Every Autumn You Feel Drained, Get Diarrhea, Aching Joints, and Sad for No Reason? Doctor Luo Dalun: Li Dongyuan’s Sheng Yang Yi Wei Tang (Raise Yang, Benefit the Stomach Decoction) Was Made for Exactly This Season

Patient search terms: autumn fatigue / no energy in autumn / diarrhea in autumn / joint pain / feeling low in autumn / spleen-stomach weakness / autumn health

Corresponding medical names: spleen deficiency with damp-heat · sinking of clear yang · functional dyspepsia · irritable bowel syndrome

As soon as autumn arrives, do you find yourself like this: your whole body feels drained and you can’t muster any energy for anything; your arms and legs feel heavy and your joints begin to ache dully; the slightest bit of cold food brings on diarrhea; your mouth tastes bitter and dry; and as the weather turns cool, your mood sinks with it — nothing seems to cheer you up anymore?

Before you blame yourself for being overly sensitive, know this: more than eight hundred years ago, the great Jin-dynasty physician Doctor Li Dongyuan created a formula specifically for this “autumn state” — Sheng Yang Yi Wei Tang (Raise Yang, Benefit the Stomach Decoction) — and tucked it into his slim little book, the Pi Wei Lun (Treatise on the Spleen and Stomach).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Today we begin talking about Doctor Li Dongyuan’s formulas. Earlier we covered Doctor Luo Tianyi’s case records, and touched on a little of Doctor Li Dongyuan’s cases as well — those cases were groundwork, to get everyone familiar with how these physicians used medicine. Now we come back and talk about Li Dongyuan’s theories in earnest. The formula we discuss today was created specifically for autumn. Of course, no matter what season of the year, whenever you meet this pattern you can use it; but we must understand that when Li Dongyuan originally created this formula, autumn was his target — people with weak spleens and stomachs are the ones most likely to fall into this pattern in autumn. Since it is autumn right now, this is the first one we discuss.

Who Was Li Dongyuan? — “Treat External Contraction by Doctor Zhang Zhongjing’s Method, Treat Internal Damage by Dongyuan’s Method”

To understand this formula, you first need to know the man.

Doctor Li Dongyuan’s life was extremely difficult. He lived through the fall of dynasties, and amid the chaos of war he witnessed with his own eyes the terrible state of ordinary people’s bodies. He kept pondering: why are people’s bodies in such bad shape? After much thought, he traced the root back to the spleen and stomach (pi wei) — they are so important that he built his entire method around tonifying them. He learned this body of theory from his teacher Doctor Zhang Yuansu, then developed it further and became a master of his generation.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What status does Li Dongyuan’s spleen-stomach method hold in Chinese medicine? The ancients had a saying: “Treat external contraction by Doctor Zhang Zhongjing’s method, treat internal damage by Dongyuan’s method” — if you are treating externally contracted illness (colds, invasion by external pathogens), you must go to Doctor Zhang Zhongjing and the Shang Han Za Bing Lun (Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases); if you are treating internally damaged illness, you must take your method from Li Dongyuan. You see, that is quite an endorsement — to be ranked alongside Doctor Zhang Zhongjing. His teaching is fascinating: he places the human being within heaven and earth, matching the four seasons against the person, finding the body’s pattern in each season, and then adjusting that pattern. He excelled at tonifying the spleen and stomach, and he was especially skilled at using wind herbs (feng yao) to raise the spleen’s yang qi.

Li Dongyuan’s books, including the Nei Wai Shang Bian Huo Lun (Clarifying Doubts about Internal and External Damage) and the Pi Wei Lun, were compiled and published by his fine disciple Luo Tianyi. The Pi Wei Lun sells for nine yuan in bookstores today — an extremely thin little booklet — yet inside it are dozens of formulas, each one a classic. If you want to regulate internal damage illness well, work through the Pi Wei Lun thoroughly and apply its formulas flexibly, and you can regulate a great many conditions — because indeed, “once the spleen and stomach are deficient, a hundred illnesses arise.”

Why a Formula Created Specifically for Autumn? — First See the “Pattern of Autumn”

The name Sheng Yang Yi Wei Tang is meaningful in itself: “sheng yang” means raising yang qi, and “yi wei” means benefiting the spleen and stomach. But why does it say “benefit the stomach (wei)” rather than “benefit the spleen (pi)”?

