Joint Pain Flaring Up Every Winter? Doctor Luo Dalun: Tong Ren Tang Guo Gong Jiu (Duke’s Wine), a Classic Medicated Wine That Dispels Wind-Damp and Relaxes the Sinews

Opening: When the weather turns cold, your bones and sinews feel it first

The days are growing colder, and winter has arrived. At this time of year, the first part of you to notice is usually your bones and sinews.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The weather is gradually turning cold — winter is here, right? Once it gets cold, what happens to a lot of people, especially those with insufficient yang qi (yang qi bu zu) and heavy dampness? Their bones and sinews start acting up. Some people’s joints begin to ache; old rheumatism flares up again, and so on.

So what do you do then? You can ask a Chinese medicine practitioner for a prescription, or you can take a ready-made patent medicine yourself. Today Doctor Luo Dalun introduces a way of “drinking” your medicine — a medicated wine. And to begin with, wine culture is something he rather champions. So is wine good for you, or not?

Is drinking good or bad? — Talk about dose first, then about benefits

Many Western-trained doctors say that modern research shows even a sip of alcohol harms the body. Several people have told Doctor Luo: it sounds like you shouldn’t drink at all.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: I think that’s only knowing one side of the story. The more you drink, the greater the harm — so we certainly don’t advocate heavy drinking. Drinking a whole bottle of baijiu (white liquor) a day definitely harms you, and badly. But if you drink just a tiny bit, there is also a little harm — very small, negligible, you can practically ignore it. In everything we have to talk about dose. You can’t say that because a tiny sip carries a tiny bit of harm, you should never drink. Drinking too much is bad; drinking a little, the benefits actually outweigh the harm. Why? Because wine invigorates the blood and unblocks the collaterals (huo xue tong luo) — it promotes blood circulation, helps dissolve stagnant blood (yu xue), and gets things flowing.

And that’s why so many centenarians drink. Doctor Luo has been to Rugao in Jiangsu Province — China’s famous “hometown of centenarians”:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The local statistics say 50 percent of the elderly there drink every day — half of all the centenarians drink daily. How do they drink? A little yellow wine (huangjiu) every day, about two liang (roughly 100 ml), that’s all. Drink a tiny bit, and the harm is very small, but the benefit is enormous. What benefit? First, it lifts your mood — after a little wine you get that pleasant floating feeling, your spirits are excellent. Second, wine invigorates the blood and unblocks the collaterals, keeping the blood vessels flowing smoothly. So stagnant blood dissolves, the body stays youthful, qi and blood circulate freely, and people live to a hundred.

The local government once organized health checkups for the centenarians, and the doctors doing the checkups urged them to quit drinking. And what happened?

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The doctors who urged us to quit — two of those department heads have already passed away, and here we still are. Doesn’t that sound a bit like a joke? Who do you learn health from? You learn from the centenarians. So if you drink a little, the power to regulate your emotions and relax your sinews and unblock your collaterals is tremendous — far greater than the tiny, almost negligible harm. The benefit is many times larger.

Wine as medicine — an ancient tradition: “tang ye lao li” in the Huang Di Nei Jing

Chinese medicine has used wine as medicine since ancient times.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In the Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic), when it discusses treating the sick, it doesn’t start with herbal decoctions. First it speaks of tang ye lao li — decoctions and fermented wines, all kinds of wines: turbid wine, clear wine, and so on. So wine entered medicine very early. In the Shang Han Za Bing Lun (Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases) there are formulas that use white wine as an ingredient. And in herbal processing (pao zhi), herbs are very often processed with wine — wine-fried, wine-soaked, wine-steeped — precisely to borrow that quality of invigorating the blood, unblocking the collaterals, and keeping things flowing.

What is Guo Gong Jiu? — Tong Ren Tang’s wind-dispelling medicated wine

The medicated wine introduced today is called Guo Gong Jiu — “Duke’s Wine,” made by Tong Ren Tang. What does it treat?

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Guo Gong Jiu treats limb pain caused by exposure to cold — aching, heavy limbs and blocked, unobstructed channels. It’s a formula that relaxes the sinews, invigorates the blood, and keeps the vessels flowing. The herbs are steeped in wine to make a medicated wine with the actions of dispelling wind, scattering dampness, and relaxing the sinews. For wind-cold-damp obstructing the body’s channels and collaterals, causing various pains and aching arms, it works very well. You can drink it, and you can also apply a little externally where it hurts.

