Classic Famous Formula ⁽²⁰⁵⁾

Spring is a season of lingering cold amid warming temperatures. After a long autumn and winter, the rainy season gradually arrives, and the air humidity rises day by day. This season sees many diseases of mixed cold and heat, and the humid air also triggers…

The late Zhu Chenyu, former director of the TCM Department at Beijing Union Medical College Hospital and a well-known veteran TCM physician, once mentioned that he had treated an elderly woman with a long-unresolved cough. She had been treated by several doctors without effect, and…

Minor Bupleurum Decoction (Xiao Chaihu Tang) and Major Bupleurum Decoction (Da Chaihu Tang) are two famous formulas from the Shanghan Lun (Treatise on Cold Damage) by the Eastern Han dynasty physician Zhang Zhongjing. When some cancer patients develop cancer fever, Minor or Major Bupleurum Decoction…

Biejia Jian Wan is a classic famous formula from the Han-dynasty Zhang Zhongjing's "Jingui Yaolue" (Essential Prescriptions from the Golden Cabinet). Modern pharmaceutical versions are sometimes called Renshen Biejia Jian Wan (Ginseng Soft-Shelled Turtle Shell Decoction Pill). Its ingredients include soft-shelled turtle shell glue (Biejiajiao),…

Chaihu Qinggan Tang (Bupleurum Liver-Clearing Decoction) comes from the Ming-dynasty famous surgeon Chen Shigong's "Waike Zhengzong" (Orthodox External Medicine). Its composition is 3 g each of Ligusticum chuanxiong (Chuanxiong), Angelica sinensis (Danggui), white peony (Baishao), rehmannia raw (Shengdi), bupleurum (Chaihu), scutellaria (Huangqin), gardenia (Zhizi), Trichosanthes…

Si Wu Tang (Four-Substance Decoction) first appeared in the late-Tang book "Prescriptions for Treating Injuries and Restoring Bones Handed Down by an Immortal" by Lan Daoren. It was a famous formula of TCM orthopedics and traumatology, with the actions of activating blood and resolving stasis,…

Rearranged from an old work. Shiliu Liuqi Yin (Sixteen-Ingredient Qi-Flowing Drink): Chuanxiong (Ligusticum), Danggui (Angelica), Shaoyao (Paeonia), Fangfeng (Saposhnikovia), Renshen (Ginseng), Muxiang (Aucklandia), raw Huangqi (Astragalus), Rougui (Cinnamon bark), Jiegeng (Platycodon), Baizhi (Angelica dahurica), Binglang (Areca), Houpo (Magnolia bark), Wuyao (Lindera), Gancao (Glycyrrhiza), Zisu (Perilla),…

This is another essay I once published under the pen name Huaici Jushi on Sina Blog, recording some of my own past therapeutic experiences. In clinical practice I often give Zengye Tang, a famous formula of the Warm-Disease school, for constipation and abdominal distension in…

Wang, female, 23 years old. She came to Beijing from Shandong seeking treatment for unexplained intractable headache and acne. The patient developed a headache whenever she dressed even slightly warmly or after exercise, and also napped and woke with headache; during attacks the pain was…

Xiaoluo Wan (Scrofula-Dispersing Pill) is a famous formula from Yixue Xinwu (Medical Mind-Awakening) for treating phlegm-nodules and scrofula (various benign and malignant tumors and tuberculous lesions). It consists of three herbs—Xuanshen (Scrophularia), Zhebeimu (Zhejiang Fritillary), and Shengmuli (raw Oyster shell)—and treats scrofula and phlegm-nodules due…