Tang Ye Jing: Introduction

This is Part One of the series Exploring the Tang Ye Jing.

The Decoction Classic, or Tang Ye Jing (湯液經), is an ancient text of Chinese Medicine that describes Chinese herbs and their interactions in terms of the Five Phases (五行) and the dynamics of the Five Flavors (五味). It contains a set of twenty five herbs, which it organizes in groups of five according to flavor (one group for each of the Five Phases), and also contains formulas composed of these herbs to tonify and drain each of the Phases. It is the first text we know of solely devoted to herbal formulas, and it is said to be one of the major influences on Zhang Zhong Jing (張仲景), author of the Shang Han Za Bing Lun (傷寒雜病論).

To say that the Tang Ye Jing is a mysterious text is an understatement. Despite its status as a foundational text of Chinese Medicine, very little is known about it. Attributed to an author called Yin Yi (伊尹), we have no exact date for its composition, although it is referenced in many other classical medical texts, such as the preface to the Zhen Jiu Jia Yi Jing (針灸甲乙經). Although copies of the Tang Ye Jing were apparently available as early as the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 – 220 CE), it appears to have disappeared by the Song Dynasty (960 – 1279 CE), and it was believed to be a lost for centuries.

In the 20^th century however, another ancient text was discovered, the Fu Xing Jue Wu Zang Yong Yao Fa Yao (輔行訣臟腑用藥法要), a work attributed to the Daoist herbalist and Tao Hongjing (456-536 CE). The Fu Xing Jue, whose full title could be translated as “Auxiliary Secrets For Treating the Zang Fu Using Herbal Medicine”, discusses the Tang Ye Jing extensively and also contains long passages that appear to be direct excerpts from the Tang Ye Jing.

There is some controversy over the authenticity of the Tang Ye Jing. Some scholars argue its history is dubious, and that the Fu Xing Jue itself may very well be either misattributed to Tao Hongjing or an outright forgery. Others however, think there is a strong case to be made that the document, as we have it preserved from the Fu Xing Jue, is authentic and that it was unquestionably an influence on Zhang Zhongjing and his formulas. The latter perspective is stated the most thoroughly by Dr. Liu Guohui in his Foundations of Theory for Ancient Chinese Medicine.

As a practitioner of Chinese Medicine, rather than a historian, I have no opinion on whether the Tang Ye Jing is a historically authentic document. And I have to confess I have little interest in such a question. My primary interest in it is clinical, rather than scholarly – and from that perspective, my approach to questions of "authenticity" is pragmatic, rather than academic.* 

Questions about its historicity aside, I think the Tang Ye Jing can be regarded as an 'authentic' part of the Chinese Medicine canon if meets two criteria, namely (a) if its contents are based on principles found in the Chinese Medical Classics, and (b) if its contents are relevant to the practice of Chinese Medicine.

I believe the Tang Ye Jing fulfills both (a) and (b). And regardless of what dynasty it was composed in or by whom, its grouping of herbs by flavor accords with the theory of flavor described in the Huang Di Nei Jing and provides us with a useful framework for understanding how herbs are combined in the formulas of Zhang Zhongjing. Because Zhang Zhongjing's work forms the canonical basis for all of Chinese Herbal Medicine, studying the Tang Ye Jing to improve our understanding of these formulas can only improve our grasp of Chinese Herbalism - and Chinese Medicine - as a whole.

The use of a Five Phase model, applied to herbalism, also makes the Tang Ye Jing of interest to acupuncturists who may already use other systems based on the Five Phases, such as Master Tung's Acupuncture, Saam Four Needle Acupuncture, Worsley's Five Element Acupuncture, or the system of Chinese Medicine psychology in Dr. Leon Hammer's Dragon Rises Red Bird Flies. By studying the Tang Ye Jing, we can gain an overall better understanding of the Five Phases, deepening other Chinese Medicine practices and integrating them with herbal medicine.

This series will explore the Tang Ye Jing's theory of flavor, its logic for grouping herbs the way that it does, and how that logic can help us understand how these herbs are used in Zhang Zhongjing's formulas. The first part of the series will begin with an examination of the theory of flavor found in the Tang Ye Jing, and then move through each of the Five Phases.

I will not be looking much at the text of the Fu Xing Jue itself, or analyzing any of the formulas included therein. Those who are interested in this subject can find a comprehensive translation of the Fu Xing Jue, along with its prescriptions (which include acupuncture point prescriptions as well as herbal formulas) by Michael Dell'Orfano, and edited and critically annotated by Heiner Fruehauf.

In the next section, we will review the twenty five herbs of the Tang Ye Jing's materia medica, and the Flavor it assigns to each of the Five Phases.












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* At some point I intend to write a longer piece on "authenticity" in the contemporary practice of Chinese Medicine in North America.