So what gives this formula its power to dispel wind and scatter dampness? Doctor Luo breaks it apart, herb by herb.

Why is dang gui (Chinese angelica) first? — “When blood moves, wind naturally dies out”

The first herb in the formula is dang gui (Chinese angelica). Dang gui nourishes the blood. Why does blood-nourishing come first? Doctor Luo begins with a fundamental principle of treatment:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: I always say that changes in the external environment are only the trigger; the root cause is internal. If your upright qi (zheng qi) is sufficient inside, no matter how the climate outside shifts, you’re fine — you can resist it. But once your upright qi is insufficient and qi and blood are depleted — especially blood deficiency: when qi is deficient, blood is deficient, and when blood is deficient, qi is deficient too — once the blood is deficient, the channels and collaterals become empty inside. Where it’s empty, stagnant blood (yu xue) settles and flow is impaired. And then can external evil get in easily? Wind, cold, and damp — these three evils, mixed together, enter the body because your upright qi is insufficient. So if your only strategy is to dispel wind and scatter dampness, it won’t work. It seems fine for the moment, but in no time these external evils come back again, because the inside is still empty. So you absolutely must nourish the blood and build up the upright qi.

This is the old saying of Chinese medicine — xue xing feng zi mie: when the blood moves, the wind naturally dies out:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When your blood is sufficient and circulating, the wind naturally disappears. This can be understood on two levels. On one level, once the blood can moisten and nourish, that internal “empty wind” vanishes. On the other level, once the blood is sufficient, wind evils coming from outside will also be driven out. That’s why this formula puts dang gui (Chinese angelica) first.

Dang gui, bai shao, chuan xiong — add shu di huang and it’s exactly Si Wu Tang (Four Substances Decoction)

What does dang gui pair with? The formula includes bai shao (white peony).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Bai shao gathers yin and eases cramping and spasms. Because when our blood is deficient, there is local spasm — and that is one of the causes of pain. That’s why Doctor Zhang Zhongjing used Shao Yao Gan Cao Tang (Peony and Licorice Decoction) to treat muscle cramping and spasms. Why? Because when blood is insufficient, fluids are insufficient and cannot moisten the sinews and vessels; the sinews then cramp and contract, and that problem appears. Bai shao in the formula gathers yin and softens the liver, and its most important job is to moisten and nourish the sinews.

Then comes chuan xiong (Szechuan lovage) — it regulates qi, specifically “the qi within the blood.” Dang gui, bai shao, chuan xiong — just one herb short: shu di huang (prepared rehmannia).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What formula is that? It’s Si Wu Tang (Four Substances Decoction), the classic blood-nourishing formula. Dang gui, bai shao, and chuan xiong together nourish the blood, invigorate the blood, and unblock the collaterals — excellent. This is the foundation of nourishing blood.

The wind herbs take the stage: qiang huo, du huo, fang feng, bai zhi — “Wind can overcome dampness”

Next the formula adds several wind herbs (feng yao). When wind-cold enters, it usually enters carried by wind. Rheumatoid arthritis and rheumatic arthritis were called bi zheng (painful obstruction syndrome) in ancient times. But bi zheng can be cold or hot:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: If the joints are red, swollen, hot, and painful, do not use this medicine. Who should use it? People whose pain eases with warmth, who like warmth — this is caused by cold. The ancients said “wind, cold, and damp, three evils arriving together, combine to form bi.” Wind-cold-damp mixed together and entered the body, so dispelling wind and unblocking the collaterals is especially crucial.

