艾葉 쑥 (애엽)

Original, read line by line 東醫寶鑑 · Tangaek — Decoctions vol. 3

1. 性溫一云熱, 味苦, 無毒.

   Its nature is warm — some say hot — its taste bitter, and it carries no toxicity, marking it as a strongly warming herb.

2. 主久百病, 主婦人崩漏.

   It treats chronic ailments of every kind and stops the heavy uterine bleeding known as benglou in women, serving both long-standing illness and gynecological hemorrhage.

3. 安胎, 止腹痛, 止赤白痢,

   It calms the fetus, eases abdominal pain, and halts dysentery whether red or white, serving expectant mothers and troubled intestines alike.

4. 五藏痔, 瀉血, 療下部䘌,

   It addresses hemorrhoids rooted in the five organs and bleeding loss, and heals damp sores of the lower body, long used for chronic perianal and perineal complaints.

5. 生肌肉, 辟風寒, 令人有子.

   It regenerates flesh, wards off wind and cold, and helps people conceive — supporting healing while warming the womb for fertility.

6. 一名氷臺, 一名醫草.

   It is also called bingtai and yicao — the latter meaning physician's herb, a name that hints at how indispensable it once was.

7. 處處有之. 以覆道者爲佳.

   It grows everywhere, yet the finest specimens are those lush enough to blanket a roadside — common does not mean equal in quality.

8. 三月三日, 五月五日採葉, 暴乾.

   The leaves are gathered on the third day of the third month or the fifth day of the fifth month and sun-dried, timed to the festival days when potency was believed to peak.

9. 經陳久者, 方可用.

   Only well-aged leaves are truly fit for use, reflecting the old wisdom that mugwort improves with time rather than freshness.

10. 其性生寒熟熱. 《本草》

    Raw it runs cold, cooked it turns hot — its character shifts with preparation, as recorded in the Bencao.

11. 端午日, 日未出時不語採者, 佳.

    The finest harvest comes on the Dano festival before sunrise, gathered in silence — a ritualistic practice meant to preserve the herb's full power.

12. 搗篩去靑滓, 取白, 入硫黃少許, 作炷灸之. 《入門》

    It is pounded, sifted to remove green debris, the white fibers gathered, mixed with a touch of sulfur, and rolled into cones for moxibustion — the classic moxa-making method noted in the Yimen.

13. 得米粉少許, 可搗爲末, 入服食藥. 《本草》

    Combined with a little rice flour and pounded to powder, it can be taken internally as medicine — a Bencao trick for handling the sticky leaves.

14. 實

    What follows concerns the seed of the mugwort, which carries uses distinct from the leaves.

15. 主明目, 療一切鬼氣,

    The seed brightens the eyes and dispels every form of malign or unseen energy, regarded as a remedy for both sight and spirit.

16. 壯陽, 助水藏腰膝, 煖子宮. 《本草》

    It bolsters yang vigor, supports the kidneys with the waist and knees, and warms the womb — a tonic for the lower body of both sexes, recorded in the Bencao.