Always Feel Hot, Have a Dry Cough with No Phlegm, and Wheeze at the Slightest Effort? Doctor Zhang Xichun’s Liquan Yin (Sweet Spring Decoction): Chinese Yam and Rehmannia to Nourish Spleen Yin, Tian Dong and Licorice to Moisturize Lung Yin, Ginseng with Hematite to Guide Qi Downward

Patient search terms: always feel hot / skin burning to the touch / dry mouth and tongue, craving cold drinks / dry cough with no phlegm / sticky yellow phlegm / wheezing at the slightest exertion / menses absent for months / tight chest / no appetite Corresponding medical names: deficiency-consumption fever · lung yin deficiency · spleen yin deficiency · amenorrhea from blood depletion · consumptive cough from yin deficiency · tuberculosis-related debility

Opening: this episode was recorded in a Xinhui tangerine peel orchard

Doctor Luo Dalun recorded this episode while traveling for work — he was in Xinhui, Guangdong, investigating the genuine regional herb Xinhui chen pi (tangerine peel), going into the citrus orchards of Tianma Village and learning bit by bit from the growers. The first lesson was the shocking extent of herbal fraud.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What we talked about was genuinely shocking — the fraud is severe, some of it horrifying. They take peel from other regions and artificially make it go moldy, and whatever age you want, they can fake it — 15 years, 20 years, even 30 years, I can have it made for you. Even the clinics of famous physicians are using fake herbs — and why? Because the physicians were deceived too.

So for a Chinese medicine practitioner to be responsible, he has to go down to the production areas and let the local experts teach him how to identify genuine herbs — only this way can you understand why the herbs ancient doctors used worked so well, and why dao di herbs (genuine regional herbs) carry such power. It was on this trip that he continued his series on Doctor Zhang Xichun’s formulas; today’s is called Liquan Yin (Sweet Spring Decoction).

Why the name “Liquan”? — Not wine, but sweet spring water

The name is interesting in itself. Li (醴), in ancient times, meant sweet wine — in the Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon), when it speaks of the ancient “tang ye li lao” (medicated decoctions and sweet wines), the li is that sweet wine. Quan (泉) means sweet spring water.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Liquan means sweet spring water — not wine, spring water. It tells you this formula has a moistening, nourishing quality, like a sweet spring that irrigates the whole body.

What does this formula treat? — Deficiency-consumption fever, wheezing or thirst, rapid and weak pulse

Doctor Zhang Xichun wrote only these few words in his book: deficiency-consumption fever (xu lao fa re), wheezing or thirst, with a rapid and weak pulse.

First, “xu lao” (deficiency-consumption). This means the body has been badly damaged and weakened to a certain degree. It is not necessarily tuberculosis — tuberculosis can be treated along these lines, but an ordinary person worn down by overwork and exhaustion falls into the same category.

Next, “fever.” The “heat” here is not necessarily a fever in the thermometer sense, but a body in a heated state: the skin is burning to the touch, the mouth and tongue are dry, you constantly crave cold drinks to feel comfortable, and the eyes are dry and hot.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Yesterday I ran into a friend who asked me: why am I always so hot and dry? I looked at his tongue: it was red, with a bit of coating and some peeling patches — that’s kidney essence insufficiency and kidney yin deficiency. The couple came to me saying they were married but not pregnant — what’s going on? I recognized kidney essence deficiency and kidney yin deficiency, so I began by tonifying kidney essence, then guided it toward kidney yin and added some yin-nourishing herbs.

If the lungs are the injured organ and the illness concentrates in the lungs, the person will wheeze or cough — problems of the respiratory system. In these few sentences, Doctor Zhang Xichun points out where the illness may sit and why.

Yin deficiency is the root: why lung yin deficiency causes both cough and wheeze

Doctor Zhang Xichun continues: this kind of deficiency-consumption fever should in most cases be blamed on yin deficiency. Yin deficiency is a state of the whole body, but it always lands on each organ — on top of the overall yin deficiency, each organ adds its own distinctive symptoms.

When it lands in the lungs, it is lung yin deficiency: deficient heat steams inside the lungs and makes the person constantly want to cough. This cough is usually dry — little phlegm, somewhat yellow, and very sticky, because the deficient heat has concentrated the fluids. If the heat goes further and scorches the lung collaterals, the person will wheeze at the slightest exertion.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Why the wheezing? First, the lung collaterals are injured, so ventilation function drops; second, the heart and lungs work together — with yin deficiency the heart beats fast, and when you exercise it beats even faster, and a racing heart drives the lungs to breathe rapidly. So at this point you nourish lung yin, add a little heat-clearing, and add some phlegm-resolving herbs.

