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Jingui Yaolue · Essentials from the Golden Cabinet
24. Taboos Concerning Birds, Beasts, Fish and Insects, and Their Treatments
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Food and flavors nourish life, yet harmful eating can instead injure. Unless taking medicines and refining fluids, how can one dispense with food and drink? People ignorant of regulation develop competing illnesses. To preserve life rather than acquire illness through food, prohibitions must be known. A flavor may suit an illness or harm the body: suitability benefits, harm creates disease, and resulting danger is generally hard to treat. Decoctions taken for poisoning, though said to be urgent rescue, must not be drunk hot: the source says heat worsens poisoning and recommends cold drinks.
Edition note: The food combinations, animal signs and poisoning remedies in this chapter are historical claims, not validated food-safety guidance or present-day poisoning treatment.
Liver illness prohibits acrid, Heart salty, Spleen sour, Lung bitter, Kidney sweet. In spring do not eat liver, summer heart, autumn lung, winter kidney, seasonal transitions spleen. The discussion explains: in spring Liver qi flourishes and Spleen qi declines. Eating liver further supplements Liver and worsens Spleen beyond rescue. Dead qi entering flourishing Liver may harm hun. Outside that season Liver is deficient, so liver supplementation is favorable. Apply this to the other viscera.
Liver organs should not be eaten carelessly, still less from an animal that died of itself.
Hearts all lodge spiritual awareness. Do not eat them, says the source, lest retribution return in a future life.
Meat or liver falling to ground without dust sticking must not be eaten.
Pork that floats when put in water must not be eaten.
Meat or fish rejected by dogs and not pecked by birds must not be eaten.
Meat that will not dry, does not move when roasted but moves in water, must not be eaten.
Meat containing vermilion dots must not be eaten.
Meat of the Six Domestic Animals whose hot blood does not stop must not be eaten.
Eating meat of one's own or parents' natal animal unsettles spirit and souls, according to the text.
After fatty meat and hot soup, cold water must not be drunk.
Viscera or fish thrown to ground without earth soiling them must not be eaten.
Filthy rice, spoiled meat and foul fish all harm the eater.
An animal dead of itself with closed mouth must not be eaten.
Domestic animals dying of themselves are said all to die of epidemic illness, poisonous and not to be eaten.
Beasts dead of themselves with head north or lying face-down are said to kill the eater.
Raw meat followed by much milk changes into white worms. A variant says blood-gu affliction.
Meat from an epidemic-dead ox causes profuse diarrhea and hard accumulations; the historical text recommends purging.
Dried meat stored in a rice jar is poisonous; eating it after summer causes Kidney illness.
For poisoning from domestic animals dead of themselves: pound Huangbo shavings and take a fangcunbi.
For sealed meat or roof-leaked dried meat: sealed meat is kept overnight in a covered vessel; roof-leaked meat is wet from a thatched roof. The recipe burns dog dung and takes a fangcunbi with wine. Human milk each time is also called favorable; raw leek juice 3 sheng is another option in the text.
For dried meat stored in millet: drink several sheng concentrated soybean broth, also assigned to li-animal meat and roof-leaked meat poisoning.
For raw-meat poisoning: dig three chi deep, take earth beneath 3 sheng, boil in water 5 sheng several times, settle and drink 1 sheng clear liquid, claimed to cure.
For livers of domestic animals, birds or beasts: soak fermented beans in water, squeeze liquid and take several sheng. All are historical poisoning recipes.
A horse lacking the leg feature called Night Eyes must not be eaten.
The source claims sour horsemeat kills if wine is not drunk with it.
Horsemeat must not be eaten hot; it is said to injure Heart.
Meat beneath a horse's saddle is said to kill the eater.
A white horse with black head must not be eaten.
A white horse with blue-green hooves must not be eaten.
After eating one's fill of horsemeat with the unidentified tian-meat word, becoming drunk and lying down is strongly prohibited.
Donkey or horsemeat with pork is said to cause huoluan, the historical sudden vomiting-and-diarrhea disorder.
Horse liver and hair must not be eaten recklessly; poisoning harms people.
For horse-liver poisoning before death, the text prescribes fourteen male-rat droppings, pointed ones, powdered with water twice daily. Another recipe takes a fangcunbi of human grime and calls it favorable.
Historical formula for horsemeat poisoning near death:
Xiangchi 2 liang; Xingren 3 liang.
Steam the two for a meal-time interval, pound when cooked and take twice daily.
Another historical formula: drink boiled reed-root juice, called favorable.
An epidemic-dead ox, perhaps red- or yellow-eyed, is strongly prohibited as food.
Beef with pork is said to produce cun-white worms.
Intestines of a blue-green ox must not be eaten with dog meat.
From the third through fifth months, ox lungs contain horse-tail-like worms. Cut away and do not eat; eating is said to harm.
Beef, mutton and pork must not be steamed or roasted with paper-mulberry or mulberry wood; the source says this generates abdominal worms.
Meat of a snake-eating ox is said to kill. It is identified by hair lying backward. For poisoning near death, the historical text prescribes human milk 1 sheng and claims immediate recovery.
Another historical recipe uses rice-washing water to wash the head and directs drinking 1 sheng, claiming recovery.
Finely cut ox tripe, boil in water 1 dou to obtain 1 sheng and drink warm. Great sweat is claimed to bring recovery.
For beef poisoning, the text directs drinking boiled Gancao juice, claiming resolution.
