofula, bites by rabid dogs and venomous snakes, and rheumatic swelling of the feet. The formulas are mostly simple and inexpensive, with emphasis on administration according to the pattern.

The book is preceded by a preface by Lin Xianqing dated 1898, the twenty-fourth year of the Guangxu reign, which states that it offers "for internal medicine, excellent formulas for saving the critically ill, and for external conditions, secret methods of pills, powders, ointments, and pellets." It is valued for being "extremely simple and concise, plain and approachable," suitable for keeping at hand at home or while traveling, and for use in remote and impoverished places. The original work was completed in the late Qing; some formulas and drugs bear the marks of their time, and entries such as opium poisoning reflect the social conditions of the period. The medicines and dosages used are also not those of modern practice. Readers should study it as a document of medical history and as a source for the development of formulas, and must not use it to prepare or take medicines on their own.