Sudden Dizziness, Collapse and Profuse Sweating? Doctor Zhang Xichun’s Heavy Use of Shan Yu Rou (Dogwood Fruit) to Anchor the Escaping Vital Qi in a Life-Threatening Emergency
Patient search words: sudden fainting / dizziness and collapse / cold sweat / heart racing / hollow feeling in the chest / a person about to die / collapse / prostration
Corresponding medical terms: vital qi on the verge of escape (yuan qi yu tuo) · upright qi about to collapse (zheng qi yu tuo) · collapse / prostration (xu tuo) · profuse sweating with yang about to slip away (da han wang yang)
Opening: the herb we met yesterday — today it saves lives
Yesterday we talked about how Doctor Zhang Xichun understood shan yu rou (dogwood fruit, Cornus officinalis). Look — this is a very ordinary herb; we use it all the time in everyday prescriptions. But Doctor Zhang Xichun held that it is sour in taste and warm in nature, and that in large measure it can gather the vital qi (yuan qi), revive the spirit, and firmly secure that which is slipping and sliding away.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When we use shan yu rou in ordinary practice, we use it as a tonic. But Doctor Zhang Xichun used shan yu rou when the patient was in critical danger — when a person’s upright qi (zheng qi) was about to slip away, he would use shan yu rou to gather the upright qi back together, using it as an emergency rescue measure. To deepen our understanding, today I will tell two more cases: let’s see how Doctor Zhang Xichun, when his patients were at death’s door, used shan yu rou to hold the upright qi in place and stop the illness from spiraling further toward danger. How did he treat them? Let’s look.
Who was the patient: Li Zixun of the neighboring village stops Doctor Zhang on the road for a pulse reading
The first case was a man named Li Zixun from a neighboring village — he was in his fifties. This was a case from Doctor Zhang Xichun’s years in his hometown. One day, Li Zixun happened to run into Doctor Zhang Xichun while walking. The moment he saw him, he greeted him warmly: “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you! Please take my pulse — I have a favor to ask!”
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Friends, this is an experience every student of Chinese medicine must have — when people have health concerns, they all hope you’ll take their pulse at your leisure. Sometimes during a meal, everyone at the table will hold out their wrist for me to read. I do tongue diagnosis research — wherever I go, a whole table of people sticks out their tongues for me to look at; in one day I can examine dozens of tongues. There’s no way around it — learning Chinese medicine means helping ordinary people relieve their suffering.
Li Zixun said: “Last month I fell ill, took medicine, and now I’m better. I feel clear and light in my body — I just don’t know what my pulse looks like. How do you think my recovery is going?” That sounds perfectly reasonable, doesn’t it?
The pulse shocks Doctor Zhang: the chi position has “no root”
Doctor Zhang Xichun took the pulse — and his heart jumped with alarm. Why? The pulse’s chi position had no root — the chi position corresponds to the kidneys, and the kidney qi was severely insufficient; moreover, the cun position surged high and far, as if it were about to slip away — the cun pulse was rising and floating outward. This was not a weak pulse — it was drifting outward, like the pulse itself was about to escape — the feeling of upright qi on the verge of escape.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Let me first teach you where the pulse positions sit. Measuring from the wrist toward the elbow, the pulse is divided into three positions — cun, guan, and chi. The left cun, guan, chi correspond to the heart, the liver, and the kidneys (this kidney is the kidney yin); the right cun, guan, chi correspond to the lungs, the spleen, and the ming — what is this “ming”? It is the ming men (life gate), which represents kidney yang. So when Doctor Zhang Xichun felt that the chi position was very empty, he knew the kidney qi was severely insufficient; when the cun position surged upward, he knew the upright qi was about to escape outward — this was a sign of crisis. Also, Doctor Zhang Xichun had a habit in pulse-taking: he would often assess the three positions as a whole — one overall press, and he had the picture in his mind.
A tactful master: don’t frighten the patient — secretly send his nephew to persuade him
Doctor Zhang Xichun said to himself: oh no, this is bad. But this master physician was very considerate — he did not immediately tell the patient, “Your illness is dangerous.” Why? First, the patient himself felt he was already cured; telling him now would be too much for him to bear. Second, the patient might not believe it anyway. So Doctor Zhang Xichun only said: “Your pulse is very calm and even — not bad at all. You’re recovering well.” And he answered him with a calm, peaceful pulse.
After the man left, Doctor Zhang Xichun hurried to find the man’s nephew (they all knew each other) and told him: “He certainly won’t believe what I say, but his pulse is now extremely dangerous — he must take tonifying and astringent medicine right away, to prevent a sudden escape of the vital qi — if the vital qi suddenly slips away, this man could be gone. He won’t believe it if you tell him directly, so ease it into the conversation gradually, keep an eye on him, and the moment anything goes wrong, come to me immediately.”
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Look at Doctor Zhang Xichun — what a loyal, responsible man! He followed through to the very end. So the nephew went back and gradually let it slip: “Mr. Zhang says your pulse is a little off — how about taking some tonic medicine?” Li Zixun indeed refused to believe it: “Impossible! I feel perfectly fine!” And so the matter was dropped.
Two days later: sudden dizziness and collapse — trembling all over, sweat pouring from his head, words no longer clear
Two days passed. Doctor Zhang Xichun was at home when suddenly someone from Li Zixun’s household came, insisting on fetching him — something serious had happened: Li Zixun had suddenly become dizzy and collapsed — in a dizzy spell he fell onto his bed and could no longer get up.
Doctor Zhang Xichun hurried to the Li household and saw: this Li Zixun was trembling all over (his whole body shaking), sweat pouring from his head, and his speech was disordered (what he said was a bit off); the only thing he could clearly explain was — his heart was pounding (zheng chong) and he could not hold on — his heart thumped and thumped wildly, his chest felt weak and hollow, and he could not bear it. Taking the pulse: upper excess, lower deficiency — the kidney pulse at the chi position was indeed even more deficient than before, the cun pulse surged upward even more, and this state was even more pronounced.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang Xichun said: this is bad — this is the upright qi about to escape, this man is in danger! What to do? Hurry up and write the prescription.
Prescription unpacked: shan yu rou leads the formula — one dose, and he was cured
The formula Doctor Zhang Xichun wrote: clean shan yu rou, one and a half liang (45 g) — this was the main herb of the whole formula; paired with sheng long gu (raw dragon bone) and sheng mu li (raw oyster shell), 5 qian (15 g) each (as we explained yesterday, both dragon bone and oyster shell have astringent, gathering actions); plus ye tai shen, 5 qian (15 g) (that is a variety of Dangshen — wild tai shen); and sheng zhe shi (raw hematite), 5 qian (15 g). After it was decocted, he drank it — and the result — one dose cured him! With this single dose of medicine, the crisis was resolved.
Then Doctor Zhang Xichun changed the shan yu rou to one liang and added sheng shan yao (raw Chinese yam), 8 qian (24 g). Everyone, remember this pairing — shan yu rou with sheng shan yao (huai yam): this is Doctor Zhang Xichun’s signature move; these two herbs used together can save a life. After a few more doses, his pulse returned to normal and his body was fully restored.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Look at how precisely Doctor Zhang Xichun applied shan yu rou — when a patient was in critical danger, he knew exactly what effect each herb would produce, and the result was that he brought the man back. I’ll tell you: when I use sheng shan yao to save lives in emergencies, I learned that from Doctor Zhang Xichun’s books — from reading his books.
Case two opens: a pregnant woman contracts “huo luan” — vomiting and diarrhea for a full day and night
Now let me tell another case — a pregnant woman who came down with a “huo luan condition.”
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: First let me explain “huo luan.” This is not the modern epidemic cholera! In ancient times, what kind of illness was called huo luan? An illness with both vomiting and diarrhea was called huo luan — for example, acute gastroenteritis and the like. The ancients called that huo luan. So don’t be alarmed.
This pregnant woman contracted huo luan, vomiting and diarrhea for about a full day and night — gushing out, both ends, terribly draining. The next day, the vomiting and diarrhea eased a little — and then — the fetus suddenly slipped out; she miscarried. After the miscarriage, the woman could not bear it: her spirit suddenly scattered — her mind suddenly fell apart, her heart swayed and panicked with a feeling she could not support, and it grew worse by the hour. The family could see this was no small matter and hurriedly sent for Doctor Zhang Xichun.
At the sickbed: the burial clothes were already on, and the family didn’t even want to treat her
Doctor Zhang Xichun arrived, looked at the household, and saw the illness had already reached an extreme: the illness was in its death throes, and the face lay against the body — the disease was critical, and “the face lay against the body” means what? The clothes for the dead (the shroud) had already been put on her.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In the old folk custom, burial clothes were usually put on when a person was critically ill and about to pass — why? After death, the body stiffens and the clothes become hard to put on. So they put them on quickly, then lifted the person onto the bed to wait. At this point, what did the family think? They felt the person was already finished and were preparing for death — and they had even called the doctor — “If the doctor comes we still have to pay him; better to just not treat her.” This family was somewhat unkind to the daughter-in-law and did not want to treat her. Doctor Zhang Xichun said: that will never do! As long as one breath of life remains, we must try to save her!
Breathing faintly, pulse barely perceptible — Doctor Zhang “scrapes together” six qian of shan yu rou from the neighbors
Doctor Zhang Xichun put his hand by the patient’s nose: her breathing was faint — there was a little breath, but very weak; he took her pulse — it was present as if absent, almost gone; he called her name, and she no longer answered — she was basically unconscious. What to do now? There was no time to go buy medicine!
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: At that moment, Doctor Zhang Xichun suddenly remembered — the eastern neighbor of this household was Doctor Zhang Xichun’s cousin, Liu Yuzhen. Doctor Zhang Xichun had treated him, written prescriptions for him, and there were two doses he had never taken. Doctor Zhang knew that prescription contained shan yu rou, so he said: “Quick, go to your house and pick out the shan yu rou from the medicine!” There was no time to buy herbs, so they picked them out and weighed them — altogether six qian. Friends, six qian is not much — one qian equals about 3 grams in modern terms, so six qian is 18 grams.
And so this decoction of eighteen grams of shan yu rou was fed to the patient little by little. After it went down — Doctor Zhang put his finger at her nose — her breathing had grown slightly stronger; he called her name again — she could faintly respond. Look — she had regained some spirit and could answer!
The supreme pairing takes the stage: shan yu rou 2 liang with sheng shan yao 2 liang — her spirit immediately recovered
Doctor Zhang Xichun then hurried people out to buy medicine: clean shan yu rou, 2 liang (60 g), and sheng shan yao, 2 liang (60 g) — everyone, look — it’s that supreme pairing again! Shan yu rou with sheng shan yao — at this moment it is used to save a life. Four liang of herbs in all, decocted into one large bowl of medicinal liquid, slowly fed to the patient. And the result? Her spirit immediately recovered — the patient’s spirit was restored at once, and she recovered very quickly.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang Xichun did not write further about how she recovered — the vomiting and diarrhea were minor complaints, nothing at all for him. But an illness this critical — first 18 grams of shan yu rou, then shan yu rou 2 liang with sheng shan yao 2 liang — two rounds of medicine brought a dying patient back. Look at this — what is it? Doctor Zhang Xichun was especially skilled at using shan yu rou: when a patient was in danger, when the upright qi was about to escape, he rescued the patient from the brink. This is a truly good doctor, a formidable doctor! When a practitioner of Chinese medicine reaches this level, that is truly a master physician.
The commentator’s note: the heart method of the late Doctor Li Ke came from right here
Having told the cases, Doctor Luo Dalun then mentioned a famous doctor of later generations — the late veteran Doctor Li Ke.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Yesterday I talked about the later master Doctor Li Ke. When Doctor Li Ke founded his formulas, he drew on Doctor Zhang Xichun’s experience — heavy use of shan yu rou — to treat conditions like heart failure. With patients like that, Western medicine often declares them untreatable, but Doctor Li Ke would use heavy-dose formulas and pull the patient back. What is that? It is precisely Doctor Zhang Xichun’s heart method! There are many such cases in Doctor Zhang Xichun’s books — I won’t go through them one by one, because the content repeats itself. For ordinary people, just know this: shan yu rou can gather and anchor the vital qi — that’s enough. If you ever truly encounter an emergency and there’s no time to get to a hospital, you can boil some shan yu rou water and have your family member drink it first.
Closing: those who study Chinese medicine should ponder when to use it
At the end, Doctor Luo Dalun left a question for reflection.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: As we read this section, we should think carefully: under what circumstances do we use shan yu rou? Doctor Zhang Xichun explained this in fine detail — sometimes he did not use shan yu rou but used sheng huang qi (raw astragalus) and so on. When the vital qi is on the verge of escape, how do we recognize it? When should we use shan yu rou? This is Doctor Zhang Xichun’s experience, and we should ponder it. Tomorrow, we will talk about how shan yu rou is used in everyday life — because ordinary people rarely encounter this kind of critical emergency, but in daily life shan yu rou has many uses — yet most of us have no idea what shan yu rou even is. This tasty little thing can tonify your upright qi and help you. See you tomorrow.
(Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s explanations of Doctor Zhang Xichun’s case records; the cases are from Yixue Zhongzhong Canxi Lu, Records of Chinese Medicine with Reference to Western Medicine.)