Shanghan Food Prohibitions

[Tyler Rowe]

Shanghan Food Prohibitions. A wise man once said, GZT is the cornerstone of our entire system. That would make the postscript pretty important too. Line 12 is the first time we see the full GZT postscript. Line 14 GZJGGT postscript says 餘如桂枝法將息及禁忌。 ”Remainder according to Gui Zhi method for rest and contraindications”. Then line 31 GGT postscript repeats the same verbatim and adds 諸湯皆仿此。 “All decoctions, each and every one, should be like this.” This would suggest at least all GZ based formulas should follow the same food prohibitions as GZT, which is the majority of our system. So, what is on the naughty list?禁生冷、粘滑、肉麵、五辛、酒酪、臭惡等物. 1. Jin shengleng “Prohibited – raw or cold food”. 2. Nian “glutinous” (sticky foods – could a modern interpretation be gluten?). 3. Hua “slimy” (slippery – perhaps mucilaginous, an undesirable laxative effect, or would oily/greasy be too much of a stretch?). 4. Rou “meat”. 5. Mian “flour” (noodles, or dough, can we assume wheat?). 6. Wu xin “five pungent” (there are varied lists – usually chives, garlic, scallion/spring onion, coriander, asafoetida. These are close to the five vegetables listed in the NJ as ‘fulfilling’, so I like one source’s suggestion of ‘overly fragrant foods’). 7. Jiu “alcohol”. 8. Luo “dairy” (milk, fermented milk, cream, cheese, but also can indicate some types of fruit juice, fruit jam/jelly – could we take this to include sweets in general?). 9. Chou e deng wu “stinky disgusting things” (odorous or spoiled foods – perhaps some fermented foods, English batsmen and Laurie Ayres could fall under this too?). I’d love anyone’s suggestions on some of these more ambiguous foodstuffs. Another interesting take from Miriam Harper on this: if we think of GZT as a first trimester pregnancy formula, it puts a lot of the prohibitions in context. Nice one!

[Simon Feeney]

In the WMW recommendations, it also says something similar: cold, slimy, raw and malodorous foods are prohibited.We should give a little ‘prohibited food’ form to all patients on these formulas.

[Tyler Rowe]

My thoughts exactly! Here’s a little something I’m working on: it includes the food prohibitions with additional information on foods from the miscellaneous chapters of the JGYL; food categories from NJ; additional foods from the grains sections of SNBCJ; and taxation formulas from TYJ. I think I need to re-work the flavours section. NJ Chap. 22 describes flavour application of foods differently to herbs.

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