This article is transcoded by SimpRead 简悦, original source www.jingfangpai.cn
Allergy is a term used in Western medicine; Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) does not use the word allergy, but refers to it as the gathering of pathogenic factors, with Qi being deficient. In modern terms, it means the nation is weak and accumulating weakness, with external pathogens striking from all sides. Therefore, to fend off external threats, one must first secure internal stability.
How to secure internal stability?
First, overeating certain foods can worsen allergies. If you like to eat fish, seafood, and meat, you need to control your diet and cut off the enemy’s supplies.
Second, if the blood is depleted and Qi is weak, one should avoid overexertion, especially mental strain. Constant worries about gains and losses cause continuous troubles and illnesses.
Third, lack of exercise weakens the body. Exercise is a hardship, just like a country training its troops. Every cell in the body is our soldier. To make the troops strong and combat-ready, able to withstand slanting wind and drizzling rain, daily training needs to be arranged. Regular exercise keeps the body free from ailments.
The characteristic of TCM is to maintain righteous Qi inside, so that pathogenic Qi cannot easily interfere.
1
Talking about allergic constitution, we must mention a classic anti-allergy prescription.
This formula is the “Allergy Decoction” by the late Mr. Zhu Chenyu.
When Zhu was young, his idea to study medicine arose due to his mother’s illness and death. In the early 1930s, he started to study TCM long-term under one of Beijing’s four great doctors, Shi Jinmo.
The Allergy Decoction is one of the empirical prescriptions he formulated based on pharmacological research, and it has strong anti-allergic effects.
Zhu devoted his lifetime of effort and practice to prove that this prescription is very effective.
Allergy Decoction: Fangfeng (Saposhnikovia divaricata), Yin Chai Hu (Stellaria dichotoma), Wumei (Mume fruit), Wuweizi (Schisandra chinensis), and Gancao (Licorice), each 10 grams.
Usage: Decoction in water, one dose daily, taken morning and evening. For skin itching, the residue of the decoction can be concentrated and used for external washing to enhance the effect.
2
A very important symptom of allergy is itching, and the location of itching is changeable; TCM compares it to the wind phenomenon in nature, thinking it is caused by wind. People with skin allergies are often worsened by wind exposure.
Therefore, many people experience allergies in spring because spring is a vibrant season but also a season when wind evil (pathogenic wind) rages.
When the spring breeze blows and willow catkins float, many friends are allergic to these things. What to do? Avoid them.
But avoidance is never the best solution. Can you avoid it temporarily or for a lifetime?
3
Wind evil has another characteristic: it is a carrier that can bring any kind of pathogenic Qi deep into our skin and interstices.
So, the first and most important herb in this formula is Fangfeng (Saposhnikovia divaricata). Fangfeng is a very unique Chinese medicinal herb. Unlike other plants, it is not moved by the wind and can remain still in the wind. That is why ancient people used it to treat wind.
Fangfeng is pungent and warm, with the most important characteristic being to expel wind. The name Fangfeng means to prevent wind, to pacify wind. One aspect is to prevent the invasion of external wind evil.
Another is that it can drive out all the wind entering the body from outside.
The medicinal part of Fangfeng is the root, where most of the essence is concentrated.
The Qi of Fangfeng acts like a barrier in the body, blocking circulating Qi so it does not run rampant, thereby pacifying wind.
Fangfeng can stop wind because of its slightly protective energy field, which is not rigid but has the nature of circulation; it both disperses and protects, like a fishing net.
Fangfeng is a medicine that tonifies and protects righteous Qi; it is a tonic with good circulatory properties. It is half moisturizing, half flowing, focusing mainly on protection.
Yin Chai Hu (Stellaria dichotoma) is often confused with Chai Hu (Bupleurum), but in fact, they are different herbs. Yin Chai Hu clears deficiency heat and cools the blood.
It can cool down blood heat and yin deficiency with fire, calming the irritability and itching caused by blood heat. It is like water boiling in a pot, making the lid keep rattling.
What is blood heat? It means heat penetrates the blood level, causing the blood to flow out of the vessels and appear on the skin and other places, such as purpura or blood spots. This is called reckless movement of blood heat.
Yin Chai Hu is cold and can cool the blood, calming your blood. This implies the treatment of wind must first treat the blood; when blood flows properly, the wind naturally dissipates.
Wuweizi (Schisandra chinensis) contains the five flavors but is mainly sour, possessing astringent power. Wumei (Mume fruit) is sour and used in medicine for its sour, softening, astringent properties.
Its Qi is relatively mild, but the taste is strong, and it still contains obvious vitality.
Dryness causes fire. Just like forest fires often start during dry weather when the air and environment are parched. There is hardly ever a forest fire during a rainy or moist period.
Sour enters the liver and enhances the liver’s astringency, calming the liver. It prevents the internal movement of liver wind and caused by fire, which makes a person more irritable.
Gancao (Licorice) enters the earth element of the spleen. When plants or trees are blown by the wind and about to fall, they perform one important task—strengthen the earth. When the surrounding earth solidifies, the plant will stay stable.
Strengthening earth means protecting the middle burner, spleen, and stomach. Once the earth is supplemented, symptoms like coughing after a gust of wind or asthma caused by cold disappear altogether.
This formula has dispersing—Fangfeng, astringing—Wumei and Wuweizi, tonifying—Gancao, and draining—Yin Chai Hu. On one hand, it nourishes Yin; on the other, it secures and astringes; and also dispels wind and pathogens. It is a perfect balance of Yin and Yang, marvelous beyond words.
Why? Because the human body itself breathes in and out, yin and yang, rising and falling, exhaling and inhaling. Using only dispersing herbs without regulating the interior makes it difficult to expel pathogenic factors. Using only cooling purgative herbs without warmth facilitates relapse of illness after removal.
This formula is suitable for the remission phase of nasal allergy, cough, asthma caused by allergic factors. It should not be used when pathogenic evil is strong.
Original article: 祝谌予：过敏煎 - 经方派