{ "slug": "yi-wei-tang", "names": { "pinyin": "Yi Wei Tang", "chinese": "益胃汤", "english": "Benefit the Stomach Decoction", "alternate": [ "Benefit Stomach Decoction" ] }, "category": "tonify-yin", "source": { "text": "Wen Bing Tiao Bian (Systematic Differentiation of Warm Pathogen Diseases)", "author": "Wu Ju-tong", "dynasty": "Qing", "year": "1798" }, "summary": "Five ingredients that put the moisture back into a Stomach that heat has dried out. For the dry mouth that does not want to drink, the missing appetite, the dry retching, and the dry stools that follow a fever or years of Stomach heat, with a tongue peeled bare in the middle.", "picture": "After a fire goes through a kitchen, you do not cook in it the next day. You wash it down first. This formula is the washing down.", "patterns": [ { "slug": "stomach-yin-deficiency", "role": "primary", "_links": { "self": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/pattern/stomach-yin-deficiency", "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/pattern/stomach-yin-deficiency" } } ], "indications": [ "Dry mouth and throat with little wish to drink", "No appetite after a fever or illness", "Dry retching or hiccups", "Dry stools", "A dull burning in the stomach after eating", "A tongue with the coat peeled off in the middle" ], "signs": { "tongue": "Red with a peeled or absent coat, especially in the middle.", "pulse": "Thin and rapid." }, "ingredients": [ { "pinyin": "Mai Dong", "grams": "15", "role": "chief", "job": "Ophiopogon moistens the Stomach and generates fluids.", "herb_slug": "root-of-dwarf-lilyturf-3", "english": "Mai Dong Ophiopogon Root Tuber", "chinese": "麦冬", "latin": "Radix Ophiopogonis", "_links": { "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/root-of-dwarf-lilyturf-3", "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/root-of-dwarf-lilyturf-3" } }, { "pinyin": "Sheng Di Huang", "grams": "15", "role": "chief", "job": "Raw rehmannia cools and nourishes yin.", "herb_slug": "fresh-rehmannia-root", "english": "Fresh Rehmannia Root", "chinese": "生地黄", "latin": "Radix Rehmanniae", "_links": { "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/fresh-rehmannia-root", "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/fresh-rehmannia-root" } }, { "pinyin": "Bei Sha Shen", "grams": "9", "role": "deputy", "job": "Glehnia moistens the Stomach and Lung.", "herb_slug": "glehnia-root", "english": "Glehnia Root", "chinese": "北沙参", "latin": "Radix Glehniae", "_links": { "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/glehnia-root", "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/glehnia-root" } }, { "pinyin": "Yu Zhu", "grams": "5", "role": "deputy", "job": "Solomon's seal moistens without clogging.", "herb_slug": "fragrant-solomonseal-rhizome", "english": "Fragrant Solomonseal Rhizome", "chinese": "玉竹", "latin": "Rhizoma Polygonati Odorati", "_links": { "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/fragrant-solomonseal-rhizome", "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/fragrant-solomonseal-rhizome" } }, { "pinyin": "Bing Tang", "grams": "3", "role": "envoy", "job": "Rock sugar sweetens and moistens the Stomach.", "unlinked": true, "herb_slug": "crystal-sugar", "english": "Crystal Sugar", "chinese": "冰糖", "latin": "Saccharum Crystallidum", "_links": { "herb": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/herb/crystal-sugar", "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/herb/crystal-sugar" } } ], "actions": [ "Nourishes Stomach yin", "Generates fluids and moistens dryness" ], "how_it_works": "Four moist, cool tonics and a little rock sugar. There is nothing to drain and nothing to move, because the problem is simply that the fluid is gone. It is the gentlest formula in the yin family and the one to reach for when the tongue has a bare patch in the middle.", "modifications": [ { "for": "Dry retching that will not stop", "add": [ "Zhu Ru", "Shi Hu" ], "note": "Bamboo shavings settle the stomach; dendrobium feeds its yin." }, { "for": "Dry stools", "add": [ "Huo Ma Ren" ], "note": "Hemp seed moistens the gut." } ], "cautions": [ "Not for a damp Spleen: loose stools, a greasy coat, bloating.", "Not for a cold stomach that likes warm drinks.", "A fresh illness with fever and a thick coat needs its heat cleared first." ], "forms": [ "granules", "decoction" ], "typical_dose": { "decoction": "One bag a day in two doses, with the amounts above", "course": "One to three weeks." }, "cousins": [ { "slug": "sha-shen-mai-dong-tang", "difference": "Adds Lung herbs for a dry cough and throat on top of the dry Stomach." }, { "slug": "yu-nu-jian", "difference": "For heat still burning on the dry base: toothache, bleeding gums, thirst. Cools as well as moistens." } ], "commerce": { "store": "supplementsapothecary.com", "store_name": "Supplements Apothecary", "store_slug": "yi-wei-tang", "store_url": "https://www.supplementsapothecary.com/supplement/yi-wei-tang", "status": "none", "label_check": "Rarely sold as a patent pill. A practitioner usually prescribes it as granules or a decoction, and it is easy to make from four herbs and rock sugar.", "note": "Usually a prescribed decoction rather than a shelf product." }, "conditions": [ "poor-appetite", "dyspepsia", "constipation", "gastric-ulcer", "fever" ], "sources": [ { "title": "Bensky, Scheid, Ellis and Barolet, Chinese Herbal Medicine: Formulas and Strategies, 2nd edition", "note": "Composition, actions, and indications." }, { "title": "Wu Ju-tong, Wen Bing Tiao Bian, 1798", "note": "Source text." } ], "meta": { "status": "published", "last_updated": "2026-10-12", "reviewed_by": null }, "_links": { "html": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/formula/yi-wei-tang", "self": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/formula/yi-wei-tang", "index": "https://www.naturalherblibrary.com/api/v1/formulas" } }