Leg Pain So Bad You Can’t Get Out of Bed After Anger? Doctor Zhang Xichun’s Heavy Use of Shan Yu Rou (Dogwood Fruit) to Tonify the Liver and Unblock the Collaterals

Patient search words: leg pain after getting angry / leg pain / leg pain so bad I can’t walk / pain so bad I can’t sleep / furious anger injures the liver / liver qi deficiency

Corresponding medical terms: insufficiency of qi and blood in the liver channel · liver deficiency · wood overacting on earth (mu cheng tu) · bi syndrome (painful obstruction)

Opening: yesterday’s life-saving herb — today it meets our everyday lives

Yesterday we talked about how Doctor Zhang Xichun used shan yu rou (dogwood fruit, Cornus officinalis) to rescue critically ill patients — the kind of emergency where someone is sweating buckets, with the upright qi (zheng qi) about to slip away. In that moment of crisis, a dose of shan yu rou gathers the upright qi back together and pulls the person back from the very gate of death. But after hearing that, you might be thinking: what does this have to do with me? I’m not a doctor, and I’ll never meet someone so ill that they’re drenched in sweat with their upright qi collapsing — right?

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Today I want to tell you about how this herb, shan yu rou, connects to our everyday lives. It is not only a powerful medicine for rescuing the critically ill — used well, it can also handle the small ailments of daily life.

Doctor Zhang Xichun’s unique insight: shan yu rou doesn’t just gather — it also opens

To make this clear, we have to start with how Doctor Zhang Xichun understood shan yu rou. He held that shan yu rou can tonify the liver and the kidneys — that is its nourishing side. But shan yu rou has other talents too.

He said shan yu rou “obtains the wood qi most richly” — it is a plant, and it carries the plant’s nature to the fullest, receiving more of the wood qi than almost anything else. Therefore, within its astringent, gathering action it also carries a free-flowing, regulating quality. What does that mean? It means it can not only gather and hold — it can also “open” and move things along.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Most people assume shan yu rou is purely nourishing and astringent, but Doctor Zhang Xichun had a unique view — he believed shan yu rou also has an unblocking function: it can open the nine orifices and circulate the blood and vessels. That is why he often used it to treat conditions of stagnated qi and blood. Remember this quality — “it gathers and it opens” — because both case records below depend entirely on it.

Case one: Mr. Zhou of the neighboring village, whose legs began to hurt after a big quarrel

Doctor Zhang Xichun’s hometown was in Yanshan. In Huanglongjing village nearby, there was a household surnamed Zhou. The patient was about thirty years old. How did this illness come about? After one furious outburst of anger.

Now, everyone should note that “anger” comes in two forms. One is called yu nu — suppressed anger — daring to be angry but not daring to say it, a smoldering resentment that cannot be vented. The other is called bao nu — violent rage — a full-blown blazing quarrel, really going at it with someone. That is violent rage.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Mr. Zhou had the second kind — violent rage. After his great anger, he gradually felt his legs begin to hurt, worse day by day. By two months later, it had reached the point where he was bedridden and unable to turn over — lying in bed, he could hardly even roll over. His legs felt terribly heavy, and he could not get out of bed.

Treated again and again, only to grow worse: every liver-soothing, qi-regulating formula failed

With illness this severe, of course doctors were called. The doctors who came took one look and thought — didn’t this disease come on after anger? So what do you do? Soften the liver and regulate the qi (shu gan li qi). And the result? The medicine not only failed to help — his condition grew worse, the illness turning more severe by the day.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What to do now? The villagers said: Doctor Zhang Xichun in the neighboring village is formidable — his skill is at its peak. Let’s bring him here! And so Doctor Zhang Xichun was summoned.

Doctor Zhang Xichun takes the pulse: the left pulse abnormally weak, and every painful spot burning hot

Doctor Zhang Xichun arrived and took the pulse — the left pulse was abnormally weak, extremely weak.

