Heart Pain, Racing Heart, Sweating and Jolting at Every Sound? Doctor Zhang Xichun’s Jiji Decoction with Cornus Fruit (Shan Yu Rou)
What people search for: heart pain / chest pain / heart racing with sweating / jolting at any sudden noise / chest pain after anger Corresponding medical terms: chest bi syndrome (xiong bi) · heart pain (xin tong) · palpitations (xin ji) · angina / coronary heart disease
Opening scene: an herb that stops sweating — can it also cure heart pain?
Shan yu rou — cornus fruit (also called shan zhu yu, the fruit of the dogwood tree) — what do most people think of it as? An astringent herb: it stops sweating, secures the body, and when the upright qi (zheng qi) is about to scatter, it pulls it back. That is its famous reputation. But Doctor Zhang Xichun discovered it had one more talent nobody ever expected: it can cure heart pain.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: We have discussed before how shan yu rou can astringe the upright qi, and how it can also treat pain in the limbs that comes after a fit of anger — Doctor Zhang Xichun recorded cases of leg pain treated this way. Today we go one step further: shan yu rou can also treat heart pain. I am not making this up — it comes straight from real, recorded medical cases.
Who was the patient? A young man in Cangzhou who cried out day and night
Let us start with the first case. This one was not treated by Doctor Zhang Xichun himself, but by his friend Doctor Zhang Shoutian. Doctor Zhang Shoutian was a man of Cangzhou in Hebei, and he once treated a young man. What was the young man’s illness? Heart pain — pain in the heart region, probably much like what we would now call a heart attack or angina.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When an attack came on, he cried out day and night — he howled with pain. The doctors kept prescribing “opening” medicines — herbs that regulate the qi, that relax the chest and move the qi — assuming the problem was qi stagnation blocking the flow. But the moment those medicines were used, disaster followed.
The previous doctors used the wrong knife: the more they “opened,” the weaker he became
After taking the “opening” medicines, what happened to the young man? Loose stools with constant passing of gas — the upright qi could no longer be held in place and kept draining downward. Then came sweating as if he had been washed — his whole body drenched, as though he had just taken a bath. And finally his eyes rolled upward. Just picture it — terrifying.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: This is what mistreatment looks like. The doctors assumed qi stagnation and kept “opening” him up, until all of his upright qi had been opened away and scattered. On top of that, the patient developed fright palpitations (jing ji) — this happens with people whose hearts are weak: when the heart qi is insufficient, everyone else in the room can hear a table slammed and not even flinch, but he — “bam!” — his whole body jerks, his heart pounds out of control, and even the muscles all over his body jump and twitch, so badly that he has to press down on the muscles with his hands.
Several doctors were called in, and every one of them used the same chest-relaxing, qi-regulating formulas. Nothing worked. What to do?
The turning point: a book by Doctor Zhang Xichun, and the Jiji Decoction
At the critical moment, the person who knew what he was doing made the difference. Doctor Zhang Shoutian was a regular reader of Doctor Zhang Xichun’s books, and he remembered that Doctor Zhang Xichun had a formula called the Jiji Decoction — the name “Jiji” comes from the I Ching (Book of Changes), the hexagram meaning “water and fire in harmony” (shui huo ji ji).
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: You will notice a pattern here — Doctor Zhang Xichun’s friends all had something in common: they were all his fans, all readers of his books. The formula was sitting there in the pages; used correctly, it was a lifesaver.
The prescription, broken down: tonify heart and kidney together, with shan yu rou doubled to two liang
What is in the Jiji Decoction?
