If something has both positive and negative meanings, it can be really elusive. For example, in ancient times, men and women were happy with each other, and they gave each other things, and they could give each other a peony flower, such as the "Book of Songs" said "Weishi and women, Yiqi will be scorned, and they will be given a spoonful of medicine". However, also in ancient times, if a man and a woman were unhappy and broke up kindly, they could also give each other a peony flower, such as Liu Zongyuan's "If you want to drink as much as you want, you will be separated from the tears of tears". However, what many people don't know is that peony is a rare classic medicine, and it also has two sides, of which the beauty can only be understood but not spoken.
The earliest record of peony as a traditional Chinese medicine is in the "Fifty-two Prescriptions", which has the description of "crumbs spoon medicine, with half a cup, with three fingers, drink it", and then in the "Shennong Materia Medica", the role of peony is systematically described, that peony has the functions of "removing blood paralysis, breaking the accumulation", "relieving pain", "facilitating urination, invigorating qi", etc., and made a brief overview of the clinical application of peony, thinking that peony can be used to treat "evil qi abdominal pain", "cold and heat", "hernia" and other diseases. However, neither the "Fifty-two Prescriptions" nor the "Shennong's Materia Medica" indicate whether this peony is white peony or red peony.
For the peony flavor of traditional Chinese medicine, before the Han Dynasty, basically did not distinguish between red and white peony, or the mixture of red peony and white peony, and did not make a detailed distinction, but in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the famous medical scientist Tao Hongjing, he began to gradually realize that red peony and white peony should be distinguished. Some doctors have researched the ancient Materia Medica literature and found that the Commentary on the Materia Medica is the earliest Materia Medica that mentions that peony is divided into red and white, and the Southern Yunnan Materia Medica of the Ming Dynasty was the first to divide peony into two types: white peony and red peony [1]. In the current clinical application, there are two kinds of red peony and white peony, especially the white peony is used more frequently, and the peony we mention generally refers to white peony.
Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Materia Medica, especially the two monographs of Materia Medica, "Southern Yunnan Materia Medica" and "Materia Medica", have discussed the white peony in great detail. In the "Southern Yunnan Materia Medica", the effect of white peony is mainly divided into the following categories, the first category is the excretion effect, such as "diarrhea and spleen heat", "collecting liver qi and reversing pain", "soothing the liver and lowering qi"; the second category is the analgesic effect, such as "relieving abdominal pain" and "relieving liver qi pain"; the third category is regulating water metabolism, such as "stopping water discharge", "regulating the heart, liver, spleen and menstrual blood". The first is to strengthen the spleen and lungs, strengthen the body, and blood veins, collect yin qi, and collect adverse qi, "invigorate qi and remove trouble, collect sweat and stabilize the fetus, replenish labor and reduce fever"; In fact, through the analysis of the function of white peony, you will find a rather wonderful thing, that is, the two sides of white peony medicine, for example, it can not only "diarrhea the liver and reduce fire", but also "nourish blood and soften the liver"; for example, it can not only "stop diarrhea", but also "facilitate urination"; it can not only "benefit qi", but also "disperse bad blood".
Since the use of white peony in clinical practice, later generations of doctors have gradually explored its processing methods, and throughout the ages, the processing of white peony is mainly divided into five types: raw white peony, fried white peony, wine white peony, vinegar white peony, and fried white peony. Generally speaking, raw white peony mainly has the effect of clearing liver fire, calming liver yang, nourishing yin and removing troubles, and is often used to treat headache, dizziness, tinnitus, as well as yin deficiency and fever, irritability and irritability caused by hyperactivity of liver yang; fried white peony mainly has the effect of nourishing blood and camping, collecting yin and stopping sweating, and is often used to treat blood deficiency and chlorosis, abdominal pain and diarrhea, self-sweating and night sweats; Limb cramps and other diseases; vinegar white peony mainly has the effect of collecting blood and nourishing blood, soothing the liver and relieving depression, and is often used to treat diseases such as milk blockage and blood in the urine caused by liver depression; fried white peony mainly has the effect of nourishing blood and spleen and stopping diarrhea, and is often used to treat abdominal pain, diarrhea and other diseases caused by liver and spleen deficiency. It can be said that the concocted products of white peony have a significant tendency to change its efficacy.
