The best prescription for regulating yin and yang - Huangya Soup

Huangya Soup is a Chinese medicine prescription, and the ingredients are ginseng, Poria, dried ginger, and roasted licorice.
Ingredients:
9 grams of ginseng, 6 grams each of Poria, dried ginger, and roasted licorice.

Preparation method:
1 dose per day, decocted in water
Efficacy of Huangya Soup:
Huangya Soup is recorded in "Four Sacred Heart Sources" by Huang Yuanyu, a famous doctor in the Qing Dynasty. It uses Codonopsis, roasted licorice, dried ginger, and Poria to transform the four phenomena, like spring plowing to break the frozen soil and restart the axis of the human body's qi: raising the clear yang - dissolving dampness and turbidity blockage, rejuvenating metabolism; lowering turbid yin - unblocking the stagnant qi of the three burners, allowing phlegm and dampness toxins to return to the thick soil; regulating yin and yang - restoring the spleen and stomach from the root, and saying goodbye to the physical dilemma of "getting fat even if drinking cold water"!
Suitable for people:
Pseudo-obesity, edema, weak spleen and stomach;
Phlegm and dampness constitution with sleepiness, fatigue, and thick and greasy tongue coating;
Postpartum obesity and middle-aged metabolic sluggish people.
"Si Sheng Xin Yuan":
Ginseng (3 qian) Licorice (2 qian, roasted) Poria (2 qian) Dry ginger (2 qian)
Boil half a cup and drink warm.
For the treatment of middle qi, ginseng and ginger are suitable for nourishing yang and replenishing fire, and licorice and Poria are suitable for nourishing soil and draining water.
If there is heart fire rising, palpitations and confusion, add coptis and white peony root to clear the heart. If the kidney water is cold, and the diarrhea is slippery, add aconite and Sichuan pepper to warm the kidney. If the liver blood is stagnant on the left and coagulated and astringent, add cinnamon twig and red peony root to soothe the liver. If the lung qi is stagnant on the right and the stomach is stuffy and blocked, add tangerine peel and apricot kernel to regulate the lung.
[Case] ​​Fu ×, male, 60 years old. Multiple oral ulcers for more than 8 months. He had been treated in many hospitals. Western medicine was ineffective for more than 50 days. Later, he changed to Chinese medicine treatment. He took Niuhuang Jiedu Tablets, Liushen Pills, Liuwei Dihuang Pills and Chinese medicine soup for more than 60 doses, but there was no obvious improvement. The patient had multiple ulcers on the tip of the tongue, the side of the tongue, and the oral mucosa. The ulcers were of different sizes, white in color with red halo around them, burning pain, and worse after eating; he was upset and insomnia, had a poor appetite, abdominal distension after eating, loose stools, fatigue, red tongue, peeling tongue coating, and thin pulse. The above prescription was added with 12 grams of aconite, 10 grams of white peony root, and 6 grams of coptis. After 3 doses, the ulcers improved significantly, and he was cured after taking 12 doses in total. No recurrence has been seen since follow-up.
Huang Yuanyu, the imperial physician of the Qing Dynasty, was awarded "Miaowu Qihuang" by Emperor Qianlong as a reward. Huangdi, Qi Bo, Qin Yueren and Zhang Zhongjing are regarded as the four saints of medicine. Although the new prescriptions created by him have the shadow of classical prescriptions and contemporary prescriptions, they are self-contained and unique. He is a true "ascetic monk" of original thinking in traditional Chinese medicine.
Huang Yuanyu, a great doctor in the Qing Dynasty, is a doctor I admire very much. He has a very profound understanding of traditional Chinese medicine theory. He has written many works in his life, among which "Four Saints Heart Source" can be regarded as his pinnacle. This article uses three prescriptions of Huang Yuanyu to explain his ideas of treating diseases.
1. Huangya Decoction
In "Four Saints Heart Source·Volume 4·Fatigue and Injury Solution·Zhongqi", Huang Yuanyu said: "For the treatment of Zhongqi, Chongyang and replenishing fire, it is suitable to use ginseng and ginger; to cultivate soil and drain water, it is suitable to use licorice and ling."
Huangya Decoction: three qian of ginseng, two qian of roasted licorice, two qian of Poria cocos, two qian of dried ginger, boil half a cup and take it warm.
2. Explanation of Huangya Decoction
Ginseng: "Entering Wu Earth and benefiting the stomach qi, moving Ji Earth and helping the spleen yang, the first in regulating the middle", can also nourish the stomach and spleen. We all know that ginseng can replenish vital energy. Vital energy is the most fundamental energy of life. If you have vital energy, you will live, and if you lose vital energy, you will get sick. In addition, people can also replenish the five internal organs and calm the soul, which is very useful.
Licorice: It tastes sweet, enters the spleen and stomach meridians, enters the boundary of the metal and wood, and belongs to the water and fire. It replenishes the spleen and stomach in the middle jiao and nourishes the four sides. Huang Yuanyu called it "a wonderful medicine for the spirit of copulation and a magic pill for regulating qi and blood." Licorice strengthens the spleen and replenishes qi, and nourishes the middle at the same time. It is best to nourish the middle with ginseng and dried ginger.
