Chest Tightness, Shortness of Breath? Using the Wrong Medicine Can Be Fatal — The Closing Chapter of Doctor Zhang Xichun’s "Sinking of the Great Qi" Series, with Three Real Warnings

Opening: Doctor Zhang Xichun has finished explaining the sinking of the Great Qi — now he wants to talk about the danger

In all the earlier case records, Doctor Zhang Xichun laid out every facet of da qi xia xian (the sinking of the Great Qi) for us through one case after another. Read through them all, and you will have a clear picture of what changes this condition causes in the body and what its symptoms look like.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Why? Because a great physician has seen many cases. Today most people do not study the classics; they hold the books but never read them carefully. They only know the name "sinking of the Great Qi" — what symptoms it actually has, and how it differs from the sinking of the middle qi that Doctor Li Dongyuan described in Bu Zhong Yi Qi (Tonify the Middle and Augment Qi) — they mix the two up. So when they meet the illness, they cannot treat it.

And if you cannot treat it, what harm follows? Doctor Zhang Xichun listed several cases in his book especially for this purpose — and the harm can be enormous.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What is the sinking of the Great Qi? It means the qi of the chest has sunk downward and the function of the heart and lungs has declined. When the function of the heart and lungs declines, it can sometimes bring very serious consequences. If you cannot recognize it, and you use the wrong medicine, you are in trouble. Today, when someone has a heart problem, hospitals usually invigorate the blood and resolve stasis — Western medicine puts in a stent. But this kind of deficiency-type, depleted sinking of the Great Qi has never really been given proper attention; many patients’ symptoms never go away.

A man in his thirties: chest tightness and shortness of breath, treated as "qi blocked up"

The first case Doctor Zhang Xichun tells is a man in his thirties. His symptoms? Shortness of breath and a full, tight chest — he always felt he could not quite catch his breath, felt tired, his chest felt stuffy and oppressed.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Notice: his "oppression" was not a genuine blockage. It was that he no longer had enough breath coming in, so it felt somewhat stuffy. But the doctor heard "full, tight chest" — isn’t that qi stagnation, qi blocked up? I will regulate the qi! So he gave herbs that regulate the qi.

After taking the medicine, the patient felt a little better. The doctor saw it as a success — the direction must be right! So for the second dose, he boldly prescribed qi-breaking herbs — herbs that move and break up the qi — and kept increasing the dose.

Then one night, after taking the medicine, at midnight the patient went to the toilet. After finishing, he could not get up again. His attendants hurriedly helped him back to bed. By then he was drowsy and foggy; they called his name and he did not answer. A little while later — in an instant — he suddenly opened his mouth and breathed out with force, like a yawn, straining the breath outward. He breathed like this for about a day, and then he died.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: This is such a pity. Later the patient’s brother met Doctor Zhang Xichun and said: my younger brother died in a very strange way — what on earth happened? And he told the whole story. After listening, Doctor Zhang Xichun said: this was the sinking of the Great Qi, and he explained the principle to him. The brother sighed again and again, full of regret: I did not choose the right doctor, the medicine was used wrongly! If a doctor does not study well, he truly endangers patients’ lives.

The village woman in her fifties, busy with the harvest: her labored breathing could be heard outside the door

The second case is a woman in her fifties from the countryside. In autumn the farm work is frantic — she had to do everything herself. As she worked and worked, she began to feel that her breathing was not smooth, that she had no strength, that her breath was hurried and urgent — she panted hard. Because breathing was such an effort, in order to supply her body with oxygen she could only keep straining to breathe, so she panted harder and harder.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The doctor came and looked at her: this is qi rebelling upward, making her pant — it must be asthma of the rebellious-qi type. What to do? He repeatedly gave herbs that hold the qi down and press the qi downward. After taking the medicine, her breathing became even more urgent at once — to what degree? The sound of her straining to breathe could be heard right outside the door! She was at home, desperately forcing her breath, and people outside the door could hear it — you can see how serious her condition had become.

