No Appetite, Afternoon Low-Grade Fever, Coughing With Lots of Phlegm and Wheezing? Two Famous Food-Therapy Porridges From Doctor Zhang Xichun — Zhu Yu Er Bao Zhou and Wo Xue Tang: Chinese Yam With Coix Seed or With Burdock Seed, One Tonifies While the Other Drains, for Spleen-Lung Yin Deficiency

What patients search for: no appetite / don’t want to eat / afternoon low-grade fever / deficient heat / cough with lots of phlegm / dry cough without phlegm / wheeze at the slightest cold / kidney-deficient wheezing / weak-lung cough Corresponding medical terms: spleen-lung yin deficiency · deficiency-consumption cough · consumptive cough · wheezing from the kidneys failing to grasp qi · tuberculous wasting

Opening: the two most famous “food-therapy porridges” in Doctor Zhang Xichun’s book

In Yi Xue Zhong Zhong Can Xi Lu (Records of Integrating Chinese and Western Medicine), Doctor Zhang Xichun walked through his formulas one by one. Today we reach two especially delightful food-therapy formulas — they are not medicines, they are porridges. One is called Zhu Yu Er Bao Zhou (Two-Treasure Pearl and Jade Porridge), the other Wo Xue Tang (Hot Water on Snow Decoction). Doctor Luo Dalun says these two formulas are extremely well known — mention the first one’s name and almost everyone who knows Doctor Zhang’s work immediately remembers it.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Today I continue introducing Doctor Zhang Xichun’s formulas. Following his book, Yi Xue Zhong Zhong Can Xi Lu, we go formula by formula, and here we arrive at two food-therapy formulas. One is called Zhu Yu Er Bao Zhou. This formula is extremely famous.

What does this illness look like? — No appetite, afternoon low-grade fever, coughing at the slightest thing

What does Zhu Yu Er Bao Zhou treat? Four words: spleen-lung yin deficiency (pi fei yin fen kui sun). Both the spleen and the lungs are weakened, and the yin aspect is also somewhat deficient — that is, with a touch of yin deficiency.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: About the “yin deficiency” that Doctor Zhang Xichun speaks of, you should keep a concept in mind: it may be the yin deficiency with dryness and heat that we talk about today, but it may also be jing deficiency — each of the five organs has its own essence (jing), and when the five organs’ essences are deficient, Doctor Zhang Xichun also files that under yin deficiency.

What are the concrete symptoms? Food intake lags — poor appetite, no desire to eat; at the same time deficient heat — the body sometimes feels hot from deficiency, with insufficient upright qi (zheng qi); and a tendency to cough. In short, it can treat all the symptoms of yin deficiency.

Why is it called “the two treasures, pearl and jade”? — Chinese yam is the jade, coix seed is the pearl

The formula is very simple: raw Chinese yam 2 liang, raw coix seed 2 liang — both 2 liang, and Doctor Zhang Xichun stresses that these two amounts must be exactly equal. Then add persimmon frost cake (shi shuang bing) 8 qian (about 24 grams).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What is the “pearl”? The coix seed is round and smooth, like a pearl. And the “jade”? The yam slices, piece by piece, look like jade — hence “two treasures, pearl and jade.”

The yam is the dried slices of huai shan yao (Huai yam, the famed variety from the Huaiqing region of Henan). Doctor Zhang Xichun had a particularly interesting way of combining yam: pairing it with coix seed. Why?

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Chinese yam tonifies — it greatly nourishes the lungs, spleen and kidneys, tonifying the essence of the lungs, spleen and kidneys, and its nourishing effect is excellent. But Doctor Zhang Xichun says that if you use yam alone for a long time, it becomes a bit sticky and clogging — raw yam is full of mucilage. What do you do then? You use coix seed to drain that dampness out for you. Yam tonifies the spleen and lungs, while coix seed drains the dampness — one tonifies, one drains, and the two cooperate beautifully.

One tonifies, one drains: Chinese yam paired with coix seed, Doctor Zhang Xichun’s perfect match

What are coix seed’s abilities? Sweet and bland in taste, cool in nature; it clears damp-heat, enters the spleen, stomach, lung channels; it can permeate dampness, promote urination, strengthen the spleen, stop diarrhea, and it can also resolve toxins and expel pus — for example, when there is a lung abscess (fei yong), raw coix seed is used.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: If you use coix seed alone, its draining power is too strong. What do you do? Pair it with yam, which tonifies for you and makes up for the disadvantage of coix seed’s draining. So yam and coix seed together form a perfect match. Both strengthen the spleen, but yam’s nourishing power is the main force; coix seed, while strengthening the spleen, helps drain the dampness. Combined, they are exceptionally gentle and balanced.