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When you read Li Dongyuan’s books, you must keep one thing clear: he sometimes speaks of the spleen and stomach together as one — when he says “stomach,” sometimes he really means the stomach, sometimes the spleen and stomach together, and sometimes he simply means the spleen. Li Dongyuan wrote in a great hurry: during the chaos of war he traveled everywhere, countless people sought his treatment, and the lecture notes were compiled by Luo Tianyi, so the writing is not always precise. Later generations drew a very clear line between spleen and stomach, but Li Dongyuan frequently mixed them. So the “stomach” in Sheng Yang Yi Wei Tang means the spleen and stomach — don’t imagine it refers only to the stomach organ.

So what does a person with weak spleen and stomach look like in autumn? Li Dongyuan described it very concretely.

First: listlessness, a love of lying down, and limp limbs (dai duo shi wo, si zhi bu shou). When the spleen and stomach are deficient and upright qi (zheng qi) is insufficient, a person is always tired, always lazy-looking, low on spirit. The limbs have no strength either — after a meal you flop onto the sofa and fling your arms and legs out as if they don’t belong to you. You’ve all seen that photo of the famous “Ge You slouch,” right? Lie around in that languid way, and your spleen and stomach are probably a bit deficient.

Second: a heavy body and aching joints (ti zhong jie tong). The body feels heavy, the joints ache a little. Why? The spleen governs the four limbs (pi zhu si zhi) — when the spleen and stomach are weak, qi and blood cannot reach the “far ends” of the four limbs, and the limbs develop problems. When the weather turns slightly cool, upright qi cannot reach the limbs, the limbs feel the drop in outside temperature, and joint pain easily follows; add dampness inside the body (even damp-heat), and the symptoms become even more obvious.

Third: a bitter mouth and dry tongue (kou ku she gan). Spleen qi should rise but does not; fluids cannot travel upward, and without saliva to moisten the upper body, the mouth goes dry — the spleen opens into the mouth (pi kai qiao yu kou), and the tongue is closely connected to the spleen and stomach. Besides dryness, a bitter mouth is also linked to emotion: people with constrained liver qi and disharmony between liver and gallbladder easily develop a bitter mouth.

Fourth: tasteless food, irregular bowel movements, and frequent urination (shi wu wei, da bian bu tiao, xiao bian pin shu). Food has no flavor, no appetite; the stool is either dry or loose — many friends get diarrhea every autumn, loose stools at the slightest chill, this is a common complaint: when autumn’s descending, astringing qi arrives and the spleen yang, which was never strong, lets the stool run loose; and the bladder keeps calling — trip after trip to the bathroom.

Fifth: lung problems riding along (jian jian fei bing). The lungs belong to metal, the spleen and stomach to earth, and earth generates metal (tu sheng jin) — the spleen and stomach are the lungs’ mother. When spleen and stomach qi is sufficient, the lung system works normally; when they are weak, lung qi is deficient. This becomes obvious in autumn: autumn corresponds to the lungs, the lung metal is in command, and people with weak lung qi run into trouble most easily at this time. The lungs are the body’s first line of defense against the outside world — solid lung qi, no problem; weak lung qi, and illness strikes easily.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Li Dongyuan also described two especially vivid symptoms. One is “sa xi e han” — a constant feeling of cold, goosebumps at the slightest breeze, needing one more layer of clothing than everyone else. Why? The lungs govern the exterior of the whole body, the lungs govern the skin and body hair; when the outside temperature drops, if your lung qi is insufficient you immediately feel cold. The other is “can can bu le” — in autumn you simply cannot be happy, as if a sadness is settling over you. Ladies and gentlemen, Li Dongyuan described this with remarkable precision! Depressed patients often feel fine in the summer heat, but when autumn and winter arrive and sunlight decreases, their condition begins to worsen. The old saying “bei qiu” (grieving autumn) is no joke. In saying this, he is describing a cause: when the spleen and stomach are weak, clear yang does not rise, lung qi is deficient, and autumn’s descending, astringing qi arrives, you immediately feel unhappy. You must go looking for this deeper cause. There is also “mian se e er bu he” — a bad complexion. A normal person should have a rosy face; people with insufficient spleen-stomach qi have a sallow, pale face, and once autumn cools things down their complexion turns even worse. Li Dongyuan says this is because yang qi is not deeply rooted — yang qi is not vigorous enough to extend through the whole body and warm it.

