Ginseng Chicken Soup in a Clay Pot，From *Proven Tea, Decoction, and Soup Recipes for Common Ailments*,Tonifies qi, nourishes blood, and regulates menstruation. Suitable for menstrual irregularities caused by qi and blood deficiency.
because it runs warm overall, this decoction is best avoided in yin-deficient, fire-prone constitutions; in the absence of frank deficiency, or where an excess or heat pattern prevails, indiscriminate warming tonic use is inadvisable; the warming-tonic nature is inadvisable during damp-heat, yin deficiency with fire, or episodes of exterior-heat
Commentary
At the head stands White ginseng, the sovereign, warm in nature and sweet, slightly bitter in flavor, with Spleen, Lung, Heart, Kidney tropism; it greatly tonifies yuan qi, restores collapse and generates fluids, underpinning the principal thrust of the decoction. The ministerial support — ginger (with warm nature and pungent flavor, having Lung, Spleen, Stomach tropism, disperses cold, relieves cough and harmonizes the stomach) — reinforces the sovereign’s main effect and coordinates the drug strength. Completing the formula, scallions, harmonizing the stomach and supporting dietary nourishment, and cooking wine, acting as the envoy to harmonize the various ingredients, so that potency is moderated and stomach qi protected. Together the herbs converge on this action, in accord with the qi-blood pattern.