Chest Tight and You Can’t Catch Your Breath? — Doctor Zhang Xichun: Three Qian of San Qi Powder in Hot Water, Cured in Two Doses

Opening: today we’re not talking about ginseng — something else entirely

Doctor Luo Dalun had originally planned to continue on ginseng today. But Doctor Zhang Xichun had a habit when using ginseng — he didn’t use the ginseng from the northeast; he used dang shen (codonopsis root) from Shanxi. That was his custom. Still, after all these tonics, he worried his listeners were getting tired of them: “Why is everything about tonifying? I’m dizzy from all this tonifying.” So today he set that aside and talked about a herb everyone knows by name — San Qi (notoginseng).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: We’re not following the normal lecture order today — we’re branching off. What are we talking about? San Qi. You hear me mention this herb often, and I value it highly. Doctor Zhang Xichun believed it is bitter, slightly sweet, and neutral in nature — note this: most people assume San Qi is hot, but Doctor Zhang Xichun held that it is neutral. Why? He said: I’ve tested it many times. I grind San Qi into powder and eat several qian of it, and I don’t feel any heat. So he concluded that San Qi is not hot.

Raw San Qi or cooked San Qi? Doctor Zhang Xichun used the raw

Today San Qi comes in raw and cooked forms. So which did Doctor Zhang Xichun use — raw or cooked? He used the raw.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: In today’s Chinese medicine circles, actually, very few people use cooked San Qi; nearly everyone uses the raw form. Doctor Zhang Xichun held that San Qi is excellent at resolving blood stasis and equally excellent at stopping reckless bleeding — it is skilled at stopping the blood. But San Qi has one more gift, the best one: after the illness is cured, it leaves no blood stasis behind. It stops the bleeding in your channels, right? But once you’re well, it doesn’t leave stasis behind — that is San Qi’s virtue: it stops bleeding without leaving stasis.

A cruel prank: the cowherd boy’s head was pressed into his own crotch

San Qi’s prowess begins with a true story from Doctor Zhang Xichun’s hometown. Back when Doctor Zhang Xichun lived in Yanshan, his village was called Zhangma Village. One family in the village hired a cowherd boy to tend the cattle, sheep, and pigs. In summer, the children took the herds out to the fields to graze — the cattle ate grass on one side, and the children, with nothing to do, started to play.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Playing and playing, things went wrong. One child came up with a nasty prank: “See that kid over there? Let’s sneak up, grab him, and give him a hard time.” So the children went over and seized one of the cowherd boys — forcibly bending his neck and back (qiang qu qi xiang bei). From behind, they pressed down on his head and back, pushing his head down — down to where? Down into his own crotch! And they tied his hands behind his back. What was this game called? “kan gua” — “reading the hexagram.” Good heavens, the boy’s head was wedged in his own crotch, and the children roared with laughter, hugely amused.

But the laughter didn’t last. After a while — silence. No sound. They hurriedly untied him, opened him up, and saw the worst: the boy’s breath had stopped. He couldn’t breathe out; there was no air.

He woke up — but with a life-threatening problem

The children panicked and called the adults. The adults came, sat him down cross-legged, and rubbed his chest and patted his back for a long time, until finally the boy revived and his eyes opened.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: But from that moment on, he felt something stuffed inside his chest cavity — something blocked up his chest, pressing on the great qi of the chest, making him feel tight and suffocated, obstructing his breathing, making it hard to draw breath. When this state turned severe, his breath still stopped: one breath simply wouldn’t come up; then his eyes rolled upward (mu jing shang fan), showing the whites; and his body arched backward, stiff and straight. Anyone could see this was a serious illness. So Doctor Zhang Xichun was called in.

Doctor Zhang Xichun’s diagnosis: hot blood, carried up by straining qi, settled in the chest

Doctor Zhang Xichun took one look and said: this must have happened while he was suffocating in the crotch, struggling with all his might — blood stasis formed in the chest. Hot blood surged upward with the violent straining qi and settled right there in the chest, and that is what caused the stasis.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Everyone, pay attention — in this case, the hardest part of all was determining that he had blood stasis. How Doctor Zhang Xichun made that call, we don’t know for certain. But the one thing we can analyze today is this: he judged it from the action itself — that kind of forced, violent exertion can produce blood stasis. At this point, friends, the tongue might not show anything at all — stasis may be present and the tongue shows nothing. The pulse might not reveal it either. Judging blood stasis from the action alone — that is experience. Chinese medicine very often relies on experience — and this kind of experience let Doctor Zhang Xichun recognize the stasis at once: use San Qi, and it will be resolved.

The prescription: three qian of fine San Qi powder in hot water — cured in two doses

How did he treat it? Doctor Zhang’s method was very simple: three qian of fine San Qi powder — how many grams is that today? Nine grams — taken with hot water. He took it twice, and the boy was completely cured.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: You see — this is a case showing Doctor Zhang Xichun’s skill with San Qi. In this case, Doctor Zhang Xichun used a fairly large dose — most of us wouldn’t go to nine grams, but Doctor Zhang Xichun used nine grams, and it cured him in two doses. Why? San Qi is exceptionally good at resolving blood stasis.

The first lesson: grown-ups must keep an eye on children’s play

This case teaches us two lessons. The first is about children: when children play, adults need to watch them and stay alert.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Why do so many children play dangerous pranks? When I think back now, many childhood pranks were quite dangerous. For example: the child stands up, and you pull his chair away; he sits down — “thump” — right on the floor. Usually, friends, nothing happens. But what if he injures his tailbone, causing damage to the spine? Then it’s bad — some children are left disabled for life from just this kind of thing. It happens all too often. So the first point: you must pay attention to children’s games. Some children have no sense of how rough they’re being — they don’t understand.

The second lesson: when there is blood stasis, think of San Qi

The second lesson is about medication: San Qi can resolve blood stasis, and it works extremely well.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: San Qi’s power to resolve blood stasis is enormous, and it takes effect very quickly. For stasis that arises from some particular cause, when it’s time to prescribe, we should think of using San Qi. Today’s talk is the “getting to know San Qi” chapter — just an opening. Starting tomorrow, we’ll formally go through how San Qi actually treats disease. Thank you all — that’s all for today. See you tomorrow!

Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s lectures on Doctor Zhang Xichun’s medication experience; the case comes from Records of Chinese Medicine with Reference to Western Medicine (Yi Xue Zhong Zhong Can Xi Lu), published in installments between 1918 and 1934.