Tree Peony Bark … Classic Formulas
Mu Dan Pi · Cortex Moutan
Primary Actions
- Clears heat and cools the blood ... Mu Dan Pi is used for blood-heat patterns with fever, irritability, eruptive heat, or heat entering the blood level.
- Invigorates blood and dispels stasis ... it is selected for dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea, fixed pain, and accumulations where heat and stasis are intertwined.
- Clears deficiency heat ... tree peony bark is a classic lane for lingering low-grade heat, night sweating, and tidal sensations rooted in Yin depletion rather than in full excess.
Classic Formulas
- Qing Hao Bie Jia Tang ... classic deficiency-heat formula where Mu Dan Pi helps cool blood-level heat without trapping the pathogen.
- Da Huang Mu Dan Tang ... the famous intestinal-abscess formula in which tree peony bark cools and moves blood while helping break acute inflammatory stasis.
- Gui Zhi Fu Ling Wan ... blood-stasis gynecologic strategy where Mu Dan Pi participates in moving and softening fixed accumulations.
Classical Text References
- Traditional herbology places Mu Dan Pi among the few herbs that cool blood while also moving it, making it especially valuable when heat and stasis coexist.
- The distinction from peony roots is fundamental ... Mu Dan Pi is the root bark of tree peony, not a duplicate form of Bai Shao or Chi Shao.