霜桑叶丨善祛人体的“邪火伏风”
原创
唐略
传统中医唐略
今天
桑叶祛风 Chapter Two Mulberry LeavesandDispelling Medicines桑叶春天发芽，一直经过夏天秋天。寒霜之中，它会掉一小部分，入冬以后，才慢慢掉光。当然，到了冬天这些叶子会千疮百孔，毕竟它经历了近一年的日晒风吹。春天的桑叶被人采来喂蚕，但是采了又长，生生不息。但桑叶入药，要等到下霜以后再采。我们开方子的时候通常把桑叶写作“霜桑叶”或者“冬桑叶”。金克木，桑叶在秋天得金气则能平肝，在枝头经风不凋，则平风的力量强，所以要冬天采。把冬桑叶采来后，要穿在线上晾干，这也是为了使它继续得风气，晾着的桑叶之间相碰撞，能发出金石之声，就像金属箔相碰撞，这个意味着，桑叶有金石之性。As can be seen, the mulberry trees are big with luxuriant foliage and strike their roots deeplyinto the earth.The mulberry branches and twigs sprout in spring and grow through the whole summer and autumn. When it is cold and the frost falls, part of the leaves will fall, but the remaining leaves will stick to the tree until the winter set in. Without doubt, after experiencing the weathering in the heat of the sun and the strike of the wind blow of the whole year, the mulberry leaves will be in a disastrous state with scars and holes in them by the season of winter. In spring, mulberry leaves are picked fromtrees for feeding silkworms, but the mulberry trees never stop growing new leaves over and again in an endless succession. But for the use as medicine, mulberry leaves can only be picked after being strickenby the frost. When doctors make a prescription, the mulberry leafis often written as “frosted mulberry leaf”or “winter mulberry leaf”. As said in Wuxing (theory of the Five Elements)about “metal restricting wood”, the mulberry leaftakesin the essence of “metal” in autumn (according to Wuxing theory, autumn is corresponding to “metal”, so “Essence of Metal”in fact refers to“Essence of autumn”), so the leaves picked in winter can soothe the liver. The leaves stick on the branches and twigs of mulberry trees and do not fall to the ground even after wind blow, and therefore, they would have a strong force to quiet down the air flow and wind blow, that is why mulberry leafto be used for medicine should not be picked until winter is come. When leaves are picked and collected, they must air dry in such a way of hanging on thread so as to further absorb the energy of air. The hanging leaves hit against each other and make sounds like metal and stone impactingupon each other, which implies that the dried mulberry leaves would have the properties of metal and stone.《神农本草经》说，桑叶是苦寒的。其实在苦寒里面还有一丝甜味，所以我们说它的性味是甘苦寒。桑叶的作用，《本草便读》用一副对联来形容，桑叶的作用，《本草便读》用一副对联来形容，非常美：Shen Nong\'s Herbal Classic mentions that mulberry leaves are bittercold. But actually, it also has a little sweet taste under the cover of bittercold, so we say it has a property and flavor of sweet and bitter cold. Regarding the efficacy of mulberry leaves, in the book of Chinese Herbes Reading, there is a nice poetic couplet describing it as under:Collecting vital essence from the Jīstar,Searching liver collateralsfor diseasesdue to wind;Holding the balance weight of the LordQingdi,It can discharge the fire from ShaoyangChannel.二十八宿，东南西北各七宿，东方青龙七宿：角、亢、氐、房、心、尾，箕。古人仰观天象，发现天上的箕星非常明亮，地上就会起风，所以总结说“箕星好风”。现在大气污染了，在城里仰观天象就显得比较困难。大地上的一切，包括人体的五藏六腑，跟天上的二十八星宿都有着信息的沟通和往来。肝气通于东方七宿，风通于箕星，桑也与箕星相通，得箕星精气，故能入肝治风。