Introduction
"Restoring Health from Myriad Diseases"
This page is cultural documentation, not medical advice.
An 8-volume Ming-dynasty comprehensive medical encyclopedia by Gong Tingxian (1522–1619), completed around 1587. One of the most influential late-Ming clinical handbooks, with 1000+ formulas covering internal, external, gynecological, pediatric, and sensory-organ specialties.
Gong Tingxian's Wàn Bìng Huíchūn is the more clinically focused of his two large encyclopedias (the other being 《寿世保元》). Where 《寿世保元》 is comprehensive, 《万病回春》 is organized around "what the clinician sees at the bedside" — symptoms, then formulas, then case illustrations. The text records the canonical formulas Huáng Lián Shàng Qīng Wán (黄连上清丸, "Coptis Upper-Clearing Pill") and Míng Mù Dì Huáng Wán (明目地黄丸, "Eye-Brightening Rehmannia Pill"). It is, in short, the late-Ming clinical "field manual" that has shaped popular 中成药 lineage for over four centuries.
Historical background
The Wàn Bìng Huíchūn (《万病回春》) was compiled by Gong Tingxian during the Wanli reign of the Ming dynasty, with completion around 1587 during his tenure as a court physician. Unlike his later encyclopedic work 《寿世保元》, this text is organized as a bedside clinical manual — following a "symptom-pattern-formula-case" structure that mirrors the diagnostic reasoning process of the practicing physician. The book emerged during a period when Ming medicine was shifting from theoretical speculation toward practical, experience-based clinical documentation, and reflects Gong's synthesis of his family's medical tradition with his own imperial service experience.…
Formulas recorded in this text· 2
Formula · Huáng Lián Shàng Qīng Wán
Coptis Upper-Clearing
黄连上清丸
A "bitter-cold fire-draining" formula targeting the head and face, one of the most heavily stocked "fire-draining" OTC pills in Chinese pharmacies, used for short courses of pronounced "upper burner heat".
Formula · Míng Mù Dì Huáng Wán
Eye-Brightening Rehmanni
明目地黄丸
A "liver-kidney yin tonic for the eyes" formula with broader effect than Qi Ju Di Huang Wan, built on the six-ingredient base with additional eye-targeted herbs, used for chronic eye fatigue and early visual decline.