Dang gui shao yao san
dang gui 9 bai shao 48 chuan xiong 24 bai zhu 12 fu ling 12 ze xie 24
For all types of abdominal pain in woman, dang gui shao yao san governs.
For pregnant women, with twisting dull ache in the abdomen, dang gui shao yao san governs.
It nourishes blood and calms the liver, strengthens the spleen and promotes water metabolism. It moves blood and transforms stasis and stops pain.
Dang gui, bai shao, and chuan xiong form a trio for blood moving and nourishing. The dose of the bai shao and chuan xiong is much higher than in dang gui san.
Dang gui, Angelicae sinensis radix is sweet tonifying and nourishing of liver blood and the ministerial fire. It is pungent dispersing of the liver blood and ministerial fire.
Dang gui is the core jue yin liver blood storage herb. Dang gui tonifies blood and nourishes the liver while moving blood and transforming stasis and so protects the jue yin liver blood from heat.
Bai shao, Paeoniae radix lactiflora is sour, bitter and cool. It is sour collecting of yin fluids and blood. It is bitter descending of heat. It nourishes dryness in yang ming and the jue yin. It descends Earth and Metal and calms Wood wind.
Bai shao softens the liver body and extinguishes internal wind to stop cramping pains. It replenishes nutritive fluids and pacifies the blood layer that is about to be moved. It is the core pain herb.
Chuan xiong, Ligustici radix is pungent dispersing of the liver and pericardium blood and the ministerial fire in the san jiao.
Chuan xiong is used to move the liver qi to move the liver blood. It moves blood by moving the propelling qi contained within blood but does not strongly eliminate stasis.
Bai zhu, fu ling, and ze xie move the water to move the blood. Water and blood share a common source and by moving the fresh water blood is kept moving.
Bai zhu, Atractylodis macrocephalae rhizome is sweet tonifying of the stomach domain and spleen. Bai zhu is bitter draining of excess fluids in the stomach domain, spleen, lungs and bladder.
It tonifies the spleen qi along with the promotion of the spleen’s transforming and transporting actions.
Fu ling, Poria is sweet and neutral. It drains fluids but is not bitter. Fu ling is tonifying the stomach domain, spleen, kidney and bladder to move excess fluids. It moves more than it tonifies.
Fu ling drains fluids through the tai yang bladder and restores the water metabolism. The movement of fluids is the start of movement for blood. By moving water we move blood. Dampness is a form of yin and we move the yin with the fu ling to restore the transformation and transport aspect of tai yin. Tai yin is also the post heaven source of clear qi and yin and blood.
Ze xie, Alismatis rhizome is sweet nourishing and tonifying of the small intestine’s water separation functions.
Fu ling and ze xie combined promote urination and lead stagnant fluids into the tai yang bladder system to be expelled through urination.