Hou po ma huang tang
hou po 15 ma huang 12 shi gao 48 fu xiao mai 24 wu wei zi 12 xing ren 12 ban xia 12 gan jiang 6 xi xin 6
For cough with a floating pulse, hou po ma huang tang governs.
Treats an tai yang wind cold and a tai yin lung pattern with damp heat and coughing. The surface is closed and heat is rising which could transition into the yang ming channel.
Hou po, Magnoliae cortex is bitter and aromatic. It is bitter descending of dampness in the stomach domain, chest and lungs. It is pungent dispersing of dampness.
Warm, bitter, and aromatic hou po opens the middle and chest and promotes the downward qi flow of the yang ming and Metal mandate.
Hou po opens the chest and descends upper burner obstruction. It transforms and moves damp phlegm, while descending upper burner phlegm stagnation thru yang ming. Hou po is working together with ma huang in descending the lung.
Ma huang, Ephedrae herba is bitter descending of the lung. It is pungent dispersing of the imperial and ministerial fire. It enters the lung and bladder channel, it opens the surface, and dispels the cold on the surface. Further it dissipates lung qi and pacifies panting through opening the closed lung qi.
Shi gao, Gypsum 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.
Very cold pungent and sweet shi gao clears the qi layer heat, clears internal heat in the shao yang and yang ming channels. Purges excess yang ming or qi layer channel fire with pungent dispersing and cools heat with cool sweetness.
Shi gao is working together with ma huang in dispersing the cold and heat on the surface. This prevents the pattern going into a yang ming channel pattern. The shi gao and ma huang also disperses the lung of phlegm and heat.
Fu xiao mai, Tritici fructus is sweet nourishing of liver and heart blood and the ministerial fire.
Fu xiao mai is cool, sweet, and salty. It moisturizes and helps break up the phlegm while cooling and moderating the heat.
Wu wei zi, Schisandrae fructus is sour tonifying and collecting of the lungs. It is astringing of the lungs and stomach domain. It is sweet tonifying of the lungs.
Always in combination with gan jiang to stop coughing due to cold dampness accumulation on the tai yin domain of the lungs and spleen. It eliminates phlegm and moistens and tonifies the lung qi. This balances the efffect of the strongly drying and dispersing action of pungent herbs like hou po, ma huang, xi xin, ban xia, xing ren and gan jiang.
Xing ren, Armeniacae semen is bitter descending of Metal. Xing ren descends lung qi, which stands into the interior exterior relation to the large intestine, allowing for a heavy Metal downward pressure on the stomach and large intestine.
Descends and promotes the flow of lung qi, and combined with ma huang it embodies the combination of dispersing and descending. Xing ren assists ma huang is arresting panting.
Ban xia, Pinelliae rhizoma is pungent dispersing of the liver blood and the ministerial fire in the san jiao. It is pungent dispersing of the cold and dampness in the stomach domain, spleen and lung. It transforms tai yin damp phlegm generated from excessive and stagnant cold dampness and counteracts nausea and adverse flow.
Combined with gan jiang it dries and transforms excessive internal dampness.
As the spleen is considered the source of phlegm and the lung the storage of phlegm, ban xia dries tai yin dampness which is the source of phlegm.
Gan jiang, Zingiberis rhizoma, dried is warm (or hot) pungent and astringent. Gan jiang is the main herb to warm the tai yin level and treat excessive dampness by introducing yang ming dryness in tai yin dampness.
Warms the interior and especially tai yin. It warms the fluids in the lungs and spleen, while assisting in dispersing cold from the body surface. Together with xi xin they form the core pair to treat internal stagnant fluids.
Xi xin, Asari herba is pungent dispersing of the liver blood and the ministerial fire. It is pungent dispersing of the heart, kidneys and lungs. It is pungent dispersing of the tai yang channel.
Xi xin disperses stagnating fluids by warming the interior and exterior.