As you may know, the left wrist pulse from wrist to elbow is divided into three positions — cun, guan, and chi — which correspond to the heart, the liver, and the kidneys. An abnormally weak left pulse — what does that say? Doctor Zhang Xichun had a habit in pulse-taking: he often assessed the three positions as a whole. He did not always insist on splitting the cun, guan, and chi positions into fine detail — he would press lightly and feel that the overall strength was especially weak, and he immediately understood: this was insufficiency of the qi and blood of the liver channel.

Then he asked about the symptoms. The patient said: every place that hurts also feels hot — where my legs ache, they feel hot to the touch.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang Xichun was suddenly enlightened! The Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic) says: anger injures the liver. We say the seven emotions can injure the five organs — what are the seven emotions? Joy, anger, worry, brooding, sorrow, fear, and fright. Everyone has them, but they must not go to excess. When they go too far, they injure the organs: excessive joy injures the heart, excessive anger injures the liver, sorrow injures the lungs, brooding injures the spleen, fear injures the kidneys, and fright injures the gallbladder. This patient had flown into violent rage — and what was injured was his liver.

The diagnostic highlight: violent rage damages the liver’s qi and blood — not constrained liver qi

Here is a crucial distinction that Doctor Zhang Xichun spelled out clearly. Both are described as “injuring the liver,” but there are two different situations:

Suppressed anger (yu nu) — brooding resentment, daring to be angry but not daring to speak — this kind of anger causes qi and blood to stagnate, that is, constrained liver qi (gan qi yu jie).

Violent rage (bao nu) — the qi and blood suddenly surge up with tremendous force, and that very surge injures the qi and blood themselves.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: So Doctor Zhang Xichun said: this is injury to the qi and blood of the liver channel — it is not necessarily “constraint” of the liver’s qi and blood. When the qi and blood are injured, the person becomes weak — after the violent rage passes, the upright qi is insufficient, which is why his left pulse felt so weak at a touch.

Then why did the patient also feel heat? Doctor Zhang Xichun’s explanation is wonderful: the liver governs free coursing (gan zhu shu xie) — that is the liver’s function; and deep within the liver dwells the ministerial fire (xiang huo). When the liver becomes weak and cannot course and discharge properly, the ministerial fire cannot circulate with the body’s flow — wherever it becomes stuck, that place runs hot. The qi and blood were injured, the liver was deficient, and the ministerial fire got stuck in the legs — which is why every painful spot felt hot.

The prescription unpacked: a heavy dose of clean shan yu rou, one liang, with a few collateral-unblocking and qi-regulating herbs

How did Doctor Zhang Xichun treat it? He wrote a formula:

Clean shan yu rou, one liang (30 g) — that is, shan yu rou with every pit carefully picked out — this was the leading herb, used in a heavy dose; paired with zhi mu (anemarrhena root), six qian (18 g) to clear heat; dang gui (Chinese angelica) and dan shen (Salvia miltiorrhiza), three qian (9 g) each — to nourish the blood and unblock the collaterals; ru xiang (frankincense) and mo yao (myrrh), three qian (9 g) each — to regulate the qi and stop pain.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Here I especially want to explain “clean shan yu rou.” Doctor Zhang Xichun always said “clean shan yu rou” — what does that mean? It means the pits must be picked out completely — because the pit of shan yu rou has medicinal properties opposite to those of the flesh. Leaving the pits in weakens the effect. So whenever you use shan yu rou, removing the pits matters a great deal.

Look at this formula: a heavy dose of shan yu rou, one liang, tonifies the liver and restrains the liver while circulating the blood and vessels; a little zhi mu clears the heat of the ministerial fire; dang gui and dan shen nourish the blood and unblock the collaterals; ru xiang and mo yao regulate the qi and stop the pain — few herbs, and the logic is crystal clear.

