Gu (poison) - Gu Remedies

Gu Remedies

Groot (1910 5:861-869) and Eberhard (1968:152-3) detail numerous Chinese antidotes and cures for gu poison-magic. For instance (see 2.4), the Shanhaijing claimed eating a legendary creature's meat would prevent gu and the Soushenji prescribed ranghe 蘘荷 "myoga ginger". Unschuld (1985:47) says

Prescription literature was filled with antidotes. All known Chinese conceptual systems of healing dealt with the ku phenomenon and developed therapeutic strategies that were in accord with their basic principles. The Buddhists recommended prayers and conjurations, thus utilizing the same methods as practitioners of demonic medicine. In pharmaceutical literature, drugs of a plant, animal, or mineral origin were described as effective against ku poisoning. Adherents of homeopathic magic recommended the taking of centipedes, since it was known that centipedes consume worms.

The Zhou houbei jifang 肘後備急方 (tr. Groot 1910 5:862), which is attributed to Ge Hong, describes gu diagnosis and cure with ranghe:

A patient hurt by ku gets cutting pains at his heart and belly as if some living thing is gnawing there; sometimes he has a discharge of blood through the mouth or the anus. If he is not forthwith medically treated, it devours his five viscera, which entails his death. To discover whether it is ku or not, let the patient spit into water; if the spittle sinks, it is ku; if it floats, it is not. The recipe for discovering the name of the owner of the ku poison is as follows: take the skin of a drum, burn it, a small piece at a time, pulverize the ashes, and let the patient drink them with water; he will then forthwith mention the name; then bid this owner forthwith to remove the ku, and the patient will recover immediately. Again place some jang-ho leaves secretly under the mattress of the patient; he will then of his own accord immediately mention the name of the owner of the ku

Many gu-poison antidotes are homeopathic, in Western terms. The 8th-century pharmacologist Chen Cangqi (tr. Groot 1910 5:866) explains using venomous creatures both to produce and cure gu-poison.

In general reptiles and insects, which are used to make ku, are cures for ku; therefore, if we know what ku is at work, we may remedy its effects. Against ku of snakes that of centipedes should be used, against ku of centipedes that of frogs, against ku of frogs that of snakes, and so on. Those varieties of ku, having the power of subduing each other, may also have a curative effect .

Needham and Wang (1956:136) say prescribing gu poison as a cure or preventive suggests "that someone had stumbled on an immunisation process", and suggest scorpion-venom and centipede-venom as possible toxins.

Chen (tr. Schafer 1967:102, cf. Groot 1910 5:847) further describes catching and preparing medicine from the shapeshifting gu creature that,

… can conceal its form, and seem to be a ghost or spirit, and make misfortune for men. But after all it is only a reptile ghost. If one of them has bitten a person to death, it will sometimes emerge from one of that man's apertures. Watch and wait to catch it and dry it in the warmth of the sun; then, when someone is afflicted by the ku, burn it to ashes and give him a dose of it. Being akin, to it, the one quite naturally subdues the other.

Besides such homeopathic remedies, Schafer (1967:103) says one could,

give ku derived from particularly venomous creatures to overcome that taken from less lethal creatures. Thus centipede ku could be overcome by frog ku; serpent ku would prevail over frog ku, and so on. There were also soberer, though almost as powerful remedies: asafetida, python bile, civet, and a white substance taken from cock's dung were all used. It is not certain what real maladies these repellent drugs, cured, or seemed to cure. Probably they ranged from the psychosomatic to the virus-born. Many oedematous conditions were called ku, and it has been plausibly suggested that some cases were caused by intestinal parasites (hence the constant worm motif). Others are attributable to fish poisons and arrow poisons concocted by the forest dwellers.

Chinese folklore claims the definitive cure for gu-magic is passing it on to a greedy person. Eberhard (1968:153) says,

The most common way to get rid of the ku (just as of brownies and the golden-silkworm) was to give it away as a present. The actions of a man in Chang-chou (Fukien) are rather uncommon. He found on the ground a package containing three large silver bars wrapped in silk and in addition a ku which looked like a frog (ha-ma); in spite of the danger he took it; at night two large frogs appeared which he cooked and ate; on the next night more than ten smaller frogs appeared which he also ate up; and he continued consuming all frogs that kept appearing until the magic was cast off; in this fashion the man suffered no ill effects from the ku poison.

From descriptions of gu poisoning such involving "swollen abdomen, emaciation, and the presence of worms in the body orifices of the dead or living", Unschuld (1985:48) reasons, "Such symptoms allow a great number of possible explanations and interpretations". He suggests attitudes toward gu were based upon fear of others, envy, and greed. "But the concept of ku is unknown outside of China. Instead, one finds what may be its conceptual equivalent, the "evil eye", present in all "envy societies"."