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'According to legend, the finely powdered ingredients were used on the battlefields of the 1600's to plug up saber and knife wounds. Remember that this information is for historical purposes only! This formula will vary in price from $25 to $50 or more. If you get the formula for $25, you may want to pay an extra $5 to have it finely ground up. For an extra $50, the herbalist may make the pills for you and explain dosage, and contraindications for you to consult your western and or eastern Doctors about. Quality of the ingredient makes the difference as well as location. Under the guidance of a competent licensed herbalist and doctor, this formula can be made into pills as well. I definitely recommend a multitude of council before you get into pills. An herbalist can neutralize the toxins and suggest dosages, but this should also pass the scrutiny of your western and eastern medicine doctor for possible side effects or contraindications. The pill according to legend, healed from within, while the powder stopped the bleeding and created a scab, while disinfecting and helping to grow new flesh. According To Legend Only. No Medical Values Claimed. The information is passed to you for historical purposes only. We do not encourage you to prepare this formula, rather we encourage you to study its' ambiance for the rare international martial treasure that it truly is. This is information that belonged to my former teacher's family as far back as 690 AD. I have purchased this formula myself and ground it all into a very fine powder. This formula is one of my more expensive cut powders at $50. I have some as low as $5 to $25. I thought this one would be a better gift to share with my Tae Kwon Do friends. Let me remind you that this formula when ground very fine will darn near last a lifetime. You don't use much, and this formula will produce enough to give 6 people a ten-year supply! It is no secret that the Koreans had many friendly times with the Chinese. It also should be remembered historically that the Korean martial artists many times in history won battles in hand to hand combat with Chinese troops. Korean martial arts place great emphasis on swords and daggers. Even their wooden weapons could cut in combat. If I get a small scrape or cut, I merely pad some of the powder on directly. Always consult a qualified licensed Chinese herbalist for advice concerning this or any other formula. Because these formulas are so old and authentic, and because they represent what martial artists of old used, we should merely focus our interest in what the original formula looked like in the original handwriting, what it was supposedly for, see the formula numbered with a photo of that ingredient and learn that ingredient's Pharmaceutical name as a cross reference to find its name in Korean. Once at that point, one could literally write a book worth of information on just that one ingredient. Unfortunately animals are still used for testing, even though higher technology methods are making animal testing unnecessary in the future. New Agers will just boycott any products that have used animals in testing. For others this may not be a problem. Because these old formulas can be updated and re-vamped according to the customs, mores and traditions of each era, there remain many opportunities through research to allow vegetarians to substitute certain ingredients for others more acceptable to them that will also work well. In other cases, one may be allergic to an ingredient or need a substitute because a certain ingredient is now illegal, endangered or not available in modern times. All these reasons are cases in point for instructors to advocate learning the classic literature that will teach one the "metaphysics" of the underlying principles that make Eastern Medicine and herbology so interesting to us as martial artists. There are many accredited home study courses that may be beneficial as well. The purpose of this article was to remind Korean practitioners that they have as rich a culture in herbs and healing as anyone else, and to take pride in knowing how to write the ingredient in Korean writing as well as Chinese and Latin. To really get into Chinese herbal formulas like these, you'll need some good materia medica Chinese herb books, more than one, and at least one in color. Most herbalists that have tried to fill our system's formulas have had trouble reading the older cursive writing. Many ingredients had older names (nicknames) that are now forgotten, are illegal to import nowadays or so rare an ingredient as to not be numbered in the particular herbalist's stockpile. A good herbalist will substitute a legal workable ingredient and know what that ingredient's function in the overall formula is, so that it can be substituted safely and effectively within the overall formula's purpose. If a formula has toxic or mildly toxic ingredients, ask the herbalist how they are neutralized or whether they need to be neutralized. Out of the 1000 or so authentic herbal formulas in the monks' handwriting that I accrued, we have only let out 50 at best. No one person has all 50. Remember herbs and meditations are what make an art internal in the first place. We have lots of both! In prior issues of Tae Kwon Do Times, we focused on mainly external liniment type formulas. This article we branch out a bit to talk about a cut powder, something rarely possessed let alone talked about or shared in depth. The Korean arts have a very rich tradition when it comes to herbal formulas. They were perhaps the most guarded secret, for more than one reason. First off, the teachers knew that herbal liniments and tonics were what helped produce chi building, fast recuperation from injuries and advanced healing and destructive techniques. Since many of the "authentic" heirloom formulas contained what we now consider endangered species or illegal drugs, the secrecy exists in part because to even fill the formula would require going underground or the "black market." My teacher introduced me to herbalist Mr. Wong. I have been going to Mr. Wong to get herbs and learn about these formulas for over 16 years. Prior to that I was engrossed in Western, European and American Indian herbology, for 15 years. His son An, who is in his 40's, works closely with me these days. He is learning