How Did a Ming Dynasty Imperial Physician Live to 97? Doctor Gong Tingxian’s Personal Longevity Secrets: Tian Zhen Wan, Ba Zhen Wine and the Life-Rivaling-Heaven Plaster
Patient search terms: how to live a long healthy life / longevity tonic formulas from traditional Chinese medicine / elderly weakness, no appetite, loose stools / what tonic for depleted qi and blood / Tian Zhen Wan / Ba Zhen Wine / ancient Chinese herbal plaster for waist and knees / Gong Tingxian longevity secrets
Corresponding medical names: deficiency-consumption (xu lao) and all deficiency patterns · qi and blood dual deficiency · spleen-stomach weakness · depleted fluids (jin ye) · lower burner cold deficiency · five strains and seven impairments (wu lao qi shang) · hemiplegia · impotence
A change of subject: today we are not talking about healing — we are reading the “personal maintenance manual” of a 97-year-old man
After telling the healing stories of several great physicians in a row, today Doctor Luo Dalun is switching topics — not case studies, but longevity and wellness. The leading character is the same great Ming dynasty physician, Doctor Gong Tingxian.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Why am I so interested in Gong Tingxian? Because this man was extraordinary: brilliant skill, rich experience, vast knowledge — he healed people brilliantly, and he looked after his own health even better — he lived to 97. Folks, in the Ming dynasty, living to 97 made you a god among mortals. Why was he so long-lived? It had a great deal to do with his collection of longevity formulas and his habit of personally preparing all kinds of tonics for himself.
Doctor Gong’s books contain an enormous number of formulas. Today Doctor Luo Dalun will casually pick out a few of the recipes he once prepared for his own health maintenance — and through these recipes, we can see how much effort the ancients poured into taking care of their bodies.
The first recipe: Tian Zhen Wan — for people whose bodies have withered to “a dried-up tree”
The first formula is called Tian Zhen Wan (Heavenly Innocence Pill). What does it treat? Every kind of deficiency-consumption.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What does deficiency-consumption mean? Emaciated appearance — a person thin as a withered tree; weak limbs — arms and legs without strength; no appetite — the stomach will not accept food; loose stools — bowel movements that do not hold their shape; depleted fluids — the body’s fluids run low. This is the picture of qi and blood both deficient, fluids insufficient, and the spleen and stomach weak as well. The book states the actions very clearly: generate blood, tonify qi, warm the stomach, harmonize the spleen, improve the complexion and prolong life — improving the complexion means making your face beautiful; prolonging life means longevity.
The formula’s logic is obvious at a glance: rou cong rong (Cistanche) tonifies the kidney, fresh shan yao (Chinese yam) tonifies the lung, spleen and kidney all at once, dang gui (wine-washed, Chinese angelica) nourishes the blood, and tian men dong (core removed, Asparagus root) nourishes yin and generates fluids — all four herbs are excellent tonics.
How is Tian Zhen Wan made? Lamb wrapped around herbs, cooked to a paste, then finished with ginseng, astragalus, atractylodes and glutinous rice
The preparation is quite entertaining — Doctor Luo says to appreciate it as culture, not necessarily to make it yourself.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Take two jin, five liang and four qian of lamb, remove the fascia and the skin, and split it open with a bamboo knife (never an iron one); take rou cong rong three liang four qian, fresh shan yao three liang four qian, wine-washed dang gui four liang, and tian men dong three liang four qian, grind them into powder, stuff them into the lamb, bind it up tightly with thread, and boil it in wine.
How long do you boil it? Until the meat is as soft as mud. And here there is a fine point — what wine? Lime-free good wine (wu hui jiu).
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What is lime-free wine? In the old days, winemakers often added lime to control acidity, but Chinese medicine insisted on lime-free wine — they believed wine made with lime was bad for the body, tending to congeal phlegm. Lime-free wine is simply good yellow rice wine (huangjiu) made without lime. Note that the “good wine” of the ancients was not liquor — liquor was called shaojiu (burned wine) back then; when the books say good wine, they mean huangjiu.
