Most of the prescriptions recorded in "Fifty-Two Prescriptions for Diseases" are compound prescriptions composed of two or more drugs. For example, the prescription for treating gangrene includes seven herbs: Bailian, astragalus, peony, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, and dogwood. According to the different types of gangrene, the dosage of the main drugs was adjusted, and it was proposed that "bone gangrene should be times as much as Bailian, gangrene should be as much as astragalus, and nephritis should be as much as peony root", which reflected the early thinking of syndrome differentiation and treatment. According to the analysis of the drug compatibility, dosage forms, and prescription usage of the 283 medical prescriptions in the book, it is believed that the book has begun to formulate the basic content of prescriptions, reflecting that a prescription system with theoretical guidance and practical significance has been initially formed in the Pre-Qin Dynasty. Although the prescriptions recorded in "Fifty-Two Disease Prescriptions" only explicitly mention pills, in fact, pills, cakes, koji, wine, ointments, syrups, soups, etc. have been used according to the condition of the disease and the patient's constitution. There are various dosage forms such as powders, and certain records are made on the decoction method, dosage time, frequency, contraindications, etc.
In addition to oral administration, the book "Fifty-Two Prescriptions for Diseases" also includes various external treatment methods such as moxibustion, Bianstone, ironing, and fumigation. The book contains records of 16 treatments for trauma (hemostasis, analgesia, debridement, disinfection, bandaging, etc.) as well as hemorrhoid surgeries such as cauterization and ligation, ligation and removal, and fistula removal, reflecting the advanced surgical techniques at that time.
"Fifty-Two Prescriptions for Diseases" preserves a number of prescriptions handed down from ancient times. It is the valuable experience accumulated by the ancient working people in their long-term struggle against diseases. There are different treatments for a disease in the book, the same medicine has different names, and even the writing of a word is inconsistent. For example, many recipes are marked with the words tried, proven, and order (meaning good), which is sufficient. The proof is accumulated through practice by the working people and fully reflects the development of medicine in my country before the Western Han Dynasty.
Words such as "Fifty-two Prescriptions for Diseases" are more common; and official script also evolved from Zhou and Qin seal scripts, and the font is close to regular script. Because the official script has a simple structure and is easy to write, in the early Han Dynasty It has replaced seal script, which proves that the text of "Fifty-two Prescriptions for Diseases" is pre-Han Dynasty. According to textual research, the calligraphy fonts of silk calligraphy are quite similar to Qin inscriptions such as "Qin Jin Wen Lu" and "Cursed Chu Wen". They are basically small seal scripts of the Qin family. Some of the text structures are similar to Chu characters in the early Warring States Period. From this, it can be inferred that the unearthed silk scripts The font of "Fifty-two Prescriptions for Diseases" is considered an earlier one. The date of its seal script can be traced back to the late Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States period in the sixth to fourth centuries BC, or even earlier. Its copying date is no later than the end of the third century BC during the Qin Dynasty or the Qin and Han Dynasties. It was buried with Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty in the twelfth year of the Han Dynasty. Tomb, it is undoubtedly a longer historical stage earlier than the "Huangdi Neijing", and is the earliest existing medical collection in my country.
There are 103 disease names mentioned in "Fifty-Two Prescriptions for Diseases", covering a wide range of subjects, including internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, pediatrics, facial features and other departments, with prominent surgical content. Although the drugs used are relatively simple, there are 247 drug names, which is about two-thirds of the number in "Shen Nong's Materia Medica", but half of them are not seen in "Shen Nong's Materia Medica". Some drugs use very ancient names. , such as "answer" is Xiaodou, and "廻牛" is no longer known. The prescriptions also range from single herbs to combinations of medicines. Among the 283 prescriptions in the book, except for Zhu You's prescription, 31 prescriptions, 46 prescriptions that are incomplete and unrecognizable, are purely moxibustion and ironing methods, 9 prescriptions do not use drugs, and the remaining 197 prescriptions There are 78 prescriptions of single herbs and 119 prescriptions of two herbs. It can be seen from this that in the pre-Qin period, prescriptions composed of one or two herbs were common. At this time, the theory of traditional Chinese medicine had just emerged, and the transition from the application of single herbs to the compatibility of multiple herbs was underway.
Syndrome differentiation and treatment began to be initially reflected in "Fifty-Two Prescriptions for Diseases", such as the record of the Gangbang Prescription: "Treatment of white coriander, astragalus, peony, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, dogwood, all seven things . Bone gangrene is better than Astragalus membranaceus, and Nephritis is better than Peony peony. "The symptoms of the same gangrene are different from those of Bone gangrene, Gangrene, and Nephritis, and the treatments are also different. Changing the proportion of prescriptions according to changes in symptoms provides us with the basis for the early thinking of syndrome differentiation and treatment in Chinese medicine. Another example is that there are 12 prescriptions for the treatment of "male hemorrhoids and female hemorrhoids", and the main symptoms of each prescription are different. The treatments include external application, ironing, cornering and surgery, etc.
It is not difficult to see from these methods that the syndrome differentiation and treatment ideas in "Fifty-Two Diseases" had been initially formed at that time.
Compared with the existing traditional Chinese medicine classic "Huangdi Neijing", it can be found that "Fifty-Two Diseases Prescriptions" "Fang" has more primitive and simple characteristics in terms of medical theory and practice. There are no traces of the Five Elements theory that has appeared in the "Nei Jing". The Yin and Yang theory is almost not reflected. Zang-fu organs are rarely mentioned, and there are no individual acupoints (i.e. acupuncture points), only the two pulse names "Taiyin" and "Taiyang" are mentioned. The treatment methods in the book include moxibustion and Bianstone but no acupuncture.
In addition, it is also worth noting that a certain disease recorded in the book often has several different treatments, the same drug often has several different names, and even the writing of the words is not consistent. It can be proved that the 283 medical prescriptions are the result of long-term collection and accumulation. Many of the medical prescriptions are marked with "tested", "tried", and "order" (meaning effective) at the end, indicating that they have experienced repeated trials in medical practice. Verification, it may contain many original recipes handed down from ancient times. Therefore, "Fifty-Two Prescriptions for Diseases" was undoubtedly written earlier than "Nei Jing" and "Shen Nong's Materia Medica", and is the earliest ancient medical prescription discovered in my country so far.