Chronic Diarrhea for Six Months, and a Queasy Stomach Means a Dash to the Bathroom? Doctor Zhang Xichun Cured This Long-Term Diarrhea with Yam and Egg Yolk Porridge (Shuyu Jizihuang Zhou) in Just Two Rounds
What people search for: chronic diarrhea / loose stool / diarrhea that never stops / the more I go, the weaker I get / how to stop long-term diarrhea Corresponding medical terms: chronic diarrhea (jiu xie) · spleen-deficiency diarrhea (pi xu xie xie)
Opening scene: one humble herb, and Doctor Zhang Xichun found a new trick for it
Earlier we told you how Doctor Zhang Xichun used Chinese yam (shanyao) cooked into porridge to treat diarrhea — plain yam porridge, on its own, can already regulate chronic diarrhea. But Doctor Zhang Xichun felt he could do even better. In today’s story he upgraded the method: yam paired with egg yolk (jizihuang) — nothing more than these two simple foods. And with them he cured a man who had been having diarrhea for half a year and growing weaker by the day.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang Xichun knew yam through and through. He said that of all the herbs, yam was one he would use to the full — in the formulas he created, it comes back again and again. The Shuyu Jizihuang Zhou (Yam and Egg Yolk Porridge) we are discussing today is the famous formula for diarrhea from Yixue Zhongzhong Canxi Lu. In ancient times yam was called shuyu, which is why the formula is named Shuyu Jizihuang Zhou.
First, one thing to get straight: what exactly is the difference between fresh yam and dried yam slices?
Before we get to the case, let me answer a question many friends have asked: “Doctor Luo, you said before that fresh yam is good — but then you tell us Zhang Xichun used dried yam slices. Does that mean fresh yam has no medicinal power, and only the dried slices do?” No, that is not the point at all.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Fresh yam is food; dried yam slices are medicine — that simple. Fresh yam is used as food therapy: eaten as food, it nourishes, and its strength is real but gentle — after all, you are eating it as part of your meals. Eat it for a while and an elderly person will feel the qi filling out; it works. Dried yam slices are sun-dried and used to treat illness. Two completely different uses.
How are dried yam slices made? And why avoid the snow-white, smooth ones?
Drying yam slices properly takes care. The traditional way: slice the yam before dawn, spread the slices out to air-dry first, and only when the sun is up let them bake in full sun. Only yam dried this way keeps its medicinal power.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Here is a shopping tip — avoid the snow-white, smooth yam slices whenever you can. Much of that gleaming white, silky-smooth yam on the market today has been bleached with sulfur fumes. Buy the ones with a rough, knobby surface instead — those are the honestly sun-dried slices.
Yam water is medicine, fresh yam is food: the fine art of how to use it
Boiling dried yam slices and drinking the water is like extracting the essence of the yam — you take its medicinal power to treat disease. Doctor Zhang Xichun used this especially in acute and severe cases: when a person was so weak he could barely stand, he would have them drink large quantities of yam water, as if pouring the essence straight in to restart the spleen and stomach. The leftover pulp is still food, and there is no harm in eating it.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: And here is a subtle distinction. When you eat a whole fresh yam, the solid matter all goes in — so for people whose stool is very dry and who have heat inside the body, especially frail elderly people, eating whole yam can actually make the stool drier and harder. What to do then? Drink yam water: the medicinal power of the water goes in, the solid matter does not, so the shape of the stool is not affected — how clever is that? Conversely, for people with diarrhea, eating the whole fresh yam works better — the solid yam itself has an astringent, diarrhea-stopping effect, so at that point drinking only the water wastes half the benefit; better to eat the whole thing.
What does good yam look like? — The lutu “iron stick” yam of Wen County, Henan
Where is yam mainly grown? The Tiegun (iron stick) yam of Wen County, Jiaozuo, Henan Province. Even iron stick yam comes in several grades, and the very best grows in lutu soil — the hard, sticky loam soil of the region.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Lutu soil is extremely hard — dried, it is as hard as brick — and it is scarce; the whole of Wen County produces only so much. What does yam grown in such hard ground look like? Short — usually no more than sixty centimeters — uneven in thickness, bent and crooked, flattened in places, twisting around corners — because when it hits a stone it turns aside, so it is not pretty, and its whiskers are especially long. And this is precisely the good yam! The long, thin, arrow-straight yam in the market grows in sandy soil, usually from Hebei or Shandong, and its medicinal power is weaker. There is also the “drilled-groove yam” (dagou shanyao), grown in holes drilled with a power drill so it grows straight — but its medicinal power is a little less than ordinary field-grown yam. All the same, iron stick yam of any kind is a fine thing among yams.
Who was the patient? — A fifty-year-old man, six months of diarrhea, weaker by the day
The patient in today’s case was a man approaching fifty who had had diarrhea for half a year. He had not eaten something bad, and it was not dysentery from an external pathogen. It was that plain chronic diarrhea: often his stomach would feel a little off, he would dash to the toilet, and once he had gone he felt fine again. But day after day, going like this, his body slowly weakened — he grew frailer and frailer, until he could no longer bear it.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Let me be clear first: not every diarrhea can be treated with yam. Diarrhea caused by a serious external pathogen — dysentery, food poisoning, an infection from spoiled food — must not be treated this way. What yam is right for? This kind: chronic, inexplicable, always loose stool, a queasy stomach and off to the toilet, fine after going — the kind caused by the body’s own failing function, by spleen and stomach weakness (pi wei xu ruo). That is exactly what yam treats.