That is why Doctor Luo Dalun often recommends yam porridge to everyone. Some people ask: “Why do I get heat symptoms the moment I eat yam? Why does my tongue coating thicken as soon as I eat yam?” — That is because you have heavy dampness: you are only tonifying, not draining. Add coix seed, tonify and drain dampness at the same time, and the effect turns good.

A true little story: a netizen said the yam powder tasted sour

Here is an amusing story. A netizen left a comment: “Doctor Luo, the yam powder you recommended — why does it taste sour to me? Has the quality declined?”

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: I said, no, I eat the yam powder I recommend myself, and mine tastes sweet — in fact, just two days before this friend asked me, I was thinking to myself, this sweet-tasting food really does taste sweet when you eat it. But this friend said it was sour. That won’t do — I have to take responsibility. I asked: could you mail the yam to me, and when I receive it I’ll taste it and see whether something has gone wrong. So the friend mailed it. Because I travel constantly, the package chased me wherever I went, and I had to forward it onward. After more than half a month it finally reached me — and when I tasted it, it was exactly the same as the yam I usually eat and recommend: sweet. Why did he taste it as sour?

The reason was found: people with a thick tongue coating find that starchy foods taste more and more sour as they chew.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: These foods enter the mouth sweet, but generally speaking, when starchy food is chewed in the mouth for a while, some people really do get a sour feeling. Who feels the sourness most clearly? People who usually have a thick tongue coating. After they eat starchy foods like yam, their tongue coating gets even thicker, and the more they chew, the sourer it becomes — why? Because there is heavy dampness in the body. If a steamed bun tastes slightly sour to you, that is normal; but if it tastes distinctly sour, you should reflect: is my dampness especially heavy? Usually observe your tongue coating — if it is very thick, then when you take spleen-tonifying herbs, add some dampness-draining herbs as well, and only then can the spleen truly be tonified and your constitution actually change.

The secret of Si Jun Zi Tang: when you tonify qi, you must also drain dampness

Doctor Luo Dalun also points out the inner logic of the classic qi-tonifying formula Si Jun Zi Tang (Four Gentlemen Decoction): ginseng (ren shen), poria (fu ling), atractylodes (bai zhu) and licorice (gan cao).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Ginseng tonifies. What does poria do? It drains dampness — while you tonify qi, it removes dampness. Atractylodes strengthens the spleen and also helps drain dampness. So tonifying the spleen and draining dampness at the same time gives an especially good result.

Persimmon frost cake: the lung-moistening medicine hidden in the white frost on dried persimmons

Now the third ingredient — persimmon frost cake (shi shuang bing). People in northern China all know: large persimmons at the top of the tree are picked when the weather turns cold, and when dried they become dried persimmons (shi bing). On the surface of the dried persimmon there is a layer of white frost, and this frost is called persimmon frost (shi shuang).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: What does persimmon frost do? It moistens dryness, generates fluids, stops cough and transforms phlegm. Scrape it off with a bamboo blade — it must be a bamboo blade — collect it, heat it in a pot until it melts, pour it into molds, let it cool and dry, and it becomes a little cake, pale yellow or white. That is persimmon frost cake.

Persimmon frost cake is a good thing, but sadly few people know about it today. Doctor Zhang Xichun valued it greatly, adding it to several formulas. It is still sold in shops — the frost on the dried persimmons we usually buy has mostly been scraped off already, precisely because it was collected to make persimmon frost cake.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The nature of persimmon frost cake is cool, so it is not suitable for coughs from externally contracted wind-cold — it suits only dryness-heat. How do you judge dryness-heat? The tongue edges are red, the pulse is fast, the phlegm is somewhat yellow, or there is simply a dry cough without phlegm. Doctor Zhang Xichun also said that if you can get the plain white persimmon frost itself, even better — better than the cake — but we can’t collect it ourselves, so buying the cake is the convenient option.

The preparation is simple too: first pound the yam and coix seed into coarse grits and boil until thoroughly cooked, then crush the persimmon frost cake and stir it in until melted — “take it as you please,” in Doctor Zhang’s words.

A real case: the young man who labored in the fields on an empty stomach

After explaining the formula, Doctor Zhang Xichun presents a case.

