After Chickenpox, a Boy’s Scrotum Swelled Like a Lantern and His Intestine Bulged Out?
Patient search terms: swollen private parts / scrotal swelling / swollen like a lantern / hugely distended belly / intestine bulging out of the navel / can’t pass urine / chickenpox that won’t heal properly
Medical terms for this condition: water hernia (shui shan) · scrotal edema · retained water and dampness in the body · lung qi congestion (the lung is the upper source of water)
Opening: first, a story about Doctor Luo Dalun’s maternal grandfather
In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, in the consulting room of Doctor Yu Jiayan, the famous physician of Jiangxi, there came a very unusual patient — or, to be precise, there was a patient so alarming that the doctor was summoned out to see him.
Who was Doctor Yu Jiayan? He was universally acknowledged in the late Ming and early Qing as a master of diagnosis — he would discuss the illness first and prescribe the medicine afterward, and he left behind a lifetime of astonishing cases. The case we tell today is recorded in his collection of case records, Yu Yi Cao (Meaningful Words), under the title “Treating Ye Maoqing’s Son’s Strange Illness with Success, Explained in Detail to My Disciples” — he cured the strange illness of Ye Maoqing’s son, and then patiently taught his students exactly what he had done.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Before I begin, let me tell you a story about my maternal grandfather. My mother told me: my grandfather was a village doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. In the old days, when children came down with chickenpox, things could really go wrong — in those times, many children died because their chickenpox failed to come out properly. Once, someone found a discarded child at the foot of a mountain: the child was covered in chickenpox, gasping, at death’s door. The family thought he was dead, wrapped him in a straw mat, and threw him by the hillside. My grandfather passed by, and after a long while he heard the child still crying — not dead! He quickly brought him home, treated him, saved his life, and returned him to the family. Because of this, in our hometown, the villagers held my grandfather in special respect. A child whose chickenpox fails to come out properly can truly lose his life — and today’s case begins with just such a child.
Who was the patient: a boy whose chickenpox never ripened
Ye Maoqing’s son came down with chickenpox.
Chickenpox was a troublesome illness for children in the old days. The elders said: for a child’s chickenpox, the vesicles must fill full and push outward — that is the good sign. When the poison comes out, the disease resolves. But if the fluid won’t come up and the rash draws inward instead — then it is bad: the toxicity goes inward, and serious trouble follows.
This boy? His vesicles never filled — the fluid never ripened full, and the shells were paper-thin. Worse: two months went by and the scabs still clung to his skin — “zhe rou bu tuo” — they stuck to his flesh and would not fall off. He should have been healing; instead, the crusts stayed stubbornly on his body.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Pay attention, everyone — this earlier business with the chickenpox is actually a planted clue, telling us the child’s body already had a problem. What was treated today was not the chickenpox itself; an even bigger trouble was waiting up ahead. Doctor Yu Jiayan wrote it this way deliberately, to remind his disciples: illness does not arise from nothing — these earlier signs are all clues.
Round one: in the middle of the night the boy cried out in pain and fainted — Doctor Yu Jiayan saved him with pear juice
One night, the child suddenly clutched his belly, cried out once, and fell into a dead faint — “da jiao er jue”: the pain knocked him unconscious.
The family was terrified and hurried to summon Doctor Yu Jiayan. How did he treat it?
He took pear juice, poured it into warm water, and fed it to the child. After a while, the boy slowly revived. But a little later the pain struck again and he fainted once more — pear juice again, and again he woke.
Then Doctor Yu Jiayan wrote a prescription: huang qin (baical skullcap root), 2 liang, decocted — a very large dose; 2 liang is about 60 grams today. He strained the decoction, mixed it with pear juice, and had the child drink it. The abdominal pain stopped.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Remember this first step: pear juice moistens, and huang qin clears heat — one moistens the lung, the other clears lung heat. Doctor Yu Jiayan already had his diagnosis in mind: the root of the child’s illness lay in the lung. He simply hadn’t expected that an even greater test lay ahead.
The setback: the family ignored the doctor’s instructions, and the illness came storming back
The pain stopped, and Doctor Yu Jiayan instructed: make these huang qin medicines into a slow tonic (plaster form), and have the child take it gradually — feed it a little at a time, and only then would he be safe.
And what did the family do? The kind of thing that made Doctor Yu Jiayan shake his head: they did not believe him, and they did not give it.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When a great physician’s advice is ignored, the consequences are often bitter — you will see in a moment. This is one of the most regrettable strokes in the case record: a road to survival was clearly pointed out, and they would not take it.
Some days later, the child’s belly suddenly swelled up, so huge it defied description — “du da wu lun.”
Then, one night, the child screamed in terrible pain — and then — his intestine bulged out through the navel, more than five cun long! It even bent in the middle, jointed like the bamboo spout of a kettle, segment after segment.
