Professor Qian Ying, a TCM Specialist in Liver Diseases, and His Works

Professor Qian Ying was born in June 1937 and died on February 10, 2024, at the age of 87. He was a native of Hebei District, Tianjin. Influenced from childhood by a neighbor who was a doctor, he aspired to study medicine in order to relieve the sufferings of ordinary people. In 1956 he was admitted to the Beijing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (now Beijing University of Chinese Medicine), where he studied under such great TCM masters as Liu Duzhou, Zhao Shaoqin, Qin Bowei, and Ren Yingqiu; six years of undergraduate education laid a solid foundation for him.

From 1961 to 1962, Qian Ying did his internship at Xiyuan Hospital of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, studying under Shi Dianbang and Xu Jihan. In 1962 he was assigned to work at the Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, where he successively studied under the veteran TCM physicians Yao Zhengping and Zhang Zizhen to learn their experience in treating kidney disease; Qian Ying studied with Yao Zhengping for as long as eight years. He also studied the treatment of hepatobiliary diseases under the veteran TCM physician Xi Peiling and Professor Wang Bao'en.

Wang Bao'en graduated from the Medical School of Peking University in 1948. Originally a Western physician, after graduation he long worked at Beijing Friendship Hospital on the clinical management of hepatobiliary diseases. Over his life he accomplished two innovations: first, he confirmed that Chinese medicine can reverse liver fibrosis and early cirrhosis; second, he established integrated TCM-Western diagnostic criteria for infectious multiple-organ failure, raising the success rate of rescue. Wang Bao'en's scientific spirit and research methods greatly influenced Professor Qian Ying, who benefited enormously from them in his later research and clinical work.

During this period he also studied under the famous TCM liver specialist Guan Youbo, but this was interrupted by the Cultural Revolution. In 1970, after the Cultural Revolution ended and the veteran physician Guan Youbo resumed medical work, Qian Ying was selected to study with him; thereafter he formally became Guan's disciple, his senior student, and studied with him for as long as ten years. He was also responsible for summarizing Guan Youbo's clinical experience in diagnosing and treating liver diseases and for developing the “Guan Youbo Computerized Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment System.” He distilled the three elements of Guan Youbo's treatment of jaundice: invigorating blood, resolving toxins, and resolving phlegm; this diagnostic and therapeutic idea is now widely recognized.

From the 1980s onward, Professor Qian Ying successively held at the Beijing Hospital of TCM the posts of chief resident, director of the comprehensive department, director of the internal-medicine teaching and research office, and vice president. During his tenure he carried out in-depth specialized research on liver disease and led the development of a series of Chinese patent medicines for hepatitis B—Yigan Yangxue Chongji (nourishing yin and activating blood granules), Yigan Qingre Jiedu Keli (clearing heat and resolving toxin granules), and Yigan Yiqi Jieyu Keli (boosting qi and resolving stagnation granules), among others. In 1987, entrusted by Academician Wang Yongyan, Professor Qian Ying wrote Zhuanshi Pinglun on Liver Disease Prevention and Treatment, summarizing the experience and research achievements of liver-disease experts from across the country.

Because of his lineage and his own many years of research on liver disease, Qian Ying gradually grew into a towering authority in the field of TCM hepatology. In 2000, when the Beijing Administration of TCM planned to establish a key Beijing discipline of integrated TCM-Western hepatology at Beijing You'an Hospital, the over-sixty Professor Qian Ying was entrusted with the heavy responsibility and became the academic leader.

Beijing You'an Hospital is the largest infectious-disease hospital in China and has a vast number of liver-disease patients, including many critically ill ones. Undaunted by the risk of infection, Professor Qian Ying worked at You'an Hospital for ten years, during which he accumulated rich clinical experience in liver disease. His disciples Yang Huasheng and Li Xiuhui and others organized his clinical experience into the monograph Qian Ying Jiaoshou Ganbing Zhiyan Ji (Collected Clinical Experiences of Professor Qian Ying in Treating Liver Diseases), which was published.

Professor Qian Ying's work Zhuanshi Pinglun on Liver Disease Prevention and Treatment is out of print and now available only as secondhand copies. But the Collected Clinical Experiences compiled by his disciples was published by China Press of Traditional Chinese Medicine and can be found in online bookstores and libraries (the author himself borrowed it from the National Library). The author recommends it to colleagues, patients, or patients' families who are interested in the TCM diagnosis and treatment of liver disease.