Always “On Fire” — Yin Deficiency with Blazing Fire? Doctor Zhang Jingyue’s Yin Decoctions Nourish the Yin of All Five Organs

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Dear friends, good morning, everyone. Today we continue with the Tonifying Formation of the Ming-dynasty master Doctor Zhang Jingyue. He turned prescriptions into battle formations, like an ancient general deploying troops, and one of the most important formations is the Tonifying Formation — because Zhang Jingyue excelled at nourishing and supporting the upright qi. What are we covering today? Yesterday we finished the earlier formulas; the Yi Yin Jian, Er Yin Jian and the rest still had to be explained. Today I want to explain this whole set of yin-nourishing formulas clearly. Those who want stories may be disappointed — there is no story today, just these formulas. But they are fascinating in their own right.

Opening: the man who explained “nourishing yin” more clearly than anyone

Zhang Jingyue’s “Yin Decoction” series revolves around two words — nourishing yin (zi yin). What does that mean? When the true yin of the kidney water runs low — water insufficient, fire blazing — the body shows a whole host of heat signs, and at that point you must nurture the yin back.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The idea of nourishing yin had been discussed by Doctor Zhu Danxi long before, but much of his approach was nourishing blood with a little yin-nourishing on the side. The man who laid the nourishing-yin approach out so clearly was Zhang Jingyue. The pairings everyone knows today — sheng di (raw rehmannia), sha shen (glehnia), mai dong (ophiopogon) — often come straight from this set of formulas.

Yi Yin Jian: when the sweat pours out, the water boils dry, and the fire rises

Yi Yin Jian (No. 1 Yin Decoction) treats water deficiency with blazing fire (shui kui huo sheng) — yin deficiency with fire hyperactivity. When does this happen? Whenever the true yin of the kidney water is insufficient, the pulse and symptoms show yang-heat: deficiency-fire fever; or yin deficiency stirring the blood, even hemoptysis or nosebleeds; or after malaria or cold damage with repeated sweating — too much sweat damages the yin, the water is depleted: the pulse is weak, the qi is feeble, vexing thirst will not stop, tidal fever will not drop. This is all injury to the yin from excessive sweating — body fluids badly damaged, kidney yin insufficient.

How is the formula built? Sheng di 2–3 qian (6–9 g) and shu di 3–5 qian (9–15 g) — raw and prepared rehmannia together: raw rehmannia nourishes yin and blood, prepared rehmannia tonifies the kidney essence; shao yao (white peony) astringes the liver yin and unblocks the vessels; mai dong nourishes yin and generates fluids; gan cao (licorice) 1 qian harmonizes; add a little niu xi (achyranthes) and a little dan shen (salvia) to invigorate the blood.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: This is the classic yin-nourishing formula — nourish yin and generate fluids. The “sheng di, sha shen, mai dong” combination we use so often today, with peony and prepared rehmannia added, often comes from Yi Yin Jian right here. This formula is very famous.

What if the fire is especially fierce? Zhang Jingyue has Jia Jian Yi Yin Jian (Modified No. 1 Yin Decoction): add zhi mu (anemarrhena) and di gu pi (wolfberry root bark), 1 qian each, to clear the fire. Deficiency fire is sometimes pure deficiency fire, but sometimes it carries a bit of excess fire; when the fire is fierce, you nourish the yin and clear the fire together.

Er Yin Jian: talking nonstop, laughing all the time — the heart fire is blazing

Er Yin Jian (No. 2 Yin Decoction) treats heart-channel heat, with water failing to check fire (shui bu ji huo). Kidney water and heart fire should be matched one to one. Now the kidney water is insufficient, it cannot hold down the heart fire, and the heart fire flares up.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What are the symptoms? Frightened mania with loss of one’s wits (jing kuang shi zhi) — when heart fire blazes, a person becomes manic and talks nonsense; talking endlessly and laughing all the time — the mouth runs on and on, and the person keeps laughing — this is already bordering on psychiatric symptoms; or sores and ulcers, vexing heat, blood loss, bleeding. In the old view, these skin problems are often tied to heart fire.

