【Nature and flavor】Sweet, neutral.
 [return through meridians] returns the heart, lung, spleen and stomach meridians.
 [Functions and indications] Nourishes the spleen and stomach, replenishes the spleen and replenishes Qi, clears away heat and detoxifies, removes phlegm and relieves cough, relieves acute pain, and harmonizes various medicines.
 [Cautions against using] Use with Euphorbia pekinensis, Daphne genkwa, and Gelsemium elegans.
 【Medical records】
 "Ben Jing": "It can cure cold, heat and evil spirits in the five internal organs and six bowels, strengthen tendons and bones, grow muscles, increase strength, treat wounds and swellings, and detoxify."
 "Bie Lu": "Warms the middle and lowers the qi, relieves irritability and shortness of breath, relieves cough caused by damaged organs, quenches thirst, dredges the meridians, promotes blood circulation, and detoxifies hundreds of drugs."
 "Medicinal Properties": "It cures cold pain in the abdomen, treats epilepsy, and relieves abdominal distension; it nourishes the five internal organs; controls the toxicity of various drugs; nourishes the kidney qi and internal injuries, and prevents impotence; it cures blood leakage and waist pain in women; it is used for deficiency and excessive heat."
 "Rihuazi Materia Medica": "It calms the soul and spirit. It can replenish the five kinds of fatigue and seven kinds of injuries, and treat all kinds of weakness, palpitations, depression, and forgetfulness. It can open the nine orifices, benefit all meridians, nourish the essence and qi, strengthen the muscles and bones, and relieve cold and heat."
 "Pearl Capsule": "Replenishes blood and nourishes the stomach."
 "Tangye Bencao": "It can treat pus and blood in pulmonary tuberculosis and act as an emetic; it can eliminate sores and carbuncles of the five types of diseases and has the same effect as Huangqi."
 "Compendium of Materia Medica": "It can relieve fetal toxins and convulsions in children, reduce fire and relieve pain."
 "Chinese Medicinal Plants Illustrated Guide": "Treats peptic ulcer and jaundice."
 【Predecessors release medicine】
 Li Gao: Licorice root can replenish the deficiency of Yang with sweetness, and sweetness and warmth can eliminate great heat. Therefore, when used raw, it can balance Qi, replenish the deficiency of spleen and stomach, and greatly relieve heart fire; when roasted, it can warm Qi, replenish the original Qi of the three burners, disperse the cold on the surface, eliminate evil heat, relieve sore throat, relieve the positive Qi, and nourish Yin and blood. For those with heart fire attacking the spleen, acute abdominal pain, and acute abdominal skin shrinkage, it is advisable to use twice as much. Its properties can relieve urgency, and it can coordinate with other medicines so that they do not compete. Therefore, hot medicines can relieve their heat, cold medicines can relieve their cold, and those with mixed cold and heat can balance them.
 "Tangye Bencao": Fuzi Lizhong uses licorice for fear that it will rise; Tiaowei Chengqi uses licorice for fear that it will descend too quickly; the two medicines are not used in harmony, but both are slow. Xiao Chaihu has the coldness of Chaihu and Huangqin, and the warmth of ginseng and Banxia. The use of licorice in it has the meaning of harmonization. If the middle is not full, use sweet to replenish it, and if the middle is full, use sweet to drain it. This is the rise and fall. The sweetness of Fengsui Dan can relieve the urgency of the kidney and generate vital energy, which is also the meaning of sweet replenishment. "Jing" says, use sweet to replenish it, use sweet to drain it, and use sweet to slow it down. Therefore, it can calm the grass and stone and resolve various poisons. The meaning of harmonization can be seen here. The use of the five flavors is that bitter goes straight to drain, pungent goes horizontally to disperse, sour is bound and astringent, salty stops and softens hardness, and sweet goes up to release. How can "Bencao" talk about descending qi? The taste of sweetness can rise and fall, float and sink, can go up or down, inside or outside, can be harmonious or soothing, can supplement or drain, and it is the best way to stay in the middle.
 "Compendium of Materia Medica" says: Licorice is sweet and can relieve various fires. Use less medicine for the lower part of the body, fearing that the medicine cannot relieve the fire directly.
