A reflection on a passage from Huáng Yuányù's Heart Source of the Four Sages, centered on one image: underground springs stay warm through winter, making spring possible from within, not from external sunlight. Huáng applies this to fertility and blood physiology, arguing that life, whether seasonal or bodily, depends on preserved internal warmth rather than outside stimulation. Living on a farm makes the medicine viscerally legible.
Considering the illness that is related to this formula, I could see Zhang and Lu’s words are authenticated. Looking back I can see that for the first dose, Da Qing Long Tang was the correct formula. Yet even though the formula pattern was correct, death was not avoided. It is not that the herbs in this formula are deadly. It was the application of them that was deadly. This was a serious disease that required strong herbs. But I did not observe the rules for safety vs. danger. Ma Huang is able to cause a person to sweat but too much sweating plunders the Yang. I gave 6 qian of Ma Huang combined with Gui Zhi. How was this going to guard against a big sweat? Moreover, in regard to the method after taking the herbs, the Shang Han Lun clearly warns that “If there is recovery, sweating once again will damage the Yang.” I did not tell them that they should not repeat the herbs if there was sweating. This lead to a situation in which they gave herbs after the sweating and the Yang was damaged leading to death. This formula should not be taken again with these dosages because it can damage the Yang. One must give advanced notice about the conditions and safety measures for after taking these herbs. One should prepare a Si Ni type formula beforehand and give this to the patient, being prepared for any contingency because cold limbs with a pulse on the verge of expiring can be cured. This failure to carry out the above plan caused a gross error and was due to my own barbaric ignorance.
I am teaching a short class on zhīzi, February 18th at noon, EST as part of the single herb series. I hope you can come and spend some time with this wonderful herb! Though zhīzǐ does not lead one of the famouns Ten Key Formula Families, it is a profoundly important and I would say KEY medicinal in my clinic. In this class you will learn how to recognize when to use zhīzǐ and how it is used in classical formulas. It is free to White Pine Inner Circle members and you can register HERE.
In preparation for the class and to show zhīzǐ’s use for esophageal pain, I am publishing the following case by Dr. Qi:
我喜欢吃糯米黏糕，而且不管吃什么速度都很快，是急性子。在宴会上或者和朋友一起吃饭，我搁下筷子时，再看周围的人，一般刚刚吃一半。鉴于这种情况，我努力让自己慢慢吃饭，可是这种小时候形成的习惯，很难改变。因为这种急性子，就不时有被热茶烫嘴或喉咙被烫疼的事情发生。
I enjoy eating sticky rice cakes, and I eat quickly no matter what I am having. I have an impatient temperament. At banquets or when dining with friends, by the time I put down my chopsticks, I often notice that others have only finished half their meal. Although I try to slow myself down, habits formed in childhood are difficult to change. Because of this impatience, I have occasionally burned my mouth or throat
一次，当急急忙忙地吃下 1 块热的烤年糕时，感觉食道疼痛，大概是引起了食道烫伤。随后即使进流食也感觉胸口堵塞样疼痛。
Once, when I hurriedly swallowed a piece of hot baked rice cake, I felt pain in […]
Read this recap of a gathering with East Asian medicine practitioners in Minneapolis who are navigating ICE activity in their neighborhoods. Rather than needing support, the practitioners ended up offering it, sharing practical, tested strategies for responding safely to ICE presence. I encourage the broader community to watch the recorded conversation and includes verified donation links for Twin Cities mutual aid efforts covering groceries, rent, and direct family support.
This post introduces a new translation project focused on the Qing-dynasty physician Huáng Yuányù, whose work offers a strikingly coherent vision of physiology rooted in the unity of qi. Rather than proposing a formal doctrine, Huáng consistently explains health and disease through the smooth—or disrupted—circulation of a single qi, governed by ascent and descent around the spleen–stomach axis. The modern phrase “one qi flowing in an unbroken cycle” is a later synthesis of this core insight. Drawing from Huáng’s life, influences, and clinical thinking, the article explores how illness arises when qi cannot rise or descend freely, and how treatment aims not at isolated symptoms but at restoring the continuity of movement itself. Huáng distilled this perspective in his seminal work Sì Shèng Xīn Yuán, demonstrating how simple formulas, precisely applied, can produce profound results. For the translator, Huáng Yuányù’s thinking resonates deeply with a contemporary, systems-based understanding of medicine. This first translated excerpt offers a glimpse into a classical voice that feels unexpectedly current—and sets the stage for further exploration of his work.
The following is a preface to the recently published book “Medical Cases from the Flower Charm Studio” which was translated by Lorraine Wilcox and edited by Marnae Ergil. The preface is written by Sharon Weizenbaum. Here is an excerpt from the book to download
The book is currently available for purchase from the Purple Cloud Institute.
The job of a translator is not only to accurately render the original writer’s voice and intention but also to choose, among a plethora of possibilities, the text to translate. The choices are vast, given that a considerable percentage of Chinese medical written records have not been translated into English. In choosing Medical Cases from the Flower Charm Studio by Gù Déhuá, Lorraine Wilcox provides a great service to our community of practitioners.
