In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) treatment of blood stasis, there are several levels of medication use. Generally, when blood circulation is somewhat sluggish or there is mild blood deficiency, the treatment should involve blood-harmonizing and stasis-resolving herbs that regulate the blood system. Angelica sinensis (Dang Gui) is the best representative herb for this purpose. Of course, there are also herbs such as Spatholobus (Ji Xue Teng), Salvia miltiorrhiza (Dan Shen), and Panax notoginseng (San Qi), among others, which both nourish the blood and invigorate blood circulation.
If the blood stasis becomes more severe, active blood circulation and stasis-resolving herbs must be used. There are many herbs in this category, like safflower (Hong Hua), red peony root (Chi Shao), Chuanxiong (Chuan Xiong), Lysimachia (Ze Lan), Motherwort (Yi Mu Cao), frankincense (Ru Xiang), myrrh (Mo Yao), etc.
However, if the blood stasis conglomerates seriously, even forming masses or tumors, what should be done? The blood must be broken up (broken stasis). For example, peach kernel (Tao Ren) is a blood-breaking herb. It is not an ordinary blood-invigorating herb since its blood-invigorating effect is very strong. There are also herbs like Sparganium (San Leng) and Curcuma (E Zhu), which have the effect of breaking blood and dispelling stasis. Of course, blood-breaking herbs also harm the body’s vital energy (Zheng Qi), so if the blood stasis conglomeration is not severe, we generally avoid using blood-breaking herbs and use blood-activating herbs instead.
From “Lectures on Treatise on Febrile Diseases (Volume 1)” by Chen Ming