 "Compendium of Materia Medica": Licorice is a medicine that harmonizes the middle and replenishes qi, replenishes deficiency and detoxifies. It strengthens the spleen and stomach, consolidates the deficiency of qi in the middle, coordinates yin and yang, and harmonizes the imbalance of the Ying and Wei. Therefore, it can treat internal injuries caused by overwork, spleen deficiency, insufficient primordial yang, and weak lung qi. Its sweet, warm and mild tonic effect is comparable to that of ginseng and astragalus. For example, for sore throat, add Zhishi and Shuni to clear the lungs and open the throat; for cough with phlegm, add Suzi and Erchen to eliminate phlegm and smooth the qi. Add Astragalus and Saposhnikovia to transport toxins and remove them from the surface. It is a must-have for those with both qi and blood deficiency in smallpox. With Scutellaria and White Peony Root, diarrhea and abdominal pain can be stopped; with Honeysuckle and Viola yedoensis, all carbuncle poisons can be eliminated; with Sichuan Coptis chinensis, fetal toxins can be eliminated at the beginning of life; with Forsythia suspensa, carbuncle can be dispersed before it is formed. When using pure hot or pure cold medicine, licorice must be used to slow down its effect. When using medicine with mixed hot and cold properties, licorice must be used to harmonize its nature. Gao Yuanding said that if you have fullness, you should avoid licorice. If you have deficiency in the middle and the five yang are not distributed, the qi will not go down, stagnate and become fullness. Taking seven doses of licorice will relieve the symptoms.
 "Ben Cao Tong Xuan": Licorice, a sweet and mild product, enters the spleen and stomach alone. Li Shizhen said that it can enter the twelve meridians, but that is not true. Farming makes sweet, which is the true taste of earth, so licorice is a tonic for the middle palace. "Bie Lu" says that it can cure fullness by lowering qi, and Zhen Quan says that it can eliminate abdominal distension and fullness, because the spleen is good at healthy movement when it is tonic. If the spleen and earth are too much, it will increase distension and fullness if taken by mistake, so it is said that patients with spleen diseases should not eat too much sweet food, and sweetness can fill the middle, which is the words of those who are full of earth. The world does not distinguish between deficiency and excess, and every time they see distension and fullness, they ban licorice. Why don't they think about it? 6. "Ben Cao Zheng": Licorice, with a very sweet taste, has a neutralizing nature and has the function of regulating and replenishing. Therefore, poisonous drugs can be detoxified by it, strong drugs can be harmonized by it, superficial drugs can be helped by it, and laxative drugs can slow down their speed. It is known that it helps ginseng and astragalus to achieve the function of qi deficiency, but who knows how to help cooked rehmannia to treat the danger of yin deficiency. It can dispel pathogenic heat, strengthen tendons and bones, strengthen the spleen and stomach, and grow muscles. It can be used as a medicine that follows qi and enters qi, and as a medicine that follows blood and enters blood. It can be used in any place, so it is called the national elder. However, it should not be added to those with fullness in the middle, for fear of causing bloating; it should not be added to those who need to go down quickly, for fear of slowing down the effect. You must know this.
 "Pharmaceutical Chemistry": Licorice, when used raw, is cool and can purge fire. It is mainly used to disperse external evil, eliminate carbuncle, relieve sore throat, detoxify all kinds of drugs, remove stomach heat, and relieve urethral pain. This is the power of sweet and cool to remove heat. Roasted, it is used to warm and tonify the middle. It is mainly used for spleen deficiency and diarrhea, stomach deficiency and thirst, cold and heat cough, shortness of breath and fatigue, and exhaustion from labor. This is the power of sweet and warm to help the spleen. However, it is thick and too sweet, so it should not be used too much in tonic medicine, for fear that it will cause nausea and loss of appetite.
 "Compendium of Materia Medica" states: Licorice, Hu Qia treats phlegm and licorice is added to Shizao Decoction; Dongyuan treats tuberculosis and uses it together with seaweed; Danxi treats tuberculosis and uses Lianxin Decoction together with Daphne; Zhongjing has Licorice Decoction, Licorice Peony Decoction, Licorice Poria Decoction, Zhigancao Decoction, as well as Guizhi, Ephedra, Pueraria, Qinglong, Lizhong, Sini, Tiaowei, Jianzhong, Chaihu, Baihu and other decoctions, all of which use licorice as the main ingredient to support success. For example, the later generations' Qi-invigorating, Zhongzhong-tonifying, fire-purging and detoxifying agents all rely on licorice as the main ingredient, and must be used in large quantities to achieve results. This is the ancient method. However, the teacher used only two or three parts of licorice each time. I don't know who started it, but it has become a habit and is unbreakable. I attach this note here to correct its mistake.
