The general advice of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners is that herbs need to be decocted from 3 bowls of water to 1 bowl of water. When decocting herbs, if too much water is added, it may reduce the efficacy of the medicine and affect the therapeutic effect. If too little water is added, it may make the herbs mushy or the decoction may be incomplete, which may affect the therapeutic effect while causing waste of the herbs. Modern Chinese medicine practitioners commonly use two methods to roughly estimate the amount of water needed to decoct herbs. One method is to add water twice to the decoction of Chinese herbal medicines, one method is to add water for the first time to submerge the herbs, usually one finger, i.e. 3-5cm, while the second time to add water to submerge the dregs of the herbs, about 1-2cm, or 1/3-1/2 of the first time. The remaining water can be used for the second decoction. However, the above method is only the decoction method, specific time and water addition for some conventional herbs. If you are not sure, you can ask the prescribing doctor carefully, because the nature of different herbs is different, so the water absorption is also different, and the water used is also different. For some herbs such as flowers, leaves, and grasses that have a soft texture, the water absorption is relatively large, so it may be necessary to add more water appropriately. For relatively firm herbs, on the other hand, water can be appropriately reduced because of their weak water absorption. It is also important to note that the best vessel for decocting herbs is a casserole or tile pot, and it is not recommended to choose an iron or aluminum pot to avoid chemical reactions between the medicine and the metal, which may reduce the effectiveness of the medicine. In addition, the fire and decoction time of different drugs are different, depending on the nature and efficacy of the drug. Generally, tonic drugs should be decocted with civil fire, and the decoction should be continued for 30-60 minutes after boiling, while antiphlogistic and antipyretic drugs should be decocted with martial fire, and the decoction should be continued for 3-5 minutes after boiling.