to take over his father's business someday. A great trust has developed. The fact that my teacher recommended him above all others and introduced me to Mr. Wong, makes the ambiance of the connection that much more priceless. Our experience has been that we are the first to let out official Five Elder formulas from the monks' handwriting and passed down father to eldest son within five elder lineage, to me. I was writing about herbs as a columnist for a major magazine in 1986, the same year that my former teacher was on the cover. Each instructor should be familiar with the Korean classics, Korean folk and traditional medicine and a little about the history and language. Our articles are designed to get you started towards being excited about learning herbs that can help Tae Kwon Do practitioners to reclaim some of this rich heritage that has been occult, or hidden from them. We make mistakes in identification from time to time. Once in awhile An (my herbalists' son in his 40's) will identify and package the ingredient that he sees written as a Chinese character in the formula even though he may not have a book that can give me the Latin name. In any case look how far we've come. The monks did all the hard work. My teacher's family held them close and away from public eyes until me, and the exciting part is what we might discover working cooperatively with science, religion and philosophy. All the herbal, mineral, insect and animal parts in an herb shop cannot come to America without a Latin (Pharmaceutical) name. Every ingredient you see written with a Chinese name, 99% of the time has a Korean name. There are Korean neighborhoods with their own herbalists, but most herb shops remain Chinese or Vietnamese. For the sake of making this an exclusive article for Korean practitioners, I have asked the editors of Tae Kwon Do Times to add the accent marks to the Korean breakdowns to make it more proper to pronounce. Korean history and language are fascinating subjects on their own. How much more exciting to learn of rare martial formulas that can actually be learned in Korean! Once you have the defacto materia medica by Bensky (Eastland Press - P.O. Box 12689, Seattle, WA 98111) you will be able to cross reference each of the ingredients I am listing for further in depth research. I will include the page number of the ingredient as it appears in Bensky's for your convenience. I especially like to learn the English and literal English names for herbs because of the so many similarities between ingredients that both Western and Eastern cultures share in common. This includes American Indian herbology as well. I use an Encyclopedia Britannica CD-ROM to effortlessly explore in more depth, the many animal, insect and mineral ingredients. Even most herbs have an English name that can be referenced in the Encyclopaedia. My herbalist stocks 5000 or so ingredients. A good herb book may have between 500 and 1000 ingredients. Feel free to call me at (619) 766-9256 if you have any questions. We currently have two herb tapes produced by our East Coast Representative Lohon Thomas Keen that show you how to use a traditional scale and ginseng cooker. The Materia Medica book mentioned is shown up close and each tape covers five complete formulas. The tapes show full screen color images of each ingredient separately. Paperwork that accompanies the tapes has written breakdowns for each of the images in sequential order, as well as a weight in ounces or grams. Learn each ingredient's Pharmaceutical name for easy cross-reference in Bensky's book. Just having a Pharmaceutical name to cross-reference will lead you to its Korean name, Japanese or Chinese name. Our Tape 1 includes the following formulas: all purpose dit da jow, original iron palm coconut break (ground) jow, health soup formula, dim mak antidote soup and dim mak antidote external rub jow. Tape 2 includes a health soup that can double as a tonic, the cut powder in this article, iron palm basic jow, dim mak internal injuries hit pills and 18 Daoist Palms' white eyebrow dim mak antidote jow (external and internal.) I hope this article will spark an interest in future articles I would like to share with my readers. I need to share how to set bones, the proper way to apply jow, the danger of pulling hurt joints as opposed to gentle twirling and horizontal rubbing the correct way for finger, wrist, forearm, elbow and shoulder areas. One should know the martial methods of preparing padding formulas, cupping techniques and pressure point healing. We also need to discuss jows specifically formulated for head, chest and stomach areas. I have a heart jow used just for hits to that area. We will cover lower body injuries as well as methods of toughening the areas of the foot, shin and thigh. In closing, for those of you that have high ranking traditional Korean instructors, being trustworthy (the hallmark of character) may just be the key to having your teacher share one or two classic Korean martial formulas that normally they would take to the grave. God Bless! Much health, wealth and peace of mind to all Korean practitioners. The rest of this article will deal with photos and names of the ingredients for this cut powder.
After you have consulted a licensed Chinese or Korean herbalist, and checked with your western and oriental medicine doctors, you will get more information. According to our legendary preparation, order two packs of herbs. The herbalist should grind one pack into a fine powder. Prior to use, mix powder with vinegar and apply with gauze as in a poultice for a cut, bite or burn. A second package can be ground fine and prepared into pills. This later must be prepared by a licensed herbalist and Chinese Medical Doctor so that the ingredients are detoxified and in proper dosage for that individual. Remember that we make no claims to this legendary formula. I have only used it externally and without vinegar or gauze. I have merely used in on superficial cuts, by just applying the powder and letting it scab on its own. Feel free to call if you have questions or comments. Sincerely, 7th Generation Jung Shee Lacy (Five Elder Monk Mew Hing's 18 Daoist Palms System.)  Phone: (619) 766 - 9256 Mew Hing Productions 42499 Old Hwy. 80 P.O. Box 427 Jacumba, CA. 91934-0427 E-mail: MewHing@earthlink.net ShaBruCha Graphics  618-529-2856 sharoney2@yahoo.com |