There was a young man who, after a cold, had no appetite for food. But he still had to work — he had to go to the fields and farm. Laboring hard on an empty stomach brought on a consumptive cough: every day after midday — in the afternoon — he began to run a fever, his body hot; then all night he coughed up phlegm, coughing the whole night through. The doctors saw he was young and assumed a young man is usually deficient, so they gave him yin-nourishing, kidney-tonifying herbs; a few even added ginseng and astragalus. After two months of treatment there was no effect at all. The illness grew worse, his appetite failed, he could not eat, the phlegm increased, and at last he lay in bed unable to get up.

Only then was Doctor Zhang Xichun called in. He felt the pulse: deficient, rapid, and wiry (xu shu jian xian) — not only qi deficiency, but yin deficiency too, with a wiry quality on top. From this he judged: both the lungs and the spleen are damaged.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: After this case, Doctor Zhang Xichun explained something special. He said the pulse is divided into positions, but roughly speaking he did not distinguish the positions much — we usually say the left wrist’s cun, guan, chi positions correspond to the heart, liver and kidneys, and the right to the lungs, spleen and ming men (life gate), and we feel one position at a time. But Doctor Zhang Xichun pressed all three positions at once. A wiry or rapid quality in the whole pulse told him what he needed; that is how he felt the pulse.

Doctor Zhang Xichun’s special skill: from one wiry pulse, seeing that both lungs and spleen were hurt

Why does feeling a wiry pulse tell you that both the lungs and the spleen are damaged? The reasoning here is wonderfully subtle.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: A wiry pulse is a liver pulse — people with constrained liver qi have a wiry pulse, people with liver fire have a wiry pulse. If the pulse is this wiry, the liver fire must be blazing. What happens when liver fire blazes? Liver wood attacks spleen earth (gan mu ke pi tu) — so the spleen earth must be injured. When the spleen and stomach are healthy, the normal spleen pulse is gentle and relaxed; now it is both wiry and rapid, which certainly means injury. As for the lungs: normally, metal controls wood — lung metal governs liver wood; if lung metal is normal, liver wood cannot be so arrogant and violent. Now that the pulse is this wiry, it shows lung metal can no longer restrain liver wood — so the lungs are also injured and weakened, which is why liver wood is so perverse and brutal. So on the basis of this single wiry pulse, Doctor Zhang Xichun judged that this person’s lungs and spleen were certainly damaged.

Doctor Luo also points out a hidden clue in the case record:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang Xichun did not say much about the pulse here, but let me tell you: this young man actually had an emotional problem underneath — he may well have had constrained liver qi (gan qi bu shu) already, and then laboring on an empty stomach injured his lungs and spleen. This is a clue hidden in the case. Doctor Zhang did not spell it out, but he explained the liver pulse and the wiry pulse so thoroughly that we ourselves should think a little further.

The treatment? Tonify the lungs and spleen. Doctor Zhang Xichun gave him Zhu Yu Er Bao Zhou — dried Huai yam, with an equal amount of raw coix seed, plus persimmon frost cake, to be eaten twice a day, boiled soft and eaten as is. The result?

Eating it twice a day, in half a month the patient was cured.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: This is a classic way of thinking — Doctor Zhang Xichun used food therapy to treat illness. What do we learn from this formula? If your tongue coating is thick, your dampness heavy, and your spleen deficient, then while tonifying the spleen with Huai yam, you can add a little raw coix seed. If you eat yam powder, grind the coix seed into powder and mix it in — adding a little qian shi (euryale seed) is even better — in this way you tonify without clogging, and the tonification stays gentle. If you usually have a dry cough, without phlegm or with yellow phlegm, and the body feels hot, add some persimmon frost cake — the effect is even better.

The second formula: Wo Xue Tang — “like hot water poured on snow,” for wheezing from kidney deficiency

The second formula is called Wo Xue Tang (Hot Water on Snow Decoction). It treats the same pattern as the first: spleen-lung yin deficiency, yin damage, lagging appetite, deficient heat and consumptive cough — all the symptoms of yin deficiency. But it adds one more line: and wheezing from the kidneys failing to grasp qi (shen bu na qi zuo chuan).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Chinese medicine says the kidneys govern the intake of qi (shen zhu na qi). When you breathe in, the qi is grasped and taken in; if the kidneys are deficient, this intake goes wrong, breathing is obstructed, and wheezing develops. So for wheezing caused by kidney deficiency, this formula also works well. The “wo” in Wo Xue Tang means to irrigate — ru tang wo xue, like pouring hot water on snow: pour hot water on snow and the snow melts at once. The name says this decoction treats the illness so effectively it is like hot water melting snow.