The formula: sheng di and mai dong nourish the yin; zao ren (sour jujube seed) nourishes the yin of the heart and liver; sheng gan cao 1 qian; xuan shen (scrophularia) cools the blood; huang lian (coptis) 1–2 qian drains the heart fire — nourishing yin paired with clearing fire: when the heart channel has heat, clear the heart channel; fu ling (poria) removes dampness — when the poria carries the wood center of the pine root it is called fu shen (poria with host wood), and its spirit-calming action is stronger (with heart-channel mania and a lost, unsettled spirit, calming the spirit is exactly what is needed); mu tong (akebia stem) 1.5 qian drains the heart-channel heat away.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When you decoct this formula, add deng xin cao (rush pith) or zhu ye (bamboo leaf) to two cups of water — this is the rush-pith-and-bamboo-leaf decoction (deng xin zhu ye tang), the formula the Qing imperial physicians prescribed daily for the ladies of the harem to drain heart fire. Twenty rush piths, or bamboo leaf — the two can be swapped or used together. Reduce to seven-tenths, and take it long after meals (shi yuan fu). This one is aimed squarely at heart-channel heat, heart-channel fire.

San Yin Jian: cramps, alternating chills and fever — the liver blood and liver yin have run dry

San Yin Jian (No. 3 Yin Decoction) treats liver-spleen deficiency, insufficiency of essence and blood, and nutritive deficiency with blood loss — hence the name “three yin.” For example, in wind-stroke when blood fails to nourish the sinews — especially when the sinews cramp because the blood no longer nourishes them, which is liver-related and calls for nourishing the liver yin; or malaria with profuse sweating; or when the external pathogen has dispersed but the chills and fever will not stop — alternating cold and heat — this is a shao yang / jue yin (liver-gallbladder channel) condition of yin deficiency with little blood, yin deficient, blood exhausted, and a slight fire still smoldering.

The formula: dang gui (angelica) and shu di — angelica tonifies blood, prepared rehmannia tonifies kidney essence; zhi gan cao (honey-fried licorice); shao yao astringes the liver yin; add a little suan zao ren to nourish the liver blood; add a small amount of ren shen (ginseng). Angelica, peony and sour jujube seed all nourish the liver, and prepared rehmannia tonifies kidney essence while nourishing blood — so San Yin Jian is for liver yin deficiency.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: This is similar to Yi Guan Jian (One Continuous Decoction), which we discussed before — that one also has dang gui, sheng di, mai dong and gou qi zi (wolfberry), all nourishing yin and blood together to support the liver yin.

Si Yin Jian: dry cough with blood, nosebleeds — the lung yin is deficient; protect the lung

Si Yin Jian (No. 4 Yin Decoction) protects the lung. When the lung yin is deficient — yin-deficient consumptive damage, fire blazing, the metal withering with vexation, cough with blood, or nosebleeds, dry cough — the lung is parched, and you must protect the lung and clear the metal; hence the name.

The formula: sheng di and mai dong nourish yin and generate fluids; bai shao astringes yin, especially the liver yin; bai he (lily bulb) treats the lung; sha shen moistens the lung; gan cao harmonizes and fu ling removes dampness while calming the spirit. If there is night heat with night sweats, add di gu pi; if phlegm is copious, add bei mu (fritillary), e jiao (ass-hide gelatin) and tian hua fen (trichosanthes root).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: This is how Zhang Jingyue writes formulas — a long list of additions and subtractions after the base. Whatever problem appears, he tells you which herb to drop in. He was very thorough — you can look it up and know exactly what to do; all his clinical insights are written out right there.

