Yangming disease, with a floating pulse, absence of sweating, and panting, can be cured by inducing sweating, and it is appropriate to use Ephedra Decoction.

bubble_chart Note

• In Yangming disease, the pulse should be floating and large, and the symptom should be sweating.
• Now, the pulse is only floating, indicating a superficial disease pulse; absence of sweating and panting indicate an exterior excess pattern. This is the pathogenic qi of the Greater Yang, which has not fully entered Yangming but is still in the exterior.
• It should still be treated as a Greater Yang cold-damage disease, and inducing sweating will cure it, so Ephedra Decoction is appropriate.

bubble_chart Collected Annotations

• Zhang Lu said: "It is difficult to distinguish between the nutritive and defensive aspects in Yangming, and the distinction relies entirely on the pulse and symptoms. When the pulse of wind pathogen transmits to Yangming, spontaneous sweating is already abundant, then the slow pulse disappears and the slow pulse remains; when the pulse of cold pathogen transmits to Yangming, fever is already severe, then the tight pulse disappears and the floating pulse remains, these are all signs of pathogenic qi in the channels. If it enters the fu, then the slow pulse will necessarily become rapid, and the floating pulse will necessarily become replete. If it is neither rapid nor replete, it is not a stomach excess, and it will certainly not withstand purgation."
• Wang Hu said: "Absence of sweating and panting, with only a floating pulse and not a tight one, how can one determine it as Yangming disease? It must be that the person has eye pain, dry nose, body heat, and inability to sleep, hence it is called Yangming disease."
• Wei Li-tong said: "This is a syndrome of transmission from Greater Yang to Yang Brightness, the entry into Yangming is not deep, so the pathogenic qi is still expelled from the exterior, and does not return to the stomach with no further transmission."