What's the difference between Guizhi Decoction and Mahuang Decoction?

Mahuang decoction and Guizhi decoction are two basic prescriptions in Treatise on Febrile Diseases. It can be said that it is two basic prescriptions for treating sun disease. Physicians in the past dynasties also had many arguments about it, such as the battle between camp and guard, and the battle between monarch and minister for assistance. Textbooks mainly focus on the distinction between superficiality and superficiality to distinguish these two prescriptions. This time, it may not be right to express my views by combining the articles in Treatise on Febrile Diseases. I hope you can point it out. First of all, let me talk about Mahuang decoction. The stipulation about typhoid fever in Treatise on Febrile Diseases is: solar disease, or fever, or fever, aversion to cold, body pain, hiccups, and tight pulse of Yin and Yang. If everyone meets the above symptoms, it can be said that it is typhoid fever. This typhoid refers to "treatise on febrile diseases" in a narrow sense, not typhoid including stroke, typhoid and febrile diseases. Some people think that typhoid fever is caused by qi. I'll explain this next. Mahuang decoction is defined as sunstroke, headache, fever, body pain, lumbago, joint pain, aversion to cold, asthma and anhidrosis. In fact, the two most important dialectical points of Mahuang decoction syndrome are yin-yang tight pulse and breathlessness. Among the medical records I have seen (maybe not many), Mahuang decoction can get good results if doctors grasp these two key points of syndrome differentiation. Let me explain the meaning of tight pulse of yin and yang. Physicians in past dynasties still have great disputes on this issue. One theory is that the yin pulse is an inch pulse and the yang pulse is a ruler pulse. In my opinion, this inch pulse refers to the lung, and the ulnar pulse belongs to the main right kidney. There is also a saying that yang pulse refers to the pulse taken lightly, and yin pulse refers to the pulse taken again. Mahuang Decoction consists of Herba Ephedrae, Semen Armeniacae Amarum, Ramulus Cinnamomi and Radix Glycyrrhizae. There is no doubt that the prescription must be ephedra. The muscle surface of human body is injured by cold pathogen, which is known to have the characteristics of astringency and closed bundle. Cold pathogen can combine with defensive qi, so the pulse condition is tight. So what the book says is empirical, and I think there is some truth. The other is that the defensive qi is blocked, and the qi in the body can not be effectively released, so the symptoms of asthma will appear. It's kind of like stagnation. If you don't sweat, you will understand better. Cold evil? You can't sweat when you have a cold. Therefore, Mahuang Decoction uses Mahuang Xin Wen to express lung qi. Adding almonds can relieve asthma and enhance the irritation and transparency of ephedra. Almonds only help ephedra here. Plus the harmony of licorice. There is no problem with these, but the question is why cassia twig should be used in Mahuang decoction. As we know, Guizhi is considered as the monarch drug of Guizhi Decoction. Guizhi decoction is essentially different from cold pathogen in treating exterior syndrome of solar apoplexy. Wind is yang evil, but diarrhea is lighter than yang. Cold is yin evil and astringent. The pathogenesis is opposite, so should the monarch medicine. It seems that cassia twig should not appear in Mahuang decoction. My opinion is that Guizhi decoction is not Guizhi, but Paeonia lactiflora. As for the reason, we will talk about it later. I want to talk about why Mahuang decoction uses cassia twig. To solve this problem, I think we should first understand the role of cassia twig. I remember a book "Compendium of Materia Medica" written by Wang Ang, a doctor in Qing Dynasty. This book is very good. I suggest you have a look at it when you are free, which is very helpful to understand Chinese medicine. This book quotes Wang's words about the medicinal properties of cassia twig. He said this: "Zhong Jingyun suffers from sun disease, and those who are feverish and sweaty are weak and strong, and yin deficiency and yang hyperactivity must be supplemented. So cassia twig is used for sweating, and this is to regulate its qi, so qi is self-harmonious. Wind evil can't be tolerated, so you sweat. Ephedra will sweat if it can heal itself. Using cassia twig to sweat to reconcile the camp and guard, so the evil comes from sweating and stops sweating. It is not cassia twig that can close the sweat hole. " Here, what he said "camp weak and defend strong" refers to the state of camp defense after typhoid stroke. (the explanation is wrong, thinking that this is the syndrome of typhoid Mahuang decoction. ) Here he put forward a point, that is to say, Gui Zhi can reconcile the camps and guards and close the Khan Cave. How to understand this? Let me make an analogy. Traditional Chinese medicine likes to make analogy. Let's take Roewe as an example. We know it will rain in nature. If we compare heaven and earth to the human body, then the atmosphere is our glory gas, because Wei Rong is the most superficial gas of the human body. We know it's going to rain on the earth, and the Chinese medicine explains the rain like this: the rise of the earth's atmosphere intersects with the weather and falls into the rain. This rain is actually the same as the perspiration mechanism of our human body. Why do you say that? Because Chinese medicine defines the formation of sweat in this way: Yang plus Yin means sweat. In my opinion, this yin is glory, and this yang is power. It is cloudy and sunny. Then the atmosphere is negative and the weather should be positive. Then the normal sweat formation is the intersection of honor and defense, just like the intersection of weather and air to form rain. Let's understand