Formulas · Tonify Qi & Blood 氣血雙補 · Dongwon (東垣)

Angelica Supplement the Blood Decoction

Danggwibohyeol-tang

한글 당귀보혈탕  ·  Pinyin Dang Gui Bu Xue Tang

當歸補血湯

Cut and made into one packet, decocted in water and taken on an empty stomach. **The source's warning is part of the formula: the presentation resembles a White Tiger pattern, and only the pulse — not long and not replete — distinguishes them. To give White Tiger Decoction by mistake is fatal.**

Composition 構成

Total 28 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts.

Received this formula from your practitioner? Amounts shown here are classical reference values — granule and prepared products differ. Always follow your prescribed dosage and directions.

Actions 效能

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

  • Heat of the flesh with great thirst
  • red eyes and flushed face (肌熱大渴 目赤面紅)
  • A pulse surging and large but vacuous — pressed firmly
  • entirely absent
  • Blood vacuity effusing heat (血虛發熱)

Biomedical correlates

  • Fever with anemia or blood loss
  • Post-hemorrhagic fever
  • Fatigue with flushing and thirst

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治肌熱大渴, 目赤面紅, 其脉洪大而虛, 重按全無. 經曰, 血虛發熱, 是也. 證似白虎, 惟脉不長實爲辨耳. 誤服白虎湯必死, 宜用此. 黃芪 五錢, 當歸 二錢. 右剉, 作一貼, 空心, 水煎服. 《東垣》

Translation

Treats heat of the flesh with great thirst, red eyes and a flushed face, the pulse surging and large yet vacuous — pressed firmly, it is entirely absent. The Classic says: Blood vacuity effusing heat — this is that case. The signs resemble a White Tiger pattern; only the pulse, being neither long nor replete, distinguishes them. To take White Tiger Decoction by mistake is certain death; this is the appropriate remedy. Astragalus 5 don; Korean angelica 2 don. Cut the pair, make one packet, decoct in water and take on an empty stomach. — Dongwon 東垣 (Donguibogam · Hwa)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Two herbs, five to one, and one of the most instructive entries in the classical canon. A patient burning with fever, flushed, desperately thirsty, with a pulse that surges under a light hand — everything says drain the heat. Then press firmly and the pulse is *gone*, and the whole reading inverts: this is emptiness counterfeiting fullness. Dongyuan's answer is to give five times more astragalus than angelica, on the principle that Qi is the mother of Blood and must be supplied before Blood can be made. The warning attached is the sharpest in the chapter, and it is the reason this formula is taught to every student. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.

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