Red Peony Root
赤芍 · chì sháo
Cools hot blood and breaks up fixed, stubborn pain
Properties
CoolingCooling botanicalBitter, Sour
What it does
Chi shao cools the blood and moves stuck stasis, two actions that work wherever blood has pooled or overheated. It treats purpuric rash and bleeding from blood heat, while breaking up fixed pain, dysmenorrhea, and early abscesses. Unlike white peony (bai shao), which nourishes and restrains, chi shao strictly drains and disperses. A key blood-mover in Drive Out Blood Stasis (Xue Fu Zhu Yu Tang).
Safety
- Use with caution if you run cold from deficiency.
- Not for blood deficiency without stasis, or with diarrhea; draining and dispersing.
- No pregnancy safety data exists. Ask a practitioner before using it while pregnant.
- Allergic reactions to peony root have been reported.
- Do not combine with li lu (Veratri nigri Radix et Rhizoma).
- May inhibit platelet aggregation; use caution alongside anticoagulant or antiplatelet drugs.
- May alter blood sugar regulation; people with diabetes should monitor levels closely.
How to take it
Decoct 6–12g of dried red peony root in 4 cups water for 30–40 minutes. Standard in blood-moving decoctions; rarely taken as a single-herb tea.
Best used as part of a prescribed formula for blood stasis or heat in the blood
Follow the product label for the formula containing chi shao. Standalone red peony capsules exist but are most effective in combination.
Look for it in blood-moving or heat-clearing formula products
Where it comes from
Red and white peony were treated as a single herb in the earliest Chinese materia medica. The 6th-century physician Tao Hong-Jing first distinguished them clinically. Wild-crafted Paeonia lactiflora yields red peony, while cultivated roots yield white peony. Their opposite actions (draining versus tonifying) reflect this difference. The name chi shao means 'red peony'; chi shao is the root with its bark left on, bai shao the root peeled.