Qing Ying Tang (Clear the Nutritive Level Decoction)

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Indications

Western Uses:

• What is Qing Ying Tang used for in modern practice?

  In modern practice Qing Ying Tang is referenced for high-fever states with agitation and an emerging rash, historically applied within the Wen Bing framework to conditions such as epidemic febrile illness, encephalitis/meningitis, sepsis, and eruptive fevers (e.g., measles, scarlet fever) presenting with high night fever and faint petechiae. Contemporary Chinese clinical and laboratory research has also explored it, in combination with conventional care, for severe acute pancreatitis-associated lung injury and for blood-heat pattern psoriasis.

  These biomedical correlates are offered as a reference to the formula’s traditional use, not as a claim that it treats any disease. Any use for a diagnosed condition — especially a high fever, altered consciousness, or bleeding disorder — requires urgent evaluation by a qualified practitioner and, where indicated, emergency medical care; it is not a substitute for either.

  Source: traditional-use correlates summarized from Bensky & Barolet, Formulas & Strategies; modern research context from PubMed (see research). Reference only, not a treatment claim.

Originally Appeared In:

• Systematic Differentiation of Warm Diseases (Wen Bing Tiao Bian)

Notes:

• How is Qing Ying Tang different from Xi Jiao Di Huang Tang and Qing Wen Bai Du Yin?

  These three formulas track progressively deeper (or broader) heat within Ye Tianshi’s four-level (wei-qi-ying-xue) model of warm-febrile disease. Choosing among them depends on which level the heat has actually reached.

  • vs Xi Jiao Di Huang Tang (Rhinoceros Horn and Rehmannia Decoction): that formula treats heat that has moved a stage deeper, into the blood (xue) level, with frank bleeding (e.g., nosebleeds, blood in stool, dark rash) — it cools blood and stops bleeding but lacks Qing Ying Tang’s heat-venting herbs (Jin Yin Hua, Lian Qiao), because at the blood level there is no longer a qi-level pathway to vent heat back out through.
  • vs Qing Wen Bai Du Yin (Clear the Epidemic and Resolve Toxin Beverage): that formula is a larger combination addressing heat simultaneously blazing at the qi, ying, and xue levels (built around Bai Hu Tang plus nutritive/blood-clearing herbs) — used for more severe, multi-level epidemic heat-toxin patterns than Qing Ying Tang’s single-level presentation.

  Key modifications: add Da Qing Ye, Ban Lan Gen, or Zi Cao when the rash is more pronounced; add Shi Gao and Zhi Mu when qi-level heat (marked thirst, sweating) is still prominent alongside the nutritive-level signs; reduce or omit Huang Lian if Stomach heat is not marked, to protect fluids and digestion; add Ling Yang Jiao (antelope horn, now also restricted/substituted) or Gou Teng if there is wind-stirring (tremor, convulsion).

  Source: Bensky & Barolet, Formulas & Strategies (Wen Bing formula comparisons and modifications).

Clinical Studies & Research:

• Is there modern research on Qing Ying Tang?

  Yes, though it is limited — a mix of a small clinical trial and animal studies rather than large-scale evidence. A randomized controlled trial in patients with blood-heat pattern psoriasis compared Qing Ying Tang against a conventional retinoid and reported improvement in skin lesions and TCM syndrome scores alongside reduced IL-17/IL-23/IL-22/IL-21, framed by the authors as related to IL-23/Th17 pathway regulation. Separately, an animal study in a severe-acute-pancreatitis model found the formula reduced lung injury markers comparably to dexamethasone, via upregulation of the aquaporin-1 water-channel protein.

  • Blood-heat pattern psoriasis (clinical, n=72): Qing Ying Tang vs. acitretin over 12 weeks, with improved skin-lesion and quality-of-life scores and reduced IL-17/IL-23/IL-22/IL-21 (PMID 30868829).
  • Pancreatitis-associated acute lung injury (animal model): Qing Ying Tang reduced lung edema and inflammatory markers via upregulation of aquaporin-1, performing comparably to dexamethasone (PMID 25371738).

  Sources: PubMed 30868829; PubMed 25371738. Research context, not a therapeutic claim; direct evidence for the formula's classic Wen Bing indication (acute febrile illness with rash) remains limited in the modern literature.