Zhang Xichun's Lichong Wan for Gynecological Tumors and Amenorrhea
Zhang Xichun has a formula named Lichong Wan. Its composition is: Shuizhi (Leech) 1 liang (30g), raw Huangqi (Astragalus) 1.5 liang (45g), raw Sanleng (Bur-Reed Rhizome) 5 qian (15g), raw Ezhu (Zedoaria) 5 qian (15g), Danggui (Angelica) 6 qian (18g), Zhimu (Anemarrhena) 6 qian (18g), raw Taoren (Peach Kernel, with skin and tip) 6 qian (18g). Grind the above together into a fine powder (today one may use a high-speed blender to make an ultrafine powder), and make pills with refined honey, the size of a parasol seed. Take 2 qian each time with warm boiled water, once in the morning and once in the evening.
This formula supplements qi and nourishes blood, resolves stasis, and disperses abdominal masses (zhengjia). It is indicated for women with amenorrhea, or with retained lochia after childbirth that has bound into a mass (zhengjia), accompanied by fever and aversion to cold, poor appetite, and emaciation. The disease zhengjia is what modern medicine calls the various benign and malignant tumors—discrete, palpable masses. A mass that is hard, fixed, and painful at a definite location is called zheng; one that gathers and scatters unpredictably with no fixed pain site is called jia. This category covers the various benign gynecological tumors of modern medicine; it is a common and tricky gynecological condition with many subtypes.
TCM holds that zhengjia is mostly caused by disharmony of the zang-fu organs, stagnation of qi and blood, and internal binding of static blood. Qi accumulation forms jia, and the condition often involves several problems at once—qi stagnation, blood stasis, phlegm-dampness, and damp-heat—so treatment must break qi and resolve phlegm, resolve stasis, and disperse accumulation. In this formula, Shuizhi, Sanleng, Ezhu, and Taoren are all blood-activating, stasis-resolving, mass-dispersing herbs. Because this illness often mixes deficiency and excess, Zhang Xichun pairs a Danggu Buxue Tang-style combination (Danggui plus Huangqi) with the disease-resolving herbs, so as to supplement qi and blood and support the righteous root; Zhimu clears heat.
Zhang Xichun's prescribing logic is simple and clear, and the herbs in Lichong Wan are all common Chinese medicines. Using this formula to treat women's benign and malignant tumors does indeed have some effect.