1, soaking: the drug is poured into a vessel among the flat, add cool water to a higher plane inch, soak for about 1 hour, such as flowers and leaves in the drug absorption is relatively large, you can supplement the water to ensure that the water is 1-2cm above the plane of the drug. soaking is to make dry herbs fully absorb water back to a fresh state, which is conducive to the precipitation of active ingredients. 2.Heating fire: Generally speaking, the drug should be boiled in a rapid fire (martial fire) and then changed to a slow fire (civil fire), with stirring every 3-5 minutes to prevent the drug from sinking to the bottom of the pot. 3. Decoction time: Generally speaking, the first decoction (the first time) is 20-25 minutes after boiling, and the second decoction (the second time) is 15-20 minutes after boiling. Note that drugs that need “first decoction” should be boiled for 10-30 minutes first, and drugs that need “second decoction” should be added to the pot in the last 5-10 minutes. 4. Second decoction: After the first decoction, strain out the juice, add hot water until it is 0.5-1.5cm above the level of the medicine, and continue to decoct on a military fire until it boils, then change to a civil fire for 15-20 minutes. 5.Dose: Decoct twice for each dose of medicine. If the medicine has less flavor, it can be decocted to 300-500ml, and more flavor can be decocted to about 500-650ml, or less for children. The decoction is usually mixed and divided into two portions and taken warmly half an hour after meals in the morning and evening. For some patients who have difficulty in taking Chinese medicine and pediatric patients, they can take it several times in small amounts. Note: 1. A single packet of Chinese medicine should be divided into equal parts. If you take a total of 7 herbal medicines, a single packet of herbal medicines needs to be divided into 7 parts. 2. The best vessels for decoction are generally tile pots and casseroles, because they are slow to transfer heat and also retain heat, enamel and stainless steel can also be used, but stainless steel pots transfer heat quickly and are easy to paste. Now the most commonly used is a covered ceramic casserole. 3, stranded dregs to get juice: pour the dregs into a clean gauze, both sides of the force of the twist, the dregs inside who try to squeeze out. As early as the southern dynasty, Tao Hongjing in the “Collection of the Materia Medica” mentioned that two decoctions can be strung out in the dregs of the juice, then it is equivalent to increase the strength of a new payment of medicine. Modern experiments have also shown that the active ingredients in the residual liquid of the dregs can account for one-third of the whole payment of Chinese medicine, so it is very important to take the juice from the dregs. Second, special decoction methods: 1. First decoction: a dose of medicine consists of a variety of drugs, one or two of which must be decocted for 30-60 minutes after the pot is opened, and then the soaked medicine is added in and then decocted. There are two main types of such drugs: one is the active ingredient dissolves very slowly and dissolves difficult drugs, like mineral shellfish, such as mother-of-pearl, calcined oyster, corrugated seeds and so on. The second is some toxic drugs, whose toxicity can be reduced with longer decoction time, such as Radix Aconiti, Chuan Wu, Cao Wu, etc. 2, after the next: a dose of medicine need to be put in about 15 minutes before the pot. Generally such drugs are not durable decoction also has two cases, one is the volatile strong drugs. The second is the active ingredient easily decomposed drugs, such as hooked vine. 3, package decoction: refers to some drugs need to be wrapped in gauze and then decocted together with other drugs. There are three types of such drugs: one, drugs that make the liquid cloudy, such as wulingan. Secondly, small granular drugs, which tend to paste the pot. For example, psyllium seed drugs. Third, there are hairy drugs, mixed in the liquid may irritate the throat, such as Sinapis, spineflower some of these. 4, melt: this is to say that the solid drugs boiled into a liquid state, mix well and then added to the liquid, together. This mainly refers to some gum type drugs, such as gum, deer horn gum, turtle board gum, etc. 5, punching: water solubility is very good or simply liquid drugs, you can directly wait for the liquid filtered into the liquid to take, such as fresh bamboo leach, mannite, etc.. 6, another decoction: refers to a class of drugs are not decocted together with other drugs, but decocted separately, the liquid will be blended with the liquid of other drugs to take together. Such drugs usually belong to valuable drugs, such as ginseng, American ginseng, etc., which are relatively old.