At that point, Doctor Zhang Xichun was sent for. The moment he arrived he took her pulse — neither wrist showed any pulse at all. He shook his head: this person cannot be saved. Still, he reluctantly wrote out a prescription — but before the medicine could even be fetched, she was gone.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang said this too was the sinking of the Great Qi. Why did she pant so desperately and so loudly? Because her breathing was about to stop, and her body was straining to breathe in self-rescue. The doctor did not understand, and pressed downward with qi-lowering herbs. Doctor Zhang Xichun lamented: this is like a man who has fallen into a well — you want to help him, but instead of pulling him up, you push him down — and you destroy him. He said: when I see such cases, my heart aches, and I cannot help speaking sharply. I may sound extreme, but it is to save patients’ lives, so I speak bluntly to doctors like that.

The direction of medicinal action: xing ren and su zi move downward — a person whose qi has already sunk must not touch them

Here is an especially important piece of knowledge — Chinese medicinal herbs have a direction to their action.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Some herbs move downward, some move outward, some move inward, and so on. For example, xing ren (apricot kernel), su zi (perilla seed) and many others move downward. When a person’s Great Qi has already sunk, if you give him herbs whose nature is to move down and press the qi down, his qi can no longer be lifted up. The patient’s body is pitiable — it is struggling to rescue itself. But if the doctor’s diagnosis is not accurate, if he has never seen the doctrine of the sinking of the Great Qi and only knows how to press downward, he sends the patient into an abyss from which there is no return.

So this knowledge is absolutely critical: people who work in medicine must read more books and study more; otherwise they become mediocre doctors who harm people, and that is truly tragic. We ordinary people should also learn more about Chinese medicine — once you understand the principle, when you meet a condition that matches, you will not use the wrong medicine, and a small formula may solve the problem. If you do not understand, the illness may drag on for years, bounced from hospital to hospital, never cured.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: So many people write to me: my illness has not been cured for years. What does that tell you? It tells you that you yourself do not understand. Cases like this, even Doctor Zhang Xichun could not save — by the time they came to him it was already too late, the pulse was gone, the person was about to leave. So even a divine physician cannot save someone who is about to die; he felt especially sorry about that.

The fifty-six-year-old schoolteacher: short of breath after every lecture — Doctor Zhang Xichun told him to take medicine at once

The third case is a "zhu sheng" — a man who had passed the imperial examinations, fifty-six years old, working as a teacher in a school. He said that after every lecture he felt short of breath, the qi would not come up, and he asked Doctor Zhang Xichun for a prescription.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Friends, many occupations easily lead to the sinking of the Great Qi, and teaching is one of them — lecturing every day consumes the qi. If you lecture on an empty stomach — I told you before, I once lectured on an empty stomach myself and felt the qi sinking downward; that is how I came down with it. There are many such occupations that constantly drain you. If your meals are not timely, your upright qi is insufficient, the spleen and stomach are injured, and you keep being drained — then the sinking of the Great Qi comes very easily.

When Doctor Zhang Xichun heard this, he said: the Great Qi in your chest is deficient and about to sink — it is on the very point of collapsing. This is no small matter; it is the most urgent of conditions! You must take more medicine that supplements the qi and lifts the qi upward.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Meeting Doctor Zhang Xichun was already an extraordinary stroke of luck — what a blessing! But people at the time did not realize it; they thought, he is just a friend, no big deal. This man said: the things you prescribe are all decoctions — I do not like drinking Chinese medicine, it is bitter! I want a medicinal wine. Mix me some medicinal wine, I will drink a little every day, it is convenient. Friends, this is what is meant by not knowing your own good fortune — here was Doctor Zhang Xichun, a great physician we later generations admire so much, standing right beside him, and he would not take his medicine; he wanted to drink wine!

Doctor Zhang Xichun thought it over: very well, if you want convenience, have convenience — but the medicine must be made very strong, and you must drink a good deal of it, regularly. So he wrote this prescription:

Raw huang qi (astragalus) four liang, ye tai shen (wild Codonopsis from Wutai Mountain) two liang, chai hu (bupleurum) and jie geng (platycodon root), eight qian each. Decoct the herbs in about one jin (roughly half a liter) of rice wine (low alcohol content), bring it to a rolling boil a dozen times; then put about two jin of strong spirits (shao jiu) in a bottle, set the bottle in a pot of water and simmer until it steams open. Drink a little before each meal.

He drank it, and after about ten days, the man was cured. Now, once cured, he could have gone on drinking a bit more — a daily tonic. But this fellow, as soon as he was well, "zhi zhi bu fu yin" — set it aside and never drank it again.

