Bai hu jia gui zhi tang also known as bai hu gui tang
shi gao 48 zhi mu 18 gui zhi 9 geng mi 6 zhi gan cao 6
In warm malaria, when the pulse is peaceful and the body shows no cold and only heat, there is vexing pain of the joints and occasional vomiting; bai hu jia gui zhi tang governs.
It is an obvious modification of bai hu tang. The added gui zhi treats the tai yang level. It treats a tai yang and yang ming channel pattern.
This formula also treats tai yang channel obstruction with joint pain manifesting as swollen painful joints with restlessness and thirst as often seen in juvenile acute rheuma.
Shi gao, Gypsum is cool sweet and pungent, it clears heat from the channel of yang ming without drying and is therefore used in a bai hu tang pattern, this prevents it from going into the bowel and causing dryness.
Shi gao is pungent dispersing of heat in the stomach domain and lung. It is sweet nourishing of the stomach, spleen, and lung. It is pungent cold dispersing of the yang channels: tai yang, yang ming, shao yang. It saves yin and blood by clearing heat.
Zhi mu, Anemarrhenae rhizome is bitter draining of heat in the stomach and lungs. It is sweet nourishing of fluids of the stomach, lungs, kidneys, and heart. It clears deficiency heat to preserve the yin blood of liver and heart, for only when yin blood is sufficient can the yang mind be controlled and pacified. It clears the heat in the jue yin liver and pericardium channels. Often used together with shi gao in patterns of empty heat due to its moistening nature.
Gui zhi, Cinnamomi cassiae ramulus is pungent sweet and warm dispersing of the imperial and ministerial fire. It warms and tonifies the shao yin and jue yin. In doing so it warms and tonifies the whole body.
Zhi gan cao, Glycyrrhizae radix prep is sweet and mildly warm tonifying and nourishing of yin fluids. It balances the pungent gui zhi with its sweet moderation and nourishing. It nourishes yin fluids in the tai yin and shao yin. It calms wind in the jue yin.
Gui zhi and zhi gan cao form the formula gui zhi gan cao tang and they put the emperor back on the throne. It warms tai yang and shao yin. It acts to protect yang in the freezing action of zhi mu and shi gao.
Geng mi, Semen Oryzae is sweet nourishing and warm. It adds material to anchor yang and support nutritive in blood. Geng mi tonifies the middle qi and protects the stomach from the cold effects of other herbs like shi gao.
It also generates fluids and so is used in patterns of dryness.
Geng mi is used in the Shang han lun to regenerate fluid loss due to heat as seen in formulas like mai men dong, zhu ye shi gao tang.