Abstract
Liu Hejian maintained that the six types of energy can become fire and focused on the treatment of fire and heat symptoms along with the prescriptions of cryotherapy, believing that a vast majority of disease are due to fire. In this study, we investigated the characteristics of Hejian's formulae by classifying medicinal ingredients in consideration of medicinal properties and efficacy in order to examine how many cold and hot medicinal ingredients are included in the formulae of Hejian. We analysis 848 formulae among 1,055 formulae in total, excluding 207 redundant ones, which includes 366 Sunmyunglon formulae, 223 Bomyeongjip formulae, 8 Samsolon formulae, 61 Sanghanjigkyeok formulae, 68 Sanghanpyobon formulae, 22 Sanghansimyo formulae, 103 Hwalbeopgiyo formulae, 186 Bodongbiyo formulae, and 18 Gagamyoungbisippalbang formulae. In the analysis of the frequency of using each medicinal herb after classifying medicinal ingredients of Hejian's formulae by medicinal properties, we found that cold medicinal ingredients accounted for 40%, the biggest share in the formulae, and hot medicinal ingredients accounted for around 45%, which indicates that Hejian's formulae consist of both elimination and reinforcement and cold and heat, rather than cold medicinal ingredients only. As a comparison of the frequency of using each medicinal ingredients for the formulae by efficacy, we found that clear heat medicinal ingredients, totify qi and replenish blood medicinal herbs, and activate blood medicinal ingredients were most frequently used.