Breaking Down the Formula — Tonify, Raise, and Clear All at Once

The treatment principle is four characters: sheng yang yi wei — raise yang qi and tonify the spleen and stomach, hence the name Sheng Yang Yi Wei Tang. This formula is a classic; let us look at it herb by herb.

Huang qi (astragalus) leads, at two liang (about 60 g). What does huang qi do? It supports upright qi — it supports spleen-stomach qi and lung qi, and it is a remarkably gentle yet powerful herb. Li Dongyuan’s teacher Zhang Yuansu said huang qi is “sweet, warm, and purely yang,” benefiting stomach qi (spleen-stomach qi), and it is the herb Li Dongyuan used most in his whole system. Later Doctor Zhang Xichun inherited this very idea and created Sheng Xian Tang (Raise the Sinking Decoction).

Ren shen (ginseng) one liang, bai zhu (atractylodes) three qian, fu ling (poria) three qian, zhi gan cao (honey-fried licorice) one liang — this is Si Jun Zi Tang (Four Gentlemen Decoction), the classic combination for tonifying the spleen, stomach, upright qi, and middle qi, filling the middle burner to the brim. Note the proportions: ginseng at one liang, half of the huang qi; honey-fried licorice also a full liang, a generous dose, because honey-fried licorice tonifies the middle; bai zhu and fu ling drop to three qian each. This formula is built on tonification, and the spleen-tonifying portion is large.

Ban xia (pinellia) one liang, paired with chen pi (aged tangerine peel), fu ling, and zhi gan cao — this is Er Chen Tang (Two Aged Decoction), the classic phlegm-resolving combination. Si Jun Zi Tang is the ancestral formula for tonifying qi, and Er Chen Tang is the ancestral formula for resolving phlegm — most later phlegm-resolving formulas were built on top of Er Chen Tang.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Li Dongyuan wants the qi mechanism to move upward, but you cannot raise it without also lowering it — that is why he added ban xia, which dries dampness, resolves phlegm, and sends the qi mechanism downward. This formula both raises and lowers: if you only raised without lowering, you would actually be going against the season — in autumn the entire atmosphere’s qi mechanism is descending (descending and astringing dominate), and to yank the qi upward at this time would be inappropriate. Then why add phlegm-resolving herbs? People with weak spleens and stomachs carry a heavy burden of dampness from summer and long summer (chang xia): the spleen and stomach cannot transport water-dampness, the dampness grows heavier, the spleen and stomach grow weaker, and phlegm-dampness easily forms in the body; when the weather cools, the phlegm-dampness becomes heavier still. What is more, the body still holds some of summer’s damp-heat inside — outside it is cool, the body surface is cool, but inside the damp-heat remains, slowly congealing into phlegm. So he added Er Chen Tang to clear out this phlegm-dampness “garbage.” Li Dongyuan also wrote “if the pulse is rough (se), use it” — meaning the formula can be adjusted: if the phlegm-dampness is not so heavy, reduce the dose; if the pulse is not rough (the channels are not blocked by phlegm-dampness), the herb can even be left out entirely. Li Dongyuan’s formulas are extremely practical.

Huang lian (goldthread) two qian — to clear heat. There is still some damp-heat in the body, so huang lian clears it. In the whole formula, huang lian is the lightest herb of all, but the formula cannot do without it: it is like a “counterweight” — small in size, yet weighing heavily on the scale.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Adding a little heat-clearing herb like huang lian into a formula that tonifies the spleen and raises yang is one of Li Dongyuan’s signature moves, and its subtlety is inexhaustible. His theory: after a person’s qi becomes deficient, deficiency fire (xu huo) appears, and this deficiency fire often makes people mistake the condition for an external contraction. One of the main themes of the Nei Wai Shang Bian Huo Lun is that many people treat this kind of fever as externally contracted illness, get the treatment entirely wrong, and damage their bodies. Li Dongyuan said that people with weak upright qi, especially with injured spleens and stomachs, develop deficiency heat, and this deficiency heat further disrupts the body — he even called it the “thief of original qi”. That is why he so often added a little heat-clearing herb into his qi-tonifying, spleen-generating formulas. Sheng Yang Yi Wei Tang can essentially be read as a formula that tonifies the spleen and stomach, raises yang qi, and clears damp-heat — inside it there are phlegm-dampness-resolving herbs and heat-clearing herbs, a genuine classic.