Licorice with Tian Dong: Doctor Zhang Xichun’s “best pair for moistening the lungs”

Because the formula mainly treats lung disease, Doctor Zhang Xichun included licorice (gan cao) and tian dong (asparagus root). Licorice harmonizes the middle and reconciles all the other herbs. Tian dong — tian men dong — is sweet and slightly pungent in flavor, cool in nature, and enters the lung and kidney channels: in the lungs it moistens and clears heat, and is especially good for dry cough from lung yin deficiency and insufficient body fluids; in the stomach channel it also generates fluids and relieves thirst.

Doctor Zhang Xichun had personal experience with this herb.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang Xichun said that when you hold tian dong in your mouth and let it dissolve bit by bit, in the end your whole mouth is filled with thick, slippery fluids, and not a trace of the herb remains — it all melts away. So he realized this herb is extremely slippery and moistening: it generates fluids, and it also frees the two excretions (urine and stool), moves the blood vessels, and opens the channels. When he read the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (Shennong’s Classic of the Materia Medica) and saw that tian dong ‘treats sudden wind-damp painful obstruction’ and ‘strengthens bone marrow,’ he wondered how a yin-nourishing herb could treat wind-damp paralysis. Later he understood: it replenishes fluids, and when the fluids flow freely throughout the body, wind-cold-damp pathogens are pushed out; at the same time it nourishes the body’s fluids, so it can nourish the bone marrow.

So Doctor Zhang Xichun concluded: tian dong paired with licorice is the best combination for moistening the lungs — that was his insight.

Don’t forget spleen yin: the spleen-stomach is the mother of the lungs

Besides lung yin, Doctor Zhang Xichun kept his eye on the other end. The spleen-stomach belongs to Earth, the lungs to Metal, and Earth generates Metal — the spleen-stomach is the mother of the lungs. Does yin deficiency show up in the spleen-stomach? It does. This is what Doctor Luo Dalun repeatedly stresses as spleen yin deficiency (pi yin bu zu).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The concept of spleen yin deficiency was actually dropped from the Chinese medicine textbooks — it’s gone. But the ancient physicians discussed it. Miao Xiyong of the late Ming, for example, was especially skilled at treating illnesses caused by spleen yin deficiency. Every organ has both yin and yang — how can you have lung yin and kidney yin, but no yin for the spleen? That’s impossible.

Doctor Zhang Xichun quotes the Qing dynasty physician Chen Xiuyuan: when the pulse is rapid, it is easy to nourish spleen yin. Why? The spleen pulse is naturally calm and moderate — when the spleen-stomach is normal, the pulse is calm, neither hurried nor sluggish, the upright qi (zheng qi) is sufficient, and a person can live long; when the spleen is weak, the source of nourishment is compromised, so the heart has to keep beating harder and the pulse becomes hurried. So a rapid pulse always means the spleen yin has been injured — those are Doctor Zhang Xichun’s own words. What to do? Among the yin-nourishing herbs, add licorice to guide them into the spleen, and you can also add some bland herbs — yi yi ren (Job’s tears) to drain dampness, or shi hu (dendrobium) to nourish yin.

The main spleen-yin herbs: raw Chinese yam 1 liang, paired with raw rehmannia 5 qian

What does the formula use to nourish spleen yin? Raw Chinese yam (sheng shan yao) and da sheng di (raw rehmannia). In his prescription books Doctor Zhang Xichun did not write “Huai,” but in his clinical case formulas he always wrote “Huai” — because some people really cannot obtain the genuine regional herbs.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In my own practice I often nourish spleen yin with Chinese yam — Huai shan yao — paired with lian zi rou (lotus seed) and qian shi (fox nut), all of which tonify the spleen, plus a little sheng di, sha shen (glehnia), and mai dong (ophiopogon) to nourish yin. A generous amount of spleen-tonifying herbs with just a little yin-nourishing herbs — that is the combination for nourishing spleen yin. In this formula Doctor Zhang Xichun uses raw Chinese yam 1 liang and sheng di 5 qian (about 15 g) — a textbook pair for nourishing spleen yin. He says Chinese yam nourishes yin and sheng di nourishes yin, and both are very sticky — yin deficiency means the body lacks fluids and the blood vessels have run dry, so the herbs you use must be liquid-rich and sticky; only then can they irrigate the whole body.

