Formulas · Tonify Qi 補氣 · Jungyeong (仲景)

Five Substances Decoction

Omul-tang

한글 오물탕 · Pinyin Wu Wu Tang

五物湯

Zhang Zhongjing's 黃芪桂枝五物湯 from the Jingui Yaolüe, where the five substances counted are the three drugs plus ginger and jujube. The 一方 with ginseng added is the Bogam's note.

Composition 構成

Hwanggi Huang Qi
黃芪 황기 · Astragalus

12 g
Chief 君
Gyeji Gui Zhi
桂枝 계지 · Cinnamon Twig

12 g
Deputy 臣
Baekjakyak Bai Shao
白芍藥 백작약 · White Peony

12 g
Deputy 臣
Saenggang Sheng Jiang
生薑 생강 · Fresh Ginger

—
Envoy 使

seven slices
Daejo Da Zao
大棗 대조 · Jujube

—
Envoy 使

three fruits

Total 36 g per packet (첩) · representative dosage — verify against source texts. Excludes 2 ingredients measured by count or used as a vehicle, shown as —.

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

Treats blood impediment
Secures the exterior and harmonizes the construction
with needling to draw the yang qi

Indications 主治

Pattern-based

Blood impediment in the well-nourished with bone weakness and abundant flesh
Defence qi insecurity with a faint rough pulse

Biomedical correlates

Paraesthesia with autonomic involvement
Post-exertional neuropathy

Source text 原文

Donguibogam 東醫寶鑑

治血痺. 夫尊榮人骨弱ㆍ肌膚盛, 疲勞汗出而卧, 加被微風, 遂得之. 形如風狀, 但以脉自微澁, 在寸口關上小緊, 宜鍼引陽氣, 令脉和緊去則愈. 黃芪ㆍ桂枝ㆍ白芍藥各三錢. 右剉, 作一貼, 入生薑七片, 大棗三枚, 水煎, 日三服. 一方有人參. 《仲景》

Translation

Treats blood impediment. Now in the honoured and well-off the bones are weak and the flesh and skin abundant; they lie down sweating from fatigue, a slight wind is added, and so they contract it. The form is like a wind pattern, only the pulse is of itself faint and rough, and at the cun kou and the guan position slightly tight. Needling should be used to draw the yang qi; make the pulse harmonious, and when the tightness goes there is recovery. Astragalus, cinnamon twig and white peony, 3 don each. Cut up, make one packet, add seven slices of fresh ginger and three large jujubes, and decoct in water; take three times a day. One version has ginseng. — Jungyeong 仲景 (Donguibogam · Pung)

Clinical commentary 臨床

Zhongjing's formula, and the Bogam quotes his case description entire because the description is the diagnosis: a comfortable, soft-fleshed, weak-boned person who lies down sweating after exertion and catches a draught. That is as sharp a social and physical portrait as the classical literature produces, and the treatment that follows from it is correspondingly mild — cinnamon twig and peony to harmonize the construction, astragalus to secure the exterior, and needling to do the rest. Five substances, three times a day. It is still prescribed for paraesthesiae of this sort and is one of the few formulas in the chapter whose indication can be read off a patient at a glance. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.