Insights and Updates

On June 15, I rented a plot of land in the Sijiqing area of western Beijing, surrounded by Yuquan Mountain, Xiangshan and the Western Hills, to grow vegetables. Although everything is expensive in this hard-to-live-in capital, because it is agricultural land the price is not…

Ma, female, from Shaanxi. Initial visit on the morning of May 10, 2019. Right pulse deep, faint, rough and weak; chi position deep and hidden; left pulse deep and faint. Tongue pale with scant coating. Pain in the left lower abdomen and left lower back;…

The development of TCM is not the achievement of one age, let alone of one person. Neither Yi Yin nor Zhang Zhongjing could have completed such a thing alone. It came from experience, so TCM is, simply put, empirical medicine, worked out in the struggle…

The classical-formula school of TCM attaches particular importance to formula patterns (fangzheng) and herb indications (yaozheng). Of course, many in the classical-formula school have a regrettable habit: they revere only the limited ancient formulas recorded by Zhang Zhongjing and dismiss effective later formulas, which is…

Toad skin (chanpi) is the dried body, internal organs removed, of Bufo bufo gargarizans or Bufo melanostictus of the family Bufonidae. There is another medicinal material called toad slough (chanyi), which is the outermost cicada-wing-thin skin that the toad sheds by itself on thunderstorm days,…

Simiao Yong'an Tang is a well-known formula in TCM external medicine. The name of the formula first appears in "Yan Fang Xin Bian" (New Compilation of Proven Prescriptions), compiled by the Qing-dynasty physician Bao Xiang'ao, but this prescription was not first recorded there. In the…

Many cancer patients have serious anemia problems. On the one hand, tumors easily consume the body's qi and blood; on the other, commonly used cancer treatments such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy also easily damage qi and blood. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy readily cause bone marrow…

Diarrhea is common in summer and autumn, mainly because the abundant rainfall of these seasons favors the reproduction and spread of intestinal pathogenic bacteria. Most people like to eat raw and cold fruits and iced drinks, or cold dressed salads, in summer and autumn, and…

Ruyi Jinhuang San (As-You-Wish Golden-Yellow Powder) is a Chinese patent medicine that clears heat and resolves toxin, disperses swelling and stops pain. It is mostly used for boils, furuncles, and swelling pain caused by heat-toxin congealing and stagnating in the skin, presenting as redness, swelling,…

Looking out at a land everywhere turned to water, as a farm boy born by the Yangtze River who has lived through many floods, I feel deeply for the farmers. Of more than thirty provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, twenty-seven have been stricken. According to…