this metaphor more deeply. Mahuang decoction has no sweat, that is, the defensive qi is too tight and the weather is too strong. Therefore, the local gas can also be said that the glory gas can't reach and can't interact with the Wei gas. Therefore, one of the essences of Mahuang decoction syndrome is that Stephy is too closed to be compatible with Rong Qi. Literally, this pride means prosperity, and it is outward. Stephy means defending qi, which converges inward. Originally, these two forces were balanced, but the cold evil was that Qi Wei was too closed to have intercourse with Rong Qi. So Mahuang Decoction uses ephedra and almond to open Wei Qi's closed bundle and make it intersect with Wei Qi. This is equivalent to weakening the beam-closing effect of Wei Qi. As we all know, if Wei Qi and Yungchi meet, they will be sweating like a pig. This sweat should be medicine sweat, and it is also a phenomenon that human body functions return to normal. The role of Guizhi here is to reconcile the spirit of glory and the spirit of defense, specifically, to make these two functions equal and balanced. The function of ephedra is to evacuate the defensive qi, but how to make this glory and defensive qi reach the secret state of Yin Pingyang? It depends on cassia twig. To make it clear, it is to let the local atmosphere and weather interact on a global scale to form rain. Which is drug sweat. Sweating leads to recovery and no more sweating. In this respect, can it be said that it has the function of closing sweat holes? Without cassia twig, it is likely to further weaken the ability to close Wei Qi's bundle and form other diseases. For example, Guizhi decoction syndrome. Next, let's look at the provisions of Guizhi decoction syndrome: solar disease, floating pulse, stiff neck and aversion to cold. Sun sickness, fever, sweating, and slow pulse are called strokes. Guizhi decoction is mainly used for patients with solar disease, headache, fever, hyperhidrosis and bad wind. There is another one: sun stroke, yang floating and yin weak. Yang floating, heat spontaneous; Those with weakness of yin, spontaneous sweating, aggravated aversion to cold, intermittent aversion to wind, purring heat and nasal vomiting are treated with Guizhi Decoction. The medicine consists of Paeonia lactiflora, Ramulus Cinnamomi, Rhizoma Zingiberis Recens, Fructus Jujubae and Radix Glycyrrhizae. The main points of syndrome differentiation of Guizhi decoction are sweating and slow pulse. Let's continue to explain the above metaphor. The so-called stroke is that pride is too lax and anger is too catharsis. The consequence of this catharsis is to bring out sweat and heat. Because this drainage belongs to the wind, the wind naturally blows up, and it will be empty after a long time, because this sweat will hurt Yang and Yin. It is characterized by fever and sweating, and the pulse is slow, indicating outward dissipation. Then there should be a medicine in Guizhi decoction to prevent this from dissipating outward, and this medicine should be used as the monarch medicine of Guizhi decoction like ephedra. I think it is Paeonia lactiflora that has this effect. Paeonia lactiflora belongs to the liver meridian, which tastes sour but slightly cold, so it has the effect of convergence, and this effect can just treat the disadvantages of excessive qi stagnation. The role of cassia twig here is the same as Mahuang decoction, which is to reconcile the camp and the guards and let the weather and the local atmosphere have normal intercourse again. As for ginger, jujube and licorice are nourishing yin liquid on the one hand, and tonifying the middle energizer and strengthening the spleen on the other. Why strengthen the spleen? Because the spirit of glory and health is rooted in middle earth. This Guizhi decoction is a deficiency syndrome, so Guizhi decoction is a prescription for tonifying deficiency, and a caramel is Xiaojianzhong decoction, which is used to treat fatigue in synopsis of golden chamber. Now let's go back to the explanation of pulse yin and yang mentioned above. Personally, I think both explanations are quite reasonable, but personally, I prefer that the yang pulse refers to the lightly taken pulse and the yin pulse refers to the re-taken pulse. In Treatise on Febrile Diseases, there is a saying in Guizhi Decoction that "the sun has a stroke, and the yang is floating and the yin is weak." Yang floating, heat spontaneous; Yin is weak, sweating. Yang floating means that when you press it, it is a floating pulse, and when you press it again, it is a weak pulse, because the pulse of exterior syndrome of typhoid fever is floating, floating and warm, which all means spreading outward. My pulse is weak because I sweat too much, and the fluid in my vagina has begun to weaken. Now let's sum up typhoid fever and stroke, that is, typhoid fever is because the defensive qi is too closed, so ephedra and almond are used to open the closure of defensive qi. Only in this way can we intersect with glory. Stroke is due to excessive venting of glory, so we use Paeonia lactiflora to inhibit the venting of glory. So he can intersect with Wei Qi. The role of cassia twig in these two prescriptions is to reconcile camp and guard and close sweat holes. Is to keep a balance between honor and defense. Ephedra belongs to the lung meridian, and its function is to guard against qi, not to disperse qi, because it is not as good as the liver meridian. Paeonia lactiflora belongs to the liver meridian, and its function is to disperse qi, not to close Stephy, because it does not enter the lung meridian. Ramulus Cinnamomi mediates camp and defense, belonging to the bladder meridian of the sun. Mahuang decoction's monarch drug is ephedra, Guizhi decoction's monarch drug is Paeonia lactiflora, and Guizhi only plays the role of harmonizing camp and health in these two prescriptions.