Insights and Updates

Xiaozhong Zhitong Powder (Swelling-Reducing, Pain-Stopping Powder) appears in volume 8 of the Quanyang Daquan, written by the Qing physician Gu Shicheng. Its composition is: cottonrose hibiscus leaf (Furong Ye) 1 liang (30 g); aged wheat powder (Chen Xiaofen) 1 liang 5 qian (45 g); gall…

Mingyin Ji of Surgery (Waike Mingyin Ji) is a work by He Jingcai, a Hui (Muslim) village physician from Dachang County, Hebei, in the late Qing dynasty. The book was published in the twenty-eighth year of the Guangxu reign (1902). He Jingcai borrowed money to…

Two weeks of holiday, and I have been busy throughout. The first ten days were spent at the driving school practicing for my license, and these past few days have been taken up by moving house; I have not had this many chores in nearly…

People’s Medical Publishing House has produced a set of “national higher-education organ-system integrated textbooks” for clinical-medicine students. It is an excellent set; used together with the classic clinical-medicine textbooks (now in their tenth edition), it greatly benefits clinical-medicine students. I have gradually bought nearly the…

Since I moved to my current home in 2009, I have not moved house for sixteen years. At the end of this year I need to move once—an enormous project for our family; just eleven bookcases of books are a headache to move. Shortly after…

Chinese medicine has a condition called “phlegm-flow arm pain” (tan zhu bi tong), whose typical symptoms are persistent aching and heaviness of the arm, limited shoulder movement, possibly with swelling, numbness, or abnormal local temperature. The arm pain is usually aching or dull, fixed in…

Li Dongyuan, one of the four great masters of the Jin-Yuan period, is known for famous formulas such as Buzhong Yiqi Decoction and Guipi Decoction, which many people know and use. But a formula like “Hezhong Pills” is not so widely circulated. In fact, this…

On January 15, 2026, the State Administration for Market Regulation (Standardization Administration of China) approved and issued the recommended national standard Classification and Determination of Traditional Chinese Medicine Body Constitution (GB/T 46939—2025). Drafted under the organization of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the…

Xiyangshen Baofei Pills (American Ginseng Lung-Securing Pills) are a modern empirical formula; there are two recipes under this name. The first appears in the Lanzhou volume of the National Collection of Chinese Patent Medicine Prescriptions: raw rehmannia (Sheng Dihuang), wine-prepared rehmannia (Shu Dihuang), Scrophularia (Xuanshen),…

Huiyang Jiuji Decoction (Yang-Recovering Emergency Decoction) appears in Shanghan Liushu (Six Books on Cold Damage), a proven formula of the Ming physician Tao Hua. Its composition is: processed aconite root (Zhi Fuzi) 3 qian (9 g), dried ginger (Ganjiang) 2 qian (6 g), ginseng (Renshen)…