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Also nourish the liver; nourish the blood and emolliate the liver. To treat liver yīn vacuity or liver blood vacuity, characterized by loss of visual acuity, dry eyes, night blindness, periodic dizzy head and tinnitus, and pale nails, or poor sleep, profuse dreaming, dry mouth with lack of fluid, and a fine, weak pulse.

Note: The liver is described as the unyielding viscus; hence the method of treating liver yīn vacuity is called emolliation.

Medicinal therapy: Commonly used liver-emolliating medicinals include Chinese angelica (Angelicae Sinensis Radix, 当归 dāng guī), white peony (Paeoniae Radix Alba, 白芍药 bái sháo yào), rehmannia (Rehmanniae Radix, 地黄 dì huáng), flowery knotweed (Polygoni Multiflori Radix, 何首乌 hé shǒu wū), lycium berry (Lycii Fructus, 枸杞子 gǒu qǐ zǐ), eclipta (Ecliptae Herba, 墨旱莲 mò hàn lián), and mulberry (Mori Fructus, 桑椹 sāng shèn). Systematized Patterns with Clear-Cut Treatments (类证治裁 lèi zhèng zhì cái) states, The liver is the unyielding viscus, in charge of free coursing. It calls for the use of softness, not hardness, of harmonizing, not quelling. For this reason, emolliating the liver is the standard method of supplementing the liver.

Etymology

Chinese: 柔 róu is rendered as emolliate rather than soften to reduce the danger of misconstruing the term as denoting a treatment for cirrhosis (hardening) of the liver. English: Latin e(x,) out; mollire, soften.

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