Pork, Fresh Clam, and Luffa Soup，From *Proven Tea, Decoction, and Soup Recipes for Common Ailments*,Cools the blood and stops bleeding. Suitable for various types of hemorrhoids
the decoction is cold in nature; avoid overuse in those with weakened middle yang or chronic debility; the cold, heat-clearing herbs suggest caution in those with spleen-stomach deficiency-cold or loose stools
Commentary
At the head stands Clam meat, the sovereign, cold in nature and sweet, salty in flavor, with Liver, Kidney tropism; it nourishes yin, clears heat, and promotes diuresis, underpinning the principal thrust of the decoction. The ministerial layer, loofah (nature cool, flavor sweet, channeled into the Lung, Liver, Stomach, clears heat, resolves phlegm, cools blood, and unblocks the meridians), and lean pork (with neutral nature and sweet, salty flavor, having Spleen, Stomach, Kidney tropism, nourishes yin, moistens dryness, and tonifies the kidneys), lends support that reinforces the sovereign’s main effect. Viewed as a whole, the formula addresses the damp-heat with blood stasis presentation, treating both root and branch.