The wind herbs in the formula are qiang huo (Notopterygium), du huo (Angelica pubescens), fang feng (Saposhnikovia root), and bai zhi (Angelica dahurica). From the stories of Doctor Li Dongyuan and his disciples, we’ve learned what wind herbs are — herbs that dispel wind and unblock the collaterals:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Qiang huo — pungent, bitter, warm; it enters the Bladder and Kidney channels and moves upward. It disperses cold, releases the exterior, dispels wind, and unblocks the collaterals. For headaches, a stiff neck, and shoulder and back pain, it is excellent at clearing wind from the upper limbs. Du huo also dispels wind and scatters dampness; when we meet wind-cold-damp bi, we very often use du huo — it also enters the Bladder and Kidney channels, but moves downward better, so for lumbar and knee pain we usually add du huo to the formula. Of course it also treats headaches above and generalized wind-damp. Fang feng is often used for colds — it releases the exterior and disperses cold, and it too dispels wind and scatters dampness. Bai zhi works the same way.

What is special about wind herbs? Doctor Luo explains it on two levels:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The first function of wind herbs is to dispel wind — their medicinal nature tends to move outward. Doctor Li Dongyuan often spoke of “yang within yang” — things that rise. Besides dispelling wind, what else do they do? They can scatter dampness, transforming it away. The old phrase is feng neng sheng shi — wind can overcome dampness. Think of mud: it’s full of water, like a swamp. What kind of weather dries it out? A strong wind — the wind keeps blowing and carries the moisture away. That’s “wind overcoming dampness.” When I talked about wind herbs before, I said they are herbs that change the body’s permeability. Our bodies have many tissues that get blocked by dampness, stagnant blood, or phlegm — some places open, some places blocked. This obstruction impairs the movement of qi and blood and produces all kinds of problems. Wind herbs can change the permeability, get the qi and blood moving, and increase the body’s overall permeability. Dispelling wind to overcome dampness — it all happens right there.

Strengthening the spleen to support upright qi: fried bai zhu (Atractylodes) with cang zhu (Atractylodes lancea) — an old working pair

While the wind herbs dispel wind and scatter dampness, the formula also includes fried bai zhu (Atractylodes).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Bai zhu strengthens the spleen. Our body needs its upright qi supported — when upright qi is insufficient, the blood vessels don’t flow well, and external evils wind-cold-damp all come in. Supporting upright qi means nourishing the blood, and nourishing the blood means strengthening the spleen too. Fill up the spleen, and upright qi is sufficient; qi becomes stronger, able to move qi and blood through, and drive the wind-damp out. So adding fried bai zhu is a very good addition.

Bai zhu’s partner is cang zhu (Atractylodes lancea) — a pair Doctor Luo has discussed before:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Bai zhu strengthens the spleen and builds it up, but its dampness-dispelling power is a little weaker. Cang zhu is stronger at dispelling dampness, a little weaker at building the spleen — but both strengthen the spleen and dispel dampness. These two are very often used together, precisely to increase the combined power of strengthening the spleen and dispelling dampness. Together they work better.

The qi-moving herbs: huo xiang, bing lang, chen pi, wu yao, fo shou, qing pi — partners for the assertive wind herbs

The wind-dispelling, dampness-scattering herbs are already assertive enough, so the formula adds a batch of qi-moving herbs as their partners:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Huo xiang (patchouli) — you all know it from Huo Xiang Zheng Qi formulas; it rouses the qi of the spleen and stomach and moves qi to dispel dampness. In clinical practice, when a patient’s tongue coating is thick and greasy, showing qi stagnation and heavy dampness inside, we often add qi-moving herbs, and we add huo xiang. This herb is very fragrant, and we generally add such aromatic herbs late in the decoction, borrowing their aromatic qi. Huo xiang is paired with bing lang (areca seed) — bing lang also regulates qi and transforms dampness, guiding the damp evil downward and helping push it out. Then there’s chen pi (aged tangerine peel), a qi-regulating herb — the tangerine peel with the white pith left in. We usually use chen pi to regulate lung qi, for coughs or when external cold is caught; for internal conditions, when dampness is heavy and qi is obstructed, chen pi regulates the qi and harmonizes the middle. These are all gentle qi-regulating herbs, partners for those assertive wind herbs.