Bai Shao (White Peony): Softening the Liver While Soothing It

The formula also includes one herb used with great subtlety: bai shao (white peony root).

Li Dongyuan himself asked the question: why, in autumn, when using ren shen and bai zhu, does one also use herbs like shao yao to “tonify the lungs”? Isn’t bai shao meant to astringe the liver, soften the liver, and harmonize the blood — how does it tonify the lungs?

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The reasoning is this: when a person’s emotions are unsettled, the liver qi is constrained and bound up, the liver qi turns violent, and on one side it bullies the spleen and stomach (liver wood overacting on spleen earth, gan mu ke pi tu), while on the other side it commits “wood counter-insulting lung metal” (mu fan wu fu jin), dragging the lungs into trouble. Use bai shao to astringe and soften the liver, to restrain the liver qi, and then the lung metal is no longer overpowered — it is set free; and only then, when you tonify the lungs and the spleen, can the tonification truly take. Li Dongyuan earlier emphasized “can can bu le” — low mood is linked to the liver; restraining the liver qi is a way of taking pressure off the lungs. So this bai shao is used with great skill.

The Three Wonders of Wind Herbs: Raising Yang, Overcoming Dampness, Aiding Free Flow

Besides the tonics and the clearing herbs, the formula carries a group of herbs Li Dongyuan was especially good at: fang feng (saposhnikovia), qiang huo (notopterygium), and du huo (pubescent angelica) — the wind herbs (feng yao).

Wind herbs are the herbs that dispel wind: when wind and cold have injured you, these pungent, warm herbs open the channels and drive the wind pathogen out. But Li Dongyuan’s purpose in adding wind herbs to this formula goes far beyond dispelling wind — he has an entire theory.

First: raising yang. These herbs are “yang within yang” — their nature is exceptionally light and they move upward, capable of lifting the tonifying herbs’ action upward. When clear yang has sunk and cannot rise, use wind herbs to lift the yang — this is the basic pattern of their whole family of formulas: tonify the spleen and stomach (huang qi plus Si Jun Zi Tang), then always add a little wind herb (chai hu, sheng ma, fang feng, qiang huo, du huo…) to raise the yang upward.

Second: wind can overcome dampness (feng neng sheng shi). When the ground is muddy and waterlogged, under what conditions does it dry? When the wind blows. With a strong wind, the dampness gradually disperses and the ground dries; the same with drying laundry — the sun can dry it, but a breeze can dry it too. So wind-dispelling herbs can overcome dampness.

Third: assisting the liver’s free flow. Which organ in the body is responsible for coursing and dredging? The liver governs free flow (gan zhu shu xie). Wind-dispelling herbs can help the liver’s free-flow function: when the liver qi is stagnant and qi and blood do not move smoothly, the liver loses its free-flow ability; wind-dispelling herbs open it up, helping the liver qi flow and increasing its free-flow function.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Chinese medicine usually does not go deep into the internal mechanism of “wind overcomes dampness,” so let me explain it to you. When dampness is heavy in the body, the body is in a “pool of stagnant water” state: upright qi is insufficient, circulation deteriorates, and fluids collect in the tissue spaces. These wind-dispelling herbs (fang feng, qiang huo, du huo, bai zhi, jing jie, and so on) treat wind-dampness and joint pain; they open and course the channels, increasing the body’s permeability — once qi and blood flow, the stagnant pool is broken open; paired with the spleen-tonifying herbs, once upright qi recovers it can rapidly push out the retained dampness. The third function is especially powerful: why are people with weak spleens and stomachs all in a bad mood? On one hand, diet and overwork (gorging, or starving yourself, wrecking your own body); on the other hand, emotional pressure is certainly huge. Back when Li Dongyuan was in Bianjing (Kaifeng), besieged by the Mongol army, starving and eating tree bark — when the city fell, over a million people died. Why? Weak spleen and stomach was only one side; on the other side, the Mongols attacked every day, people died every day, and inside the city everyone was tense: the threat of death plus hunger, emotional pressure plus spleen-stomach weakness, together crushed people’s upright qi and original qi. Li Dongyuan did not explicitly say “soothe the liver,” but he used the herbs for it in his formulas, and he pointed out “can can bu le” — he flagged the emotional problem without going deep into it. People like this, with weak spleens and stomachs and sinking upright qi, not one of them is high-spirited — they are all listless, somewhat depressed. Wind-dispelling herbs can help the liver’s free flow, and thereby relieve emotional pressure: they raise yang qi and get qi and blood moving, which helps lift the depression. This move, added to bai shao’s liver-softening — soothing the liver on one side and softening it on the other — removes one of the major sources of spleen-stomach weakness. Truly remarkable!

