Plenty of people who keep their distance from Korean medicinal herbs their entire lives will seek them out around childbirth. The formula they are usually given is Bulsusan. What makes it worth writing about is not the ingredient list — it is short — but the timing, and the fact that this is one of the clearest cases in which life stage outranks constitution. This article covers postpartum recovery in Korean medicine.
In Summary
- Bulsusan (불수산 佛手散) is also known as Gunggwitang (궁귀탕 芎歸湯) and Dalsaengsan (달생산 達生散). The compositions differ slightly; the core pair is the same — danggui and cheongung.
- The Dongui Bogam (동의보감 東醫寶鑑) records it for conditions arising before or after delivery — used in the birth month to ease delivery, and after birth to help lochia clear.
- Timing is the point. Taken before birth it is aimed at an easier delivery; taken for three weeks after, at clearing lochia and supporting the formation of new blood.
- The usual window runs from three to seven days before the due date through about three weeks postpartum.
- Danggui and cheongung suit the Soeumin constitutions — Renotonia and Vesicotonia.
- But childbirth is a situation in which the circumstance matters more than the constitution, which is why the formula also serves Pancreotonia well.
- Once bleeding stops at three to four weeks, the woman is leaving the postpartum situation, and constitution re-enters the picture.
- Past roughly 90 days, the postpartum period is generally considered to have little remaining influence.
- Constitutional recovery foods differ by type — and only become relevant after the bleeding stops.
The Formula, and Its Several Names
Bulsusan appears in the literature under more than one name: Gunggwitang, and Dalsaengsan. The compositions vary a little between them, but the constituents that matter are the same two — danggui (당귀 當歸) and cheongung (천궁 川芎).
The Dongui Bogam records the pair, twenty grams each, for the range of conditions that can arise before or after delivery: used in the birth month it eases delivery, and used after birth it helps lochia (오로 惡露) discharge properly. It is also recorded for miscarriage, for heavy blood loss after birth, and for severe dizziness following blood loss from various causes.
In practice it is used on its own, or with deer antler or other tonifying herbs added.
Why the Timing Carries the Meaning
This is the part patients most often miss. The same formula is doing two different jobs depending on when it is taken.
Before birth — the aim is a smoother delivery. Research has reported a reduction in labour duration on the order of twenty to forty percent.
For three weeks after — the aim shifts entirely. Now it is about lochia discharging as it should, and about supporting the body in making new blood to replace what was lost.
So the usual prescribing window is roughly three to seven days before the due date through about three weeks postpartum. Outside that window the reasoning that justifies it no longer applies.
Whether this suits a particular pregnancy is a matter for the woman’s own clinicians — her obstetric team and a KTM physician who has examined her. Nothing here is a recommendation to take or to avoid it.
Where Constitution Yields
Here is the doctrinally interesting part.
Danggui and cheongung are herbs that suit the Soeumin constitutions — Renotonia and Vesicotonia. Read by constitution alone, one would expect the formula to serve those two well and to sit awkwardly with the others.
But childbirth is a period in which the situation matters more than the constitution. The demand the body is under — blood lost, lochia to clear, new blood to build — is common to every woman who has just given birth, and it is large enough to dominate the constitutional picture. So the formula also works well for Pancreotonia, whose herbs would ordinarily run in a different direction.
This is a general principle in Eight Constitution Medicine (ECM) worth stating plainly: life stage takes precedence. The same holds for the elderly and, in a different way, for young children. Constitution describes a fixed hierarchy, but it does not override what the body is actually doing at a given moment.
After the Bleeding Stops
At three to four weeks, when bleeding has stopped, the woman is in the process of leaving the postpartum situation. From that point her own symptoms and her constitution should be taken into account again when prescribing.
Past roughly 90 days, it is reasonable to judge that the postpartum period has little remaining influence. If she wants to lose weight after that point, she can be managed and prescribed for much as anyone else would be — the postpartum framing no longer applies.
Constitutional Recovery Foods
For women who want to eat according to constitution once the bleeding has stopped, these suit — alongside whatever else is beneficial for the type:
- Colonotonia and Pulmotonia — abalone, shellfish
- Cholecystonia and Hepatonia — deer antler, pumpkin, eel, beef bone broth
- Vesicotonia and Renotonia — Sipjeondaebotang (섅전대보탕 十全大補湯) or Palmultang, black goat, seaweeds
- Gastrotonia and Pancreotonia — seafood including carp, pork trotters
Note the ordering here: this list comes after the bleeding stops, not during the three weeks when Bulsusan’s reasoning applies. During that window the situation still outranks the constitution.
Summary
Bulsusan is a short formula whose meaning lives in its calendar. Before the birth it works toward an easier delivery; for three weeks after, toward clearing what should clear and rebuilding what was spent. Then the window closes and the woman’s own constitution comes back into view.
Which makes it the clearest example in ECM of a rule that is easy to forget: the hierarchy is fixed, but it is not always the most important thing in the room.
Related: Why Korea Has Postpartum Wind and the West Does Not
