by Chris Powell Chái líng tāng (Bupleurum and Poria Decoction) Chái líng tāng (Bupleurum and Poria Decoction) or Sairei-to in Japanese, is a formula that appears in a 1773 text by Shên Jïn-Ào (沈金鏊). His book, Master Shen’s Book on Revering Life, (Shên Shì Zün Shëng Shü 沈氏尊生書), was his work on “revering life” with…
Category Archives: Clinical practice
Fu zi and huang lian
The study of Dui Yao, herbal pairs, is an essential aspect of understanding how the function of herbs that are very different from each other can be used together so that they compliment and support each other. This short translation from the Clinical Handbook of Commonly Used Chinese Medicine Prescriptions (臨床常用中藥方劑手冊) published in Taiwan gives…
Jue Yin Reversal Patterns
I have been curious lately about the jue yin level. Specifically about how it turns from yin to yang, and more to the point– which yang it opens into. As is often the case when I’m feeling stumped I pull some of the Chinese books that have collected themselves onto my shelf and see if I…
Feeling zesty
I suspect this is true for many of us that practice Chinese medicine. We have patients who come in and describe odd feelings and symptoms that in another doctor’s office would qualify them for a psychiatric evaluation, or at the very least would result in a prescription for mood-altering meds. Perhaps it is because we…
Levels and Formulas
Following up on a previous post where we took a look at how Hu Xi-Shu makes sense of the six levels, and how both yin and yang have exterior, interior and pivot levels. In this post we take a glimpse of how he categorizes different formulas based on which level they treat. Categorizing formulas from…
Another look at the six levels
When I first was exposed to the Shang Han Lun in Chinese medicine school, I gathered that illnesses ran through the levels like this: Tai Yang -> Yang Ming -> Shao Yang -> Tai Yin -> Shao Yin -> Jue Yin Furthermore, that mysterious Jue Yin level with its odd mixes of heat and vomiting…
Not exactly a textbook case
Brain damage from traffic accident An excerpt from Deciphering the Shang Han Lun, by Chang Bu-Tao (張步桃) A Mr. Li had a motorcycle accident and was taken to the emergency room and then into surgery. After surgery he was taken to the intensive care unit for observation. His older sister was one of my students,…
Jing Fang in Modern Practice
About this project Walk into any reasonably sized bookstore in China and you will find shelves full of the experience of Chinese medicine doctors. Case studies are the bones and blood of furthering one’s skill as a doctor. We all gain a foundation, a skeletal structure from our textbooks and first years in medical school….