Cheek Swollen, Gums Aching, Pain Keeping You Up at Night? Doctor Zhang Xichun Cured His Own Wind-Caused Facial Swelling with One Herb — Sanqi (Notoginseng) Powder
What people search for: swollen cheek / swollen face / gum pain / toothache / face swelling after wind / swelling and pain worse at night Corresponding medical terms: parotitis (mumps-like cheek swelling) · blood stasis blocking the collaterals · wind-heat attacking upward · gu cao feng (bone-socket wind, a dangerous condition)
Opening scene: this illness came on faster than a landslide
In earlier episodes we talked about how Doctor Zhang Xichun used Chinese yam and how he used cornel (shanzhuyu). Today we turn to an even more miraculous herb — sanqi (notoginseng). Some friends may ask: how on earth was Doctor Zhang Xichun so remarkable? How did he know how to use every single herb? And how did he discover that sanqi could do such things?
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang Xichun said it himself — many of his methods came from his own trials; some of the functions of sanqi, for instance, he discovered through his own body. And in today’s case, the patient is Doctor Zhang Xichun himself.
Who was the patient? One summer night, wind leaked in through the screen window
One year in summer, the weather was scorching. Doctor Zhang Xichun slept in his bedroom, where the window was fitted with a screen. Usually when he slept at night he would draw the curtain over the screen so the wind could not reach him. But on this particular night, it was so hot that he paid no attention — the curtain was left undrawn, and the wind rushed right through the screen in steady gusts.
As he slept, he felt the wind blowing on his right cheek. In the morning, something felt slightly off; by after noon, the cheek had swollen up.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What do you do when wind has struck you? Doctor Zhang Xichun’s first reaction was: get a good sweat going, drive the pathogen out. And what did he take? Not Chinese medicine — Western medicine. Aspirin.
First wave: aspirin to induce sweating — the sweat came through, but the pain stayed
You see, Chinese doctors used Western medicine too. Doctor Zhang Xichun championed combining Chinese and Western medicine — that is precisely what the title of his book Yixue Zhongzhong Canxi Lu (Records of Chinese Medicine with Reference to Western Medicine) means: he advocated using Chinese and Western remedies together, and joining the two medical traditions. This was the conviction he held his whole life.
After taking the aspirin, he broke a sweat, and the sweat came through thoroughly — yet the pain remained, unchanged. By the next morning, it was worse: instead of easing, the pain had intensified. Wherever he pressed, even the gums hurt.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Oh no, this was serious. Sweating to release the exterior had not driven the pathogen out — instead the illness had pushed deeper. What to do? Time to prescribe for himself.
Second wave: clearing heat, external rhubarb, hot towel compresses — every trick failed
Doctor Zhang Xichun wrote himself a formula to clear fire, disperse wind, activate the blood and reduce swelling. After drinking it, the heat in his chest retreated and the fire felt quelled — but the swelling and pain of the cheek would not yield, and when he touched the skin it still felt hot.
What to try next? He thought of another method: rhubarb powder mixed with vinegar. Rhubarb clears heat from the blood, right? So he mixed rhubarb powder with vinegar and smeared it on. At first it seemed to help; after half a day, it stopped working — worse, the spot grew sensitive to cold again: just a moment ago it felt hot, and now it felt cold.
Then how about a hot compress? He took a hot towel and pressed it on. Warm and soothing, it worked well at first; after a while the pain returned, and it was useless again.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Look at that — sweating, clearing heat, external application, hot compressing: he tried every move, and none of them worked. At this point Doctor Zhang Xichun thought: there must be blood stasis (yu xue) in there now. So he brought out pangolin scales (chuan shan jia), gleditsia spine (zao ci), frankincense (ru xiang) and myrrh (mo yao) — all fierce herbs for activating the blood, dissolving stasis, reducing swelling and stopping pain.
Third wave: two doses of blood-activating, collaterals-opening herbs — not the slightest effect, pain piercing into the bone
With pangolin scales, gleditsia spine, frankincense and myrrh, he prescribed himself two doses. Friends — he took two doses of his own prescription, and the result was not the slightest effect. Nothing at all.
Not only did it not work, the condition changed: it became pain piercing into the bone (teng tong che gu) — the whole side of his teeth ached, the pain reached deep into the bone, and he could not sleep at night. When pain reaches that level, what can you do?
