Properties: None given

Meridans Entered:
Primary: None given

1. Cures Corpse Possession
   Consumption due to Corpse Possession, Steaming Bone Disorder, possession by Ghosts or Worms

Suggested Daily Dosage: One piece, 2 cun wide, sometimes buried ritualistically without consumption but also decocted whole or powdered with and without other herbs and incantations.

Notes:

Li Shizhen quotes Chen Cangqi's explanation that when a piece of skull is cleaned, simmered in a young boy's urine, and then buried in a pit, "This will infuse the drug with a soul" (tr. Luo, 2003, p. 4180).

For Corpse Posession, he advises to take "one piece of human skull top two fingers wide, simmer the drug with Tan Xiang, then stir-fry with butter. Then chant incantations." Fifteen herbal ingredients are added with the skull bone into a decoction, which will cause the patient to defecate "worms of strange shapes" (tr. Luo 2003, pp. 4180–1). The incantations translate as "Divine Father Thunder, Sage Mother Lightning, if you meet a cadaver vector you must control it. Quickly, quickly, as ordered by the law," which must be repeated 7 times in one breath (Cooper & Sivin 1973, p. 250). The practitioner should also be prepared by one who abstains from meat and wine and stays in a clean, quiet room far away from the patient, so that he cannot smell it. When the drug is prepared, chickens, dogs, cats and other animals, as well as sons in mourning and women should be kept away. The room should be kept clear of all ugly and dirty things (tr. Luo 2003, pp. 4181).

For treating "bone-steaming consumption with general debility and hectic fever due to Yin deficiency: Stir-fry a piece of human skull the size of a comb until it turns yellow. Then simmer it in five sheng of water until two sheng are left. Drink the decoction in three drafts. This is a drug that will cure the patient very effectively" (tr. Luo 2003, p. 4181).

While these may seem barbaric and superstitious to us today, there is still a strong tradition recognising the power of human bones and especially the skull in Tibetan Buddhism (Brown, 2020).