Stomach Bloating with a Blocked Feeling at the Cardia? Doctor Zhang Xichun Dissolved Stomach Blood Stasis with Chicken Gizzard Lining (Jineijin)
Patient’s search terms: stomach bloating / stomach bloated and stuffy / cardia feels blocked / cannot eat / decreased appetite / blocked feeling where the esophagus meets the stomach Medical terms: stomach fullness and oppression (wei wan pi man) · blood stasis in the stomach · blood stasis obstructing the middle burner
Opening: this episode was recorded in Wenshan, the authentic home of notoginseng
This episode was recorded by Doctor Luo Dalun in Wenshan, Yunnan Province. Wenshan is a very special place — it is the home of a famous herb: sanqi, or notoginseng. The most authentic (daodi) notoginseng in all of China comes from Wenshan. Other regions grow it too, but the medicinal properties are never quite the same — Wenshan notoginseng is the genuine article.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Luo Dalun has made it his goal to travel the country and study every authentic (daodi) medicinal herb at its true origin. It was only after arriving in Wenshan that he realized how much there is to know about notoginseng that he had never noticed before. This is what they mean by “read ten thousand books, travel ten thousand miles” — you have to go to the fields themselves, learn from the farmers and growers, before you understand which places produce the strongest medicine, what the crop looks like in different years, and all the fine details involved. He hopes to find a chance to talk specifically about how to choose Wenshan notoginseng. But today’s topic is how Doctor Zhang Xichun used another gentle blood-activating, stasis-resolving herb — jineijin (chicken gizzard lining) — to dissolve accumulations and stasis inside the organs.
Who was the patient? Mr. Qin from Hailong County, Fengtian, in his thirties
This case is a fascinating one. The patient came from Hailong, Fengtian — today’s Meihekou, Jilin Province, which was administered under Liaoning Province in those days. His surname was Qin, he was in his thirties, and his name was Qin Xingyuan (given in pinyin; the exact characters await verification).
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang Xichun had a habit in his case records — he wrote down people’s names, places, and official titles in complete detail, never carelessly. A case with a full name and hometown like this could never be fabricated — this is precisely why studying his case records is so trustworthy.
How sick was he? His stomach was bloated and stuffy, and his cardia always felt blocked
What was Mr. Qin’s illness? His stomach was constantly bloated and oppressed — uncomfortable, so full and tight that he could not eat properly. It was not that he could not eat at all, but rather that his appetite had dropped noticeably. The worst part: whenever he ate, he always felt blocked — as if something were stuck in the area of his cardia, obstructing and annoying him.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What is the cardia? It is the junction where the esophagus meets the stomach. Mammals have two gates: the upper one is called the cardia — where the esophagus connects to the stomach; the lower one is the pylorus — where the stomach connects to the intestines. Mr. Qin always felt something stuck at his cardia — that means there was accumulation and stasis — and this seemingly small complaint tormented him terribly.
How many doctors had he seen? Many, with absolutely no effect
For an illness like this, Mr. Qin had been treated many times and seen many doctors, with absolutely no result — his illness was not cured, and no one could even figure out what it was. Stomach bloating, decreased appetite, a blocked cardia — what on earth was going on? Nobody could say.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Why is stomach disease so hard to treat? Because the stomach is an organ that works every day — it must eat every day — and the moment anything is slightly off, you feel it immediately. But precisely because of this, many people are treated again and again and relapse again and again, never finding the root of the problem. The key to this case is that Doctor Zhang Xichun saw in one glance what no one else had seen.
One feel of the pulse: sunken and firm — this is blood stasis
Mr. Qin learned that Doctor Zhang Xichun was seeing patients at the Lida Hospital of Chinese Medicine in Shenyang, and hurried over to seek treatment. The moment Doctor Zhang Xichun felt his pulse, he understood: the pulse was sunken and firm (chen lao) — deep and bound. What does that mean? There is accumulation, there is blood stasis — that is why the pulse runs deep. Doctor Zhang Xichun said: we will resolve the blood stasis.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: A sunken and firm pulse is the classic pulse of binding blood stasis. When blood stasis blocks the middle burner and qi and blood cannot circulate smoothly, the pulse naturally sinks. Doctor Zhang Xichun spent his life judging disease by the pulse — with that single reading, the root of the illness was found: blood stasis in the stomach.
