*Danggui* — Sage Medicine of the Blood
Danggui (Chinese angelica) — flavor sweet and pungent, nature warm. Enters the liver, heart, and spleen channels.
"China's danggui is finest under heaven; Minxian's danggui is finest in China." The danggui of Minxian, Gansu — large in yield and good in quality — moves through the country and is famed abroad. TCM prizes daodi (place-of-origin) herbs, so prescriptions often write Minxian-gui; Minxian was anciently Qinzhou, so prescriptions also write Qin-gui.
Why named danggui ("should-return")? "Should return." As the Tang poem says: "Hemp would be sown but none sows; just as the time to return comes, again none returns." In the Three Kingdoms period, the Shu general Jiang Wei's mother, missing her son, sent him danggui to express her urgent wish that he return.
A folk riddle: "Late in the fifth month, early in the sixth, the beauty buys paper to seal the window. The husband has been away three full years; the letter he sent had not a word." Answer: four Chinese herbs — banxia (half-summer), fangfeng (ward-wind), danggui (should-return), baizhi (white-stem). The line the husband has been away three full years points to danggui.
The Ming pharmacologist Li Shizhen also explained the name from danggui's ability to regulate menses and aid conception. In Bencao Gangmu: "The ancients married for the sake of continuing the line. Danggui regulates blood — a key herb for women; with the feeling of missing-the-husband, hence the name 'danggui'."
Danggui has long been used in medicine; in the Shennong Bencao Jing it is listed in the medium class — both tonifying and attacking; supports the right and treats illness. Its first virtue is supplementing blood. For blood-deficient dizziness, blurred vision, palpitations, fatigue, pale complexion, and thin weak pulse, danggui is most apt.
The famed Danggui Buxue Tang (Danggui Blood-Supplementing Decoction) consists of danggui and huangqi. Add dangshen and red dates — its qi-blood supplementation is stronger. Danggui is also a key herb in gynecology: it can both supplement and quicken blood, perfect for menstrual irregularity. The Siwu Tang (Four-Substance Decoction), combining danggui, shudi, baishao, chuanxiong, is the foundational formula of menstrual regulation. For dysmenorrhea, add xiangfu and yanhusuo; for amenorrhea, taoren and honghua.
Danggui is also fit for pain — it warms and opens the channels, quickens blood and relieves pain. Whether deficient-cold abdominal pain, rheumatic joint pain, or pain from blood-stasis after injury — all can use danggui.
It is also used for sores and abscesses. By quickening blood and resolving stasis, it reduces swelling, eases pain, drains pus, and grows new flesh. The famed Xianfang Huoming Yin uses danggui with chishao, jinyinhua, paoshanjia.
Danggui is also fit for constipation from blood-deficiency and intestinal dryness — nourishing blood and moistening the intestine. Often combined with roucongrong, raw shouwu, huomaren.
In many qi-and-blood-supplementing medicinal recipes, danggui is a key ingredient: Danggui-Shengjiang-Yangrou Tang, Shiquan Dabu Tang, medicinal steamed chicken, and others.
Truly, the famed danggui deserves its names: sage medicine of the blood and key herb of gynecology.