🌿 Folk Prescriptions

1. Immortal Porridge for Wind-Cold Common Cold: 100g glutinous rice, 20g green onion white, 20g ginger, 30ml vinegar. First boil the rice into porridge, then mash the green onion and ginger and add to the porridge, boil for 5 minutes after boiling, then pour in vinegar, immediately remove from heat and consume hot while covering up in bed to enhance medicinal effect. After 15 minutes, one feels warmth rising in the stomach, body slightly warm with light sweating. Take once in the morning and once in the evening, continue for 4 days to recover. Promotes exterior release and detoxification, dispels wind and cold. Treats initial stage of external contraction with body pain, aversion to cold, no sweating, tight pulse—highly effective. Someone wrote a poem praising it: "A handful of glutinous rice boiled into porridge, seven green onions, seven slices of ginger, cooked together with half a cup of vinegar, prevents colds and ensures health." Note: Not suitable for wind-heat common cold.2. Carrot Soup for Sweating: Wash, chop finely, and decoct into tea, drink hot. Promotes sweating and resolves exterior patterns; treats colds with chills requiring sweating. Carrot soup has mild and sustained diaphoretic effect without excessive side effects.3. Carp Soup for Wind-Cold with Nasal Congestion: 150g carp (blue fish) meat, 25g ginger slices, 100ml rice wine. Boil half a bowl of water, add fish slices, ginger, and rice wine, stew for about 30 minutes, season with salt, eat hot while lying down covered to induce slight sweat. Take twice daily, avoid wind-cold exposure. Resolves exterior and dispels cold, promotes circulation and relieves pain. Treats symptoms such as chills, body aches, fatigue, nasal obstruction due to cold.4. Green Onion, Ginger, and Fermented Soybean Decoction for Wind-Cold Common Cold: 5 green onions, 1 slice ginger, 20g light soybean paste. Use clay pot, add one bowl of water, decoct, consume hot in one go. Then lie down covered to induce sweating, avoid wind-cold. Detoxifies and penetrates the exterior, clears yang obstruction. Used at early stage of cold with symptoms like nasal congestion, headache, chills, no sweating.5. Five Spirit Decoction for Diaphoresis and Exterior Resolution: 10g each of Schizonepeta tenuifolia and Perilla leaf (available in herbal stores), 6g tea leaves, 10g fresh ginger, 30g brown sugar. First simmer Schizonepeta, Perilla, tea leaves, and ginger over low heat for 15–20 minutes, then add brown sugar until dissolved. Take twice daily, dosage not limited. Dispels wind-cold, removes wind and relieves pain. Treats wind-cold common cold with chills, body pain, no sweating. If cough and abundant phlegm are present, add 10g tangerine peel (double amount if fresh).6. Raw Garlic Mouth Sucking for Common Cold: 1 raw garlic clove (peeled). Place garlic in mouth, swallow saliva as it forms, continue until garlic loses taste, then spit out. Repeat with three cloves to achieve effect. Pungent-warm exterior release, detoxifies and kills bacteria. Used at early stage of cold with clear nasal discharge, wind-cold cough.7. White Pepper Hot Noodle Soup for Common Cold: Appropriate amount of white pepper powder and green onion white. Cook one bowl of hot noodle soup, mix in green onion and white pepper powder. Consume hot while covering up in bed; sweating indicates recovery. Pungent-warm exterior release, eliminates phlegm and detoxifies. Treats common cold caused by wind-cold invading the exterior.8. Dried Cabbage Root Decoction for Common Cold: One piece dried cabbage root, 50g red sugar, 3 ginger slices. Boil together with water, take three times daily. Clears heat and promotes urination, resolves exterior. Treats wind-cold common cold.9. Rock Sugar and Egg for Common Cold: 1 egg, 30g rock sugar. Break egg, mix thoroughly with crushed rock sugar. Consume before bedtime with hot water, induce slight sweat. Nourishes yin, moistens dryness, clears lung and stops cough. Treats common cold with clear nasal discharge, cough, chills. Also effective for children with nosebleeds.10. Fresh Large Radish Juice Drops for Headache: Wash large radish, crush and extract juice. Drop into nostrils to treat various headaches; drink to treat stroke. Treats headache due to common cold, fire-induced headache, heatstroke headache, and stroke-related headache.11. Brown Sugar and Prunus Mume Decoction for Fever: 4 prunes, 100g brown sugar. Boil together into concentrated decoction, divide into two doses. Resolves exterior and dispels cold, induces sweating to reduce fever. Treats common cold with fever and chills.12. Green Onion, Fermented Soybean, and Yellow Wine Decoction for Exterior Resolution and Harmonization: 30g whole green onion, 20g light soybean paste, 50ml yellow wine. First place soybean paste in clay pot with one small bowl of water, decoct for 10 minutes, then add washed chopped green onion (with roots), continue boiling for 5 minutes. Add yellow wine, immediately remove from heat. Consume hot in one go, avoid wind-cold. Resolves exterior and dispels wind, expels cold, warms middle burner and descends counterflow. Treats wind-cold common cold with fever, headache, restlessness, no sweating, vomiting, diarrhea.13. Walnut, Green Onion, and Ginger Tea for Fever: 25g walnut kernels, 25g green onion white, 25g ginger, 15g tea