 "Ben Jing Shu Zheng": In the two books "Treatise on Febrile Diseases" and "Golden Chamber", there are 250 prescriptions, and 120 of them use licorice. It is not that licorice is used for many diseases, but that all prescriptions must be combined with licorice to be able to treat the disease. All medicines that disperse are external but not internal (such as Ma Huang, Guizhi, Qinglong, Chaihu, Gegen and other decoctions); attacking ones go down but not up (such as Tiaowei Chengqi, Taoren Chengqi, Dahuang Gancao and other decoctions); warm ones are dry but not moist (Si Ni, Wuzhuyu and other decoctions); clear ones are cold but not harmonious (Baihu, Zhuye Shigao and other decoctions); mixed ones are numerous but not grouped (such as Xiexin Decoction, Wumeiyuan and other decoctions); poisonous ones are violent and uncontrolled (Wumei Decoction, Dahuang Guchong Pills and other decoctions). If there is no licorice to adjust them, they will go on and on, thinking that they are a risky and lucky plan, which is no different from burning the boats. They can win but cannot lose. Is this really the way to win? The disease of wounds caused by metal, once the wound is injured, the patient will suffer from continuous bleeding, and once the wound is healed, the patient will suffer from swelling and pus. Now, when we say wounds caused by metal are swollen, it means that the wound is swollen but not pus, and it is not unhealed. The treatment of wounds caused by metal in Qianjin Fang is mostly bleeding and the arrowhead cannot be ejected, so it uses a lot of realgar, lime, grass ash and other things, and does not emphasize licorice. However, in the Wangbuliuxing powder of Jinkui Yaolue, Wangbuliuxing, Capsule and Leaf, and Sangdongnangen, all use 10%, and licorice alone is used 18%, and the rest are less, so the meaning is exactly consistent with the Benjing. The reason why licorice is suitable for wounds caused by metal is that when the disease suddenly occurs, the heart fire rushes to it, and when it is not healed, it forces the blood to flow recklessly. When it is healed, the blockage has no way to be discharged, so it swells and pus, and then ulcers from the pus, which is no different from carbuncle, but the fire is stagnant, and it is even worse than carbuncle. Therefore, although the prescription contains mulberry bark to heal wounds and angelica sinensis to penetrate blood vessels, other herbs are used to circulate the meridians and penetrate the defense system, and the main ingredient is licorice, which can relieve toxicity, purge fire and soothe the stomach. At first glance, it is said that urgent matters should be treated with slowness, but in fact, the effect of purging fire is not small. There is indeed a difference between using licorice raw and roasted. Generally speaking, it is better to use it raw to eliminate evil spirits, treat metal wounds and detoxify. It is better to use it roasted to relieve the stomach, replenish deficiency and quench thirst. You can understand it.
 "Ben Cao Zheng Yi" says: Licorice is very sweet, and its function is only to replenish the earth. All the descriptions in "Ben Jing" are true. Moreover, sweetness can relieve urgency. Therefore, the opening and purging of ephedra must be supervised by licorice, and the dryness and fierceness of aconite must be controlled by licorice. The running and fleeing can be restrained by licorice, and the attacking and descending can be not injured by licorice. All of them have the effect of relieving. However, if the disease is already urgent, it is beneficial to advance and pursue directly, such as the medicine for urgent purgation, then licorice should not be added to tie up the hands and feet of Ben Yu and drive him into battle, so that he can win the battle and have no disadvantages. It is also said that people with fullness in the middle should avoid sweetness, vomiting people should avoid sweetness, and wine people should also avoid sweetness. All these symptoms are not suitable for licorice, and you know it; however, if the external infection is not cleared, as well as the symptoms of damp heat and phlegm, they cannot take sweet and greasy food. If licorice is taken by mistake, it will cause fullness and stuffiness, and even vomiting after swallowing, but it is because the turbidity and greasy food are too much. According to the theory that licorice can cure sores and ulcers, Wang Haizang first said this. Li's "Compendium of Materia Medica" also said that licorice heads can cure carbuncle and swelling. Zhang Luyu and other scholars all said that licorice sections can cure carbuncle and swelling. This is probably from the perspective of detoxification. However, carbuncle and ulcer are mostly caused by internal dampness and heat. Even if it is a symptom of yin and cold, it must be caused by cold and dampness stagnation. Licorice is sweet and greasy, which is not recommended. If you stick to the old way and use it, you will often feel full and lose your appetite. Then you will see the harm before you see the benefit.