Wu Yin Jian: stools that never firm up — the neglected “spleen yin deficiency,” and it is most common in children

Wu Yin Jian (No. 5 Yin Decoction) treats true yin loss, kidney essence deficiency, spleen deficiency with blood loss, or chronic diarrhea and stools that never firm up — this is spleen yin deficiency (pi yin bu zu). The formula: shu di tonifies the kidney essence (if the spleen yin deficiency is pronounced, you can add some sheng di to nourish yin), shan yao (Chinese yam), bian dou (white hyacinth bean), zhi gan cao, bai zhu (atractylodes) and ren shen tonify the spleen, fu ling removes dampness and strengthens the spleen, and shao yao astringes the liver.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Wu Yin Jian is really the source of the later nourish-spleen-yin approach. People like Zhang Jingyue were truly clever — formulas for spleen yin deficiency came out long ago. Many of today’s Chinese medicine practitioners do not even know about spleen yin — every organ has qi, blood, yin and yang; the spleen has spleen yin and spleen blood too. But everyone only talks about spleen yang and spleen qi; nobody mentions spleen yin. And yet children with spleen yin deficiency are extremely numerous — they eat beef, lamb and other hot-natured foods, the illnesses come from eating, and produce all kinds of disorders nobody recognizes. Zhang Jingyue and Miao Xiyong at the end of the Ming dynasty pointed all this out, but the knowledge has been lost.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Let me share a clinical insight. Some children have emotional and psychological problems — when you look closely, it is spleen yin deficiency. Spleen yin deficiency makes the liver qi violent, so in these cases you must nourish the spleen yin and at the same time astringe the liver — this is a very important idea: to nourish spleen yin you must astringe the liver, or the emotions will never improve. Red tongue, red lips — add some yin-nourishing herbs, then shao yao and wu wei zi (schisandra) to astringe the liver yin, put in a little sheng mai ya (raw malt) — Doctor Zhang Xichun learned his liver-qi-soothing from this approach — and a little sheng mu li (raw oyster shell); everything aimed at the liver. Then the child’s emotions and all the other symptoms can recover. This idea was already contained in the formula. When decocting, use two cups of water and add twenty lotus seeds with the cores removed (lian zi rou, qu xin), and boil together.

Da Ying Jian and Xiao Ying Jian: women’s blood deficiency and lumbar-knee-sinew pain — two blood-nourishing formulas

After covering the yin of the five organs, Zhang Jingyue sets out two blood-nourishing formulas. First, what is ying (the nutritive qi)? Ying is the material basis living inside the vessels — substances like blood; wei qi (the defensive qi) is the fierce, swift qi outside the vessels. Ying qi and wei qi, one inside, one outside.

Da Ying Jian (Great Nutritive Decoction) treats true-yin essence-blood deficiency — women with scanty periods, blood deficiency, pain in the loins, knees, sinews and bones, or qi-blood deficiency with cold and heart-abdominal pain. The formula: dang gui and shu di (this is half the base of Si Wu Tang, the Four Substances Decoction), paired with gou qi zi (wolfberry) to tonify the liver-kidney yin, du zhong (eucommia) and niu xi to strengthen the lower back and knees and unblock the channels, and rou gui (cinnamon) 1–2 qian to warm things up — because this condition usually carries some cold.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: This formula works well for channel pain caused by blood deficiency. Why no peony? I think you could add chi shao (red peony) and a bit of chuan xiong (ligusticum) — the Si Wu Tang base with du zhong and niu xi and a little cinnamon is quite workable.

Xiao Ying Jian (Minor Nutritive Decoction) treats yin deficiency with blood deficiency — blood deficiency and yin deficiency often combine, with the blood deficiency primary. The formula: dang gui, shu di and shao yao (Si Wu Tang minus chuan xiong, which is drying), plus shan yao to strengthen the spleen, plus gou qi zi — Zhang Jingyue loved gou qi zi; it nourishes the liver-kidney yin. This formula is gentle: it nourishes blood and yin, with blood-nourishing as the main job. Da Ying Jian and Xiao Ying Jian are both blood-nourishing — and slowly you become familiar with how Zhang Jingyue treated illness.