What came next was even more frightening: the child’s private parts (wai shen, the external genitals) also swelled up, eight or nine cun long, bright and translucent like a lantern — the skin stretched so thin it was see-through, and the whole thing was filled with water.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In pediatrics, this symptom really can be seen — edema of the scrotum and penis, swelling up clear and lantern-bright. But in those days this was a condition “never heard of” — nobody had ever seen anything like it. The whole family was terrified. How could this possibly be treated?
Doctor Yu Jiayan’s diagnosis: he saw through to the essence at a glance — “I can still cure this”
Everyone was afraid and dared not treat him. Doctor Yu Jiayan, however, was completely composed — he had the ability to see the inner cause. The outside looked terrifying, but the principle inside was as clear to him as a mirror.
He spoke to comfort them: “Set your minds at ease — I can still cure this.”
What prescription? Just two herbs: huang qin (baical skullcap root) and e jiao (donkey-hide gelatin). He had the child drink more than ten doses a day — a very large amount.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The disciples were baffled: just two herbs, and they could cure a disease this frightening? “Wen suo wei wen” — it was beyond comprehension. Don’t be impatient — in a moment Doctor Yu Jiayan will explain the reasoning so clearly that it all becomes plain. That explanation is the most valuable part of this case.
The result: urine passed on the third day, completely well in eight days
The medicine went down, and a miracle happened:
After three days, the child’s urine passed. After five days, the urine ran clear and free, streaming smoothly. And then — the navel drew back in, the swelling subsided, and the illness was gone.
From the start of treatment to full recovery: eight days in all.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: A disease this terrifying, cured in eight days — ladies and gentlemen, this is not luck. This is seeing through to the essence. But the truly wonderful part is only beginning: the disciples were unconvinced and crowded around their teacher, demanding to understand.
The disciples’ astonished question: Master, what is the reasoning?
The disciples said: “Ci deng zhi fa, yi hao wei jie” — this kind of treatment, we slow-witted people cannot understand a bit of it. Please, Master, explain the general idea of the medicine.
So Doctor Yu Jiayan explained — and in doing so, he set out one of the most important principles in all of Chinese medicine.
The core teaching: the lung is the upper source of water — once lung qi opens, the water drains away
Doctor Yu Jiayan said: The qi of the whole body depends entirely on the lung. The lung governs the qi of the entire body — with every breath in and out, qi circulates through the body. When the lung is clear, qi moves — when the lung functions normally, qi flows normally; when the lung is turbid, qi congests — when something blocks the lung, qi becomes stuck.
Now look at this child:
First, the lung governs the skin and body hair. Why didn’t the boy’s chickenpox vesicles fill? — Lung heat prevented the fluids from moving. The child’s tongue was red, especially the tip, with a very thin coating — the classic picture of lung heat.
Second, the scabs clinging to the skin without falling off — what does that show? — Lung qi congestion. The ancients called this “jia cuo,” and jia cuo often leads to lung abscess (fei yong): when lung qi is blocked, toxic qi collects in the lung — the very harbinger of a lung abscess. When lung qi flows freely, qi and blood move smoothly through skin and body hair, and the scabs would have fallen off long ago. That they did not fall shows the lung qi was blocked.
Third, when lung qi congests, the water passages close. The lung is the upper source of water — of the water in the body, some is put to use and some is eliminated (through sweat and, above all, through urine). When qi moves, water moves; when lung qi is blocked, qi does not move, water does not move — all the water stays trapped in the body.
With nowhere to go, the water ran loose everywhere — and so: the intestine bulged out of the navel, and the private parts swelled full of water. The huge belly, the protruding intestine, the lantern-bright scrotum — all of it was retained water raising havoc inside the body.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Remember these three phrases: the lung is the upper source of water, the spleen is the middle source of water, the kidney is the lower source of water — the body’s water is most closely tied to these three organs. In Chinese medicine, when we speak of water, it is basically these three words: lung, spleen, kidney. Once lung qi congests, the upper source is sealed shut, and everything downstream suffers.
So how to treat it? Clear the lung qi.
Huang qin clears lung heat; e jiao moistens lung dryness. Someone may ask: the child’s body is full of water — why “moisten dryness”? — This is the key: having lots of water is not the same as having sufficient fluids (jin ye). The water in the body is “waste water” that has not been put to use; jin ye is the good water the body can actually use. When the waste water cannot drain out and the fluids are insufficient, the lung becomes drier and hotter — the drier and hotter, the worse the vicious cycle. So Doctor Yu Jiayan used huang qin to clear the heat and e jiao to replenish the fluids; once the lung recovered and drained the waste water away, the body returned to normal.
Why only two herbs? Doctor Yu Jiayan said: with an illness this severe, one must strike straight to the heart of the matter — few herbs, large doses, concentrated force, like a “surgical strike” aimed directly at the root of the disease. “Single herbs used in large amount can drive downward and take effect” — few medicines, concentrated power, and the effect comes all the faster. This is what he meant by “the prescription looks mild and level, yet its success is swift beyond measure.”
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: This is Doctor Yu Jiayan’s true skill — he saw the essence of the problem. An ordinary physician, handed a patient like this — intestines protruding a hand’s length from the navel, the genitals swollen to seven or eight cun, the child screaming in pain — would not know where to begin. But Doctor Yu Jiayan looked once and saw: the body is heavy with water; why is it heavy with water? Because lung qi is congested. What to do? Move lung qi, clear lung heat, moisten lung dryness — open up the lung qi, and the water drains out by itself. Seeing the essence of a thing in a single glance — that is true skill.
Extension one: “Lift the pot, remove the lid” — the signature move of Professor Zhao Shaoqin
Doctor Yu Jiayan also taught another principle: “Where there is a lung, there is urine; where there is no lung, there is no urine.” Observing animals, he found: animals with lungs urinate; animals without lungs do not — so the lung is intimately connected to urination and to the regulation of the water passages. When the water passages are blocked, swelling and fullness follow — when urine cannot pass, the body swells; at such times the urgent task is to clear the lung, to set it right.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The ancients called this idea “ti hu jie gai” — “lift the pot and remove the lid.” Think of a teapot: there is a small hole in the lid, and when the hole is stopped up, the water will not pour out; open the hole, and the water comes gushing out. The lung is that “lid.” Professor Zhao Shaoqin, the old master of our Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, was especially skilled in this method: for postpartum women whose urine would not pass (urinary retention), he used pi pa ye (loquat leaf) and other lung-opening herbs — one dose, and the water below flowed freely. When my own younger sister had urinary retention after childbirth — she had plenty of urine, it just would not come out — I used this same method to regulate her. Lift the pot, remove the lid — the ancients had it all along. Remember: urinary obstruction, urinary retention, and edema can all be approached with this line of thinking.
Extension two: when treating edema, don’t forget to look at the lung first
Doctor Yu Jiayan concluded with a sigh: this principle the doctors before him rarely articulated — “this idea earlier generations did not carry through.”
Look at how everyone treats edema: round and round they go with Wu Ling San (Five-Ingredient Powder with Poria), Wu Pi San (Five-Peel Powder), Ba Zheng San (Eight Corrections Powder) and other water-draining formulas. Doctor Yu Jiayan said: they keep missing this layer — sometimes simply draining the urine works, and sometimes it simply does not. Why? Because the lung was not regulated. The lung may have heat or blockage; if you ignore it, how can the water be drained out? Some even push drainage to the extreme, “robbing and plundering the bladder” until the disease is not cured and the patient is harmed besides — a terrible pity.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What can we learn from this case? One phrase: the lung is the upper source of water. People usually don’t give it much thought — when many patients have edema, when dampness stagnates in the body, how do we drain it? Remember: first think of the three organs — lung, spleen, kidney. In emergencies, open the lung qi and unlock the upper source; once lung qi regulates and flows, qi moves smoothly, and only then can water move. Of course, there is also lung cold — the kind with white frothy sputum, where yang qi is insufficient and lung qi is deficient, and one should warm the yang; lung heat calls for clearing heat, insufficient fluids call for moistening dryness — regulate the lung according to the situation. In short, remember: when water and dampness run wild and the illness is severe, there is a path called regulating lung qi — once the lung is set right, the water comes gushing out in a rush. Doctor Yu Jiayan cured this disease in eight days with two herbs precisely by carrying this principle to its utmost.
Closing: seeing the essence is the best medicine of all
And so the story ends. You may ask: isn’t this case a little too miraculous? How could two herbs save a life?
The answer lies hidden in the words Doctor Yu Jiayan spoke to his disciples at the end: go and contemplate the workings of nature; investigate things deeply, think deeply, and the principle will naturally become clear.
💬 Note from Doctor Luo: I don’t ask that everyone possess Doctor Yu Jiayan’s skill — that would be too formidable; everyone would become a miracle doctor. But at least understand this principle: when you meet a strange, frightening illness with water and dampness running wild, know that there is a path called regulating the lung qi. This is the way Chinese medicine thinks — seeing the essence through the appearance. Tomorrow, we will continue with more of Doctor Yu Jiayan’s healing stories.
Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s commentary on the case records of Doctor Yu Jiayan; the case is from Yu Yi Cao (《寓意草》 — “Meaningful Words”), under the title “Treating Ye Maoqing’s Son’s Strange Illness with Success, Explained in Detail to My Disciples.”