Insights and Updates

Shipu San comes from Yan's Jisheng Fang (Formulas to Aid the Living, Yan's Family). It mainly treats "yang-deficiency edema, with more severe swelling below the middle of the body, chest and abdominal fullness, or a large abdomen with heavy body, fatigue and poor appetite, cold…

Recently I have been taking courses on Bilibili - mainly junior- and senior-high-school science courses, and I chose videos by teachers with large followings. As I listened, I discovered something surprising: chemistry teachers - celebrated names, no less - were making elementary mistakes in their…

Today I saw a news report: Guo, a vice president of a hospital in Fugou County, Zhoukou City, Henan Province, violated the State Council health authority's pandemic-control rule that medical institutions without fever clinics must, after seeing fever patients, refer them in a closed loop…

Qiyelian is the root or stem and leaf of Scheffera arboricola (family Araliaceae), mainly distributed in Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan, and Taiwan. It is not a commonly used Chinese herb, but in Guizhou and the two Guang provinces it is widely used in folk medicine.

Shuihonghuazi is the fruit of Polygonum orientale (family Polygonaceae), containing quercetin and taxifolin. It is not a commonly used Chinese herb, but that does not mean its medicinal history in China is short. As early as the Tang dynasty, Sun Simiao included it in his…

Sometimes I think impractical but interesting questions. Today I wondered: if Zhang Zhongjing, the Buddha, and Zhuangzi were all still alive, I would very much like to ask all three the same question - would they be willing to learn modern science such as mathematics,…

Hot flashes and sweating during menopause trouble many women; patients plagued by this problem often ask me how to solve it, and honestly, I rarely succeed. Today a breast-cancer patient shared her experience with me. Her daughter also studies TCM; on her daughter's advice she…

How difficult diseases are to treat is probably known only to clinicians. Many medical theories sound exciting but have little practical use in clinical practice, which most beginners and amateur learners do not realize. So I often meet overheated fans of TCM who mistakenly believe…

The Ming-dynasty physician Zhang Jingyue recorded an empirical formula in volume 51 of his work Jingyue Quanshu (Complete Compendium of [Zhang] Jingyue). It consists of Dangguwei (tail of Angelica sinensis), Shanzha (Crataegus pinnatifida), Xiangfu (Cyperus rotundus), Wuyao (Lindera aggregata), Qingpi (unripe tangerine peel), Muxiang (Aucklandia…

Chuanxiong (Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort., family Apiaceae) is one of the most commonly used Chinese medicinal herbs, with extremely broad clinical applications. Li Shizhen called it "the qi-medicine within the blood," considering it to both invigorate blood and move qi. TCM therefore uses it for various…