And the result? After ten doses, the heat subsided, the pain stopped, and he walked normally again — ten doses and the illness was cured.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Look — other doctors tried every liver-soothing, qi-regulating approach and could not cure this disease. Doctor Zhang Xichun used a heavy dose of shan yu rou, added a few supporting herbs, and it was cured in about ten doses. That is Doctor Zhang Xichun’s experience — he understood that this disease was not “constraint” — it was “injury.” So you cannot just soothe the liver; you have to tonify the liver.

Case two: Ding Yixian’s elderly mother — nearly seventy, leg pain so severe she couldn’t sleep

Doctor Zhang Xichun recorded many cases like this. Let me tell one more.

In Doctor Zhang Xichun’s hometown there was a friend named Ding Yixian. One day, Ding Yixian’s ling tang fell ill — now, what does “ling tang” mean? It is the respectful term for a friend’s mother.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Ling tang was nearly seventy — an old lady in her late sixties — who suddenly came down with a condition: leg pain. How bad was it? Even walking felt difficult, and at night the pain was so severe she could not sleep at all. It was truly agonizing. Ding Yixian hurried to fetch Doctor Zhang Xichun — probably drove a horse carriage out and brought him home.

Ding Yixian also offered his own analysis: my mother’s pulse feels very forceful and large — there must be fire in her body. Fire stuck inside is what causes the pain. Come and confirm it by taking her pulse.

A large and stringlike pulse: an illusion, not fire

So Doctor Zhang Xichun took the pulse — and indeed, the pulse was large. But — it was large and stringlike. What does stringlike feel like? Like a lute string, stretched tight.

Doctor Zhang Xichun then asked the old lady: do you feel any vexation in your heart? A person with fire often feels restless inside — do you feel like drinking some cool water? The old lady said: no, I don’t feel hot at all.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang Xichun said: this is not the pulse of fire. This is a pulse with a false appearance — when a person is deficient to a certain degree, the body instead shows something that looks “excess.” On the surface the pulse is large, but when you press down, underneath it is empty. A large and stringlike pulse — what does “stringlike” indicate? Disharmony of the liver and gallbladder — the illness is in the liver and gallbladder.

(Doctor Luo added a note: this old lady had probably been angry at some point before. Doctor Zhang Xichun didn’t say so — this is Doctor Luo’s analysis. Older people’s emotions are often hard to regulate; at the slightest thing going wrong, they flare up more easily than middle-aged people. So she had likely been angry.)

Wood overacting on earth: restrain the liver on one side, tonify the spleen on the other

So how did Doctor Zhang Xichun analyze it? He held that this was “wood overacting on earth” (mu cheng tu) — the disease of the liver-wood has dragged in the spleen-earth, so the liver and spleen are sick together. What do you do then? On the one hand you must restrain the liver qi (pull the liver qi back together), and on the other hand you must tonify the spleen-earth.

The formula he wrote:

Shan yu rou and bai zhu (white atractylodes), six qian (18 g) each — shan yu rou tonifies and restrains the liver and also has its opening quality; bai zhu tonifies the spleen. Ren shen (ginseng) and bai shao (white peony), three qian (9 g) each — ginseng tonifies the spleen, bai shao restrains the liver. Dang gui and chen pi (aged tangerine peel), two qian (6 g) each — dang gui nourishes the liver and supplements the blood, chen pi regulates the qi. Hou po (magnolia bark), ru xiang, and mo yao, one and a half qian (4.5 g) each — hou po regulates the qi, ru xiang and mo yao regulate the qi and stop pain, just a small touch of each.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Look at how evenly each herb is distributed in this formula, how well they match one another: shan yu rou tonifies, restrains, and opens the liver; bai zhu and ren shen tonify the spleen; bai shao restrains the liver; dang gui nourishes the liver and supplements the blood; chen pi and hou po regulate the qi; ru xiang and mo yao regulate the qi and stop pain — the liver and spleen are treated together, each doing its own job. And the result? A few doses and it was cured — just a few doses cured an illness that had made walking impossible and sleep unattainable.