A rapid pulse isn’t only yin deficiency: qi deficiency is more common — ginseng with xuan shen to tonify both qi and yin

Is a racing pulse only about yin deficiency? Doctor Zhang Xichun’s experience: it is often accompanied by qi deficiency.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In today’s society, the more qi-deficient and depleted a person is, the faster the pulse. Take the men who work overtime every day in many companies — feel their pulse and it’s extremely fast; the heart is running itself ragged. So don’t think only of yin deficiency when the pulse is rapid — it could be qi deficiency, so we add something to tonify qi.

Doctor Zhang Xichun added ginseng 4 qian (about 12 g). In his books he generally preferred dang shen (codonopsis) and rarely wrote ginseng — for severe qi deficiency use ginseng (red ginseng and white ginseng are different), for mild qi deficiency switch to dang shen, and you can adjust at any time. Worried about ginseng causing heat? Pair it with xuan shen (scrophularia): ginseng tonifies qi on one side, while xuan shen and tian dong cool and moisten and nourish yin on the other — used together they make up the yin portion. This is tonifying both qi and yin (qi yin shuang bu). And Doctor Zhang Xichun believed that once ginseng is paired with yin-nourishing herbs, its power to nourish yin also becomes strong.

Ginseng with hematite: guiding the medicinal force down to Yongquan (KI1) to tonify lower-burner yuan qi

There is another concern: the patient coughs and wheezes, and the qi mechanism is rising; you worry that ginseng will add fuel, riding the rising qi and making the heat worse. Doctor Zhang Xichun’s answer is to pair it with raw hematite (sheng zhe shi) 4 qian.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: When he encountered conditions where the qi mechanism runs upward — cough and wheeze, for example — Doctor Zhang Xichun would usually pair ginseng with hematite: guide the medicinal force downward, lead the fire downward. He said the body’s power is not easily won; lead this power all the way down to Yongquan point (KI1, Bubbling Spring, on the sole of the foot) and the lower burner’s yuan qi (original qi) flourishes, while the deficient fire in the upper burner is pulled down with it. This was his special technique — whenever he used ginseng, he often added hematite.

Then add niu bang zi (burdock seed) 3 qian to clear heat — clearing heat in the upper burner, especially the heat of the throat and the lung channel. The whole formula has seven herbs, each with its own job: raw Chinese yam tonifies the lungs, supplements fluids, and also tonifies the spleen; sheng di nourishes spleen yin; ginseng tonifies qi; hematite leads ginseng’s medicinal force downward to strengthen lower-burner yuan qi; niu bang zi clears heat; tian dong nourishes lung yin; licorice works with tian dong to nourish lung yin while guiding the yin-nourishing herbs into the spleen channel. Looked at this way, the formula is quite complete.

Three formulas, one thread: all built on Chinese yam — change the direction and you get a new formula

Some friends ask: why are Doctor Zhang Xichun’s earlier lung formulas so similar? Doctor Luo Dalun reveals the point — when Doctor Zhang Xichun treated lung disease, it was always one yam decoction with additions.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The first one, Zi Sheng Tang (Nourish Life Decoction), adds bai zhu (atractylodes) and ji nei jin (chicken gizzard lining) to tonify the spleen, with a little ji nei jin to transform accumulation, a bit of niu bang zi to clear heat and xuan shen to nourish yin — that one is fairly simple. Shi Quan Yu Zhen Tang (Ten Complete Nourish and Treasure Decoction) is more comprehensive: shan yao, dang shen, huang qi, plus long gu and mu li (dragon bone and oyster shell) — opening and astringing at the same time; then dan shen (salvia), san leng and e zhu to invigorate blood and transform stasis — that one is for people with severe blood stasis, with skin like fish scales (ji fu jia cuo, rough and cracked skin), emaciated bodies, unable to eat properly; Doctor Zhang Xichun grasped that ‘weakness led to blood stasis,’ so he increased the stasis-transforming power. Today’s Liquan Yin is built mainly on yam, with yin-nourishing herbs and a little ginseng to tonify qi. Do you see? Doctor Zhang Xichun always worked on the foundation of tonifying upright qi, and then either transformed stasis or nourished yin — each time the direction changed, with a slight adjustment of herbs, a new formula was born.

