Da Qin Jiao Tang大秦艽汤
Major Gentiana Macrophylla Decoction
Ingredients16 herbs
Indications
Wind evil newly striking the channels and collateralsagainst a background of blood deficiency. The channels of the face and limbs lose their supply, wind enters the emptiness, and movement and speech are lost without the deep collapse, coma or incontinence that mark wind striking the organs.
Clinical Manifestations
- Deviation of the mouth and eye of recent onset
- Stiff tongue with unclear or laboured speech
- Limbs that feel heavy, clumsy or will not move properly
- Aversion to cold with fever and tight, stiff limbs at the start of the illness
- Residual weakness and numbness after a mild cerebrovascular event, in rehabilitation
Health Categories
Modern Applications
Common adjustments
- No interior heat — the tongue is pale and the coating white — the cooling group is reduced: Shi Gao 石膏 and Huang Qin 黄芩 are cut back or dropped so the formula is not made cold
- Marked interior heat with a dry mouth and yellow coating — Shi Gao 石膏 is increased and Shu Di Huang 熟地黄 reduced, since a warm cloying tonic is unhelpful while heat is active
- Heavy phlegm with copious sputum and a greasy coating — phlegm-transforming herbs such as Zhi Ban Xia 制半夏 and Dan Nan Xing 胆南星 are added; note that Ban Xia and / are a classical incompatible pair, so this modification is not combined with the aconite formulas of this chapter
- Numbness and fixed pain suggesting stasis in the collaterals — blood-moving herbs such as Ji Xue Teng 鸡血藤 are added; anyone on warfarin or another anticoagulant needs this weighed by the prescriber
- Damp-heat pattern with a thick greasy yellow coating — the rich blood tonics are unsuitable as written and the formula is usually set aside for a damp-clearing strategy first
Contraindications
Do not use it to delay emergency care. Sudden facial droop, sudden difficulty speaking, or sudden weakness on one side is treated as a stroke until proven otherwise and belongs in an emergency department immediately. Beyond that, the formula is not for wind striking the organs — loss of consciousness, snoring breath, incontinence, a clenched jaw — which needs a different strategy entirely. Its rich blood tonics are poorly tolerated where there is heavy damp-phlegm, a thick greasy coating, loose stools or a weak digestion, and the acrid warm group is wrong for internal wind from yin deficiency or ascendant Liver yang, where it would fan the fire rather than settle it.
For licensed practitioners’ reference only — not a self-treatment guide.
Pregnancy
Used in pregnancy only with a specialist's supervision, and generally avoided. Chuan Xiong, Dang Gui and Du Huo move blood and descend, Xi Xin is acrid, dispersing and dose-restricted, and Shi Gao with Huang Qin is a cold pairing that a pregnant patient with a deficient digestion tolerates poorly. More important, the presentation this formula addresses — sudden facial weakness or speech loss in pregnancy — needs urgent obstetric and neurological assessment, not a herbal prescription.
References
Source Su Wen Bing Ji Qi Yi Bao Ming Ji 《素问病机气宜保命集》 · Jin
「中风，外无六经之形证，内无便溺之阻隔，知血弱不能养筋，故手足不能运动，舌强不能言语，宜养血而筋自荣，大秦艽汤主之。」
- Classical source (public domain), cited in the source-quote section.
2. Scheid, Bensky, Ellis & Barolet. Chinese Herbal Medicine: Formulas & Strategies, 2nd ed. — composition & dosage cross-checked.
3. 《方剂学》（全国中医药行业高等教育规划教材）— pattern analysis cross-checked.
4. Pharmacopoeial monograph on 细辛 Asari Radix et Rhizoma — root-only restriction and dose ceiling.
Professional reference notice. Entries are scholarly references for licensed TCM practitioners and students — not medical advice, and not a recommendation to self-prescribe. Chinese herbal formulas should be used under the guidance of a qualified practitioner. Content is an original editorial compilation by Cura x Cura, cross-checked against the cited references.