Introduction
"Essentials of Internal Medicine"
This page is cultural documentation, not medical advice.
A 2-volume Ming-dynasty medical-case collection by Xue Ji (1487–1559), completed around 1529. The earliest specialist "internal-medicine case record" in the Chinese medical tradition, documenting the clinical practice of the warming-tonification school.
Xue Ji, styled Xinfu and self-styled Lizhai, was the principal clinical heir of the Ming-dynasty warming-tonification (温补派) school. The Neike Zhaiyao is his compilation of 200+ internal-medicine case records, each following a structured format: pattern identification, formula choice, dosing, and outcome. The text is the canonical source of Dān Zhī Xiāo Yáo Sǎn (加味逍遥散, "Danzhi Xiaoyao San"), the formula that adds Mǔ Dān Pí (moutan bark) and Shān Zhī Zǐ (gardenia) to Xiāo Yáo Sǎn. It is, in short, the foundational clinical record of the Ming warming-tonification school's internal-medicine practice.
Historical background
The Neike Zhaiyao (Essentials of Internal Medicine) was compiled by Xue Ji and completed around 1529 during the mid-Ming Jiajing reign. The text emerged from the warming-tonification (温补派) school, which traced its lineage to Li Dongyuan's Pi Wei Lun and was re-articulated through the writings of Zhu Danxi and the Xue family's hereditary medical practice. As the earliest specialist "internal-medicine case record" in the Chinese medical tradition, the work presents more than 200 cases organized in a structured "pattern–formula–dose–outcome" format. The text records the formula now known as Dān Zhī Xiāo Yáo Sǎn (Moutan-and-Gardenia Free-and-Easy Powder), produced by adding Mǔ Dān Pí and Shān Zhī Zǐ to the canonical Xiāo Yáo Sǎn.…
Formulas recorded in this text· 1
Formula · Dān Zhī Xiāo Yáo Wán
Moutan-Gardenia Free Wanderer
丹栀逍遥丸
A "shu-gan jie-yu, qing-re liang-xue" (spread the liver, resolve constraint, clear heat, cool blood) formula from the Ming-dynasty "Essentials of Internal Medicine", the "heat-clearing" expansion of the classic Xiao Yao San.