Gui zhi ma huang ge ban tang
gui zhi 9 bai shao 9 sheng jiang 9 da zao 9 gan cao 6 ma huang 9 xing ren 12
In tai yang disease lasting eight or nine days and resembling malaria, in which there is heat effusion and aversion to cold with the heat effusion more pronounced than the aversion to cold, and in which the person does not retch, the excretions are still normal, and episodes occur two or three times a day, then the following applies. If the pulse is slightly moderate this means that there is about to be recovery. If the pulse is faint and there is aversion to cold, this means that both yin and yang are vacuous and one cannot further promote sweating, further promote precipitate, or further cause vomiting. However, a facial complexion with the color of heat means that the disease is not about to resolve, and because the person cannot get up a light sweat, there will be generalized itching, therefore gui zhi ma huang ge ban tang governs.
There are two formulas in which gui zhi tang and ma huang tang are combined. Gui zhi er ma huang tang yi tang and gui zhi ma huang ge ban tang. These formulas do not get used much but the theory is important to understand.
Xu Da Chun comments; The meaning of this formula gui zhi er ma huang yi tang and gui zhi ma huang ge ban tang are similar, but because great sweating has occurred the gui zhi tang is slightly more and the ma huang tang is slightly less. Meaning that gui zhi tang replaces nutritive and is a formula for deficiency.
But now the balance of the formula has shifted to one of more pungent dispersing of the surface to clear cold but also heat.
It is a combined pattern of tai yang wind strike and wind cold. The patient in this pattern is weak so we need more pungent herbs to raise the yang to the surface to clear the cold while supporting the nutritive and freeing the vessels.
When the surface is closed heat cannot escape and there is a fever. The fever in a ma huang tang pattern is higher than a gui zhi tang pattern.
We know that the surface is half closed and half open because the formula contains gui zhi, bai shao and ma huang.
For a full description of gui zhi tang and ma huang tang see the separate pages.