Doctor Zhang Xichun’s real skill: never fooled by the false appearance, certain in his own mind

This is Doctor Zhang Xichun’s true ability — when he wrote a prescription, he was absolutely certain in his own mind. He knew where this illness came from: it came from anger. He took the pulse — stringlike, large — and was not fooled by the false appearance. He knew this was not real fire but a deep deficiency of the liver and spleen. So he tonified the spleen on one side, and tonified and restrained the liver on the other — and in a few doses the illness was cured.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: This is where Doctor Zhang Xichun’s skill stood apart. Faced with the same disease, another doctor sees a large pulse and clears heat and drains fire — and the patient only grows worse. Doctor Zhang Xichun sees through the illusion to the essence, uses a heavy dose of shan yu rou to tonify and restrain the liver — and the effect is immediate.

Doctor Luo’s own application: one herb alone — shan yu rou — cured leg pain that came after anger

So how do we put Doctor Zhang Xichun’s thinking to use in everyday life? Doctor Luo shared a personal experience.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: A friend asked me about his leg pain. I took the pulse — stringlike. Then I looked at the tongue. Then I asked: before this leg pain, what happened? I kept asking — and it came out: he had flown into a great rage, and then his legs started to hurt! The moment I heard it, Doctor Zhang Xichun’s case record popped into my head. So I used shan yu rou — one single herb, heavily dosed — and the leg pain gradually improved, cured within a few days. This is no joke — and this is exactly the benefit of reading case records: if you had never read the earlier physician’s experience, you would never know shan yu rou could do this; having read the case, you have confidence in your own mind.

Bonus: when tapping the gallbladder channel leaves you sleepless — shan yu rou with stir-fried suan zao ren

Here is one more example, about extreme deficiency of liver qi. Nowadays, in the wellness world, lots of people follow the trend of tapping the gallbladder channel (qiao dan jing). Some people tap and tap and tap — and tap themselves into a problem. What problem? They can’t fall asleep anymore.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Why is that? The qi of the liver and gallbladder is insufficient, and yet you keep rousing it — tapping the gallbladder channel is meant to invigorate the liver and gallbladder channel qi. But when it was already deficient, and you keep stirring it up, it becomes even less able to gather itself. So such people cannot sleep at night — because at night the liver and gallbladder channels are on duty (dang ling), and that corresponds exactly to the middle of the night.

So what to do? Doctor Luo’s method: shan yu rou, nine grams, and stir-fried suan zao ren (sour jujube seed), three grams — both of these herbs enter the liver channel. Cook the shan yu rou in water and use that water to wash down the stir-fried suan zao ren powder — that’s the whole method. And the result? Within two or three days, he was sleeping again. The friend came happily to tell Doctor Luo.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Later I started paying attention to this — I went online and found that many, many people report insomnia after tapping the gallbladder channel. In fact, if you first nourish the liver and gallbladder with this method, then tap again, the effect may be even better. Where did this idea come from? — from reading Doctor Zhang Xichun’s books. That’s where the idea came from.

Closing: reading case records is like doing rounds with an old master

Finally, Doctor Luo shared this thought: in the colleges of Chinese medicine there is a course called the case-record course (yi an ke). In his view, this course should be taught extensively in the schools — it should be a core course. Reading case records should be a lesson every student of Chinese medicine must take seriously — it will bring you enormous rewards.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What is the benefit of reading case records? Reading a case record is like doing clinical rounds with an old master — he saw a disease and wrote it down; when you read it, it is as if you were standing right beside him. You learn it, and you remember it. If ordinary people can read these case records, listen to them as stories, then gradually you will come to understand the principles of Chinese medicine.

Tomorrow, let’s see what other inspiration Doctor Zhang Xichun brings us — what else can this shan yu rou do? How can we make use of it in our lives?

The original case is from Doctor Zhang Xichun’s Records of Chinese Medicine with Reference to Western Medicine (《医学衷中参西录》); the commentary is compiled from the public lectures of Doctor Luo Dalun (PhD in TCM Diagnostics, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine).