{
    "slug": "dang-gui-bu-xue-tang",
    "names": {
        "pinyin": "Dang Gui Bu Xue Tang",
        "chinese": "当归补血汤",
        "english": "Tangkuei Decoction to Tonify the Blood",
        "alternate": [
            "Dang Gui Bu Xue Wan",
            "Astragalus and Angelica Combination"
        ]
    },
    "category": "tonify-blood",
    "source": {
        "text": "Nei Wai Shang Bian Huo Lun (Clarifying Doubts about Injury from Internal and External Causes)",
        "author": "Li Dong-yuan",
        "dynasty": "Jin",
        "year": "1247"
    },
    "summary": "Two herbs, five parts astragalus to one part angelica, to rebuild blood fast after it has been lost. For the pale, tired, flushed, thirsty person after heavy bleeding, childbirth, or surgery, whose pulse feels large but empty. It builds blood from qi, which is the only fast way to build it.",
    "picture": "You cannot pour blood in. You can only make it, and making it takes qi. So the formula is mostly astragalus, the qi herb, with just enough angelica to tell the qi what to build.",
    "patterns": [
        {
            "slug": "blood-deficiency",
            "role": "after blood loss",
            "_links": {
                "self": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/pattern/blood-deficiency",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/pattern/blood-deficiency"
            }
        },
        {
            "slug": "qi-and-blood-deficiency",
            "role": "after blood loss",
            "_links": {
                "self": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/pattern/qi-and-blood-deficiency",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/pattern/qi-and-blood-deficiency"
            }
        }
    ],
    "indications": [
        "Tiredness and pallor after heavy bleeding, childbirth, or surgery",
        "A low fever with a red face and thirst in a pale, weak person",
        "Dizziness and palpitations after blood loss",
        "Heavy periods that leave you drained",
        "Sores that will not heal in a weak person",
        "Headache from blood deficiency"
    ],
    "signs": {
        "tongue": "Pale.",
        "pulse": "Large but empty when pressed, the key sign."
    },
    "ingredients": [
        {
            "pinyin": "Huang Qi",
            "grams": "30",
            "role": "chief",
            "job": "Astragalus tonifies qi so the body can make blood, and holds the surface so the empty heat settles.",
            "herb_slug": "root-of-membranous-milkvetch",
            "english": "Root of Membranous Milkvetch",
            "chinese": "黄芪",
            "latin": "Radix Astragali",
            "_links": {
                "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/root-of-membranous-milkvetch",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/root-of-membranous-milkvetch"
            }
        },
        {
            "pinyin": "Dang Gui",
            "grams": "6",
            "role": "deputy",
            "job": "Angelica directs the qi into making blood and keeps it moving.",
            "herb_slug": "root-of-chinese-angelica",
            "english": "Root of Chinese Angelica",
            "chinese": "当归",
            "latin": "Radix Angelicae Sinensis",
            "_links": {
                "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/root-of-chinese-angelica",
                "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/root-of-chinese-angelica"
            }
        }
    ],
    "actions": [
        "Tonifies qi to generate blood"
    ],
    "how_it_works": "The five-to-one ratio is the lesson. Li Dong-yuan understood that blood is made from qi, so after blood loss the fastest route is a large dose of the qi tonic with a small dose of the blood tonic as a guide. The empty heat that shows as a red face and thirst settles once the blood returns.",
    "modifications": [
        {
            "for": "Heavier blood deficiency",
            "add": [
                "Shu Di Huang",
                "Bai Shao"
            ],
            "note": "Toward Ba Zhen Tang."
        },
        {
            "for": "Ongoing bleeding",
            "add": [
                "E Jiao",
                "Ai Ye"
            ],
            "note": "Donkey-hide gelatin and mugwort leaf."
        }
    ],
    "cautions": [
        "The red face and thirst here come from blood loss, not from real heat. If the pulse is strong and the tongue red with a yellow coat, this is the wrong formula.",
        "Not for yin-deficiency heat with night sweats and a peeled tongue.",
        "Pause during a cold or flu.",
        "Pregnancy: use only under a qualified practitioner."
    ],
    "forms": [
        "teapills",
        "granules",
        "decoction"
    ],
    "typical_dose": {
        "decoction": "One bag a day in two doses, with the amounts above",
        "teapills": "8 pills, three times a day, the usual label dose",
        "course": "Two to four weeks after blood loss."
    },
    "cousins": [
        {
            "slug": "si-wu-tang",
            "difference": "Four blood tonics for a slower, deeper deficiency without the qi collapse."
        },
        {
            "slug": "ba-zhen-tang",
            "difference": "Qi and blood in full, for longer rebuilding."
        }
    ],
    "commerce": {
        "store": "supplementsapothecary.com",
        "store_name": "Supplements Apothecary",
        "store_slug": "dang-gui-bu-xue-tang",
        "store_url": "https://www.supplementsapothecary.com/supplement/dang-gui-bu-xue-tang",
        "status": "planned",
        "label_check": "The box reads Dang Gui Bu Xue Tang or Wan with the characters 当归补血. Two ingredients: Astragalus and Angelica, with far more astragalus."
    },
    "conditions": [
        "anemia",
        "blood-deficiency",
        "fatigue",
        "menorrhagia",
        "dizziness",
        "headache"
    ],
    "sources": [
        {
            "title": "Bensky, Scheid, Ellis and Barolet, Chinese Herbal Medicine: Formulas and Strategies, 2nd edition",
            "note": "Composition, actions, indications, and cautions."
        }
    ],
    "meta": {
        "status": "published",
        "last_updated": "2026-10-12",
        "reviewed_by": null
    },
    "_links": {
        "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/formula/dang-gui-bu-xue-tang",
        "self": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/formula/dang-gui-bu-xue-tang",
        "index": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/formulas"
    }
}