Restore the Origin and Quicken the Blood Decoction

The one formula in this chapter that is still in daily use. 復元活血湯 is Li Dongyuan's, and the chapter places it immediately after 破血消痛湯 with 治同上 and a note in the prose that it is for the depleted patient where the purging formulas are for the robust one. The pairing of bupleurum, which reaches the flank, with rhubarb, peach kernel and safflower, which break stasis, is the whole design; trichosanthes root moistens where the blood-movers dry, and licorice holds the rest together. Rhubarb at two and a half don in a decoction is a blood-mover here rather than a cathartic. Modern use is for persistent flank, chest-wall and intercostal pain weeks after an injury, which is the honest indication — a bruise that has stopped bleeding and will not stop hurting. In that setting it is a reasonable prescription, and the pangolin scale can be left out without loss; it contributes keratin, the same material as fingernail. **Pangolin is a critically endangered animal and its scales cannot be used legally or ethically. Rhubarb is a purgative and should not be given to a patient who may still be bleeding.** — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.