A Modern Lens: What Does This Formula Have to Do with the Gut Microbiome?

Doctor Luo says that when you look at Li Dongyuan’s herbs in the light of the latest research, their intent runs even deeper — because they map directly onto the gut microbiome.

Today’s science tells us: the gut microbiome determines our emotions, and emotions in turn determine the gut microbiome. The whole world is now using fecal microbiota transplantation (gut flora replacement) therapy specifically for depression and autism, with excellent results — gut flora and emotions are closely linked; we call the gut the “belly brain.”

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: For people with weak spleens and stomachs and insufficient upright qi, a large part of the problem is gut flora imbalance: beneficial bacteria die off in large numbers and dwindle, harmful bacteria proliferate, nutrient absorption breaks down, and upright qi becomes deficient. Li Dongyuan’s formulas all carry a classic combination: First, tonify the spleen and stomach (huang qi, Si Jun Zi Tang) — these spleen-tonifying herbs should be “food” for the beneficial gut bacteria; they love it, feast on it, multiply massively, help break down the nutrients in food, and the body grows strong; Second, clear damp-heat (huang lian, huang qin, huang bai) — a large part of clearing damp-heat is killing and suppressing harmful bacteria; Third, wind herbs to regulate emotion — emotion in turn influences the makeup of the gut flora; the neurons in the gut are affected by emotion, and the state of those neurons determines the environment the flora live in, so open up and regulate the emotions and the flora’s environment slowly changes. And you should know: gut flora content was already part of Chinese medicine — Ge Hong used this very therapy in the Zhou Hou Fang (Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies) long ago; the world’s academic community recognizes that fecal microbiota transplantation originated with Ge Hong in China. I once showed articles on this subject to Western experts in gut flora transplantation, and they agreed that the Chinese medicine understanding and their understanding could converge — they even forwarded them to each other. So look at Sheng Yang Yi Wei Tang from this angle and you see nutrient absorption and a change in the gut environment; translate it back into the older vocabulary, and it is exactly what we said before — wind overcomes dampness, tonify the spleen and stomach, raise yang qi. Different roads, same destination.

What Can This Formula Treat? — Recognize the “Pattern,” the Master Key

Sheng Yang Yi Wei Tang treats the wide range of illnesses caused by weak spleen and stomach, yang qi failing to rise, and damp-heat inside the body — its range is extremely broad:

• Illnesses of the head, face, and upper burner: some physicians use it for high blood pressure — many cases of hypertension are not the liver-yang rising type but the “drained all day, weak spleen and stomach, stomach discomfort” type; use it in the right direction and the results are excellent;
• Illnesses of the limbs: all kinds of joint pain — as long as the pattern is weak spleen and stomach, constant stomach discomfort, no energy, dizziness, thick tongue coating, and teeth marks on the tongue, the formula works with immediate effect;
• Regulating the spleen and stomach: symptoms like no strength, dry and bitter mouth, and slight joint ache all respond very well.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Chinese medicine thinks in terms of cause, mechanism, and pattern — as long as the pattern diagnosis is weak spleen and stomach, clear yang failing to rise, some dampness inside, and a little heat, this formula works well. But if you try to collect the Western disease names it covers, the list is enormous: insomnia, abdominal pain, internal-damage fever, neurosis, type 1 diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome (diarrhea at the slightest cold or greasy food), patchy hair loss, wei syndrome (limb weakness, inability to walk)… dozens, even a hundred or more. Why? The spleen and stomach are the foundation of acquired constitution and the source of generation and transformation — the root of the body. Once the spleen and stomach weaken, dampness grows heavy, clear yang fails to rise, and the channels fail to open, all kinds of illness result. So what we hold fast to is not the disease name but the pattern: weak spleen and stomach, clear yang failing to rise, heavy dampness inside, a little heat — especially when symptoms are obvious in autumn, the formula works even better. This is why Li Dongyuan is a master and why the Pi Wei Lun matters so much — each formula in it could be talked about endlessly, and every herb’s use and proportion has a story to tell.