leaves. Crush walnuts, green onion, and ginger together, mix with tea leaves in clay pot, add one and a half bowls of water, decoct. Strain and consume in one dose, cover with cotton blanket and rest in bed, avoid wind-cold. Resolves exterior and dispels cold, induces sweating to reduce fever. Treats fever due to common cold with headache and no sweating.14. Radish and Sugarcane Decoction for Fever and Sore Throat: 500g radish, 500g sugarcane, 10g honeysuckle, 5g bamboo leaf, appropriate amount of white sugar. Cut radish and sugarcane into chunks, add to clay pot with water, include honeysuckle and bamboo leaf, decoct. Add white sugar when drinking, can be consumed as tea, several times daily. Eliminates accumulation and clears heat, moistens dryness and relieves pain. Treats common cold with fever, sore throat, nasal dryness.15. Honeysuckle and Hawthorn Decoction for Wind-Heat Common Cold: 30g honeysuckle, 10g hawthorn, 250g honey. Place honeysuckle and hawthorn in clay pot, add water, bring to boil over high heat, simmer for 3–5 minutes, filter liquid into bowl. Add water again and decoct once more, filter and combine both batches. Mix in honey, stir well, consume warm as needed. Clears heat and detoxifies, disperses wind and relieves pain. Treats wind-heat common cold with fever, headache, thirst.16. Watermelon and Tomato Juice for Summer Cold: Appropriate amounts of watermelon and tomato. Extract watermelon pulp, remove seeds, squeeze juice through gauze. Blanch tomatoes in boiling water, peel, remove seeds, also squeeze juice through gauze. Combine both juices, drink as tea. Clears heat and detoxifies, removes summer heat and dampness. Treats summer cold with fever, thirst, irritability, red urine, poor appetite, indigestion.17. Wine-Boiled Lychee Meat for Qi Deficiency Common Cold: 30g lychee meat, appropriate amount of yellow wine. Boil lychee meat in wine, consume hot in one go. Invigorates spirit and qi, dissipates stagnation. Treats qi deficiency common cold. Note: According to *Continuation of Famous Physicians' Cases*, a patient with qi deficiency and cold invasion experienced chest fullness and nasal obstruction; this method proved effective in all cases.18. Mung Bean Tea for Influenza: 50g mung beans, 5g green tea, 15g rock sugar. Wash mung beans, crush, mix with tea and sugar in bowl, pour boiling water, steep for about 20 minutes, drink as tea. Clears heat and detoxifies. Treats influenza with sore throat and heat-induced cough; also used for prevention.19. Green Dragon and White Tiger Decoction for Influenza: 5 olives, 200g white radish. Wash radish, cut into small pieces, cook with olives into soup, take three times daily, dosage unlimited. Clears heat and detoxifies. Treats influenza, diphtheria.20. Reed Rhizome Decoction for Influenza: 50g reed rhizome, 200g fresh radish, 7 green onions, 7 green olives. Boil into soup, drink as tea. Clears heat and resolves exterior, promotes qi movement. Prevents and treats influenza.21. Cabbage Root and Rock Sugar Decoction for Influenza: One cabbage root (knob), small amount of rock sugar. Wash cabbage root, slice, boil with one bowl of water, add rock sugar, take twice daily. Clears heat and detoxifies. Treats influenza with more heat than cold.22. Vinegar Fumigation Method for Preventing Influenza: Unspecified amount of rice vinegar. Dilute with water, slowly simmer over low heat in room for about one hour. Disinfects and kills bacteria. Prevents influenza, meningitis, cholecystitis.23. Green Onion and Garlic Soup for Preventing Influenza: 500g green onion, 250g garlic. Wash green onion, peel garlic, chop finely, add 2kg water, decoct into soup, take three times daily, one cup per time. Detoxifies and kills bacteria, penetrates exterior and opens yang. Prevents influenza.24. External Application for Common Cold: 15g green onion, 15g ginger, 3g salt. Wash and crush green onion and ginger into paste, wrap in gauze, rub vigorously on front chest, back, soles of feet, palms, popliteal fossa, and elbow creases. Then rest quietly. Clears heat, releases exterior, opens yang, detoxifies. Treats common cold. Note: As reported in *Intermediate Medical Journal* 1965, some patients began sweating and reducing fever within half an hour after application, with symptom relief. Among 107 treated cases, all improved within one or two days, most recovered after one use, few required two uses.25. Double White Decoction for Common Cold and Sore Throat: 2 egg whites, 4 green onion segments, 50g maltose. First boil green onion and maltose with two cups of water until slightly boiled, pour into bowl containing egg whites, stir well. Divide into two portions, consume hot in two doses. Avoid spicy, sour, or stimulating foods. Nourishes yin and clears heat. Treats common cold with cough, hoarseness, sore throat.26. Water Chestnut Juice for Sore Throat: Appropriate amount of water chestnuts. Wash, peel, crush, wrap in gauze, squeeze juice. Rinse throat with juice, swallow slowly. Repeat several times daily. Cools blood, detoxifies, clears throat and benefits pharynx. Treats sore throat due to wind-cold or deficient fire.27. Egg White and Sugar for Sore Throat: 2 fresh eggs, 25g sugar, several drops of sesame oil. Break eggs, mix all ingredients thoroughly. Consume on empty stomach, finish in one serving. Soothes throat, relieves pain.