Individual Herbs Notebook

玄參 Xuan Shen

Translation: Black (also Deep, Mysterious, Profound and Arcane) Ginseng

Pharmaceutical: Radix Scrophulariae
Taxonomy: Scrophularia ningpoensis

Other names: Chinese Figwort Root / Ningpo Figwort Root

Category: Herbs that Clear Heat


Properties: Bitter, sweet, salty, light cold

Meridans Entered:
Primary: Heart, Stomach, Kidney, Lung
Divergent Zones: Yangming
Extraordinary Vessels: Ren

Traditional Actions/Indications:
  1. Clears Heat and cools the Blood
    Xue Stage Heat or Blood Heat with hemorrhage (hematemesis), fever, dry mouth and a purplish tongue
  2. Nourishes Yin
    Yin Deficiency with Heat signs especially as sequelae from Warm Febrile Disease with Dry Lungs, insomnia, constipation, an unclear Shen and irritability
    Yin Deficiency dry Lungs
    Heart Yin Deficiency
    The Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing places it as a middle herb and indicates it is for "postpartum ailments in women, tonifies Kidney Qi and improves eyesight"
  3. Softens hardness and dissipates nodules (Transforms Phlegm-Heat)
    Neck lumps (goiter, scrofula) due to Phlegm Fire
    Severe throat pain and swelling
    The Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing indicates it is for "abdominal distension"
  4. Drains Fire and relieves Toxicity
    Extreme throat pain or red, swollen eyes
    Ying Stage Heat
    The Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing indicates it is for "heat accumulation"
  5. Calms the Spirit agitated by Parasites damaging the Yin
    Gu Sydnrome (Fruehauf, 1998)
    Chronic inflammatory disease (Fruehauf, 2015)

Suggested Daily Dosage: 10-15g in decoction.

Cautions: It is contraindicated in cases of diarrhea due to spleen deficiency. It is antagonistic to Li Lu.

Notes:

Analysis of the ancient script forms of 參 Shen suggest it is simplified from 曑 (晶 -> 厽) making an ideogrammic compound of 晶 ("stars") + 光 ("light; brightness") + 彡 ("light rays") meaning the Three Stars astrological mansion (referring to the three stars of Orion's belt in western astronomy at the centre of this constellation). 彡 also acts as a phonetic component. Its main meaning is "joining, merging, being a part of" suggesting the three stars making up a single constellation.

光 may also be interpreted as 卩 ("kneeling person"), representing someone looking at the shining stars above him or be the original character for 簪 a hairpin and thus someone with a ceremonial hat of stars.

參 also appears in the title of the famous alchemical text 參同契 Cantong Qi translated as The Seal of the Unity of the Three, or Joining as One with Unity, with 參 playing on the double meaning as "three" and "joined as one" where it refers to the unity of the cosmology of the Yi Jing, Daoism and internal alchemy (Pregradio, 2011, Seal of the Unity of the Three, p. 3).

These all suggest a great reverence for these herbs, which crosses into the cosmological, religious and self-cultivation realms, while also suggesting a completeness of these herbs in themselves. Herbs with 參 in their name may be used individually, without needing a formula to complement them.

玄 adds another level of depth to this name, referring to a reddish black colour, but also something deep, profound and mysterious and used in the context of the arcane mysterious within classic spiritual and alchemical texts and in the honorific names of some Taoist immortals and deities.

Appears in 35 formulae listed on this site: (click to display)
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