Dried ginger: It dries dampness and warms the middle, relieves depression and reduces turbidity, replenishes fire and earth, and digests food. Dried ginger is pungent and warm without being dry, digests food, warms the spleen and stomach, and warms the hands and feet. People with spleen yang deficiency are most suitable for dried ginger. Clinically, if the limbs are cold and the palms are sweaty, it is spleen yang deficiency, and dried ginger should be used. However, dried ginger cannot be used for kidney yang deficiency, and aconite should be used.
Poria: It is better than Atractylodes macrocephala in promoting water and removing dampness, and it is not dry and has a very mild effect. In my clinical treatment of hair loss, which is caused by excessive dampness and turbidity, I often ask patients to grind Poria into fine powder and take it regularly, and the effect is very high. Moreover, after taking it, the heart is not flustered and urination is fast.
The combination of four medicines is simple, but it can directly hit the pathogenesis. Huangya Decoction strengthens the middle qi, moves the spleen and stomach, supports yang and suppresses yin, so that vitality is flourishing and the yang root is strong.
My understanding is: this prescription is purely for the purpose of nourishing the middle qi. So, what is the middle qi? The middle qi is the qi of the spleen and stomach, which is the ability of the spleen and stomach to transfer food and digest food and to raise the clear and lower the turbid. People can live by relying on the left rise and right fall of the qi. The upper qi descends from the right, the lower qi rises from the left, and the middle qi is in the middle, rotating and rising and falling. This forms an overall circular motion. Huangya Decoction can make the middle qi vigorous and make the qi mechanism rise and fall normally, so that people will be in a dynamic balance, and the five internal organs will be harmonious and disease-free.
3. Huangya Decoction Addition and Subtraction
Huang Yuanyu described the drugs added to this prescription according to the symptoms after the prescription:
For those with heart fire inflammation, use coptis chinensis and white peony root to clear the heart and calm the mind;
For those with spleen and kidney yang deficiency and slippery, add aconite and Sichuan pepper to warm the kidney and consolidate slippery;
For those with liver qi stagnation and liver blood stagnation, add cinnamon twig and moutan bark to soothe the liver;
For those with lung qi not descending and qi mechanism stagnation, add tangerine peel and apricot kernel to calm the lung qi.
"Changsha Yaojie" has a detailed analysis of the nature, flavor, meridians and effects of these medicinal flavors:
Coptis chinensis is cold in nature and enters the heart meridian. It clears the heart and reduces fever, purges fire and relieves restlessness; peony root is slightly cold and is good at clearing the heart and calming the mind, and calming palpitations.
Aconite is pungent and warm, warms the kidney and spleen, removes dampness and eliminates cold, assists the dying fire, continues the yang root that is about to be cut off...lifts the sinking of clear yang; Sichuan pepper is Sichuan pepper, warm in nature, warms the middle palace and warms the gate of life, removes cold and dampness and stops pain...good at treating diarrhea.
Cinnamon twig is warm in nature, enters the liver and circulates blood, its nature is most compatible with the nature of liver warming, best regulates wood qi, circulates meridians, and relieves ying depression; Peony bark is slightly cold, relieves liver depression and clears wind, promotes blood stasis and relieves heat.
Tangerine peel descends turbid qi, circulates stagnant qi and relieves depression, is good at opening the chest and diaphragm, and is best at sweeping phlegm; Apricot kernel descends the reverse and opens the blockage, relieves obstruction and relieves asthma and cough.
My understanding is that Huang Yuanyu's four additions and subtractions for Huangya Decoction are very classic and very representative, and can be used randomly and flexibly in clinical practice.
Left, right, up and down are four dimensions. If the four dimensions are balanced, the rise and fall are coordinated. If one dimension is too much or too little, the circular movement of the entire qi movement will lose its dynamic balance.
According to the River Chart:
The spleen and earth are in the middle. Huangya Decoction can nourish the spleen and earth and strengthen the middle qi, so that the four dimensions have a foundation;
The upper part is the heart, which stores fire. If the heart fire is too strong, use coptis chinensis and white peony root to clear and restrain it, and the fire can be lowered;
The lower part is the kidney, which stores water. If the kidney fire is too weak, the yang qi is easy to leak, and aconite and Sichuan pepper are needed to warm and consolidate it;
The left part is the liver, which stores wood. If the liver wood is stagnant, cinnamon twig and red peony root are needed to relieve the liver wood;
The right part is the lung, which stores gold. If the lung gold does not descend, the qi is easy to stagnate, and tangerine peel and apricot kernel are needed to descend it.
The four addition and subtraction methods mentioned by Huang Yuanyu can not only be used for Huangya Decoction, but in my opinion, they can be used for any prescription. In clinical practice, see where there is obstruction in the upper, lower, left, and right, that is, adjust the qi according to the pathogenesis. On the basis of syndrome differentiation and prescription, you can add flavors according to this method.

Documentation 2025-05-07 22:30 Revise