What is in it? Raw Chinese yam 1.5 liang (45 grams), with crushed stir-fried burdock seed (niu bang zi) 4 qian (12 grams), plus persimmon frost cake taken dissolved in the decoction.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Raw Chinese yam 1.5 liang is the main force again. What does yam do? It greatly tonifies the three organs of lungs, spleen and kidneys — ordinary herbs tonify the lungs and spleen but rarely tonify the kidneys; yam also tonifies the kidneys, so yam leads the formula. What about burdock seed? It clears heat and toxins, soothes the throat and benefits the voice, and especially clears heat in the upper burner (shang jiao). When there is still a little external pathogen, when the lungs, spleen and kidneys are deficient — especially when the kidneys cannot grasp qi and wheezing has started — I use large amounts of yam to tonify, plus a little burdock seed to resolve toxins and push the pathogen out of the upper burner.

Chinese yam paired with burdock seed: for children whose cough lingers after a cold

Yam with burdock seed is one of Doctor Zhang Xichun’s famous herb pairs — a celebrated piece of his prescribing wisdom.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: We often hear that after a child’s cold gets better, only a cough remains; some children cough for two or three months and it never clears. What to do? Give them some yam — Huai yam — and because you worry a little pathogen remains, add some burdock seed. Many parents report that the effect is excellent, and from then on the child is fine. Doctor Zhang Xichun’s approach: tonify the lungs, spleen and kidneys and support the upright qi, while adding a small amount of pathogen-clearing herb — and the targeting is precise, clearing the pathogen in the upper burner and throat. Other herbs also resolve toxins, but their targeting is not as precise as burdock seed’s. Burdock seed must be crushed for best effect — that is Doctor Zhang Xichun’s method; since crushing by hand is troublesome in daily use, simply grind it in a food processor.

As for dosage, treatment and daily care are different:

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: For treating illness, Doctor Zhang Xichun used raw yam 1.5 liang, which is 45 grams, and burdock seed 12 grams — that is a large amount, and we don’t use that much in daily life. I typically use 30 grams of Huai yam with 3 grams of burdock seed — mainly to regulate a lingering cough after a cold, when only a trace of pathogen remains; 3 grams of burdock seed is enough, especially once crushed, because crushing strengthens the effect. If the pathogen is more obvious, you can go up to 6 grams, but usually you won’t need to. Put the persimmon frost cake in the decoction and let it dissolve, then drink. Look at this formula: tonify on one side, clear the pathogen on the other, plus something to moisten dryness and stop cough — very effective.

Another case: a man with years of wheezing — this time Xiao Qing Long Tang failed

Doctor Zhang Xichun gives another case after that: a man in his forties with a long-standing wheezing condition.

This kind of wheezing was common in the countryside in the old days — long exposure to pathogens, a weakened body, and when the wheeze came on, the sound was a rasping, labored effort. This man’s wheezing flared up at the slightest external contraction. Previously, doctors had given him Xiao Qing Long Tang (Minor Blue Dragon Decoction) — as we know, that formula treats external cold with internal fluid retention, and usually one dose did the trick. So the man took it for granted: whenever it flared, he took Xiao Qing Long Tang. This time, however, the wheezing returned and he took three consecutive doses of Xiao Qing Long Tang without improvement.

What to do then? He came to Doctor Zhang Xichun. Feeling the pulse: five beats per breath — somewhat fast; the right cun pulse (the lung position) was large; and when pressed deeply, the lung pulse vanished entirely — press down hard and the strength of the lung pulse was gone.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Doctor Zhang Xichun knew that in the past Xiao Qing Long Tang always worked. Why? Because the cause then was cold invasion — externally contracted cold, and Xiao Qing Long Tang disperses cold and removes the internal water-dampness, so it cured him. Why didn’t it work this time? This time the wheezing had little to do with external contraction — it was not caused by it. It was caused by lung-kidney deficiency: wheezing from insufficiency of upright qi. The earlier episodes were externally contracted illnesses; this one was internal damage (nei shang). The manifestation looked the same — wheezing — but the cause was different. This time it was his own weakness causing it, so if you only disperse the external cold while the upright qi remains insufficient, it won’t work. This time you must treat the root, and the main approach is nourishment.