Once the meat is like mud, take it out, and add honey-fried tender huang qi (Astragalus — the “prepared astragalus” of today) one liang six fen, ren shen (Ginseng) powder one liang, and bai zhu (Atractylodes) powder six fen — these tonify qi and the spleen; plus glutinous rice, stir-fried and ground three liang two qian. Mix these powders with the lamb paste, pound it all together thoroughly, and form pills the size of wutong (phoenix tree) seeds.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: How big is a wutong seed? A little smaller than a soybean, roughly the size of an adzuki bean. How many do you take? One hundred pills — my goodness, that is a hefty dose, but the ancients genuinely did take a hundred pills at a time, washed down with warm wine, or salt water works too, once in the morning and once in the evening. This formula treats all deficiency-consumption; for people who have lost too much blood or are weakened to the extreme, it works wonders.
Wu Ji Bai Feng Wan — it came right out of his books
Speaking of this, Doctor Luo mentions a particularly famous example — Wu Ji Bai Feng Wan (Black-bone Chicken and White Phoenix Pill).
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In Gong Tingxian’s books there are two medicines, Wu Ji Wan and Bai Feng Wan, and later generations combined the two into Wu Ji Bai Feng Wan — how many people have benefited from it! His books are full of such formulas, all published for the good of the body. It is a pity we have developed far too few of them.
The second recipe: Ba Zhen Wine — one small cup a day, tonify both qi and blood and dispel wind-damp
The second formula is called Ba Zhen Wine (Eight Treasures Wine). Everyone knows the Eight Treasures — Si Jun Zi Tang (Four Gentlemen Decoction) plus Si Wu Tang (Four Substances Decoction), tonifying both qi and blood. Gong Tingxian’s wine starts from the Eight Treasures and adds a few more herbs.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The actions of Ba Zhen Wine: harmonize qi and blood, nourish the organs, regulate the spleen and stomach, relieve hangovers, strengthen the spirit, beautify the complexion (superb skin), relieve fatigue, and tonify all deficiencies — taken long-term, all diseases melt away. The key point: it is utterly different from those fragrant, drying medicinal wines — the kind that make you flare up with heat after drinking them. This one does not dry you out.
Look at the composition: dang gui (whole angelica root, wine-washed) three liang, chuan xiong (nan xiong variety, Sichuan lovage) one liang, bai shao (simmered, white peony) two liang, sheng di huang (wine-washed, raw Rehmannia) four liang — that is Si Wu Tang, nourishing the blood; ren shen (de-stemmed, Ginseng) one liang, bai zhu (stir-fried, Atractylodes) four liang, bai fu ling (peeled, Poria) two liang, fen cao (processed gan cao / licorice) one and a half liang — that is Si Jun Zi Tang, tonifying the qi. On top of the Eight Treasures base, Gong Tingxian added three more items:
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Wu jia pi (Acanthopanax bark), wine-washed and sun-dried, eight liang — that is a very large amount! What is it for? It strengthens sinews and bones and dispels wind and dampness. Tonifying alone is not enough — you also have to open the channels, so in goes the wu jia pi. Then fat red dates (de-stoned) four liang — to tonify the spleen and stomach; and walnut kernels four liang — to tonify the kidney. Put together like this, the tonifying effect is excellent.
The method: slice the herbs, put them in a silk bag (a cloth bag works), and boil them in forty jin of good glutinous rice wine for the time of two incense sticks — not long; then put the whole jar, wine and herbs together, into an earthenware vessel, bury it in clean earth for five days and nights — to draw off the heating nature; take it out and let it steep another twenty-one days, so the medicinal properties soak out.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Why bury it in the earth? To remove the fire. Families used to do the same with plasters — a freshly made plaster carries fire, and applied directly it raises blisters, so it was set on the ground or buried in earth to draw the fire out. How do you drink it once ready? Every morning, noon and evening, warm it slightly and drink one small cup. Someone genuinely deficient in qi and blood, someone getting on in years — one small cup of Ba Zhen Wine a day is absolutely good for the body. This is what wellness looks like.