A year later, he walked two li home and never got up again

A year later, one day he walked more than two li from the school back to his house. This man was very stout, and walking was hard work for him. When he reached home, his breathing suddenly became extremely tight and urgent, then he could not speak — and within a moment he was dead.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang Xichun analyzed it: this man was very stout, walking was laborious, and he walked more than two li — his Great Qi was already insufficient to begin with, and this walk used it all up; the Great Qi sank, and the man died. Doctor Zhang said this is what the Nei Jing (Inner Canon) means when it says: "When the Great Qi enters the organs and viscera, the person dies suddenly without being ill" — this is exactly that situation.

Three cases, two of which reached Doctor Zhang Xichun — and still could not be saved

Look at these three cases: two of them actually met Doctor Zhang Xichun, and still could not be saved. The first came too late. The second — he drank the medicine, saw some effect, and then stopped taking it seriously; he insisted on wine, neglected his upright qi, and the Great Qi sank.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang Xichun said: I cite these cases to tell you — if you cannot recognize the sinking of the Great Qi, or you do not take it seriously, it can sometimes truly cost a life.

1,500 people die of sudden cardiac death every day — how many from the sinking of the Great Qi? No one has ever investigated

Bringing this into the modern world, Doctor Luo Dalun connected it to the most heart-wrenching topic of the day — sudden cardiac death.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Heart problems today have many causes — blood stasis, cold invasion, and so on. Among them, the sinking of the Great Qi should be counted as an important cause. Right now in China, 1,500 people die suddenly every single day because of heart problems! How many of those are caused by the sinking of the Great Qi? We have never actually investigated. But certainly, many of them must first have had insufficient upright qi, declining heart and lung function, and then other disease foundations piled on top — that is when these dangerous conditions appear. So we should study the sinking of the Great Qi more, and learn it well.

Around Doctor Luo Dalun, the sinking of the Great Qi appears almost constantly — sometimes several times in a single day. Once you master the typical symptoms, you can match them at a glance.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Many readers write to me: after listening, I really do have these symptoms — and after taking the medicine, I was cured. Others say: I bounced from hospital to hospital for years. It is all the same — this condition is widespread in our lives, because qi deficiency is extremely common in modern people. Doctor Zhang Xichun listed these cases so that everyone would take it seriously: this thing is dangerous! But once you know about it, when you feel the sinking of the Great Qi coming on, a little lifting fixes it — have a doctor analyze it, or simply use Doctor Zhang’s Sheng Xian Tang (Raise the Sinking Decoction), which is very gentle. Take two or three doses and it solves the problem. I think that is a blessing.

Well, dear friends, that is where Doctor Luo Dalun ends his discussion of the sinking of the Great Qi — the series is complete. Next, he will tell you more of Doctor Zhang Xichun’s stories of treating patients.

What to take away

1. The sinking of the Great Qi is a deficiency emergency, not a blockage. Chest tightness here does not mean qi is blocked — it means the breath itself is running short. Regulating the qi, and even worse breaking the qi, only pushes the patient further down. The two fatal cases in this chapter were both killed by exactly that mistake: qi-breaking herbs for one, qi-lowering herbs for the other.
2. The body’s self-rescue can look like a worsening of the disease. The woman panting so hard that the sound carried outside the door was not having an asthma attack of rebellious qi — her breathing was about to stop, and her body was straining to save itself. When you hear desperate, noisy breathing with shortness of breath, think of the sinking of the Great Qi, not qi rebelling upward.
3. Teaching, lecturing, and other qi-consuming work — especially on an empty stomach — are classic causes. Doctor Luo Dalun experienced it himself. If you are in such a profession and feel the qi dropping after work, supplement the qi; do not dismiss it as nothing.
4. A cure that is not consolidated does not count. The schoolteacher stopped his medicinal wine the moment he felt better, and died a year later after a two-li walk. Sheng Xian Tang is gentle and safe — take the full course, and keep building up the spleen and stomach so the root of the qi is replenished.
5. Recognition saves lives. Chest tightness, shortness of breath, inability to catch the breath, palpitations, a sinking sensation — these are the signals. With 1,500 sudden cardiac deaths a day in China, the sinking of the Great Qi deserves far more attention than it gets. When in doubt, have a physician analyze it; Sheng Xian Tang itself is very gentle — a few doses and the problem resolves.

Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s lecture series explaining Doctor Zhang Xichun’s case records.