What is the meaning of "cannon" in Chinese medicine prescriptions?

Gun, refers to processing. "Processing" of Chinese herbal medicines is a broad term, which refers to processing methods such as processing, roasting, burning, cutting, boiling, wine stains, steaming, frying, refining, boiling, grinding, filing, soaking, baking and flying. Generally, it can be divided into five categories: processing, water processing, artillery processing, water and fire processing and other methods. In a narrow sense, guns are made of fire (roasting, frying, roasting and burning) and water and fire (roasting, boiling, refining and simmering).

Some Chinese herbal pieces can be divided into raw and cooked, such as raw keel, raw oyster, calcined keel, calcined oyster and so on. The word (pao) in the prescription of traditional Chinese medicine is the abbreviation of processing, which means that (a medicinal material) must use processed pieces, not raw products.