Collecting vital essence from the Jīstar,Searching Liver Meridianfor WindPathogenThe twenty eight stars (In ancient time, the Chinese ancesteral astronomers grouped the sidereal stars in the south meridian passage into twenty eight constellations so as to facilitate the observation of running of the sun, the moon and the Five Planets) cover seven constellations in each direction of the east, the south, the west and the north. The seven constellations in the east called Qinglong(Green Dragon) Seven Constellations includethe stars of Jiǎo, Kàng, Dī, Fáng, Xīn, Wěi, Jī. After observing the celestial phenomena, the Chinese ancients found when the Jīstar becomes very bright in the sky, then wind will rise on the earth, so it was concluded “the Jīstar likes wind.” Now it is a little harder to observe the celestial phenomena in cities due to the air pollution. All the things on the earth including the five internal solid organs (heart , spleen, liver, lung and kidney) and the six hollow organs (stomach, large intestine, small intestine, bladder, gallbladder, Tri-jiao) of the human bodymay be linked up with the twenty eight stars. The liver qi is linked with the seven constellations in the east, while wind is linked up with the Jīstarand so is the mulberry, therefore, mulberryleaves are linked up with and collect vital essence from the Jīstar. That is why mulberryleaves can enter the liver meridian to curewindpathogens.有人要问：“风，有内风，有外风。那桑主要治内风还是外风呢？”其实，它内风外风都治，看你怎么用。古人讲箕星喜风，但并没讲它喜内风还是外风。何况，风的形态也是多样的。It may be asked: “Wind can be divided into endogenous wind and exogenous wind, so which one can the mulberryleaves cure? As a matter of fact, it can cure both, but it depends on how you will use it. The ancients said “the Jīstar likes wind”, but they did notmention the Jīstar likesthe endogenous wind or exogenous wind. What’s more, the wind has diversities of forms.我们拿一片桑叶在手上看，会发现桑叶的脉络，致密而清晰，以络入络，所以桑叶可以入络，搜肝络的风邪。肝主风，当肝阴虚的时候，肝风就容易动，当风入络脉的时候，就比较顽固了，可以考虑用桑叶来“搜肝络的风邪”。If we hold a piece of mulberryleaf in the hand, we can clearly see the veinsin the leaf, which are dense and clear. As veinsin the leafcan be useful for collateralsin human body, we can use mulberry leaves to search the livercollateralsfor thewind pathogens. The liver governs wind in human body, so when the liver shows Yin deficiency, the liver wind will be easy to move; and when the wind enters collaterals, it will become chronic, as such mulberryleaves can be used to “search liver collaterals for wind pathogens.”青帝就是东方之神：青龙，少阳是胆经，肝胆两经相表里，“秉青帝之权衡，善泄少阳气火”，就是说桑叶能调和肝胆。Holding the balance weight of the LordQingdi.It can discharge the fire from ShaoyangChannelQingdiis the God of the East, i.e. Qinglong(Green Dragon)[one of the four images representing the four holy beasts of Qinglong(green dragon), Baihu(white tiger), Zhuque(rosefinch) and Xuanwu(turtles) in Chinese traditional culture]. Shaoyang Channelis of gallbladder meridian. The liver and the gallbladder meridians cooperate with each other to function like the outside and the inside mutually. Therefore, “Holding the balance weight of the LordQingdi, it can discharge the fire from ShaoyangChannel”,which means the mulberry leaves (folium mori) can reconcilethe liver and gallbladder. 肝是生风的，主生发。肝风，每个人都有，在健康的人那里，肝风是和风，吹生万物，人体的一切生生之气都靠这和风。到了老年，身体的升发机能已经很弱了，肝依然在生风，那么这个风就成了“邪风”，是一种不和的风。怎么办呢？养阴息风，把风带来的不利影响减轻到最低。要让肝生的风变成和风，或者说给肝生的风一个合理的安置。