Round one: the plain yam porridge helped a little, but the diarrhea went on
Every medicine he had taken before had done nothing — however he ate, the diarrhea never stopped, not a bit of effect — until finally he came to Doctor Zhang Xichun for a prescription. Doctor Zhang Xichun said this was easy to handle and prescribed Shuyu Zhou (plain yam porridge): grind dried yam slices and cook them into porridge — in those days fresh yam was hard to come by, nothing like today’s express delivery, so dried slices were the usual choice — and drink it.
A few days later the patient returned and said: “Sir, I’m embarrassed to say, there is indeed some effect — but the diarrhea has still not stopped.” Some progress, but not cured. What to do?
Round two: the upgrade! Three egg yolks stirred into the yam porridge
Doctor Zhang Xichun said, then let me give you an upgraded method. Take the Huai shanyao — and here Doctor Zhang Xichun specifically pointed out it must be Huai yam — seven or eight qian, or one liang (about 21–30 g), pound it up and cook it into porridge until done; meanwhile boil three eggs, open them, take out the yolks, crush them fine, almost to a powder, and mix them into the yam porridge; eat it all together.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Note the character “huai” — Doctor Zhang Xichun believed in genuine regional ingredients (dao di yao cai). In ancient times the Jiaozuo area was called Huaiqing Fu, and the yam produced around Huaiqing was called huai shanyao. Today, through mishearing, many people write it as the “huai” of the Huai River (淮) — that is wrong; it should be the “huai” that means to cherish (怀). Doctor Zhang Xichun usually just wrote “shanyao,” but in places like this he would specifically point out that Huai yam should be used.
The method was simple and tasty. The patient went home and tried it — and what happened? He used it twice, and the diarrhea was cured!
Why was it so effective? — Doctor Zhang Xichun’s new discovery: egg yolk astringes the large intestine
Why did yam porridge with egg yolk stop the diarrhea so well?
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang Xichun said that egg yolk has the function of astringing and consolidating the large intestine (gu se da chang) — this was his new method. We all know that egg yolk (jizihuang) can nourish true yin (bu zhen yin), usually used by stirring the raw yolk into porridge. But Doctor Zhang Xichun took a different path: he boiled the yolks, took them out, crushed them, and mixed them into the yam porridge — to use their astringing, consolidating action on the large intestine and stop the diarrhea.
Who is this method especially good for? — Frail elderly people and children
This method of Doctor Zhang Xichun’s is especially suited to two kinds of people: frail elderly people, and children — the ones who have that inexplicable, recurring loose stool and diarrhea. And remember the precondition: it must not be caused by external pathogens or exterior evils, but by the body’s own weak function — spleen and stomach deficiency.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In such cases, we can regulate with this method: cook seven or eight qian to one liang of Huai yam into porridge, add three boiled, crushed egg yolks — extremely simple, and easy to accept. This is the new line of thinking Doctor Zhang Xichun handed down to us.
Closing: Doctor Zhang Xichun used every herb to the full
Doctor Zhang Xichun, in fact, used every single herb he handled to the full — once you understand these herbs clearly, you will find that the formulas he created return to them again and again. Study the herbs well, then go back to Doctor Zhang Xichun’s prescriptions, and you will see with perfect clarity what he is saying.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: If you would like to learn more about yam, you can look up the WeChat public account “Huai Shanyao Fang” (怀山药房) — from Doctor Zhang Xichun’s hometown (huai as in “cherish,” and the account name means “Huai Yam House”). Not long ago, in an article under a voice post on that account, Doctor Luo wrote in detail about his own field trip searching out truly good yam. Let us understand Doctor Zhang Xichun’s way of using herbs a little at a time, and use it to protect our own health.
What to take away
- Fresh yam is food; dried yam slices are medicine. Eat fresh yam as gentle daily nourishment; boil dried slices into yam water when you need real medicinal power — and avoid the snow-white, sulfur-bleached slices; buy the rough, knobby ones.
- Yam water for dry stool and internal heat; whole yam for diarrhea. The solid yam itself astringes the stool, so for diarrhea eat the whole thing; for constipation and heat, drink only the water so the stool’s shape is not affected.
- Chronic diarrhea from spleen and stomach weakness responds to Shuyu Jizihuang Zhou: seven or eight qian to one liang of Huai yam cooked into porridge, plus three boiled, crushed egg yolks mixed in — Doctor Zhang Xichun’s patient was cured in just two servings after half a year of diarrhea.
- Egg yolk does more than nourish yin: boiled, crushed and mixed into porridge, it astringes and consolidates the large intestine — Doctor Zhang Xichun’s own new discovery.
- Not every diarrhea suits yam: diarrhea from severe external pathogens (dysentery, food poisoning) must not be treated this way; use it only for the chronic, weak-spleen type.
Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s narration of Doctor Zhang Xichun’s medical cases; the original case comes from Yixue Zhongzhong Canxi Lu (Records of Chinese Medicine with Reference to Western Medicine).