Ju Yuan Jian: blood collapse, the person nearly gone — hurry, tonify the qi and lift it up

This next formula was learned from Doctor Li Dongyuan — qi deficiency with sinking (qi xu xia xian). When a woman’s metrorrhagia and blood collapse are very severe — yang collapse, life hanging by a thread — what do you do? Angelica and prepared rehmannia are sometimes not enough; you must quickly tonify the qi. So use ren shen, huang qi (astragalus) and zhi gan cao, with sheng ma (cimicifuga) and bai zhu — sheng ma rises upward and lifts the sunken qi.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: We know this approach very well — after learning Doctor Li Dongyuan’s Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang (Tonify the Middle and Replenish Qi Decoction) and Doctor Zhang Xichun’s Sheng Xian Tang (Raise the Sinking Decoction), we recognize the pattern immediately. Zhang Jingyue wrote it into his Tonifying Formation too.

Liang Yi Gao: ginseng with prepared rehmannia, boiled into a jar of paste — a dietary remedy for great depletion of essence and qi

Next, a few dietary formulas. The first is called Liang Yi Gao (Two Modes Paste) — and it is something else. It treats great depletion of essence and qi: kidney essence and kidney qi greatly depleted, qi and blood greatly depleted, no medicine responding, or else excessive attack — the drastic herbs were used too fiercely and injured the true yin and kidney essence. Where the deficiency sits in the yang aspect and the qi fails to transform essence, one would use a ginseng-and-atractylodes-type paste; where it sits in the yin aspect and the essence fails to transform into qi — kidney essence insufficient, profoundly depleted — nothing is more wonderful than this formula. Or even before a serious illness: if you usually feel a bit yin-deficient, always a little internal heat and dryness, kidney essence running low, use this to regulate the origin — it is especially marvelous. Patch it up in time.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: “Two modes” (liang yi) means two directions. The qi of ren shen (ginseng) lives above — that is one mode; the essence and blood of shu di (prepared rehmannia) live below — that is the other. Use half a jin or 4 liang of ginseng (with good modern ginseng, 4 liang, about 120 g, is enough), and 1 jin (500 g) of large prepared rehmannia — the two herbs are roughly half and half.

How do you make it? Soak the two herbs overnight in fifteen bowls of good sweet water or long-flowing spring water; then boil with mulberry-wood fire, alternating strong and gentle flame, to draw out the thick juice; when the flavor is not yet exhausted, add a few more bowls of water and boil out the juice again; finally concentrate it — when it is somewhat thick, put it into a ceramic jar and boil it down into a paste; when the paste is done, add 4 liang or half a jin of true white honey, stirring as you add — this is called “collecting the paste” (shou gao). To drink, take out one spoonful and dissolve it in boiling water.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Liang Yi Gao is wonderful — if you are truly depleted, drinking ginseng and prepared rehmannia like this every day is very good for the body. But here is what is truly annoying: our country has just approved ginseng as yao shi tong yuan (medicines and foods share the same origin), but prepared rehmannia is still not on the dual-use list — ordinary people cannot combine the two into a paste for sale: the moment you do, you are “making medicine,” and you need a manufacturing license, which is nearly impossible to obtain. So this dual-use regulation purely restricts ordinary people from using Chinese medicine. Abroad it is no problem at all — Japan, Southeast Asia, Singapore, Malaysia, and our own province of Taiwan all make food-grade versions freely; they have no such rule, and it is something Chinese people have used for thousands of years. Sadly, many brilliant ancient formulas cannot get licensed by domestic manufacturers and cannot be made by ordinary people — the only chance is to buy a jar abroad.

