Severe Pain Below the Belly Button That Made a Boy Cry All Night? Doctor Zhang Xichun Cured It with One Dose of Huoluo Xiaoling Dan
Opening: one cold cake, and a night of howling
During the years Doctor Zhang Xichun practiced in Tianjin, he carried a favorite formula he was especially proud of — Huoluo Xiaoling Dan. It contains just four herbs: danggui (Chinese angelica root), danshen (red sage root), ruxiang (frankincense), and moyao (myrrh). He said this formula treats pain in the chest and abdomen — no matter whether the root cause is yin cold, yin qi, constrained heat, or blood stasis. Today’s case is the moment these four herbs stole the show.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In Doctor Zhang’s experience, these four herbs combined can almost universally treat all kinds of chest and abdominal pain — whatever the root cause, if qi, blood, and the channels are blocked, this formula can come to the rescue. Remember this formula first — today’s story is all about it.
The patient: a boy from Yanshan who cried out “I can’t take it!”
One day, Doctor Zhang Xichun was traveling back from Tianjin to his hometown, Yanshan in Hebei Province. No sooner had he stepped through the door than a neighbor came to ask for his help: a boy in the village was doubled over with unbearable stomach pain.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Where did it hurt? Right below the belly button — and it hurt terribly. Remember that location — below the navel. It becomes the key to the whole case later.
Two doctors got it wrong: first warming, then purging — and each made things worse
The boy first called in a doctor. The doctor took one look at how fiercely he was hurting and concluded it had to be cold invasion, so he prescribed warming herbs. What happened? The pain got worse with every dose — until the boy was crying and wailing day and night, sobbing, “I really can’t take it anymore!”
The family quickly changed doctors. The second doctor reasoned: if warming doesn’t work, let’s purge! He used purgative methods. After the purge, the boy felt slightly better, but he was still miserable — still groaning day and night. The doctor said a few more doses would consolidate the improvement — but after several more doses, there was no improvement at all.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: There you have it — one warming, one purging, the two standard plays were both tried, the illness was not cured, and the boy suffered terribly on top of it. Just then, Doctor Zhang Xichun came back from Tianjin to his hometown — an opportunity they couldn’t have begged for. The family hurried over and invited him in.
The pulse: flooding and replete at both chi positions — heat in the lower jiao
Doctor Zhang Xichun arrived and first took the pulse. The moment his fingers touched the wrist, he knew: the chi positions (the distal pulse positions) on both hands were flooding and replete (hong shi).
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In Chinese pulse diagnosis, the cun, guan, and chi positions correspond to the upper, middle, and lower parts of the body — the chi position governs the lower body. A “flooding” pulse tells you there is heat; a “replete” pulse tells you there is excess pathogen blocked inside. With that one reading, Doctor Zhang concluded: the heat is in the lower jiao.
Doctor Zhang asked the boy: “How did this illness start?” The boy thought for a moment: “It was that night. Before I went to sleep, I ate a cold cake — an ice-cold cake — and went straight to bed. When I woke up, my stomach started hurting.”
The cause in one sentence: the pain wasn’t from the cold — the heat got “trapped”
The moment he heard that, Doctor Zhang understood, and he explained to the boy: “Here’s what happened — you already had heat hidden in your lower jiao. It had never flared up, and it had never been treated. Then one day you suddenly ate a cold cake; the cold pressed down on top of it, and the heat had nowhere to disperse — it became constrained inside. That is what hurt you.”
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: This is the pivotal moment of the whole case! On the surface, the pain was triggered by eating something cold, and the first doctor followed that thread and warmed the yang — but warming yang on top of trapped heat is like pouring oil on a fire; of course it got worse and worse. Doctor Zhang saw deeper: the cold was only the trigger — the heat was the root. The heat was pressed down and trapped by the cold thing, unable to disperse, and that is why the pain was so fierce.
