Introduction
"Key to Therapeutics of Children's Diseases"
This page is cultural documentation, not medical advice.
A 12th-century pediatric formula collection by the Northern Song physician Qian Yi, compiled after his death by his student Yan Jizhong. The earliest systematic pediatric formulary in the Chinese medical tradition, and the original source of Liuwei Dihuang Wan.
The text is conventionally attributed to Qian Yi (钱乙, c. 1032–1113), a court physician of the Northern Song dynasty. It was compiled and edited by his student Yan Jizhong (阎季忠) and is the earliest systematic pediatric formulary in the Chinese medical tradition. For this encyclopedia, the most relevant feature of the text is that it preserves the original pediatric context of Liuwei Dihuang Wan — a formula later generalized, over centuries, into the most common "kidney yin tonic" in Chinese pharmacies. Reading the original entry makes that historical shift visible.
Historical background
Xiao Er Yao Zheng Zhi Jue was originally composed by the Northern Song court physician Qian Yi (c. 1032–1113) and was compiled and edited after his death by his student Yan Jizhong (阎季忠), who circulated it in 1119. The text is the earliest systematic pediatric formulary in the Chinese medical tradition and set the template for later pediatric works. Its most frequently cited formula, Liuwei Dihuang Wan, appears in the original text in a strictly pediatric context and was only generalized into a kidney-yin tonic for adult use during the Yuan and Ming periods. The work circulated in manuscript for centuries; an early woodblock edition survives from the Ming, and Qing scholars such as You Yi and Zhou Xichuang produced substantial commentary.…
Formulas recorded in this text· 2
Formula · Dǎo Chì Wán
Heart-Draining Red
导赤丸
A pill form of the classical "qing-xin li-niao yang-yin" (clear the heart, promote urine, nourish yin) formula from the Song-dynasty "Key to Therapeutics of Children's Diseases", the foundational "heart-fire" formula in TCM pediatrics.
Formula · Liù Wèi Dì Huáng Wán
Six Flavor Rehmanni
六味地黄丸
A foundational herbal formula of the "kidney yin" tradition, more often discussed in households as a daily tonic than as a medicine.