WEN JING TANG (Warm the Menses Decoction) has always been a favourite formula of mine. I have probably prescribed it hundreds of times. A formula becomes a favourite when I begin to feel I know exactly how to use it and it is remarkably effective. How I have come to think of Wen Jing Tang over the years is probably how many of us think of it; when a patient comes in with dysmenorrhea due to cold on a background of blood deficiency I use Wen Jing Tang. When the diagnosis is right, the effect is rapid and almost magical. Yet, as can happen when one is busy with a clinic year after year, my understanding of the potential of this classic formula became rather myopic in that I thought of it only for painful menstruation from cold. The fact that Formulas and Strategies lists indications for Wen Jing Tang such as dry lips and mouth, low grade fever at dusk and warm palms and soles went over my head; I focused on its ability to treat pain and cold.
This past autumn I travelled to Nan Jing with a small group of practitioners to study with Dr. Huang Huang. Wen Jing Tang is just one example of a prescription for which my limited, stuckin-a-rut thinking was put back on the road with expanded possibilities. During the course we were impressed and inspired by the way Dr. Huang opened our minds to the way of the jing fang , or classic formulas, of Zhang Zhong-Jing. Yet this was not a simple case of “new uses. From here simply referred to as Wen Jing Tang. for old formulas”. What Dr Huang opened us to was the logic and intelligence behind the Shang Han Lun (Discussion of Cold-Induced Disorders) formulas. One could say he taught us more thoroughly how to understand and utilise the old uses for the old formulas.
There have been several articles written about Huang Huang in recent issues of The Lantern, including one interview with Dr Huang. Chris Eddy and Michael Max and Dr Huang himself have done a good job of describing the method of diagnosis by body type and treating by matching the presentation with the formula. In this article, I would like to continue to fill out the reader’s sense of Dr Huang’s teachings and perspective by looking at how he uses one particular formula, Wen Jing Tang. I will base this on Dr Huang’s lectures, a case from Dr Huang’s clinic and information from his book Zhong Yi Shi Da Lei Fang (The Ten Major Formula Categories in Chinese Medicine). Finally I will present a case from my own clinic for which I would previously have never given Wen Jing Tang. You will see for yourself the efficacy of this approach.
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