Zhen Yuan Yin: shortness of breath, the breath will not lift — whatever you do, do not lift the qi

Zhen Yuan Yin (Zhen Yuan Drink) treats shortness of breath and rapid, urgent breathing that cannot be lifted — the original qi is insufficient, the upright qi is insufficient: the patient cannot swallow, the qi sticks at the throat, the four limbs are failing. Everyone sees the illness above, but does not know that the sea of original qi has no root (yuan qi hai wu gen) — the kidney essence is deficient, the liver and kidney are depleted, zi and wu fail to meet (zi wu bu jiao), the upper and lower cannot communicate — this is a qi-collapse condition. Women whose blood sea is often deficient (scanty periods) suffer this especially often: sudden constant shortness of breath, rapid breathing, the breath simply will not come up.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: At this point you must NOT simply use Doctor Li Dongyuan’s Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang to lift the qi upward. When the kidney is that deficient, the moment you lift, you pull it off — the patient faints on the spot; trouble. What you must do is tonify the kidney, fill the root below, and pull that breath back. Now the kidney is deficient, it can no longer receive and hold, and the qi above escapes outward.

How is the formula made? Shu di huang 7–8 qian (about 21–24 g) or even 1–2 liang (30–60 g) — a large dose; dang gui 2–3 qian; zhi gan cao 1–3 qian. Mainly prepared rehmannia and angelica, boiled down and drunk as a paste. This is an acute-condition formula — different from Liang Yi Gao, which is a bottled supplement; Zhen Yuan Yin treats illness and is for urgent moments.

Di Huang Li: steep a jar of wine and bring the essence and blood back

Di Huang Li is wine steeped with prepared rehmannia. It treats insufficiency of essence and blood in men and women, with the nutritive and defensive qi not flourishing — essence-blood deficiency lowering resistance. How to make it? Large huai shu di 8 liang (250 g), dried to drive off moisture; chen xiang (agarwood) 1 qian (or white sandalwood) to move the qi; fat gou qi 4 liang (120 g), dried. For every jin of herbs, steep in 10 jin of shao jiu (distilled liquor) — ten times the amount of liquor; no cooking needed, steep for ten days and it is ready to drink.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: This wine must not be drunk like ordinary wine, and not in large amounts — a little each time; when it is finished you can add more liquor and steep again. Rehmannia wine specifically tonifies essence-blood and kidney essence, and works extremely well — the secret of steeping prepared rehmannia in wine is adding a little chen xiang and some gou qi zi: it nourishes the essence and blood.

Pan Tao Guo: seminal emission and weakness — tonify the spleen and nourish the kidney (the Weibo story: “should she marry him?”)

The last dietary formula is called Pan Tao Guo (Peach of Immortality Cakes). It treats seminal emission and weakness, and is best for tonifying the spleen and nourishing the kidney.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Speaking of seminal emission — a couple of days ago I read a Weibo post. A female netizen said she had been in a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend for a long time; the man’s circumstances were excellent, she was satisfied, and they planned to marry — but they had never been intimate. Just before the wedding she wanted to try, and discovered the man could not perform: the moment his mind stirred, he leaked. What is this? It is deficiency — the spleen-kidney qi is insufficient, powerless to hold and gather. She asked whether she should marry him after all, and all kinds of advice poured in online: “Listen to your sisters — whatever you do, don’t marry him!”; others said, “It’s fine — once children come the man is useless anyway, just raise the kids well.” … I think Chinese medicine can regulate this — there are many approaches. People still do not understand Chinese medicine well enough.

