Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang 補中益氣湯

Lift the Center, Raise the Qi

Bǔ Zhōng Yì Qì Tāng — the Tonify the Middle and Augment the Qi Decoction — is Si Jin Bao’s rendering of Li Dong-yuan’s landmark formula for a depleted center: it tonifies the Spleen-Stomach Qi and raises the sunken clear yang, lifting what has fallen and rekindling the source of the body’s energy.

The Spleen and Stomach are the root of the acquired Qi — the “middle” that turns food and air into the energy the whole body runs on. When overwork, worry, or long illness wears that center down, the Qi sinks: fatigue and weak limbs, a soft voice and shortness of breath, poor appetite and loose stools, and — when the Qi can no longer hold things in place — organ prolapse and chronic bleeding. Li Dong-yuan’s answer was not to drain the body, but to lift it.

From the Master of the Earth School

The formula appears in the Nèi Wài Shāng Biàn Huò Lùn (Clarifying Doubts about Injury from Internal and External Causes), written by Lǐ Dōng-Yuán in 1247. One of the Four Great Masters of the Jin-Yuan era and the founder of the “Earth” (Spleen-Stomach) school, Li taught that many illnesses arise not from an outside attack but from internal injury to the digestive center — and that to restore that center is to restore the whole. Among his insights was the sweet, warming method of clearing heat: that a fever born of Qi deficiency is quenched not by cold, draining herbs but by warmly rebuilding the exhausted middle.

Spleen-Qi Deficiency with Sinking Qi · 中氣下陷

The pattern is a Spleen-Stomach Qi too depleted to rise and to hold. It shows as the weariness of insufficiency — fatigue, weak limbs, a soft and halting voice, shortness of breath, spontaneous sweating — and as the consequences of sinking: poor appetite and loose stools, organ prolapse, chronic bleeding, and a low fever that worsens with exertion.

Classical tongue & pulse: a pale tongue with a thin white coating; a weak, forceless pulse.

Eight Herbs: Tonify, and Lift

Huáng Qí takes the lead — powerfully tonifying the Middle Qi, raising the sunken yang, and securing the exterior against spontaneous sweating. Rén Shēn, Bái Zhú, and Zhì Gān Cǎo tonify the Spleen and augment the Qi, rebuilding the center’s strength, while Dāng Guī nourishes the Blood — for Qi and Blood are mutually rooted, and a depleted Qi soon thins the Blood.

Chén Pí regulates the Qi and harmonizes the Stomach, so the rich tonics move freely and do not stagnate. And Shēng Má with Chái Hú — light and ascending — raise the sunken clear yang, lifting the center and the organs it supports. Tonify the middle, and lift what has fallen.

When to Reach for It