The liver is wind generative and is to govern the fire of Shaoyang meridian. Each and every person has liver wind, but for the healthy people theliver wind is gentle breeze, which can blow for all things to grow. And all the energetic and vital qi in human body will rise under the blow of such gentle breeze. By the seniorages, the ascending and delivering functions in human body become quite weak, while the liver keeps on generating wind. Under such a circumstance, the wind will become “pathogenic wind”, i.e. the immoderatewind. What’s to be done in this case? To nourishyin for quenching the pathogenic wind so as to minimize the adverse effect of sucn immoderatewind. Try to transorm the wind generated out of the liver into gentle breeze or make a proper arrangement of room for the liver wind.胆为少阳，主少火，《黄帝内经》讲“少火生气，壮火食气”，少火小小的，温温的，最有生机，所以能生气。火太过了，什么都烧掉了，就没有生机了。所以胆火应该慢慢地让气生起来，如果过旺，就是邪火了。The gallbladder belongs to Shaoyangmeridian, which governs the slight fire(Shaohuoin Pinyin). Huangdi Neijing(The Inner Classicof Huangdi) says, “Shaohuogenerates qi (here referring to the healthy qi) while the sthenic fire (Zhuanghuoin Pinyin) consumes qi”. The slight fire is soft and mild, which is also the most energetic and vital, so it can generate healthy qi. If the fire is too strong and sthenic, it may burn out all things and leave nothing energetic, so the gallbladder fire should be soft and slow so as to let the healthy qi rise, otherwise, it will become pathogenic fire.肝生出邪风，胆生出邪火，风火相煽，风助火势，火助风威，慢慢地越来越大。自然界有风火相煽，越旋越高。火性本身就是炎上的，风又把火往上吹，大家一起往上旋。我们在火灾现场就会看到这种景象。人体的风火相煽也一样会往上旋，所以病往往在头、在眼睛。Once the liver generates pathogenic wind and the gallbladder generates pathogenic fire, the wind and fire may help to encourage each other with more power and then get stronger and stronger gradually. In the nature, the wind and fire fan up each other and then become higher and stronger. The fire itself is featured with burning hot, and the wind foments and blows up the fire, so they together whirlupwards. This is what we usually see in the scene of fire. The wind and the fire inside the human body follow the similar way and whirlupwards, and therefore, in such cases, the diseases are always in the head and eyes. 比方说，头晕、眼睛发昏或者发红，都跟风火有关，都可以考虑用桑叶，调和肝胆，息风降火。所以，桑叶有一个作用，就是清利头目。桑叶可以用来洗眼睛、洗头发，红眼病，如果是因为外风的话，可以直接用桑叶熬水来洗。桑叶也可以洗头发：头皮容易痒，往往是风邪客居巅顶，你抓一把桑叶和菊花，一块熬汤来洗，效果会很好，单用桑叶也可以。For instance, one feels light in the head (or dizzy giddy) or feels bloodshot in the eyes. All such cases must be connected with wind and fire, so mulberry leaves may be used to reconcile liver and gallbladder so as to quiet down the pathogenic wind and downbear the endogenic fire. Thatis to say, mulberry leaf has one more efficacy of clearing the dizzy head and giddy eyes. By the way, mulberry leaves may also be used for washing eyes, hairs and pinkeyes. If pinkeyes arise from the exogenous wind, decoct mulberry leaves to wash eyes directly. Mulberry leaves may also be used for washing hair. The scalp is likely to be itchy, which is often due to cold or exposureto wind-pathogens on the top. In this case, find a handful of mulberry leaves and chrysanthemumand decoct them together, or mulberry leaves only, and then wash head with the water, which proves to be quite effective. 张干周，教授，主要从事英汉翻译与教学。现任杭州师范大学钱江学院外国语分院院长。曾长期在国外从事科技翻译，出版有著作和教材《科技英语应用文本翻译：理论探讨、问题分析、翻译方法及教学》、《中级英语语法》等；完成《论语》《大学》《中庸》《孝经》等现代汉英双语全译。本文节选自《思考中药》译稿中的部分篇章，以英汉对照的形式，陆续在传统中医唐略的微信公众号和微博上发表。 欢迎大家探讨，我们共同努力，让中医在全世界发扬光大！ 更多中医文化讲座，欢迎点“阅读原文”收听。
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