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Rou Gui in TCM:

• Warms the KD; assists yang; leads the fire back to its source (KD Yang deficiency and waning of gate vitality: aversion to cold, cold limbs, weak back, impotence, frequent urination, primary herb for upward floating of deficient yang: asthma, wheezing, flushed face, severe oily sweat, weak and cold lower limbs, pulse without root)
• Warms the SP; expels cold; relieves pain (epigastric and abdominal coldness, SP yang deficiency with abdominal pain and cold, reduced appetite, vomiting, diarrhea)
• Expels cold from the channels; Relieves pain (blood level cold causing qi or blood stagnation, amenorrhea or dysmenorrhea; post-partum pain, hypochondriac pain, damp-cold; yin-type boils chronic abcesses and sores; also used for qi and blood deficiency)
• (cc: pregnancy)
• (cc: yin deficiency with heat signs)
• (cc: interior excess heat)
• (cc: reckless movement of hot blood)
• note: antagonizes chi shi zhi

Special Notes:
• Rou Gui and Gan Jiang are both interior warming herbs, but have different functions. Rou Gui goes to the lower jiao to tonify KD yang, while Gan jiang warms the middle jiao and disperses cold from the SP and ST.