How do you make Pan Tao Guo? Euryale seed (qian shi) 1 jin, stir-fried; lotus seed flesh (lian zi rou) 1 jin, stir-fried with the cores removed; jujube flesh (da zao rou) 1 jin; prepared rehmannia (shu di) 1 jin; walnut flesh (hu tao rou) 2 jin — grind all of these into powder. Take six pig kidneys, steam them very well with star anise (da hui xiang), remove the fascia, pound them together with the medicinal powder into cakes, and dry. Take two cakes on an empty stomach every day, sent down with boiling water or one or two cups of good wine.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: I imagine the taste is not great — a little salt might help. What the family makes is basically roasted pig kidneys with euryale, lotus seed, prepared rehmannia and walnut. No need for you to try it — just appreciate it. But look at how many methods the ancients had for regulating the body. Why did these doctors live so long? Zhang Jingyue was long-lived too. The medical predecessors of the imperial court — most of the great Ming physicians — spent their days making these things: processing, tonifying, and when they were done, summarizing the recipes and writing them down. They made them every day and ate them every day — and that is why they lived. Some of those predecessors lived to ninety-seven, and it was tied to being good at tonifying.

Closing: understanding “tonification” is the gift Zhang Jingyue left us

That is the end of today’s discussion of Zhang Jingyue’s kidney-tonifying and nourishing formulas. Look at what he did: Yi Yin Jian, Er Yin Jian, San Yin Jian, Si Yin Jian, Wu Yin Jian — aimed straight at the five organs: different organs with yin deficiency get different emphases, and he wrote the formulas all out for you — truly remarkable. Then add the blood-nourishing Da Ying Jian and Xiao Ying Jian, the qi-lifting Ju Yuan Jian, and the essence-blood dietary formulas Liang Yi Gao, Zhen Yuan Yin, Di Huang Li and Pan Tao Guo — tonification, arranged with complete clarity.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Next I will introduce more of Zhang Jingyue’s treatment ideas, and you will come to know him even more deeply. The viruses are surging back again right now — everyone really must be prepared: learn more knowledge, raise your upright qi in daily life, tonify a little — it does no harm at all. I hope this knowledge helps you understand Chinese medicine better and gives you more means of protecting yourself. Dear friends, see you tomorrow!

What to take away

“Nourishing yin” is Zhang Jingyue’s clearest legacy — the familiar sheng di–sha shen–mai dong pairing descends from his Yin Decoction series. When kidney-water true yin runs low, water is insufficient and fire blazes: deficiency-fire fever, vexing heat, tidal fever that will not drop, bleeding.
Five Yin Decoctions, five organs — Yi Yin Jian (water deficiency, blazing fire), Er Yin Jian (heart-channel heat, water failing to check fire: manic talk, nonstop laughing — decocted with rush pith or bamboo leaf), San Yin Jian (liver yin deficiency: cramps, alternating chills and fever), Si Yin Jian (lung yin deficiency: dry cough with blood — protected by lily and glehnia), Wu Yin Jian (spleen yin deficiency: chronic loose stools).
Spleen yin deficiency is real and common, especially in children — often eaten into existence by too much beef and lamb. To nourish spleen yin you must also astringe the liver: peony, schisandra, a little raw malt, raw oyster shell.
Blood deficiency is not the same as yin deficiency, but they travel together — Da Ying Jian and Xiao Ying Jian (built on the Si Wu Tang base) nourish blood for lumbar-knee-sinew pain; Ju Yuan Jian lifts sunken qi when blood collapse is severe (Doctor Li Dongyuan’s approach).
When the breath will not lift and the qi is collapsing, do NOT lift — with kidney essence exhausted at the root, lifting will pull the patient off. Zhen Yuan Yin tonifies the kidney below and pulls the breath back.
Dietary tonics for essence and blood — Liang Yi Gao (ginseng + prepared rehmannia paste), Di Huang Li (rehmannia wine with wolfberry and agarwood), Pan Tao Guo (euryale, lotus seed, jujube, prepared rehmannia, walnut, pig kidney cakes for seminal emission).
The dual-use rule (yao shi tong yuan) limits what ordinary people can prepare at home — ginseng is approved, prepared rehmannia is not, so the classic paste cannot be legally made and sold domestically; the same formulas are food-grade products abroad.

Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s lecture on Doctor Zhang Jingyue’s herbal strategies (medication insights); the formulas come from the Tonifying Formation of Jing Yue Quan Shu (Complete Works of Jingyue, published 1624).