The flavor of white peony is a traditional Chinese medicine in the eyes of the medical saint Zhang Zhongjing, and it is also a very wonderful traditional Chinese medicine, such as in Guizhi Soup, Peony Licorice Soup, Citrus Citrus Peony Powder, Angelica Peony Powder, Xiaojianzhong Soup, Zhenwu Tang and other classic recipes, indicating that the compatibility of peony is very important. Modern medical researchers have found that the different concocted products of white peony are compatible with other traditional Chinese medicines, and can also have wonderful effects, such as vinegar white peony with vinegar Bupleurum chinensis, which can enhance the effect of relieving pain and soothing the liver; fried white peony with raw astragalus, which has the effect of sourness, sweetness, yin, peace and qi; vinegar white peony with licorice, has good pain-relieving effect, and can be widely used in pain caused by various diseases; white peony with angelica, with the ability to nourish yin, nourish blood, regulate the spleen and liver; raw white peony with raw oysters, with the ability to calm the liver hyperactivity, nourish the liver yin, The effect of tonifying the spleen and latent yang[2].
White peony is a traditional Chinese medicine that has not only had a very powerful effect since ancient times, but also has been favored by modern pharmacology. Modern pharmacological studies have found that Paeonia alba has pharmacological effects such as anti-inflammatory and analgesic, antidepressant, anti-cancer, anti-thrombosis, hypolipidemic and hypoglycemic properties, liver protection, improvement of myocardial hypertrophy, improvement of osteoarthritis, improvement of strabismus amblyopia, improvement of the impact of ischemia and reperfusion, and laxative[3]. In terms of clinical application, white peony can be used for the treatment of oral lichen planus, scleroderma, hyperlactemia [3], as well as the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus [4]. In addition, white peony also has a peculiar effect, that is, the effect of reducing toxicity and increasing efficiency [3], which can alleviate the adverse reactions of neem seed, Sichuan black, tripterygium wilfordii, strychnine, and asaroxin [4]. I have to say that the flavor of white peony is really wonderful!
For the wonder of white peony, in a word, as said in the "Meaning of Medicine", white peony medicine "can replenish and can laxative, specializing in the sea of blood, women regulate menstruation and fetal birth, and men have all liver diseases, and it is appropriate to use it to reconcile blood and gas". The wonder of white peony can be called. After all, white peony is still a cold medicine, so it is not suitable for external wind cold, internal injury and cold, spleen and stomach deficiency and cold, kidney yang deficiency and other diseases, not to use alone, let alone a large number of use, in compatibility, should not be compatible with the same formula of quinoa.
bibliography
[1] Liu Ping.Peony, white peony, red peony of the past dynasties of materia medica[J].Chinese Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine,2018,33(12):5662-5665.
[2] Guo Lizhong, Wu Di.Application analysis of the compatibility of different concocted products of Paeonia paeoniae[J].China Continuing Medical Education,2015,7(26):179-180.
[3] Zhang Yanli, Tian Yuan, Fu Qifeng, et al.Research progress on chemical composition and pharmacological effects of Paeonia alba[J].Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine,2021,49(2):104-109.
[4] Yan Xia ,Yue Guochao,Xiao Yanying.Analysis of the attenuating effect of white peony and different traditional Chinese medicines[J].Chinese Folk Remedies,2021,29(6):73-76.
[This graphic and text is exclusively and originally produced by "Shenxiyuan" new media. Author: Shen Xi Yuan (the spiritual home of global Chinese medicine practitioners, the museum of Chinese medicine life science), without authorization, please do not reprint or copy]