Then wu yao (Lindera root), fo shou (Buddha’s hand citron), and qing pi (green tangerine peel):

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Wu yao is also an important qi-regulating herb; it enters the Spleen, Lung, Kidney, and Bladder channels, and its job is to smooth qi and open constraint — when qi is stagnated, it unties it and lets it flow, and it disperses cold and stops pain. Paired with fo shou (Buddha’s hand citron), which soothes the liver and regulates qi, entering the Liver, Spleen, and Lung channels. In Guangdong they also call it fo shou gan and sell it as a fruit. Like chen pi, the longer it’s aged the better. In the Qing dynasty it was one of the tribute items, carried thousands of li to the imperial palace; its qi-regulating power is good, and it also dispels dampness. If you go to Chaozhou in Guangdong, you’ll see all kinds of foods made from fo shou gan — when Han Yu was exiled to Chaozhou long ago, the local people were getting sick from excessive dampness; people with medical knowledge made fo shou into various foods for everyone to eat, and eating them transformed the dampness away and kept people healthy. And there’s qing pi (green tangerine peel) — very similar to chen pi, but green in color, with a breaking-qi (po qi) action. It can break apart the lumps caused by qi stagnation: ordinary qi-regulating herbs can transform phlegm-damp, but they can’t break up lumps — qing pi can.

Doctor Luo points out what makes this formula distinctive:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: You might think that to treat rheumatism you’d need a lot of dampness-percolating herbs. Not here. It uses many wind-dispelling herbs and qi-moving herbs — the dampness is removed by dispelling wind and moving qi. The truly dampness-draining herbs are maybe cang zhu, plus a little hou po (magnolia bark) — hou po is also a qi-moving, dampness-transforming herb. So this formula is very distinctive.

Hong hua (safflower) invigorates blood; yu zhu, mai dong, and mu gua nourish yin — because wind herbs run hot and dry

The formula also adds something to invigorate the blood and unblock the collaterals, like hong hua (safflower). But wind herbs that dispel wind and unblock the collaterals are warm and drying by nature — what if the body can’t take it?

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Then what do we do? We add some yin-nourishing herbs: a little yu zhu (Solomon’s seal), a little mai dong (Ophiopogon), a little mu gua (Chaenomeles fruit), and so on — nourishing yin and moistening dryness, working together with the liver-softening bai shao. Then the formula adds kidney-tonifying herbs — gou qi zi (goji berry) and bu gu zhi (Psoralea fruit) — to tonify the kidneys and support upright qi. Looking at the whole formula, it’s very distinctive: a blood-nourishing thread, then dispelling wind and unblocking collaterals with wind herbs, then moving qi to dispel dampness, then strengthening the spleen to dispel dampness, then tonifying the kidneys, then invigorating the blood, and then nourishing yin and moistening dryness.

Finally, a little heat-clearing herb, such as zhi zi (Gardenia fruit). Why clear heat when the problem is cold? Doctor Luo explains an important principle:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Because when qi and blood are congested — and please never assume that once you’ve caught cold, it’s simply cold all the way. Never think that way. Like a wind-cold cold: you catch a cold, and is it all cold symptoms? Not necessarily — after a few days it transforms into interior heat: the phlegm turns yellow, the throat starts to hurt. We must never think a disease stays fixed. When external evil enters the body, different states of the body produce different reactions: where the body is blocked it transforms heat; where it is empty it turns cold. So in the same body, when external evil arrives, all kinds of changes arise, and in some congested places a trace of heat appears. Especially since all the herbs here are warming, the formula also includes a little heat-clearing herb, together with the yin-nourishing herbs, so that using the whole formula doesn’t make heat hotter and hotter. Finally, a little hong qu (red yeast rice) to harmonize the spleen and stomach. That’s the overall shape of the formula — riding on the wine’s power to circulate, it enters the body, dispels wind and scatters dampness, and supports upright qi. The effect is even better.

Chosen by the Qing-dynasty Imperial Academy of Medicine: Tong Ren Tang Guo Gong Jiu

Formulas like this are all classic famous formulas. Guo Gong Jiu’s pedigree goes back to the Qing dynasty:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In the Qing dynasty, this formula was presented as a famous formula to the Imperial Academy of Medicine (Tai Yi Yuan). The Academy saw that it was good and decided to use it for the imperial family. At the time, Tong Ren Tang was commissioned to produce this Guo Gong Jiu for the imperial household’s health care and wind-dispelling, collateral-unblocking needs. Today ordinary people can all use it — every Tong Ren Tang pharmacy carries it. You might want to look into it.