But — illness never follows the textbook.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Is there any pathogen this time? At this point there is bound to be a little pathogen too; the changing weather that triggers the flare-up is an inducement, but the main cause is the deficiency of upright qi. Truly great physicians never have a one-track mind — either you disperse cold, or you tonify; no such thing. Doctor Zhang Xichun considered both — so he gave this formula: Wo Xue Tang. Raw Chinese yam greatly tonifies the lungs, spleen and kidneys, especially the kidneys, supporting the upright qi; burdock seed clears a little pathogen; persimmon frost cake moistens dryness, transforms phlegm and stops cough. Although there are only three ingredients, each has a different direction, and together they form a fairly complete combination.

How did it turn out? After two doses of this decoction, the patient was cured — the wheezing stopped. Doctor Zhang Xichun then had him take a few more doses to consolidate the recovery.

Doctor Luo’s reminder: for treatment and for food therapy, use different amounts

This case shows that Doctor Zhang Xichun used this formula for serious illness and acute conditions.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: This combination is not meant for long-term daily use. If you use it as food therapy, you can keep the amount of raw yam, but reduce the burdock seed and reduce the persimmon frost cake — keep this in mind: this is the amount for actually treating illness. If you have a lingering cough after a cold, as I just said, 3 grams of burdock seed is enough, and you don’t need much persimmon frost cake either — a little, just enough to do its job.

Two methods learned: yam with coix seed, yam with burdock seed

After these two formulas today, we have learned Doctor Zhang Xichun’s two ways of using Huai yam: first, pairing it with coix seed — Zhu Yu Er Bao Zhou, one tonifies and one drains; second, pairing it with burdock seed — Wo Xue Tang, tonifying deficiency while clearing the pathogen in the upper burner. Both are famous combinations through which Doctor Zhang Xichun regularly used yam.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Once you grasp these, you know where all the knowledge and ideas we have introduced before actually came from — my friends, we learned them from old Master Zhang Xichun. I still say what I always say: I don’t mind spending the words. Every day we talk about a piece like this, and I hope that after listening, you gain something — understand how Chinese medicine treats illness, understand the prescribing wisdom of a master like Doctor Zhang Xichun, the fine and subtle places. Step by step you walk into the culture of Chinese medicine, and that helps you protect your own health.

What to take away

Zhu Yu Er Bao Zhou (raw Huai yam 2 liang + raw coix seed 2 liang, equal amounts, + persimmon frost cake 8 qian, about 24 g) treats spleen-lung yin deficiency: no appetite, deficient heat, easy coughing. Take it twice a day, boiled soft — in Doctor Zhang Xichun’s case, half a month cured the patient.
Yam paired with coix seed is a perfect match: yam tonifies the essence of the lungs, spleen and kidneys; coix seed drains dampness. One tonifies, one drains — used alone, yam over a long time turns sticky and clogging; used alone, coix seed drains too hard. Together they are perfectly gentle.
Persimmon frost cake (persimmon frost scraped with a bamboo blade, melted and molded) moistens dryness, generates fluids, stops cough and transforms phlegm. It is cool in nature, so it suits dryness-heat coughs (red tongue edges, fast pulse, yellow or absent phlegm) — not wind-cold coughs.
If your tongue coating is thick and starchy food tastes increasingly sour as you chew, your dampness is heavy: when tonifying the spleen, add dampness-draining herbs (or coix seed), or the tonification won’t take. Adding a little qian shi (euryale seed) makes the tonification “tonify without clogging.”
Wo Xue Tang (raw yam 1.5 liang, about 45 g + crushed stir-fried burdock seed 4 qian, about 12 g + persimmon frost cake) adds the kidney-deficiency wheezing pattern: the kidneys govern the intake of qi — when the kidneys are weak, breathing in fails and wheezing results. This is for internal damage, when Xiao Qing Long Tang has stopped working because the root is deficiency, not external cold.
Yam with burdock seed is the famous pair for a lingering cough after a cold — including children’s coughs that drag on for two or three months: about 30 g Huai yam with 3 g crushed burdock seed (6 g if the pathogen is clearly still there), with a little persimmon frost cake dissolved in. Tonify the upright qi on one side, clear the upper-burner pathogen on the other.

Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s lecture series on Doctor Zhang Xichun’s case records; the original cases and formulas are recorded in Yi Xue Zhong Zhong Can Xi Lu (Records of Integrating Chinese and Western Medicine).