Derangement · dian

At a glance

Pinyin

diān

Simplified

癫

Literal

瘨 diān — derangement, the falling sickness; the graph the base text uses where later texts write 癲. Chapter 40 records it as an adverse effect rather than an illness: 石藥發瘨, mineral drugs bring on derangement, set against 芳草發狂, aromatic herbs bring on madness. The pair is deliberate. Derangement is the quieter outcome, madness the louder one; the drug that is fierce turns the patient inward, the herb that is fine drives him outward. Both are cases of the same meeting — a hot, swift drug qi joining a body that is already hot — and the chapter's account of why is the clearest pharmacology in the Suwen: the qi of the two classes of remedy is 急疾堅勁, and only a person whose heart is slow and whose person is harmonious can carry it.

Shuowen

《說文解字》：瘨，病也——**一曰腹脹也**；**「癲」為後起字，从頁，專為顛狂之義**。「瘨」讀 diān，**讀 diān，寫「癲」讀 diān**，**本篇1見**（石藥發瘨），**簡體一列作「癲」**；「發」讀 fā、**本篇3見**（復發、發瘨、發狂）；「芳」讀 fāng、**本篇4見**；「狂」讀 kuáng、**本篇3見**——**「發瘨」與「發狂」對舉**：**瘨者靜而失神，狂者動而失神**。