Mineral drugs · shi yao

At a glance

Pinyin

shí yào

Simplified

石药

Literal

石 shí — stone, mineral; 藥 yào — drug, medicine. The word 藥 in the oldest usage is a plant: the Shuowen defines it as 治病草, the herb that treats illness. To call a mineral a 藥 is already an extension, and chapter 40 is one of the places where the extension is visible. Mineral drugs are forbidden in heat-within and wasting-within, with a reason that is purely about the quality of the thing: their qi is 悍, fierce. Hot qi is 慓悍, and the qi of the drug is no less so; when the two meet, the spleen within is damaged. The chapter then does something unusual and practical — instead of forbidding the drug outright, it postpones the decision: 至甲乙日更論, take the matter up again on the jia and yi days, the days of wood, when the spleen's aversary is at its strongest and the question can be judged. This is the Suwen's clearest statement that a drug is not good or bad in itself, but good or bad in a body and in a season.

Shuowen

《說文解字》：石，山石也——**本義為山中之石**；藥，治病艸也——**本義為治病之草**，**引申為凡治病之物，石亦得稱藥**。「石」讀 shí，**本篇6見**——**「石藥」4見**（不可服石藥、石藥發瘨、禁芳草石藥、石藥之氣悍），**又「石之則狂」、「石之則陽氣虚」二見，此「石」則指砭石**，**與「石藥」之石同字而異物，讀者辨之**；「藥」讀 yào，**本篇6見**。「脾」讀 pí、**本篇2見**；「土」讀 tǔ、**本站 #903**；「木」讀 mù、**本篇1見**——**脾者土也，而惡木**，**甲乙者木日也**。