Introduction
"Treatise on the Spleen and Stomach"
This page is cultural documentation, not medical advice.
A foundational 13th-century medical-theoretical text by Li Dongyuan, the source of the "earth-tonifying school" (补土派) of Chinese medicine. Best known as the source of Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang (补中益气汤).
Li Dongyuan (李东垣, 1180–1251), also known as Li Gao (李杲), wrote this 3-volume treatise arguing that internal damage to the spleen and stomach is the root of most chronic disease. The text is the source of the "earth-tonifying" (补土派) school and the home of Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang (补中益气汤), the canonical "center-supplementing, qi-raising" formula for fatigue, post-illness weakness, and prolapse of various kinds.
Historical background
Pi Wei Lun was compiled by Li Dongyuan in 1249, late in the Jin-Yuan transition, after decades of clinical practice in the Bianjing area. The text emerged from the epidemics, famines, and warfare of early 13th-century northern China and offered a counterweight to the prevailing Song reliance on cold, draining prescriptions. Li organized the book around the thesis that internal damage to the spleen and stomach is the root of all disease (内伤脾胃，百病由生), establishing what later literati called the earth-tonifying (补土派) school. The treatise circulated in manuscript among his disciples Luo Tianyi and Wang Hao, was first printed in the Yuan, and was repeatedly reissued through the Ming and Qing.…
Formulas recorded in this text· 1
Formula · Bǔ Zhōng Yì Qì Wán
Center-Supplementing, Qi-Boosting
补中益气丸
A "spleen-and-stomach tonifying, qi-raising" formula with a long history of use for fatigue, post-illness weakness, and the kind of tiredness that does not feel fully physical.