What’s in a name? Emperor’s Teapills (Tian Wang Bu Xin Wan)

Classical Chinese formulas are usually named according to function, like “Soothe Liver Pills” (Shu Gan Wan) or major ingredients, like “Ginseng, Astragalus, Schizandra Pills” (Shen Qi Wu Wei Zi Wan). Today, we’re going to talk about a famous one with a more fanciful name, the classic Tian Wang Bu Xin Dan, which means “Heavenly King’s Tonify Heart Pills”, now more commonly known as Emperor’s Teapills.

Chinese Medicine students may learn that this formula was first recorded in 1638 by Ming Dynasty physician Hong Ji 洪基 in his Secrets of Health Preservation shè shēng mì pōu 摄生秘剖. Hong Ji spent two decades researching medical classics and collecting formulas from all over China and beyond. From the tens of thousands of formulas he found, Hong Ji chose what he felt were the most useful 80 to include in Secrets of Health Preservation, and Tian Wang Bu Xin Dan was one of them. But where did he get this formula from and why did it have this unusual name?

emperors teapills

It is highly likely that Tian Wang Bu Xin Dan was first used a thousand years earlier by the eminent Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk Dao Xuan 道宣 (596-667). The History of Buddha Fó zǔ tǒng jì 佛祖统记 written during the Southern Song Dynasty in 1269 by Buddhist monk Master Zhi Pan 志磐 is a record of Buddhist luminaries beginning from the 26th year of King Zhao of the Zhou Dynasty (1027 BCE) and ending at the 5th year of Emperor Duzong of the Song (1269 CE), a span of over 2,200 years. It includes a biography of the Sakyamuni Buddha and records the deeds of eminent monks, as well as this intriguing passage: In the first year of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty (650 AD), Dao Xuan "suffered from heart fatigue and illness, and Vaisravana gave him a prescription to nourish the heart". It is known that Master Dao Xuan practiced extreme asceticism throughout his life, often eschewing sleeping, sitting, or rest as he chanted the name of the Buddha and Buddhist scriptures for periods of 90 consecutive days, thereby causing great physical and mental exhaustion. From this record, it was believed that the god Vaisravana, leader of the Four Heavenly Kings and Protector of the Dharma in Buddhism, appeared to him in a dream and prescribed an herbal formula to cure him. It is said that Dao Xuan then passed this formula along to other monks to help them in their meditation practices.

A further piece of evidence supporting the formula’s origin story is found in another ancient Buddhist manuscript. In the late 1980s, Dunhuang researchers discovered that a manuscript (Stein Duhuang manuscript S.5598V stored in the British Library) recovered from one of the holy Mogao caves had a passage titled "Vaisravana Heavenly King granted Xuan Monk [a] Miraculous Heart-Nourishing Pill Recipe " 毗沙门天王奉宣和尚神妙补心丸方, and purportedly describes an herbal formula that is essentially the same as the Tian Wang Bu Xin Dan formula in Hong Ji’s work. The age of this manuscript is estimated as Tang Dynasty, which may make it the source of Master Zhi Pan’s History. Interestingly, this formula doesn’t appear in records again until Hong Ji’s collection, perhaps implying that it hadn’t spread too far out of the monastic community. Whether or not the god Vaisravana bestowed this formula on Dao Xuan in a dream or that it was the result of a hallucination of Dao Xuan’s own exhausted mind, it does support the belief that this formula is at least 1,500 years old, and in any case later deemed one of the most effective formulas ever, at least according to Hong Ji.

The “Heavenly King’s Tonify Heart Pills” is still one of the most widely used formulas today, although the reasons for its popularity are surely due to our stressful, hectic lifestyles rather than any meditative endeavors. In traditional Chinese medicine, it is prescribed for Heart and Kidney Yin deficiency with Blood deficiency and Shen disturbance, also known as Heart and Kidney not communicating. This condition is mostly caused by excessive worry, which consumes Yin and Blood, causing deficiency of both Heart and Kidney, deficiency of Yin and Blood, and internal disturbance of virtual Fire. Yin deficiency and Blood deficiency make the Heart lose its nourishment, and can manifests as insomnia, frequent waking, excessive and vivid dreaming, palpitations, fatigue and forgetfulness. Yin deficiency produces internal Heat, and internal disturbance of virtual Fire, leading to restlessness whether asleep or while awake, irritability, and hot extremities, with the potential for more serious symptoms if left untreated.

This pattern usually presents with a weak, rapid pulse and a red tongue with little coating. The treatment strategy is to nourish Yin, clear Heat, nourish Blood and Calm the Shen.

Formula ingredients are as follows: Sheng di huang/Rehmannia glutinosa, Dang gui/Angelica sinensis, Wu wei zi/Schisandra chinensis, Suan zao ren/Ziziphus jujuba, Bai zi ren/Platycladus orientalis, Tian men dong/Asparagus cochinchinensis, Mai men dong/Ophiopogon japonicus, Xuan shen/Scrophularia ningpoensis, Dan shen/Salvia miltiorrhiza, Dang shen/Codonopsis pilosula, Fu ling/Poria cocos, Jie geng/Platycodon grandiflorum, and Yuan zhi/Polygala.

Modern formulations tend to substitute Dang shen/Codonopsis pilosula for the original Ren shen/Panax Ginseng due to cost and have omitted Zhu sha/Cinnabar due to toxicity associated with long-term use.

Sweet and cold Sheng di huang is the main herb and makes up almost a third of the formula. Sheng di huang tonifies the Blood when entering the Heart and nourishes Yin when entering the Kidney, thereby strengthening Water to control virtual Fire. Deputy herbs Tian men dong and Mai men dong nourish Yin and clear Heat, Suan zao ren and Bai zi ren nourish the Heart and calm the Shen, and Dang gui nourishes Blood and moisturizes dryness, which together help Sheng di huang nourish Yin and Blood and nourish the Heart and calm the Shen. Xuan shen nourishes Yin and reduces Fire; Fu ling and Yuan zhi nourish the Heart and calm the Shen; Dang shen replenishes Qi to generate Blood. The sourness of Suan zao ren can restrain the Heart Qi and calm the Shen. Dan shen activates Heart Blood circulation, and when combined with blood-tonifying herbs can replenish without stagnation, so that the Heart Blood can be easily generated. Jie geng is the guide and vessel that carries all the herbs upward to the Heart meridian.

Celestial in origin or not, this masterful formula has withstood the test of time, bringing relief to countless people over a millennium. It is a testament to the Medicine that this formula is still relevant and essential today, and by continuing to use it, we are proudly adding ourselves into an ancient timeline.

About the Author

Photo of Yvonne Lau

Yvonne Lau has been the President of Mayway Herbs since 1997 and has worked in the family Chinese herb business since childhood. She first visited China in 1982, and still travels there annually for business and pleasure. She has had the good fortune and honor to work with many people both in China and the US who are passionate about Chinese Medicine and about herb quality.

Yvonne has also been active as the Vice President of the Chinese Herb Trade Association of America since 1998, a trade group founded in 1984 representing over 300 Chinese herb importers, distributors, and retailers primarily in California. She chairs the Regulatory Compliance Committee for the Association, and in this role has lectured about Good Manufacturing Practices and best business practices, as well as organized and moderated meetings between regulatory agencies and the Association.

References

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