The third recipe: Yi Shou Bi Tian Gao — the “mending-the-heavens plaster” for the navel and the lumbar points
The third formula has the most imposing name of all: Yi Shou Bi Tian Gao — life rivaling heaven; gao here is the character for medicinal plaster.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The book says this medicine best fills the essence and marrow, guards the true essence without leakage, and assists primordial yang, moistens the skin, strengthens sinews and bones, benefits the waist and knees, and treats lower burner cold deficiency, five strains and seven impairments, hemiplegia, numb aching waist and knees, and impotence. For men: applied, it brings vigorous walking, doubled strength, running as if flying; for women: it removes red and white vaginal discharge, blood strangury and uterine bleeding. It can penetrate all twenty-four channels and restore youth. That is how the ancients wrote their formulas — great fun.
The formula even comes with a legend — the book warns that “it must never be lightly revealed to anyone who is not a good person”: you may only teach it to a good person; pass it to a wicked one and heaven’s punishment will follow, for the formula is miraculous as a spirit.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The herbs are mainly warming yang, tonifying the kidney and dispelling dampness, with a few detoxifying and fluid-nourishing items. Enjoy it as culture, but please never try to collect the ingredients and make it yourself — yellow lead powder and the like are not things you are going to lay your hands on.
How is the plaster made? Refining plaster like refining an elixir — drip it into water until it beads
How many herbs go into this plaster? Lu rong (deer antler velvet — warms yang, tonifies the kidney, strengthens the Governing Vessel), fu zi (aconite), niu xi (de-stemmed, Achyranthes), hu jing gu (tiger shin bone, roasted crispy — unusable today, ox bone will substitute), she chuang zi (Cnidium — dispels damp-heat), tu si zi (dodder seed — tonifies the kidney), xu duan (Dipsacus — strengthens sinews and bones, frees the blood vessels), yuan zhi (Polygala — settles the spirit), rou cong rong (Cistanche — tonifies the kidney), tian men dong and mai men dong (Asparagus and Ophiopogon — nourish yin), xing ren (apricot kernel — regulates lung qi, frees the bowels), sheng di and shu di (raw Rehmannia cools the blood; prepared Rehmannia tonifies the kidney), guan gui (i.e. cinnamon bark — pulls the deficiency fire back down), chuan lian zi (de-stoned, toon fruit — clears liver fire), shan yu rou (Cornus — tonifies liver and kidney, astringes and stops bleeding), ba ji tian (Morinda — tonifies kidney yang), bu gu zhi (Psoralea — tonifies the kidney, firms and warms yang), du zhong (Eucommia — strengthens sinews and bones), mu bie zi (bitter melon seed — detoxifies, specially for toxic sores), rou dou kou (nutmeg — regulates the spleen and stomach, aromatic dampness-dispelling, revives the spleen’s yang), zi shao hua (tonifies kidney yang, firms essence and reduces urination), gu jing cao (pipewort — dispels wind-heat and brightens the eyes), chuan shan jia (pangolin scales), huo ma ren (shelled, hemp seed) — one liang each, plus gan cao (licorice) two liang.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Among these there are tonics, there are movers, and there are detoxifiers. Tiger shin bone cannot be used today — ox bone works instead. A few other items — such as the old anesthetic-painkilling substances in the original recipe — are banned today; they existed in ancient formulas, and we simply need to know about them.
