Ming herbal (painting): The dog

Unknown artist

Lettering: The dog is salty and acid in sapor, warming, non-poisonous, and somewhat rank-smelling. It is found everywhere, and there is a wide variety of breeds. The field dog (tianquan) has a long muzzle and is good at hunting; the domestic dog has a short muzzle and is good at guarding; the comestible dog is plump and suitable for eating. In the [Divine Farmer's] Canon of Materia Medica (Benjing), the dogs used are all comestible ones. It is indicated for calming the five viscera, tonifying the male genital tract (yangdao), replenishing Qi, treating the 'five exhaustions' (wu lao), warming the small of the back and the knees, and replenishing the marrow with true essence (zhen jing). It is cooked with the five sapors, and is particularly efficacious when taken on an empty stomach. It is incompatible with pokeberry (shanglu), apricot kernels/almonds (xingren) and garlic.