The prescription: one herb leading — jineijin — with blood-activating, spleen-tonifying, and descending partners
Doctor Zhang Xichun wrote a formula, and none of the doses were large:
- Sheng jineijin (raw chicken gizzard lining) 6 qian — six qian comes to just 18 grams;
- Baizhu (white atractylodes) and zhe shi (hematite), 5 qian each — baizhu tonifies the spleen and stomach; zhe shi has a heavy, sinking nature that drives the medicine downward;
- Ruxiang (frankincense), moyao (myrrh), and danshen (salvia miltiorrhiza), 4 qian each — three herbs that activate blood and resolve stasis;
- Sheng taoren (raw peach kernel) 2 qian — two qian is only about six kernels.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Look at the logic of this formula: sheng jineijin, ruxiang, moyao, danshen, and taoren are all blood-activating, stasis-resolving herbs, aimed squarely at the blood stasis in the stomach; with a little baizhu to protect the spleen and stomach, and a little zhe shi to press downward and anchor the medicine’s action. Attack with defense — this single formula was given to Mr. Qin.
The result: eight doses, and he was cured
How did it work out? Eight doses in a row, and he was cured. An illness that had tormented Mr. Qin and blocked him up so miserably — eight doses and it was gone.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Mr. Qin was overjoyed — he had suffered terribly, feeling blocked and uncomfortable all day long, and after eight doses he was well. Is that mysterious? This is what they mean by “when the famous doctor’s diagnosis is accurate, treatment must bring results.” Doctors of the caliber of Zhang Xichun make precise differentiations and use their medicines precisely — so patient after patient is cured.
How happy was he? He placed a notice of thanks in the newspaper
Once cured, Mr. Qin was so delighted that he did something considered very honorable in that era — he placed a public notice in a newspaper to declare it.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What was a newspaper notice? It was a custom from the Republican era: when a common person’s illness had been cured by a famous doctor, to express gratitude he would put an advertisement in the newspaper — “My such-and-such illness was cured by Mr. Zhang Xichun” — that is what 登报声明 (deng bao sheng ming), a published declaration, meant. In the old days many famous doctors received such public declarations. After the founding of the People’s Republic, the custom changed to presenting silk banners — with phrases like “miraculous hands restore spring” — but in the old days it was newspaper notices. A published declaration is printed in black and white in the newspaper — it absolutely cannot be made up — and this from another angle testifies to Doctor Zhang Xichun’s medical skill.
The lesson of the case: in stomach disease, never forget the “blood stasis” pattern
What are we to learn from today’s case? The core point: the accumulation that jineijin excels at dissolving is found precisely in the stomach.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Why does the stomach so easily produce blood stasis? All kinds of anger and frustration, injuries, overeating and binge drinking, irregular hunger and fullness — all of these can generate blood stasis in the stomach. Once blood stasis is present in the stomach, its function breaks down and all kinds of discomfort follow. So when treating stomach disease, you must consider the possibility of blood stasis. Some diseases — even atrophic gastritis, for example — eventually must make resolving stasis a primary task. How do you resolve the stasis? Using jineijin is a particularly simple method — Doctor Zhang Xichun was especially skilled at using raw jineijin to dissolve blood stasis in the stomach, and this was one of his precious experiences.
Closing: if your stomach is bloated and blocked, don’t forget this food-grade treasure
Now that we understand this case, we know: there is a pattern of stomach disease that involves blood stasis. It causes all kinds of functional disorders — above all the blocked feeling, the fullness and oppression, and even pain.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In this situation, besides having the relevant examinations done, raw jineijin is a wonderfully simple dual-use substance — both medicine and food (yao shi tong yuan) for regulating and protecting your health. It is the dried yellow membrane inside a chicken’s gizzard — it is both a medicine and a food ingredient, and you can find it right at the market. If your stomach feels bloated, oppressed, or blocked, ask a Chinese medicine practitioner to differentiate your pattern and see whether you belong to the blood-stasis type, and then consider using jineijin to regulate. If you gained something from today’s episode, that’s wonderful — tomorrow we’ll continue with how Doctor Zhang Xichun treated his patients!
Arranged from Doctor Luo Dalun’s commentary on Doctor Zhang Xichun’s case records; the case comes from Records of Chinese Medicine with Reference to the West (《医学衷中参西录》).