Insights and Updates

Xiao Xianxiong Tang (Minor Chest-Storing Decoction) comes from the Shanghan Lun (Treatise on Cold Damage). The original text in the Shanghan Lun reads: "In the minor chest-storing disease, the disorder is right below the heart; it hurts when pressed, and the pulse is floating and…

Qixi, also called the Qiqiao Festival, is in folklore the day the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet, and it was also my mother's birthday. My mother was born on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month in 1954; had she lived until today,…

On August 6, 2019, I took my three students to wander through the Anguo medicinal-materials market. They have been studying medicine with me since the fifth grade of primary school, three years now, and it was time they came along to this largest medicinal-materials trading…

1 On the evening of July 29, my family took an overnight train that departs at night and arrives in the morning, heading for Xi'an, planning to spend four days touring Shaanxi. We arrived in Xi'an on the morning of the 30th. That morning we…

I will arrive home tonight, ending my vacation, and will resume normal work from the morning of August 3. However, appointments for August 3 are already full, so those who wish to see me please book appointments for August 4 or later. Thank you all…

Yesterday, Lei Zhenglong, deputy director of the National Health Commission, announced at a press conference of the Healthy China Action Promotion Committee that deaths caused by chronic non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and diabetes account for 88% of…

Recently The Lancet published the leading cause of death in China—stroke—and pointed out that this is strongly linked to the Chinese dietary pattern: Chinese people eat far too much salt. I have always eaten lightly. These past few days I have been on vacation with…

After reading Seligman's five-volume series on happiness, I was a bit astonished: it turns out there are people in the world like Seligman—to whom joy and happiness are a life feeling that must be trained to be attained. This is because I am by nature…

In a little over ten days it will be my fortieth birthday. Every year I write a reflection on my birthday, but this year I will not trouble myself with the exact date. Forty is a watershed in life; whether one admits it or not,…

Qing Shu Yiqi Tang (Summerheat-Clearing Qi-Boosting Decoction) belongs to the TCM category of summerheat-dispelling formulas and is a famous TCM formula very suitable for this season. Historically there are two Qing Shu Yiqi Tang: one comes from Piweilun (Treatise on the Spleen and Stomach) by…