How to take it? — A tiny amount daily, diluted with hot water; a light sweat is ideal

How do you use a medicated wine? Doctor Luo gives very concrete details.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: For a wine like this, drink just a tiny bit every day. You can drink it, and you can also apply a little to the painful spot. My experience is to apply it at night — gently rub a little on at night, and over the night it penetrates through the skin; the effect is better this way. When drinking, some friends say they can’t handle alcohol — the wine sting in the mouth is unbearable. Here’s a method: dilute it with a little hot water — about 10 ml is plenty for one serving. Add a little hot water, not much, just a splash. First, it dilutes the alcohol so it doesn’t sting as much. Second, hot water is warming itself, and it helps the medicine’s power circulate. After drinking, you should feel your body warming up — a light sweat is ideal.

One more crucial reminder:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Remember: after drinking this wine, absolutely don’t let your joints be exposed to wind again. Keep that in mind. A light sweat is ideal — light sweating means qi and blood have opened up and are flowing, so the effect is better.

Three reminders: don’t drink it hungry, don’t treat it as liquor, and combine it with food therapy

First, never drink it on an empty stomach:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When we move qi and blood, the middle burner (zhong jiao) must have food in it, so it has strength to send things out — our nutritive and defensive qi (ying wei zhi qi) emerges from the middle and lower burners, with its root in the middle burner. So when the middle burner has strength and upright qi is sufficient, the wine’s medicinal power travels faster. If you drink on an empty stomach, the qi moves very slowly. So before drinking, try to have eaten well; and after the wine, drink some hot congee — even better. Never try to move qi and blood on an empty stomach; that’s not good for the body.

Second, don’t treat it as ordinary liquor:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Don’t say, “I love liquor, I’ll drink it as liquor — half a bottle at a time.” Never do that. Moving qi and blood, dispersing wind and unblocking the collaterals, dispelling wind and scattering dampness — this is a slow, gradual process. Never do it violently all at once — the body can’t take it: dizziness, all kinds of discomfort, especially for people with weak qi and blood — drink too much at once and they can’t handle it. We go step by step. What’s this called? Dripping water wears through stone — steady, gradual progress. Through a slow, steady stream, let upright qi build up bit by bit, let qi and blood gradually circulate, drive the wind-cold-damp evil out, and the body slowly recovers. We’re not in a hurry about this.

Third, combine it with food therapy for better results:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: If while drinking this wine you also use some food therapy to tonify the spleen and stomach — eat some five-grain porridge, some shan yao (Chinese yam), things that support upright qi — the effect is even better. This is the more advanced method: medicine combined with diet. The effect is clearly better.

Who is it for? — Look at the tongue and you’ll know

Finally, Doctor Luo explains who should use this wine:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: If you find that an elderly family member or you yourself have this condition of insufficient upright qi, where wind-cold-damp evil has gotten in and caused joint bi pain — in Western testing this might be called rheumatic or rheumatoid arthritis, and in Chinese medicine it’s the cold type, the cold-damp pattern — with limbs that don’t extend and bend freely, morning stiffness where it’s hard to get moving, swelling and aching, and so on. When you have these conditions, look at the tongue: it should not be bright red; it’s a bit swollen and puffy, with teeth marks around the edge, and a thick coating. When this yin-cold state, this insufficient-upright-qi state appears, you can use a classic old formula like Tong Ren Tang Guo Gong Jiu, and let it regulate the body alongside your meals, driving the wind-cold-damp evil out and letting the body slowly return to health.

This is the charm of the classic famous formulas. In the past these formulas were made in the imperial Tai Yi Yuan for the imperial family; today ordinary people use them too — they’re in every pharmacy. Doctor Luo says he hopes everyone will have more methods to regulate their own body, to bring it back toward balance, to reach the state where qi and blood are sufficient and wind-cold-damp evil simply can’t get in. That is the direction we’re aiming for.

Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s lecture series on Chinese patent medicines. Guo Gong Jiu (Duke’s Wine) comes from a Qing-dynasty imperial formula, produced by Tong Ren Tang; it dispels wind, scatters dampness, and relaxes the sinews, and is the classic medicated wine for joint pain caused by wind-cold-damp bi.