Hard Lump Under the Left Ribs That Hurts? Doctor Zhang Xichun Dissolved the Mass with Just Two Herbs
Opening: when you kill a chicken, would you ever guess that little membrane could heal?
Anyone who has butchered a chicken at home knows the drill: inside the bird’s stomach there is a layer of yellowish membrane lining the inner wall. Most people can’t be bothered with it, so the whole thing — membrane and all — goes into the stew pot, and it tastes just fine. This humble little “food item” became a formidable healing tool in the hands of Doctor Zhang Xichun.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Jineijin is the medicinal herb made by drying that yellow membrane from the chicken’s gizzard. You’d never guess it, but Doctor Zhang reached for it again and again in his formulas — why? To dissolve blood stasis! Especially in gynecology, in traumatic injuries, and whenever there were accumulations inside the organs, it worked remarkably well. Can you believe it? A single herb — jineijin — used to invigorate the blood, remove stasis, and melt away congestion.
The patient: a police chief in Heilongjiang with a good life — and a miserable one
Today’s patient is Mr. Shi Zhongxun from Dadongguan, Fengtian. Zhong as in “second among brothers,” xun as in “merit and honor.” In his forties, he served as chief of a police bureau in Heilongjiang — by any measure a solid post. Yet he couldn’t stand it. Why? He was sick.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What illness? He had an accumulation (ji ju) in his belly. In the old days, “accumulation” meant qi and blood congealing into a lump — in plain terms, a hard mass growing inside the abdomen. The disease had dragged on for a long time, and nothing they tried in Heilongjiang could cure it. So what do you do? You travel back to Shenyang and go to the Lida Hospital of Chinese Medicine to see Doctor Zhang Xichun — the hospital Doctor Zhang himself had founded, where no small number of baffling, hard-to-treat diseases were cured.
How bad was it? A three-cun lump hidden under the left ribs
When he finally sat before Doctor Zhang Xichun, the examination revealed a serious problem: the lump sat under his left ribs — just beneath the left ribcage — about three cun in diameter, and it was rock hard to the touch. What’s more, it ached constantly, and he was always belching and short of breath — it felt like he could never quite get enough air — and his appetite was shrinking day by day.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Listen to that combination of symptoms: a hard lump, pain, belching, shortness of breath, loss of appetite. In Chinese medicine this is no longer plain indigestion — this is the picture of qi and blood congealing into an accumulation. And the longer it lingers, the harder it becomes to dissolve.
Treated many times: nothing worked in Heilongjiang, so he returned to Shenyang
The illness had not gone untreated back in Heilongjiang. But treatment after treatment brought no improvement — the lump stayed right where it was, and the pain kept right on hurting. Out of options, Mr. Shi made the long journey back to Shenyang and placed his last hope in Doctor Zhang Xichun.
The pulse: deep and wiry — stagnant liver qi with a knot inside
Doctor Zhang Xichun took his pulse and found it deep and wiry (chen xian).
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: A deep pulse tells you the disease is in the interior, in the organs. A wiry pulse is the classic signature of liver qi not flowing freely. Put the two together: the liver qi was constrained and stagnant, and there was congealed stasis — the movement of qi was stuck, the blood congealed right along with it, and that is how the lump formed. With that, the disease mechanism was read completely.
The prescription: just two herbs, ground 3:1, taken three times a day
With a lump this size, you would expect a full army of herbs, wouldn’t you? Doctor Zhang’s prescription was so simple it was almost startling:
Sheng jineijin (raw chicken gizzard lining) 3 liang (about 90 g), chaihu (bupleurum) 1 liang (about 30 g) — a 3:1 ratio — ground together into a fine powder. Take 1.5 qian (about 4.5 g) each time, three times a day, washed down with water.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Notice the word “sheng” (raw) — it does not mean fresh. Just as his “sheng shanyao” (raw Chinese yam) actually refers to dried yam slices, “sheng jineijin” simply means the dried chicken gizzard lining. Just these two herbs — one dissolves stasis, one frees the liver. So simple, yet quietly profound.
The result: in about ten days, the lump dissolved on its own
Mr. Shi went home and followed Doctor Zhang’s method faithfully: three times a day, just a little powder stirred into water and drunk. He kept at it — and somewhere around the tenth day, the lump dissolved, and the illness was cured.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: That is a master at work! Why can two herbs pull this off? Sheng jineijin dissolves stasis; chaihu frees the liver and regulates qi, and it also guides the medicine into the liver channel. Whenever Doctor Zhang met stasis and accumulation along the liver channel, he would pair sheng jineijin with a bit of chaihu — and the results were consistently good. It could dissolve the accumulation and the congealed knot of qi and blood.
Why the formula works: one herb dissolves stagnation, one frees the liver — both aimed at the liver channel
The genius of this formula lies entirely in the pairing. The lump sat under the ribs, and the region under the ribs is precisely where the liver channel runs. The root cause was constrained liver qi and congealed blood. Jineijin slowly melts the accumulation away; chaihu opens up the bound liver qi and conveniently carries the medicinal power into the liver channel. Each herb does its own job, and both pull in exactly the same direction.
The lesson: Doctor Zhang was certain — jineijin can dissolve accumulations in any organ
Doctor Zhang Xichun held a remarkably bold conviction about jineijin: wherever an accumulation exists in the organs, jineijin can dissolve it. Man or woman, so long as there is an accumulation or a lump of this kind, taken persistently over time, it will gradually dissolve and heal.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Why was Doctor Zhang so confident? Jineijin is the chicken’s spleen and stomach. A chicken pecks and scratches all day long — it can digest hard things like porcelain, copper, and iron. You can see how mighty its digestive, dissolving force is. Melting away accumulations inside the organs is precisely its specialty. That is why Doctor Zhang added a dose of sheng jineijin to so many of his formulas — not to aid digestion, but to dissolve stasis. Dissolving congealed knots with jineijin was one of his signature moves.
Closing: medicine and food from the same source
After this case, we have made the acquaintance of one more treasure: jineijin is both food and medicine — this is what Chinese medicine calls “medicine and food share the same origin.” It is a very simple form of food therapy: safe, reliable, and effective.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: If someone around you is troubled by accumulations or congealed knots, keep this thought in your mind — “jineijin is actually useful.” When preparing food-therapy dishes, you can add a little jineijin — you never know, it might bring about an unexpected effect. That is the takeaway to remember today. Tomorrow, we will continue with how Doctor Zhang Xichun used jineijin!
Case source: Records of Chinese Medicine with Western Reference by Doctor Zhang Xichun; commentary based on public lectures by Doctor Luo Dalun (PhD in TCM diagnostics, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine).