Ears Ringing Like You’re Going Deaf, No Appetite? Dried Ginger Was the Cure

Patient search terms: ears ringing / tinnitus / ears feel deaf / can’t hear clearly / can’t eat / no appetite / stomach bloated / heat rushing up / yang deficiency Medical terms for this condition: heart-lung yang deficiency · phlegm-fluid retention (fluid settled in the middle burner) · spleen-stomach weakness · yang deficiency · damage from wrongly taken cold medicines

Opening: a spice from the kitchen, turned by Doctor Zhang Xichun into a “warming yang” essential

Doctor Luo Dalun continues his series on how Doctor Zhang Xichun used Chinese herbs. He had planned to talk about prepared rehmannia (shu di huang) next — but he notes that the true master of that herb was Doctor Zhang Jingyue of the Ming dynasty, so he will save the full rehmannia discussion for when the series reaches Zhang Jingyue. Rehmannia has far too many uses to rush through now.

So what is today’s topic? How Doctor Zhang Xichun used dried ginger (gan jiang).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Dried ginger should be familiar to everyone — many supermarkets even sell dried ginger powder. What is it? It is fresh ginger — usually the mature, older ginger — that has been dried. What’s the difference between fresh ginger and dried ginger? Fresh ginger releases the exterior: it promotes sweating, harmonizes the stomach, and stops vomiting — ginger juice can settle nausea. Dried ginger, by contrast, has much less sweat-promoting power; its specialty is warming the middle — warming the core of the body.

Doctor Zhang Xichun believed that dried ginger is pungent in flavor and hot in nature — the essential herb for supporting the yang of the upper and middle burners. When the yang qi of the upper and middle burners is depleted, dried ginger is what you use to warm it back up. So Doctor Zhang had a special fondness for this humble spice — and today’s story begins with exactly that fondness.

Who was the patient? A household in Jiaguantun, Cangzhou, that made its own medicine pills

When Doctor Zhang Xichun practiced in Cangzhou, there was a place outside the city wall called Jiaguantun, where a man named Zhang Shoutian lived — a good friend of Doctor Zhang’s. One day, while treating a patient at Zhang Shoutian’s home, Doctor Zhang noticed a full set of pill-making equipment — the whole kit for rolling herbal pills by hand. Curious, he asked: why do you keep this at home?

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Zhang Shoutian explained: my sister takes a medicine called Mengshi Guntan Wan every day, so I have to have it on hand constantly — and since I worry about the quality of pharmacy-made pills, we make them ourselves. Doctor Zhang frowned at once: Mengshi Guntan Wan is not something you take every day! What does this formula do? It resolves phlegm — and it is very cold in nature. Why would you give it to your sister daily?

Zhang Shoutian answered: my sister has always been full of phlegm-fluid (tan yin). The phlegm-fluid blocks her spleen and stomach, and she is constantly bloated in the stomach. If she misses even one day of the pill, she can’t eat — she has no appetite at all. She has now been taking it for over a month, and nothing bad seems to have happened. It seems to match her condition, so I’ve kept giving it to her.

What exactly is “phlegm-fluid”? What happens inside a damp body

Before going further, we should explain what phlegm-fluid (tan yin) really is.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When dampness builds up in the body and water accumulates, the healthy state is: usable fluids get used, waste gets excreted. But if the body’s upright qi (zheng qi) is too weak to push the water out, what stays behind is called fluid retention (shui yin) — what ordinary people call “heavy dampness.” If that retained dampness condenses further and turns into thick, sticky liquid, that is phlegm (tan). And this isn’t only the phlegm you cough up — that’s called tangible phlegm; the thick fluids hidden inside the body are intangible phlegm. What do people with phlegm-fluid look like? Their tongue coating is white, thick and greasy — and if it’s cold phlegm, the color is white.

Doctor Zhang Xichun urged Zhang Shoutian repeatedly: this medicine is cold; you cannot take it every day. But Zhang Shoutian would not believe it — he saw no problem.

Months later, the sister was gravely ill: one thin bowl of congee a day

A few months passed, and then Zhang Shoutian rushed over in a panic: my sister is critically ill!

Doctor Zhang went to see her. Here is what had happened: while she was taking Mengshi Guntan Wan, she could still eat a little more. Slowly, her food intake shrank; eventually she couldn’t eat at all without the pill. And by now, even with the pill she couldn’t get food down — she managed only one meal a day, a little thin congee. On top of that she often felt heat rushing upward, and her ears rang — it sounded like she was going deaf. When Doctor Zhang felt her pulse: it was floating and large, yet soft and yielding when pressed.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang understood the moment he read the case: this was never a heat pattern to begin with — and you treated it with a cold medicine like Mengshi Guntan Wan. What was her real condition? Heart-lung yang deficiency! When a yang-deficient person takes cold medicines, doesn’t that just make them colder and colder? Add to that weak spleen-stomach qi, and the bitter-cold herbs injure the stomach further — bitter and cold damage the stomach qi. This is what happens when you use the wrong medicine.

The prescription: Li Yin Tang, led by dried ginger

Doctor Zhang Xichun wrote a formula called Li Yin Tang (the “Regulate Fluids Decoction”). What’s in it?

Dried ginger 15 g (five qian), atractylodes (bai zhu) 12 g (four qian), cinnamon twig (gui zhi), raw white peony (sheng bai shao), poria (fu ling) slices, and honey-fried licorice (zhi gan cao) 6 g (two qian) each, aged tangerine peel (chen pi) and magnolia bark (hou po) 4.5 g (one and a half qian) each. A remarkably simple formula.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In this formula, dried ginger warms the middle; atractylodes tonifies the spleen; cinnamon twig is warming; white peony is astringent and constraining — Doctor Zhang explained: worried the front herbs might run too hot, I use white peony to rein them in; and white peony also promotes urination, so it helps transform and drain the dampness. Poria drains dampness, chen pi moves qi, and hou po also resolves dampness. Doctor Zhang held that hou po must not be used in large doses — a small amount is enough to drain dampness and move qi. That’s the whole formula, Li Yin Tang.

The family objected: cinnamon and aconite once made her agitated — will this work?

Zhang Shoutian looked at the prescription and shook his head: no good! I’ve given her cinnamon twig and aconite (fu zi) before — the moment she took them, her upper burner flared up with agitation and heat; she couldn’t stand it!

Doctor Zhang explained: cinnamon twig and aconite were not aimed at her heart, lungs, spleen and stomach — and you used only tiny doses, which had no effect. That’s called “the disease is heavy and the medicine is light” — so of course her body rejected it. Now I’m working against the grain, in the opposite direction. Trust me and take it — it will regulate her properly.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang said: my medicine meets her disease like a needle fitting its point — precisely matched. If you truly don’t believe me, do this: first take 15 g of dried ginger, simmer it in water, and give it to her to drink — just to warm her up. Dried ginger is exactly the herb that warms the yang of the upper and middle burners. See whether it works.

The turning point: one cup of dried ginger water — and her ears cleared instantly

Zhang Shoutian agreed to try the dried ginger first. His sister, taking pity on herself, simmered 15 g of dried ginger in water and drank it. Her ears cleared immediately! A moment later, she felt as if her chest had suddenly opened up — smooth and free — and she could eat again.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: You see — dried ginger warms the yang of the upper and middle burners. Once yang qi moves, clear yang rises, the ears clear, and the appetite opens. This time Zhang Shoutian was convinced. He went home, made up the full Li Yin Tang, and gave it to his sister.

Twenty-plus doses later, she was well: dried ginger raised to 30 g

The medicine worked well — but his sister said her chest was beginning to feel a little cold. So Doctor Zhang raised the dried ginger to 30 g (one liang) — a much larger dose — and added more licorice and magnolia bark. In the end, after more than twenty doses, Zhang Shoutian’s sister was completely cured.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Friends, this is one of the cases where Doctor Zhang Xichun used more medicine — around twenty doses. What does that tell us? This patient was seriously ill. In this formula Doctor Zhang used dried ginger in heavy doses to warm her middle and upper burners — and that is what pulled her back from the brink.

The most important lesson today: yang deficiency has different locations — when the upper-middle burners run cold, reach for dried ginger

So what does today’s case teach us?

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Many of us are yang-deficient. Yang deficiency appears in different parts of the body: some people lack it in the kidneys, some in the spleen, some in the upper and middle burners. When the upper and middle burners lack yang, dried ginger works beautifully — it is the specific herb for disease of those two regions. If we understand that dried ginger can warm the upper and middle burners, then whenever yang qi is insufficient, we should remember that dried ginger may be needed.

What to take away

• Cold medicines must never be taken casually, day after day. Mengshi Guntan Wan is genuinely a fine phlegm-resolving formula — but taking it daily, month after month, turned an already yang-deficient body colder and colder, and nearly caused a catastrophe.
• When the body runs cold, you can’t eat, and your ears ring — first ask whether yang qi is insufficient, instead of rushing to clear heat and resolve phlegm.
• Dried ginger’s signature strength is warming the yang of the upper and middle burners: when heart-lung yang runs low — manifesting as tinnitus, a bloated stomach, loss of appetite and qi rushing upward — a small test dose of dried ginger decoction can confirm the diagnosis in minutes, exactly as it did here.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Tomorrow we continue with Doctor Zhang Xichun’s use of dried ginger — there are more wonderful applications waiting. Thank you all!

Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s commentary on the case records of Doctor Zhang Xichun, from Records of Chinese Medicine with Western Reference (《医学衷中参西录》). Li Yin Tang: dried ginger 15 g, atractylodes 12 g, cinnamon twig, raw white peony, poria slices and honey-fried licorice 6 g each, aged tangerine peel and magnolia bark 4.5 g each; when the chest feels cold, raise dried ginger to 30 g and increase licorice and magnolia bark. Doctor Zhang called dried ginger “pungent in flavor, hot in nature — the essential herb for supporting the yang of the upper and middle burners,” and used it for heart-lung yang deficiency with phlegm-fluid settling in the stomach.