Zisheng Wan: The Life-Nourishing Pill to Fortify the Spleen and Stimulate the Appetite
Zisheng Wan comes from Zheng Zhi Zhun Sheng (Standards for Pattern and Treatment). Its originator was Miao Zhongchun; in Xian Xing Zhai Yi Xue Guang Bi Ji it is also called Baotai Zisheng Wan, because it protects the fetus.
Zisheng Wan consists of: Baizhu (white atractylodes, soaked in rice water, steamed nine times with mountain yellow earth and sun-dried nine times, the earth removed, sliced and baked) 3 liang (90 g); Renshen (ginseng, rootlet removed, soaked through in human milk, steamed on a rice pot) 3 liang (90 g); Baifuling (white poria, rough peel removed, water-flied, fibrous fascia removed, mixed with human milk, steamed on a rice pot, sun-dried) 1.5 liang (45 g); Shanzharou (hawthorn flesh, steamed), Juhong (tangerine red peel), and Shenqu (medicinal leaven, stir-fried) each 2 liang (60 g); Chuanhuanglian (coptis, stir-fried in ginger juice), Baidoukouren (white cardamom kernel, lightly stir-fried), and Zexie (alisma, hair removed, stir-fried) each 1.5 qian (4.5 g); Jiegeng (platycodon, soaked in rice water, stir-fried), Zhenghuoxiang (authentic agastache, washed), and Gancao (licorice, honey-fried, peel removed) each 5 qian (15 g).
Preparation: powder all the above and, with refined honey, make pills of 2 qian (6 g) each. Dosage: take 1 pill each time, or 2 if drunk or overfull; chew finely and wash down with thin ginger decoction. This formula fortifies the spleen and stimulates the appetite, digests food and stops diarrhea, harmonizes the viscera, and nourishes the nutritive and defensive qi. It treats spleen-stomach weakness with internal damp-heat, undigested food, epigastric abdominal fullness, fatigue and lassitude, sallow pale complexion, loose stools, a pale tongue with greasy, slightly yellow coating, and a weak, soft pulse; spleen deficiency in pregnancy with the fetus lacking nourishment and resulting abortion; and childhood gan accumulation (infantile malnutrition) with poor appetite and loose stools.
Modern patients need not make their own pills; because Zisheng Wan is a famous formula, many patent-medicine factories produce it, and one can buy the patent medicine on the market.
By composition, Zisheng Wan is a modified Si Junzi Tang (Four-Gentleman Decoction, made of ginseng, atractylodes, poria, and licorice), the foremost TCM spleen-fortifying formula. On the basis of Si Junzi Tang, this formula adds hawthorn flesh and shenqu to aid digestion, coptis to stop diarrhea, white cardamom and agastache to aromatically transform dampness and awaken the spleen, alisma to drain dampness, and platycodon and tangerine-red peel to move qi and dispel distention. The rationale is: while fortifying the spleen, transform dampness and awaken it, move qi and remove distention, and strengthen the stomach to digest food. Thus this formula suits patients with chronic digestive-tract disease due to spleen deficiency with dampness exuberance and loose stools, such as colitis, hepatitis, and chronic gastritis.