A person with longstanding heat must not eat mutton.
Mutton must not be eaten with raw fish and fermented milk; the source says it harms.
White pearl-like objects within sheep hoof armor are named Sheep Suspended Sinews. Eating them is said to cause dian disorder.
Brain of a white sheep with black head is said to cause intestinal abscess.
Sheep liver with raw jiao pepper is said to break the five viscera.
Pork with sheep liver is said to cause oppression in Heart.
Pork with raw coriander is said to rot the navel.
Pig fat must not be eaten with mei plums.
Pork with kui greens is said to cause scant qi.
Venison must not be made into soup with white pu shoots; the source says it produces adverse sores.
Mi-deer fat with mei and li fruits, eaten in pregnancy, is said to give a child qingmang blindness; in a man it harms essence.
The meat written with the day graph, eaten with shrimp, raw vegetables, mei or li fruits, is said to cause illness. Its animal identity is unclear.
A person with chronic illness must not eat bear meat; the source says it prevents lifelong recovery.
A white dog dead of itself without tongue protruding is said to harm the eater.
Eating leftovers of dogs or mice is said to produce pao sores, written with an unusual leather graph.
Historical formula for dog meat not digesting, hardness below Heart or abdominal distention, dry mouth and great thirst, urgent Heart, fever, mad-like speech or profuse diarrhea:
Xingren 1 sheng, thoroughly ground with skins.
Mix with 3 sheng boiling water, extract juice and divide into three doses. Meat fragments passing downward are called strong verification.
Pregnant women are prohibited rabbit, mountain goat, softshell turtle, chicken and duck. The source claims these leave the child without a voice.
Rabbit with white chicken is said to make the face yellow.
Rabbit with Ganjiang is said to produce huoluan.
Birds dead of themselves with open mouths and unclosed wings must not be eaten.
Bird meat with blue-green liver is said to kill the eater.
A chicken with six flight feathers and four spurs must not be eaten.
A black chicken with white head must not be eaten.
Chicken with hu garlic is said to obstruct qi. A variant says harm offspring.
Mountain chicken must not be eaten with bird or beast meat.
Long-term pheasant eating is said to make a person thin.
Duck eggs must not be eaten with softshell turtle.
The source claims sparrow meat during pregnancy makes the child sexually disordered and shameless.
Sparrow meat must not be eaten with li fruit.
Do not eat swallow meat, says the source, lest a flood dragon devour one upon entering water.
For meat of birds or beasts killed by poisoned arrows, it directs soybean broth and salt solution as an antidote. These are historical claims.
A fish head pure white like linked pearls down the spine is said to kill the eater.
Fish without gills within the head must not be eaten; it is said to kill.
Fish without intestine or gall must not be eaten. The source claims three years without male erection and cessation of female childbearing.
Fish heads seemingly horned must not be eaten.
Fish with closed eyes must not be eaten.
On the Six Jia days, do not eat scaled or armored creatures, says the text.
Fish must not be eaten with chicken.
Fish must not be eaten with the supplied lu-fang meat name, whose identity is unclear.
Fermented carp must not be eaten with small-bean leaves, nor its roe with pig liver; harm is claimed.
Carp must not be eaten with dog meat.
Crucian carp must not be eaten with monkey or pheasant. A variant prohibits pig liver.
Ti fish eaten raw with venison is said to contract sinews and the supplied armor-word.
Fermented qing fish must not be eaten with raw coriander, raw kui greens or wheat in the supplied wording.
The irregular chang-shan fish name must not be eaten with white-dog blood.
Turtle meat must not be eaten with wine and fruit.
Softshell turtles with sunken eyes or a king-character pattern beneath the supplied pressing-word must not be eaten.
Its meat must not be eaten with chicken or duck eggs.
Turtle or softshell turtle must not be eaten with amaranth.
Shrimp without feelers, black throughout beneath the abdomen and turning white when cooked must not be eaten.
Raw sliced fish with milk or fermented milk is said to generate abdominal worms and accumulations.
Historical formula for raw sliced fish undigested between Heart and chest, unable to be vomited: the text urges prompt downward removal lest fixed illness form.
Jupi 1 liang; Dahuang 2 liang; Poxiao 2 liang.
Boil the three from one large sheng water to one small sheng and take at once, claiming dissolution.
Historical formula for excessive raw fish undigested and bound as fixed accumulation:
Mabiancao, quantity unspecified.
Pound for juice and drink. Alternatively ginger-leaf juice 1 sheng is said to dissolve it, or emetic medicine to expel it.
Historical formula for two kinds of vexing disorder after fish poisoning:
Jupi, quantity unspecified.
Boil concentrated juice and take, claimed to resolve it.
For poisoning from hou-feng fish, an uncertain name, the source prescribes boiled reed-root juice and claims resolution.
Crabs with eyes facing each other, mottled feet and red eyes must not be eaten.
For crab poisoning, the historical ingredient is Zisu.
Boil Zisu juice and drink 3 sheng. Pounded Zisu-seed juice is also called favorable. Another recipe gives winter-melon juice 2 sheng, or eating winter melon.
Crabs not yet encountering frost are said mostly to be poisonous; cooked ones may be eaten, according to the text.
Food into which a spider falls is called poisonous and prohibited.
Food heavily gathered upon by bees, flies, insects or ants is said to cause pao, the source's unexplained final term.
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