This text records twenty-nine of Dr. Gù’s complex and often dangerous cases. In many instances, other contemporaneous published case records are quite short, giving only a simple intake, diagnosis, and formula choice with little discussion; frequently, doctors provided no more than the initial and follow-up formulas. In Dr. Gù’s records however, she takes the reader through up to fifteen clinical encounters with a single patient, allowing us to see how the terrain of the case shifts over time in response […]
Zhīzǐ Gānjiāng Tāng for Sleep
Zhīzǐ Gānjiāng Tāng is another teeny-tiny formula,[1] consisting of zhīzǐ, 3 g, and gānjiāng, 6 g. It is mentioned only in clause 80 of the Shānghán lùn, where it states, “In cold damage, the doctor used pills to purge strongly. Body heat remains, and there is slight vexation. Zhīzǐ Gānjiāng Tāng rules.
Let’s break this down a bit, starting with “cold damage.” Cold damage is often considered a term limited to the causative factor of the Máhuáng Tāng pattern. However, when thoroughly reading the Shánghān zábìng lùn, it is clear that Zhāng Zhòngjǐng used it in a much broader way than this. His use of the term cold damage can be summarized as an event that blocks the flow of the life-force yáng in the body. This is in contrast to the term wind-strike, which is also a much broader term than simply the causative factor causing a Guìzhī Tāng pattern. Wind-strike can be summarized as an event that leaves aspects of the body too open and thus prone to leakage. Hence, we have cold damage expressing blockage and wind-strike expressing leakage.
In this case, a blockage, cold damage, was understandably treated with strong purgation. Though we think of purgation […]
In the last post, I wrote about two formulas for insomnia, Zhīzǐ Chǐ Tāng and Zhīzǐ Gānjiāng Tāng. Zhīzǐ Chǐ Tāng is an odd, teeny-tiny formula, and the way it works may be difficult to understand, especially the use of dàndòuchǐ, which we probably learned as primarily an herb for resolving the exterior. In this post, I will explain the mechanism of this formula as I understand and use it. How does it treat “anguish in the heart” type insomnia?
Before diving into that, I want to share a recent message from a student who suffered from a rash after a profound loss:
“I kept thinking about how you talked about Zhīzǐ Chǐ Tāng and how it was for anguish in the heart. That word, anguish, is exactly how I’ve been feeling from the moment of loss.
Anyway, I took some ideas from the formula you originally suggested for me, which already had zhǐshí and zhīzǐ, and added a high dose of dàndòuchǐ, and it was like a lock-and-key magic! After 3 1/2 months of this rash being so, so stubborn, it started to change dramatically. For the last week and a half, every morning when I wake, the rash is better and better, and I even think something feels a little emotionally lighter as well.
So thank […]
As a continuation of the discussion on using classical formulas for sleep issues, I will now introduce two very effective zhīzǐformulas: Zhīzǐ Chǐ Tāng and Zhīzǐ Gānjiāng Tāng. As you recall in the previous post, my student Sylvia described the use of Zhīzǐ Chǐ Tāng and how she differentiated the pattern.
First, let’s talk about zhīzǐ. It is the fruit of the gardenia plant. In his poem, Shěn Zhòu[1] of the Ming Dynasty described the gardenia flower like this:
“雪魂冰花凉气清”
Snow ghost, ice flower, with its clear, cold Qi
According to Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing, zhīzǐ‘s flavor is bitter and its nature is cold. It is said to enter the heart, lung, stomach, liver, and San Jiao channels.[2] It is effective in discharging fire and dispelling vexation, clearing heat through benefiting urination, cooling blood, and resolving toxins.
Zhīzǐ‘s key action is to disinhibit the shàoyáng great sweeping motion. The motion of shàoyáng is to pivot. The shàoyáng pivot is responsible for pivoting imperial fire, which has descended into the body through the joint motions of shàoyīn and yángmíng, into its position within the body as ministerial fire. If the shàoyáng pivot motion is inhibited, the descending heat, which is none other […]
One of my students, Polina Shneyderman, recently posted her results using Zhīzǐ Chǐ Tāng as follows:
I wanted to share a case that was helped so much by a tiny formula I learned from Sharon in her GMP. I have a patient who is a textbook Guìzhī Tāng pattern and who has done really well on different modifications of Guìzhī Tāng. She has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, where her body produces too much collagen, and as a result, she has heart palpitations, agitation, and very loose joints. Guìzhī Tāng has helped with heart palpitations, periods, cold, and body aches. One thing I could not tackle was her waking up before her alarm in the morning, feeling a sense of terror or fear of missing something important.
I learned from Sharon that there is a formula called Zhīzǐ Chǐ Tāng—zhīzǐ and dàndòuchǐ—and that it can help with this kind of terror. I added these two herbs to her formula, and she now sleeps soundly and peacefully until her alarm wakes her up. The bonus—her blood pressure is normal now, too—patients with EDS tend to have dangerously low blood pressure.
Just wanted to share a success story and thank Sharon and other White Pine mentors who help us all be better clinicians.
In the next post, I will discuss this […]