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Note this: when even ordinary blood-activating, stasis-dissolving herbs no longer work, it means the stasis is hidden deep — no longer in the skin and flesh, but down near the bone. Doctor Zhang Xichun thought and thought, and then suddenly it hit him: sanqi! Sanqi is excellent at dissolving stasis — but would it work here? — Drink it!
The turning point: two qian of sanqi fine powder washed down — pain eased within minutes
He took two qian (about 6 g) of sanqi fine powder and washed it down with water. What happened? After a few minutes, the pain began to ease a little; after another hour, the pain was half gone. Quickly, that same day he took sanqi two more times, two qian each dose.
By the next morning, the pain was cured; and the swelling on his cheek had begun to subside. He continued for two more days, three times a day — until the swelling and pain vanished without a trace. The illness was healed.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Everyone, remember this rhythm: eased within minutes, half gone within an hour, continued doses the same day, cured by the next morning. Why did it act so fast? Because sanqi dissolved the stasis; once the qi and blood flowed freely, the swelling and pain naturally subsided.
Doctor Zhang Xichun’s realization: sanqi can dissolve blood stasis even inside the bone
From this point on, Doctor Zhang Xichun came to understand: so sanqi really is this miraculous! What does it do? It dissolves blood stasis (hua yu xue) — and sanqi can dissolve stasis that has penetrated into the bone.
He said later: with this cheek, at first the pain was in the flesh, and then it spread to the jawbone and the teeth inside. If it had not been resolved, he said, it would have become gu cao feng (bone-socket wind) — the entire gums would swell up, a serious condition that could suppurate. Once sanqi dissolved the stasis, it was cured.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: So from this case Doctor Zhang Xichun began to understand: sanqi works remarkably well for the stasis caused by injury to the channels and collaterals. This is experience he distilled from experimenting on his own body. He said it himself: “I know this from my own experiments; having learned it, I dare not keep it secret” — once he knew, he would not hoard the knowledge, so he wrote down the whole story in detail to share with everyone. Sanqi can dissolve stasis in the channels and collaterals — that is the miraculous power of sanqi.
Doctor Luo’s own test: a sore throat, light by day and heavy by night? Think blood stasis first
After telling Doctor Zhang Xichun’s case, Doctor Luo Dalun shared his own personal verification. Just two days earlier, his throat had been a little sore. What did it feel like? At night, as he slept, he even dreamed of the pain — it was in the upper palate, hurting in the upper part. In the morning, when he got up, it gradually eased; during the day it was fine.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Here is a diagnostic clue for everyone: a pain that is light by day and heavy by night — what is that? Blood stasis, right? So Doctor Luo Dalun took sanqi powder from home, put two small spoonfuls into water and drank it. The result? The next night, the pain was almost entirely gone. Then in the small hours of the morning, a bout of pain suddenly flared up — very intense. And by daytime, it was completely cured.
Why the sudden burst of pain at dawn? The yang qi is reviving, and sanqi is clearing the way for you
Doctor Luo Dalun understood from his own experience: in the small hours of the morning, the yang qi revives and stirs (yang qi zhen fen) — sanqi had already begun clearing the passage for him. Once the yang qi stirs, the body starts recovering on its own, fighting off the external pathogen and dissolving the stasis in that spot — which is why it was better by daytime. He felt it very clearly: a burst of intense pain at dawn, one very sharp spell, and then it was well.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Sanqi’s action here is very clear-cut. Whenever I encounter cold-related pain — as long as it is throat pain, heavy at night and light by day — I tell the patient: take whatever medicine you normally take, but add one small spoonful of sanqi powder, drink it at night, and let it dissolve the stasis — because this is usually blood stasis caused by heat-toxin stagnation (re du yu jie). Once you dissolve the stasis, the illness resolves.
What to take away: the benefit of studying medical cases — one more trick for daily life
So what is the principle here? It was left to us by Doctor Zhang Xichun. Why use sanqi? Because Doctor Zhang Xichun told you. What is the benefit of reading medical cases? The physicians of antiquity left us ways of thinking. If we can read them and learn from them, friends, then you gain one more trick for daily life — that is the lesson of today’s case.
Well, friends, that is all for today. Tomorrow we will continue with how Doctor Zhang Xichun used this sanqi.
Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s explanation of Doctor Zhang Xichun’s case, originally from Yixue Zhongzhong Canxi Lu (Records of Chinese Medicine with Reference to Western Medicine).