Shan yu rou (cornus fruit) paired with shu di huang (prepared rehmannia root) — shan yu rou is reddish in color and enters the heart, tonifying the qi and blood of the heart; shu di huang tonifies the kidney. One heart, one kidney — tonifying both heart and kidney together, letting the heart and kidney communicate and support each other. To these are added shan yao (Chinese yam) — Doctor Zhang Xichun habitually paired shan yu rou with shan yao, one tonifying the heart and the other tonifying the spleen. Sheng long gu (raw dragon bone) and sheng mu li (raw oyster shell) are astringent, holding the medicine’s qi in place — because the patient was sweating all over, the upright qi had to be pulled back and secured. Fu ling (Poria) drains dampness, bai shao (white peony root) is sour and astringent, and a small amount of fu zi (aconite root) warms the yang — enough to strengthen the kidney yang and calm the heart fire (the fu zi was used at only one qian, about 3 g).
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When Doctor Zhang Shoutian used this formula, he doubled the shan yu rou, up to two liang (about 60 g). Why? Because at this point the heart yin was insufficient and the qi and blood of the heart were insufficient too — a larger dose of shan yu rou lets it do the job of regulating the heart.
Two doses, and all the illness was gone
What was the result? After two doses, all the illness was cured, and the heart pain was eradicated from then on — the pain simply never came back.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: You see how quickly a formula works when it is used correctly. Which herb in this formula did the heavy lifting? I will tell you plainly: shan yu rou did the most work — all the others were there to support it.
The second case: Mrs. Tian’s old complaint, two herbs added to the same formula
Let me tell you another case. In Kaiyuan, Fengtian (the Kaiyuan county just outside Shenyang, now the city of Kaiyuan), there was a friend of Doctor Zhang Xichun’s named Tian Pinqing. His wife was in her fifties and had suffered from heart pain for years — probably much the same as what we would call a heart problem today. Again and again she took medicines to regulate the qi and activate the blood, but the root of the problem was never cured.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: My friends, I could not help smiling when I saw this case. Why? Because today, when we treat heart problems, we use exactly this same line of thinking — basically, activate the blood. You go to the hospital, and the doctor prescribes Dan Shen Di Wan (salvia miltiorrhiza drops); you get an IV, and it is a red flower (hong hua, safflower) injection… Mention heart disease these days, and it is always activate blood and regulate qi. But look at how Doctor Zhang Xichun approached it — that was hardly the only way.
One day Mrs. Tian’s heart pain suddenly flared up again. She took several doses of medicine, and there was not the slightest improvement. What do you do when the doctors cannot fix it? This time the family stepped in — Tian Pinqing was Doctor Zhang Xichun’s friend and also his fan. He opened Doctor Zhang Xichun’s book, turned to the Jiji Decoction, and there he found the record of the young man Doctor Zhang Shoutian had treated. He thought to himself: this sounds rather like my wife’s condition. So he took the formula, and added a little mo yao (myrrh) and wu ling zhi (trogopterus dung) — both of these are herbs that regulate the qi and stop pain.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: And the result? After several doses she was completely cured. Two years have passed since then, and there has been no recurrence — not a single one. So you see, my friends: when Chinese medicine hits the right diagnosis, it is genuinely effective, and it works well — it is not the “slow medicine” people like to claim.
Why does shan yu rou cure heart pain? It carries the wood qi most abundantly
Why was it so effective? Doctor Zhang Xichun’s explanation: shan yu rou receives the wood qi most abundantly — of all plants, it possesses the wood nature, the wood character, more fully than any other. Its taste is sour, yes, but its nature is free-flowing and harmonizing (tiao da) — because wood loves to flow and spread freely.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: So whenever pain is caused by deficiency of the liver qi — the liver qi is insufficient and cannot dredge and regulate the flow — shan yu rou will be effective. We usually only know it as an herb that stops sweating, secures the body, and pulls things back in — but heart pain, chest and abdominal pain, and pain of the limbs, these we never expected of it. Yet the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (The Divine Farmer’s Classic of the Materia Medica) already said it: shan zhu yu governs cold-damp bi — whenever the heart, the abdomen, or the limbs have pain, it must be that the qi and blood are closed up and blocked, stuck there unable to circulate. Prepare the herb according to the method of the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing, and it will surely be effective.
