Tonify Qi

Question 1

Ren Shen *

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Answer 1

-tonifies primal qi, source qi, origin qi ~ it goes deep, nourishes qi at most fundamental level, ie kidney level
-abandon condition, qi collapse
-preserves health/life in situations when people develop extreme fatigue, collapse
-targets lung/spleen
-generates fluids (when we lose sweat, we lose qi)
-calms spirit (benefits heart qi)
-can use with sickness (cold/flu) if the person is very deficient, but not a good idea for normal sickness w/o xu
-nourishes yin

(ginseng root)

sl warm ~ sweet, sl bitter ~ LU, SP

Question 2

Dang Shen

Question 3

Tai Zi Shen

Question 4

Huang Qi *

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Answer 4

-tonifies qi ~ specifically wei qi
-can help with deficiency type sweating (stops it)
-goes up -> direction (sinking down, prolapse, or just sensation of it) (when xu, qi sinks down, body is really exhausted/consumed, you have level of xu where you experience heat… qi xu)
-wound healing

(astragalus root)

sl warm ~ sweet ~ LU, SP

Question 5

Shan Yao *

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Answer 5

-tonifies qi + yin
-works on middle/lower burner
-helps w spleen, xu, diarhea, espec kids
-helps a bit w lung yin
-binding action helps at kd level

(chinese yam)

neutral ~ sweet ~ KD, LU, SP

Question 6

Bai Zhu *

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Answer 6

-tonifies spleen + dried damp = essential to know
-stabilizes exterior + stops spontaneous sweat
-calms fetus

(white atractylodes)

warm ~ bitter, sweet ~ SP, ST

Question 7

Da Zao *

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Answer 7

-darker/black ones tonify lower burner (kd, lv) even more
-red ones tonify qi/blood, middle

(jujube)

warm ~ sweet ~ SP, ST

Question 8

Gan Cao *

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Answer 8

-can detoxify (moderates toxic effects of other herbs)
-guides into the whole body (can lead other herbs)

(licorice root)

neutral/warm ~ sweet ~ HT, LU, SP, ST

Question 9

Ci Wu Jia (Wu Jia Shen)

Question 10

Huang Jing

Question 11

Bai Bian Dou

Question 12

Yi Tang

Question 13

Feng Mi