A case: a young woman with amenorrhea and dry cough — swapping salvia for hematite cured most of the cough and wheeze in one dose

Doctor Zhang Xichun appended a real case after the formula. A young woman — her menses had stopped, absent for several months — often had alternating chills and fever (feeling hot and cold by turns), a constant dry cough, and at the same time wheezing and chest oppression: the chest felt tight and stifled, she had no appetite, and her pulse raced at seven beats per breath, extremely fast. Doctor Zhang Xichun looked at her: this is deficiency-consumption (xu lao).

He first used Liquan Yin — the version of the formula at that time contained dan shen (salvia) and no hematite, relying on ginseng’s force to go downward — and it had no effect. Doctor Zhang Xichun thought it over: the medicine may be slightly off, so he replaced dan shen with hematite — when the upright qi is insufficient, what blood is there to invigorate? At this point you must tonify, and you must lead ginseng’s force downward, so he added raw hematite.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: One dose, and the cough and wheeze were more than half gone! It shows the earlier tonifying had some effect too — the moment the direction was right, results came immediately. The chest felt opened up — the qi had been stuck there; now the qi was opened and sent downward, so she could eat again, her appetite returned, because stomach qi descending is the natural order (wei qi xia xing wei shun). With the approach correct, she took several more doses, her pulse calmed, and after 20 doses in total, all ailments resolved — her menses returned and her body grew strong.

From then on, whenever Doctor Zhang Xichun met women with amenorrhea from insufficient blood, or declining bodies sliding into deficiency-consumption, or with cough, wheeze, oppression and a tight chest, he would first regulate with this formula, and the results were consistently good. This is how the formula came down to us.

Shortness of breath vs. wheezing: hard to exhale — use Sheng Xian Tang; hard to inhale — use Liquan Yin

Doctor Zhang Xichun also took care to explain the difference between shortness of breath (duan qi) and wheezing (chuan), lest people confuse them.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Shortness of breath is difficulty exhaling — the upright qi is insufficient and breathing feels stifled — for this you use Sheng Xian Tang (Raise the Sinking Decoction) to lift the qi upward. Wheezing is difficulty inhaling, hard for the breath to descend, the airway is narrow and the chest feels blocked — for this you use today’s formula. The two are somewhat different; when I get to Sheng Xian Tang and sunken great qi (da qi xia xian), I’ll make the distinction in detail.

Summary: only three herbs for nourishing yin — the prescription is simple, and the skill shows in the fine details

What we learn from Liquan Yin is how Doctor Zhang Xichun tonified upright qi and nourished yin. Yin deficiency — especially lung yin deficiency producing cough and wheeze, weakness to a certain degree — is very common. A yin-deficient person’s tongue is always red, the tongue body red, possibly with teeth marks. For patients who have been ill a long time and deficient for a long time, deficiency cannot be repaired in a day or two; treatment must start from the spleen — the spleen-stomach is the core.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In this whole series of formulas Doctor Zhang Xichun added raw Chinese yam in every one — greatly tonifying lung, spleen and kidney, especially spleen and lungs — then guided it toward nourishing yin. His yin-nourishing was actually very simple: on top of tonifying the spleen, he added just three herbs — sheng di, xuan shen, and tian men dong. The logic is crystal clear and the herbs are very few, nothing like the piles we sometimes use. He added ginseng out of fear of qi deficiency, and raw hematite out of fear of upper-burner fullness — to lead ginseng’s force downward to tonify the lower burner’s yuan qi. That is the root. Once you truly understand how to use medicine, prescribing becomes relatively simple — but it’s in these fine details that you see the master’s skill.

Back then, in the South, there was a famous physician Ran Xuefeng, a renowned educator of Chinese medicine who ran a Chinese medicine school in Shanghai. He wrote to Doctor Zhang Xichun asking how to educate students and spread Chinese medicine.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang Xichun told him: students today find the Huangdi Neijing too profound, and it takes too long to mature — of course it should still be studied. I refined the essence of it into these books; when an ordinary person studies my books thoroughly, he can basically go out and see patients upon graduation — we take the express route. Of course, to ultimately become a master, you still have to return to the classics — the Huangdi Neijing and the Shang Han Za Bing Lun (Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases) must all be studied well.

Doctor Luo Dalun says this is only a small portion of Doctor Zhang Xichun’s lung treatments — there are many more formulas and cases to come, one step at a time.

Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s lecture on Doctor Zhang Xichun’s case records and formulas; the original cases are from Yi Xue Zhong Zhong Can Xi Lu (Records of Chinese Medicine with Reference to Western Medicine, published serially from 1918 to 1934).