Insights and Updates

I finally gave up the lease on my office space. After two days of hustle, I packed the last things in the room and moved them home, and arranged with the landlord to return the keys this weekend. From now on I will mainly do…

Professor Liu Bingfan (1910–2000) was a native of Miluo, Hunan. For over fifty years he practiced Chinese medicine; he was a member of the National Schistosomiasis Research Committee, a council member of the All-China Association of Chinese Medicine, deputy director of the Theoretical Research Office…

General Treatise on External Ulcers (2) Original text: Then how is one to treat them? It is simply to examine the pulse and distinguish the pattern. Generally, before an ulcer has ruptured, the pulse should be exuberant; after it has ruptured, the pulse should be…

I spent a long time studying Chinese anticancer medicine, always wanting to raise my success rate in treating cancer. But one day this year I suddenly realized that there is a ceiling to the efficacy of Chinese medicine in treating cancer—a ceiling that neither I…

The Yangke Xinde Ji (Reflections on the Practice of External Medicine) by the Qing-dynasty surgery master Gao Bingjun is the representative work of the “Xinde” (Reflections) school, one of the three great schools of Chinese external medicine, and it has had an important influence on…

A hundred years from now, when our descendants read the history of our day, how will they regard everything we are going through in the COVID-19 pandemic? When I think of this question, I seem to see some afternoon a hundred years hence, a thoughtful…

Pattern differentiation and treatment (bianzheng lunzhi) is the foundational clinical skill of Chinese medicine. It comprises three parts: first, eight-principle pattern differentiation; second, six-channel, triple-burner, defense-qi-nutrient-blood, and zang-fu pattern differentiation; third, formula-pattern and herb-pattern differentiation. The level of one’s pattern differentiation determines the level of…

Meihua Dianshe Dan comes from Waike Zhengzhi Quansheng Ji (Complete Records on the Pattern and Treatment of External Disorders). It was a secret family formula of the famous Qing-dynasty physician Wang Weide (style name Hongxu, 1669–1749), who made it public in that book. After Waike…

My study of Chinese medicine has roughly gone through three stages. In the earliest stage, I read works such as Huangdi Neijing and Yijing, feeling that these books were very reasonable, with a sense that "all the principles of medicine in the world are exhausted…

Shixiao Powder comes from Taiping Huimin Hejiju Fang (Taiping Imperial Formulary). This formula is made from equal parts of Puhuang (Typhae Pollen) and Wulingzhi (Faeces Trogopterori), ground together into a fine powder. Each dose is 3 g, mixed with vinegar and taken twice daily. Shixiao…