How to Take It — With Ginger and Jujube, Between Breakfast and Lunch

Finally, the method of taking Sheng Yang Yi Wei Tang, which Li Dongyuan specified in great detail:

Take three qian (about 9 g) per dose, decoct together with ginger and jujube (jujube with the pit removed), boil down to one cup, strain out the dregs, and take it warm. When should you take it? Definitely after breakfast and before lunch — this is the time when the spleen and stomach’s yang qi is rising; morning also corresponds to the liver, so it can bring out the liver-soothing function as well.

Contraindications: after taking the decoction, do not talk for two hours; try not to drink alcohol, and avoid damp-heat-producing foods like noodles and strong spices, for fear of fueling the damp-heat. Increase the dose gradually from three qian up to five qian, building up slowly.

Diet and daily routine: right after starting the medicine, do not eat to fullness — do not injure the stomach qi; if the stomach qi is injured, the spleen and stomach cannot begin to turn, and spleen qi cannot rise. Keep the diet light and plain, but do eat something good-tasting and nourishing to assist the medicine’s power; also move the body a little (xiao yi xing ti — light exertion) to help the medicine circulate — but do not overwork or do heavy labor; you must rest, letting the spleen and stomach slowly recuperate in a quiet state. After recovery you may eat a small amount of fruit (“the five grains nourish, the five fruits assist” — a rule from the Nei Jing), to help the tonics along; but be careful not to eat cold-natured fruit — watermelon, for example, is out; peaches and apples are fine, and even better if you boil them in water first, which helps the spleen and stomach recover more smoothly.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Why are these instructions so fine-grained? Behind the way of eating and drinking lies actually supplying more nutrients to the gut — and, going one step further, providing better food for the gut flora so the beneficial bacteria grow better. Every one of these formulas carries instructions like this, and we will talk more about the reasoning another time. Today’s Sheng Yang Yi Wei Tang is just an opening — Li Dongyuan’s series of formulas is wonderfully rich; once you master this one, I believe you can regulate most ordinary weakness conditions quite simply.

Dear friends, that is all for today. Remember: when autumn arrives and you feel drained, get diarrhea, ache in the joints, and sink into low spirits — don’t just blame the weather; first ask whether your spleen and stomach are weak and your clear yang failing to rise. That is precisely the home turf of Sheng Yang Yi Wei Tang. See you next time!

What to Take Away

1. Autumn fatigue is a pattern, not a character flaw. Listlessness, heavy aching limbs, bitter dry mouth, loose stools or frequent urination, and low mood together point to weak spleen and stomach with clear yang failing to rise — Li Dongyuan created Sheng Yang Yi Wei Tang for exactly this “autumn pattern.”
2. The formula has three movements at once: tonify, raise, clear. Huang qi plus Si Jun Zi Tang tonify the spleen; Er Chen Tang (ban xia, chen pi, fu ling, gan cao) clears phlegm-dampness; a tiny dose of huang lian (two qian) clears damp-heat — light as a counterweight, yet essential, because deficiency fire is the “thief of original qi.”
3. Bai shao is doing two jobs. It soothes and softens the liver at once: restrained liver qi stops bullying the spleen (wood overacting on earth) and stops counter-insulting the lungs (wood insulting metal), so the tonics for spleen and lungs can actually work.
4. The wind herbs (fang feng, qiang huo, du huo) are not just for wind. They raise yang, they overcome dampness (like wind drying a muddy field), and they assist the liver’s free flow — which lifts the low, “can can bu le” autumn mood that Li Dongyuan described so precisely.
5. Modern science sees the same thing from another angle. The formula nourishes beneficial gut flora (the spleen tonics), suppresses harmful bacteria (the damp-heat clearers), and regulates the gut-brain axis through emotion — a direction Ge Hong pioneered in the Zhou Hou Fang with fecal transplantation nearly two thousand years ago.
6. Take it the way Li Dongyuan said. Three qian per dose with ginger and jujube, between breakfast and lunch; no talking for two hours afterward; avoid alcohol, noodles, and cold fruit like watermelon; keep the diet light, move a little, rest a lot, and increase gradually from three to five qian.

Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s lecture series on Doctor Li Dongyuan. Content drawn from the Pi Wei Lun (Treatise on the Spleen and Stomach) and the Nei Wai Shang Bian Huo Lun (Clarifying Doubts about Internal and External Damage).