The method: grind the herbs to a fine powder, soak them in one jin four liang of true sesame oil for a day and a night, then simmer over a slow fire; when the herbs have dried out, add the gan cao powder and keep simmering until black; add processed yellow lead powder (fei guo huang dan) eight liang and huang xiang (pine rosin) four liang; stir without stopping with mulberry, locust and willow twigs, each seven cun long — the twigs themselves carry medicinal properties; then add xiong huang (realgar), liu huang (sulfur) and long gu (dragon bone), two liang each. Dip a copper spoon in and drip the medicine into water — when it forms a bead that rolls and tumbles as you lift it, the plaster is done. Then add mu ding xiang (clove), chen xiang (agarwood), mu xiang (costus), ru xiang (frankincense) and mo yao (myrrh) — these five aromatic resins all activate the blood and stop pain; plus she xiang (musk) one qian, ground, and huang la (yellow beeswax) five qian.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Making plasters is extremely delicate work, and the heat control is everything. My maternal grandfather was especially skilled at it — once finished, the plaster had to be set on the ground or in a basin to draw off the fire toxin, or applied directly it would raise blisters. When this plaster is done, store it in a porcelain jar with a tight seal, soak it in water for five days to remove the fire toxin, then spread it on red silk and apply it to the navel or to both lumbar points (the two “waist eyes”), changing each application every sixty days (you may change it in between). Its benefits cannot be fully listed.
Doctor Luo’s reflection: the good things are sleeping inside the ancient books
Having told these three formulas, Doctor Luo sighs over one thing — the physicians of old each carried a complete set of personal longevity formulas, and they published them all in their books.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Gong Tingxian’s books are full of such formulas — his Wan Bing Hui Chun (Myriad Diseases Return to Spring) and Shou Shi Bao Yuan (Preserving the Origin of Life) are true treasure houses. Wu Ji Bai Feng Wan was taken straight out of his books, a combination of his Wu Ji Wan and Bai Feng Wan, and it became a famous formula for later ages. Tonic medicines are finite in number — how wonderful it would be if people who really know wellness could actually take some of these! The pity is that many of them are not “medicine and food in one” (yao shi tong yuan), ordinary companies cannot manufacture them, and getting a drug license is extremely difficult — so they all sleep inside the books. I believe that taken overseas, these things would be wildly popular.
“It has been rare to live past seventy since ancient times” — and Gong Tingxian lived to 97, in excellent health. That is the work of devoted self-maintenance. Doctor Luo leaves everyone with one last reminder: what we are doing today is appreciating the wellness culture of ancient Chinese medicine — seeing how much effort the ancients put into taking care of themselves. It is not an invitation to gather the ingredients and boil up a plaster — you would not be able to gather them anyway. Tomorrow, we continue with Gong Tingxian’s philosophy of longevity.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Compared with the ancients, aren’t we living rather carelessly? They maintained themselves beautifully and prepared everything with care — yet now that our pharmaceutical technology has advanced, these things have become unreachable. The wellness wisdom of these ancient physicians deserves our serious thought.
(Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s lecture series on Doctor Gong Tingxian’s medical cases; the source texts are Wan Bing Hui Chun [Myriad Diseases Return to Spring], Shou Shi Bao Yuan [Preserving the Origin of Life] and other works by Gong Tingxian.)
What to take away: Longevity was a craft the ancients practiced seriously — Doctor Gong Tingxian, the Ming dynasty “Medical Number One Scholar,” lived to 97 and personally prepared his tonics. Three of his personal recipes: Tian Zhen Wan (Heavenly Innocence Pill) for all deficiency-consumption — lamb boiled to a paste in lime-free yellow rice wine with rou cong rong, fresh shan yao, wine-washed dang gui and tian men dong, finished with honey-fried huang qi, ren shen, bai zhu and glutinous rice powder, taken as 100 small pills morning and evening; Ba Zhen Wine (Eight Treasures Wine) — Si Wu Tang plus Si Jun Zi Tang with a large dose of wu jia pi, red dates and walnuts, boiled in glutinous rice wine, buried in earth five days to remove the fire, then one warm small cup three times a day for the qi-blood deficient and the elderly; and Yi Shou Bi Tian Gao (Life-Rivaling-Heaven Plaster) — a huge warming, kidney-tonifying, dampness-dispelling formula simmered into a plaster and applied to the navel or the lumbar points, changed every sixty days (appreciate it as culture — do not make it at home). The deeper lesson: formulas like Wu Ji Bai Feng Wan came straight out of Gong Tingxian’s books — the treasures of ancient longevity medicine are still sleeping there, and we have developed far too few of them.