I ask bc the one time I had my mind set on making my own, I asked a customer at one of our Asian markets what I would need to get. She laughed and said she uses the premade sauces, of which there is an abundance available.
I find those work really well with the ground meat (or shrooms/fermented pickled mustard greens if ya wanna keep it vegetarian) of one’s choice 
I think I posted a lamb version somewhere in this thread.
Its a pretty easy sauce if you have the spicy chili sauce. I buy ground pork meant for stuffing at the local butcher.
Agreed. I make my own as well (with minced mushrooms instead of pork).
I have all manners of spicy sauces, many of them of Sichuan provenance. I don’t think I have the là dòuban jiàng, unless it’s somewhere in the basement.
This looks like a promising recipe:
This is the recipe I use, as well as one if a fuschia dunlop book. I’ve also done the vegan version with oyster mushrooms that is in the Ottolenghi COMFORT book.