Doctor Zhang Xichun went on to analyze further. Usually, after a fit of anger, the liver qi becomes insufficient, and that is when the qi and blood stagnate and cause pain. Where does the pain appear? On one side, liver qi deficiency leads to stagnation; on the other side, if a particular organ’s qi and blood are insufficient, that too can cause pain in the related channels, or even pain of the organ itself. Shan yu rou has a strong tonifying action — once it has tonified, it can eliminate the pain. This is one of shan yu rou’s special characteristics.
What Doctor Luo wants today’s readers to know: check whether your qi and blood are sufficient before activating blood
Having told these two cases, Doctor Luo brings the discussion back to the present — because the lesson for how we treat heart disease today is enormous.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Today, whenever the heart hurts, the standard treatment is to activate blood and dissolve stasis. But everyone must be clear: is your qi and blood actually sufficient? My own habit is to look at the tongue — if the tongue is pale in color and has scalloped teeth-marks along the edges, that is qi and blood deficiency. Now, if you go straight to activating blood and dissolving stasis — tao ren (peach kernel), hong hua (safflower), dan shen (salvia) all piled on — can that person’s body take it? Often you see a little effect at first, but then the illness immediately relapses, and each time it comes back worse. Why? When the qi and blood are insufficient, forcing the flow through consumes the upright qi more and more, and the body simply cannot recover. I usually have to tonify the qi and blood first, build them up to sufficiency, then open the flow a little — add a small amount of unblocking medicine — and only at the end make unblocking the main strategy. That is how you get results.
Doctor Luo himself, when he sees heart problems, often uses long yan rou (longan fruit) — and shan yu rou is another herb he reaches for frequently.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When I see a pale tongue with obvious teeth-marks on the edges — qi and blood deficiency — I do not start with san qi (notoginseng), I do not start by piling on tao ren, hong hua, and dan shen. No, not like that. First tonify the qi and blood; once the qi and blood are sufficient, then you can activate blood and dissolve stasis. This is the inspiration Doctor Zhang Xichun gives us: in many cases, the pain comes from insufficiency of the heart’s qi and blood — and in those cases you must not recklessly use opening medicines, must not recklessly use blood-activating, qi-moving, stasis-dissolving herbs. Be careful.
Bonus: shan yu rou and wu wei zi tea — results within two or three days
Finally, Doctor Luo offers a simple home remedy, and teaches everyone how to tell whether shan yu rou suits you —
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: How do you judge? If the pain came after a fit of anger, the patient knows it himself. Then look at the pulse — on the left wrist, from the edge in: cun (inch), guan (bar), chi (cubit). The middle position, the guan pulse — if when you press it, it does not feel full and rounded, if the left-hand pulse is a little weak, especially the guan position (compared with the right hand), then you should consider whether shan yu rou might be right for you. The method is very simple: nine grams of shan yu rou with six or seven wu wei zi berries (schisandra), boiled together in water and drunk. The water is very sour, so you can drink it like a beverage. Nine grams a day, for two or three days. If it is right for you, in my experience the pain will definitely ease within two or three days — and once it eases, then go get a prescription following Doctor Zhang Xichun’s formula. If there is no effect after two or three days, stop drinking it; it probably has nothing to do with your condition. Shan yu rou is extremely mild — it is really just a fruit with a tonifying effect, and drinking it for two or three days can only do the body good, never harm.
The most important lesson of this episode
Let me close with the point — and it is the most important idea in this entire episode:
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Everyone must remember this principle: heart pain is not always blood stasis — there is also heart pain caused by insufficiency of qi and blood. Modern medicine does have this problem — the moment it sees heart pain, it reaches for blood activation and stasis dissolution. Now that we have studied Doctor Zhang Xichun’s book, we know in our hearts: there is another syndrome. From now on, when you meet this kind of situation, keep one more line of thinking in your analysis.
Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s commentary on Doctor Zhang Xichun’s medical cases; the original case comes from the Yixue Zhongzhong Canxi Lu (published in installments c. 1918–1934).