The Morning-and-Evening Supplementing Method

created by Xue Ji

a physician of the Ming Dynasty

is an approach of treating diseases by taking different medications

which serves to supplement the spleen or the kidney

in the morning and evening. Ye Tianshi inherited and evolved this method into a way of treatment with his own characteristics. This paper selects 57 medical records representing Ye’s version of the Morning-and-Evening Supplementing Method from his

Lin Zheng Zhi Nan Yi An

(Case Records as a Guide to Clinical Practice) to investigate his contributions to the development of this theory. It was found that

building on what Xue had proposed

Ye further put forward four new ideas: 1. supplementing the kidney and raising yang in tune with the time of day; 2. separate treatment of the stomach and kidney

not limited to

taiyin

; 3. supplementing yin fluids against the time of day; 4. nourishing and moistening for inability to receive of the spleen and stomach due to withered yin. In a nutshell

Ye’s innovation is mainly reflected in the fact that the time for taking medications was no longer limited to the morning and evening

and also in the multiple treatment method he added building on the warming and tonifying method Xue advocated.