The prescription: Huoluo Xiaoling Dan, plus longdancao and chuanlianzi, 4 qian each
Once the disease mechanism was clear, the formula wrote itself: give Huoluo Xiaoling Dan — danggui, danshen, ruxiang, and moyao, four herbs to free qi and blood and unblock the channels. And because he had concluded there was heat in the lower jiao, he added longdancao (Chinese gentian root) and chuanlianzi (Sichuan chinaberry fruit), 4 qian each (about 12 g), to guide the medicine straight into the lower jiao and scatter the heat.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Longdancao is the bold general that clears damp-heat from the lower jiao; chuanlianzi moves qi and drains heat. Pair these two with Huoluo Xiaoling Dan — one side unblocks, the other clears — the strategy is very clear.
One dose, cured: the pain stopped as the medicine went down
What happened? One dose — and the boy’s stomach pain was gone. Cured with a single dose!
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Folks, this is the kind of case that is the most satisfying to read — one dose and cured! Why? Because the diagnosis was accurate. Doctor Zhang saw in one glance that this was heat in the lower jiao, pressed down by a cold thing, constrained inside — and that combination produced the pain. Honestly, I don’t think an ordinary physician would have figured this one out.
Why didn’t the purgative work? The heat wasn’t in the large intestine — it was in the Chong and Ren channels
At this point someone will ask: you said there’s heat in the lower jiao — so why not just purge it out? The second doctor did use a purgative — why didn’t it work?
Doctor Zhang’s explanation is the most thought-provoking part of the whole case: ordinarily, if heat sits in the large intestine, a purgative carries it right out with the stool. But this boy’s heat was not in the large intestine — where was it? In the Chong and Ren channels — that is, the Thoroughfare (Chong) and Conception (Ren) vessels, two of the eight extraordinary vessels (qi jing ba mai). This heat had nothing to do with the large intestine, so purging the large intestine naturally couldn’t move it.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Now you see it! Why did the purgative fail and the warming herbs make things worse? Because the root of the disease was never on the gastrointestinal track at all. The heat was constrained in the Chong and Ren channels — this is a matter of the extraordinary vessels, and the medicinal power of ordinary formulas rarely reaches there. Doctor Zhang used Huoluo Xiaoling Dan because it excels at entering the blood aspect and freeing the channels — it could carry the power of longdancao and chuanlianzi directly into the Chong and Ren channels, dispersing and clearing the heat. That is why a single dose hit the mark. This is a very sophisticated way to treat.
What makes the formula work: four herbs that free qi and blood and carry the medicine into the channels
Why was Huoluo Xiaoling Dan up to the task? Because Doctor Zhang had his own body of experience with these four herbs: danggui and danshen free the blood aspect; ruxiang and moyao move qi, invigorate the blood, and stop pain — four herbs working together with a very strong channel-unblocking effect.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang’s experience was this: when qi and blood are stagnant and blocked, this simple four-herb formula can carry other herbs into the channels and into the blood aspect to do their work — like an advance scout that clears the road first, so the rest of the troops can get in and get the job done. This is one of Doctor Zhang’s distinctive ways of using a formula.
Two lessons: mind the temperature of your food, and remember Huoluo Xiaoling Dan
From this case we can learn two things.
First, watch the temperature of what you eat. Look at this boy — he had hidden heat in his lower jiao, and one cold cake before bed trapped the heat and made him cry day and night. In fact, even for people without hidden heat in the lower jiao, a cold cake before bed wounds the body — and if the qi, blood, and channels already have an imbalance somewhere, the cold thing only makes the problem more severe. So don’t eat carelessly — always match your food to the cold and warmth your body can handle.
Second, remember Huoluo Xiaoling Dan. These four simple herbs are the crystallized experience of Doctor Zhang Xichun. When you meet stagnant qi and blood with pain in the chest and abdomen, this formula frees qi and blood, unblocks the channels, and can even carry other medicines into the blood aspect to do their work.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: We’ll talk slowly in future episodes about how this formula enters the qi and blood, frees the channels, and disperses through the blood aspect. For today, remember these two points: watch your mouth — don’t casually eat cold things; and remember the four herbs of Huoluo Xiaoling Dan — danggui, danshen, ruxiang, moyao. Tomorrow we’ll continue with how Doctor Zhang Xichun used ruxiang and moyao!
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).