Astragalus Decoction to Support the Interior

The 托裏 idea in its plainest form: ginseng and astragalus with Korean angelica, pushing the sore open from the inside rather than draining it from the outside. The leaf is specifically for after the rupture, when the pus is pouring out and the patient is emptied by it — not for a swelling still coming to a head. The second half of the list is what makes this one its own formula rather than a generic Qi tonic. Liriope, schisandra and polygala are a Heart and Lung set, and cinnamon bark warms the channel so that the tonics reach the surface; the three together answer the restlessness and sleeplessness of someone losing fluid through a draining wound. Read it as the paired opposite of the draining formulas of this chapter, 內疏黃連湯 and 千金漏蘆湯: one pushes out, the other pulls down, and the chapter uses the stage of the sore to decide which. A wound that keeps discharging needs the cause found — a retained collection, a foreign body, or bone involvement — not only supplementation. — Eui Young (Justin) Chung, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.