Yan Tang Tan Tu Fang盐汤探吐方
Salt Water Emetic Method
Ingredients1 herbs
Indications
Food lodged in the upper stomach, or dry cholera, understood classically as an acute blockage of the qi dynamic in which nothing can move in either direction and forcing an outlet upward restores movement. In modern terms this presentation may be gastric outlet obstruction, an acute abdomen or poisoning, and it requires urgent medical assessment.
Clinical Manifestations
- Food stagnation in the upper stomach with fullness and no appetite (classical use)
- Dry cholera: griping abdominal pain with neither vomiting nor stool (classical use)
- Classical accounts of a recently ingested poison — modern care is emergency assessment, never salt water
Health Categories
Modern Applications
Common adjustments
- The classical method itself — the salt water was drunk warm and vomiting then provoked with a finger — a mechanical step that adds airway and oesophageal injury to the salt load
- After vomiting in the classical account — the text moves on to treating the underlying pattern; in modern terms the patient needs assessment for dehydration, sodium disturbance and the cause of the obstruction
- Any impairment of consciousness — excluded absolutely — an obtunded person aspirates what comes up
Contraindications
The single constituent is table salt, and that is exactly the problem: swallowing a concentrated salt solution raises blood sodium acutely, and acute hypernatraemia causes thirst, confusion, muscle twitching, seizures, cerebral injury, coma and death. Modern poisoning literature contains fatalities in both children and adults from salt water given as an emetic, which is why no toxicology service recommends it. The mechanical provocation of vomiting adds its own injuries — aspiration of stomach contents into the lungs, which can be fatal, tearing of the lower oesophagus with bleeding, and loss of potassium and chloride on top of the sodium load. The other emetics of this chapter are no safer as substitutes: Gua Di is toxic through cucurbitacins, Chang Shan is hepatotoxic and violently emetic, Dan Fan is copper sulfate and causes haemolysis with liver and kidney failure, and Li Lu is cardiotoxic and one of the incompatible herbs, never to be combined with Ren Shen,, Dan Shen, Xuan Shen, Ku Shen, Xi Xin or. Absolutely contraindicated in pregnancy and postpartum, in infants and children, in the elderly and frail, in anyone with heart disease, arrhythmia, heart failure or hypertension, in kidney disease, in oedema or ascites, in anyone with a bleeding tendency, ulcer or oesophageal varices, and in anyone whose consciousness is impaired. Suspected poisoning, an acute abdomen, or an obstruction that stops both vomiting and stool is a medical emergency: call emergency services. Never give salt water to induce vomiting.
For licensed practitioners’ reference only — not a self-treatment guide.
Pregnancy
Absolutely contraindicated in pregnancy and postpartum. An acute sodium load and forceful induced vomiting are both hazardous to the pregnant patient, and to the fetus through dehydration and electrolyte shift. Not used while breastfeeding.
References
Source Bei Ji Qian Jin Yao Fang 《备急千金要方》 · Tang
- Classical source named in the source fields (pre-1900, public domain).
2. Scheid, Bensky, Ellis & Barolet. Chinese Herbal Medicine: Formulas & Strategies, 2nd ed. — composition & dosage cross-checked.
3. 《方剂学》（全国中医药行业高等教育规划教材）— chapter placement, 功用 and pattern analysis cross-checked.
Professional reference notice. Entries are scholarly references for licensed TCM practitioners and students — not medical advice, and not a recommendation to self-prescribe. Chinese herbal formulas should be used under the guidance of a qualified practitioner. Content is an original editorial compilation by Cura x Cura, cross-checked against the cited references.