When the Blood lingers and heat sets in
A dull complexion, darker lips, a feeling of heaviness that always returns to the same spot, inner warmth in the evening, a mind that grows restless just when it is time to settle down… In TCM, these signs may be associated with Blood stasis tinged with Heat: the Blood, which should circulate freely to nourish the whole body, slows down and lingers, and the heat born of this stagnation disturbs the Shen.
Dan Shen Pian is a modern preparation from the Chinese pharmacopoeia, built on a single herb: red sage root (Dan Shen). Its written use goes back more than two thousand years: the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (《神农本草经》), one of the founding texts of the Chinese materia medica, already places it in its upper class. Tradition today counts it among the most important Blood herbs in the whole pharmacopoeia.
A cool herb that sets the Blood moving again
Most herbs that move the Blood are warm and drying. Red sage, bitter and slightly cool, is the exception: it sets the Blood moving again without adding heat. A famous adage credits it, on its own, with the value of Si Wu Tang, the basic Blood formula; physicians have qualified this, pointing out that red sage mainly moves, whereas Si Wu Tang nourishes more.
Supports Blood circulation: Bitterness sends down and sets in motion. Red sage accompanies the Blood where it slows down, particularly along the Liver pathway, the Liver being, according to tradition, the organ that stores the Blood and regulates its course.
Disperses Blood stasis: This is its primary action in tradition: it helps set going again what has stopped and accumulated, and reopen the pathways where the Blood lingers.
Cools the Blood: Its slight coolness tempers the heat that long-standing stagnation ends up producing and, according to tradition, keeps Heat from binding with the Blood.
Promotes mental calm and inner ease: A more discreet action, which ancient texts also recognise: by tempering the heat that stirs the Shen and gently nourishing the Blood, it helps restore calm.
