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First proposed that Eucommia is 'a qi-aspect drug of the Liver channel, moistening liver dryness and tonifying liver deficiency'—an insight his predecessors had not reached.

Story

Wang Haogu (c. 1200–1264), courtesy name Jinzhi, hao Haizang, of Zhaozhou, was a famous physician of the Jin–Yuan era. Inheriting the learning of Zhang Yuansu and Li Gao, he wrote the three-juan Tangye Bencao, expounding drug properties through the theories of ascending-descending-floating-sinking and channel tropism—a representative work of Jin–Yuan pharmacology.

In the Eucommia entry he broke with the ancient-formula tradition of 'knowing only kidney tonification', explicitly proposing that Eucommia is 'a qi-aspect drug of the Liver channel' able to 'moisten liver dryness and tonify wind-deficiency of the Liver channel'. In the 'Faming' (elucidation) section of the Compendium of Materia Medica's Eucommia entry, Li Shizhen praised him for 'bringing forth what earlier men had not', deriving the classic dictum: 'the liver governs sinews, the kidney governs bones... Duzhong is purple and moist; sweet-warm it can tonify, slightly pungent it can moisten, thus it enters the liver and tonifies the kidney.' The theoretical source of Eucommia's modern official action—'tonifying liver and kidney, strengthening sinews and bones'—lies precisely in Wang Haogu's insight.

Milestones

• Studied under Li Gao and Zhang Yuansu, becoming a third-generation inheritor of the Yishui school
• Served as instructor of Zhaozhou and professor of medicine; authored Tangye Bencao, Yinzheng Lueli, and other works
• Systematically organized commonly used drugs by channel-tropism theory; Eucommia is one of the typical examples of his theory

Key Contributions

• His Tangye Bencao (Materia Medica for Decoctions) established the channel-tropism theory of drug properties; its Eucommia entry reads 'pungent, sweet, neutral to warm, non-toxic. It is yang; it descends'
• First proposed that Eucommia enters the Liver channel: '(Duzhong) is a qi-aspect drug of the Liver channel', 'moistening liver dryness and tonifying wind-deficiency of the Liver channel'
• His view was highly praised by Li Shizhen: 'Ancient formulas knew Duzhong only as a kidney tonic; only Wang Haogu said it is a qi-aspect drug of the Liver channel... he brought forth what earlier men had not'
• Expanded Eucommia's action from merely tonifying the kidney to treating liver and kidney together, laying the theoretical basis of 'the liver governs sinews, the kidney governs bones'