Multiple personalities

photo by Tan Ming/Secret China

Here is a real story of a patient of mine with multiple personalities.
Western medicine approaches the case of multiple personalities differently to Chinese medicine. Chinese medicine believes that a case of multiple personalities occurs when a person abandons his main consciousness and his mind is thus disturbed or manipulated by a malevolent energy. In other words, Chinese medicine considers multiple personalities as symptoms of being ghost-ridden or demon-ridden. Clinical symptoms for this malady can be defined as lack of clear conscience, coupled with irrational behavior.
Carolyn came to my clinic for treatment of her diabetes. One week later, her diabetes symptoms mysteriously disappeared. Then she returned for treatment of symptoms of hepatitis. But that too soon disappeared. After that, every once in a while, Carolyn would appear to be inflicted with a new disease that is quite serious and she would truly suffer from all the typical symptoms of that disease. The test reports, CT scan result and doctors' diagnoses reports all confirmed that she actually suffered from those diseases. Different diseases kept plaguing Carolyn. By now I am sure you will understand how perplexed both she and her doctors were, especially since she was so young.
She also had a strange fashion sense. From the American Indians' native costumers, to African style long skirts, to French baroque dresses of the 18th century, to Japanese kimonos, to jeans, to cotton-wadded Chinese robes, Carolyn's constant variations of style bedazzled me. Even more surprising was her posture, voice and demeanour matching her outfits perfectly.
I always tried my best to treat her, but I often was puzzled by the way she dressed. I thought to myself, "This is a hospital clinic, not a stage or a fashion runway. What does she think she is doing?" Since Carolyn came with a different disease and a different style or outfit each time, I began to ask myself if there could be any correlation between the two.
Finally, to find a clue to her behavior, I asked Carolyn about her family history. From that, I understood the root cause of her strange behavior. This is the story she told me.
"I just moved here from another city. I have a mother and three siblings. My father was a well-known attorney, an extremely healthy and energetic man who worked diligently and really took care of his health. We used to be a very happy family until one night when happiness suddenly vanished like a dream. Here is what happened:
I received news that my father had died of a sudden heart attack while exercising in a health club. I was so shocked that my whole body became numb. But what happened next was even more shocking. Before my father's funeral service was about to begin, a black woman who seemed to be well-educated and enjoy a certain social status came to the memorial service with three grown children, and began to sob uncontrollably. I thought that they must have come for a different memorial service, so I approached them politely saying, 'I think you may be in the wrong place.' They produced a family portrait showing five people, my father being one of them. Good God! My father had another family! Another wife and three children! My father had been carrying on a double life for more than 20 years. I almost fainted and thought I was living a nightmare.
Right then my mother and grandmother came into the room. Apparently, Mother did not know about the other family either. I asked the other family to go to another room and hold a private memorial service on their own. But they firmly refused. The two families ended up standing at each side of the coffin and bid farewell in rage, with lots of questions unanswered from this well-known attorney who would never be able to answer them.
I almost convinced myself that my father had the ability to be at two places at the same time, because in my memory he had always been with us when I grew up. He had never missed our birthday parties, and he always made arrangements for all the major holidays. The only thing that stood out was that my father frequently visited my grandmother. When I asked my half brother from the other family about our father, he told me the same thing: Father was always with them, including Christmas Eves, Thanksgivings, birthdays and so on. He celebrated all of the holidays together with them too. The only thing that he knew was that Father would often make business trips. Because father was an attorney, it was normal and understandable to them.
Our grandmother knew about all of this. When she met my father's mistress at the memorial service, she said only one thing, "The game is over." We learned afterwards that my grandmother's home was the place for my father to change "make-up and costumes" between scenes of his two roles in this play. Everyone had thought that my father was a filial son and visited grandmother all the time."
Having finished the story Carolyn started to cry, saying, "I miss him. I do not blame him because he must have agonized and been exhausted. He never had a real rest until his heart stopped beating. To me, he had always been a good father."
I asked Carolyn why she constantly changed her fashion style, "Could you be following in your father's footsteps by playing different roles with your fashion costume?"
She was stupefied at first, and then she told me that sometimes she did not really know who she was. One thing she knew for certain was that all the disease symptoms were real, and that the feelings of sickness were real, although she did not understand why her diseases disappeared as suddenly and quickly as they had come.
Based on her descriptions I decided that the root cause of her diseases was the lack of a clear main consciousness. Whenever a person's righteous spirit is weak, the evil spirits invade a person's body and/or mind.
According to traditional Chinese medicine, there are thirteen "ghost apertures" in a human body, which are the body's communication channels to the outside world. Specifically, the thirteen ghost acupuncture points are the "Ghost Palace (or philtrum), Ghost Message (or Shaoshang), Ghost Heart (or the two main mausoleums, Ghost Rampart, and Ghost Road), Ghost Pillow, Ghost Bed, Ghost City, Ghost Hole, Ghost Hall, Ghost Hide, Ghost Feudal Official and Ghost Seal."
In order to protect Carolyn from the invasion of demon spirits, I closed all thirteen "ghost apertures" with two acupuncture techniques known as "Blue Dragon Twirl" and "White Tiger Spin."
After the treatment, Carolyn became sober-minded and gradually returned to her normal self. She no longer spoke in a varying voice and started to talk in a normal voice. The symptoms of multiple personalities vanished. In other words, the malevolent ghost spirits had been expelled from her body.
Carolyn's case proves that a human body could be compared to a piece of clothes. Whoever dons it controls the human body. When the ghost apertures are open and a person's main consciousness is not strong enough, demon spirits can invade and control the body. After the ghost apertures were closed, malevolent spirits no longer interfered with Carolyn. The symptom of multiple personalities thus vanished.
I wrote a poem to record Carolyn's medical case:
Multiple Personalities -
Results of invasion from hundreds of demon spirits;
Closing the ghost apertures blocks all invasions.
My teacher's marvellous medical education
Makes the rampant demons disappear without a trace.

Ear Acupuncture

Man Undergoing Auricular Acupuncture

The various positions on the body have corresponding points on the ear.
The auricle of the ear is a unique microcosm that can display complete information about the whole body. The human body's twelve yin and yang channels on the hands and feet all reach the ear either directly or indirectly. In "The Chapter of Verbal Enquiries" in Ling Shu (Spiritual Junctures), it says, "In the ear, all of the energy channels are put together." In "The Chapter of Essays on Words of Gold and Truth" in Su Wen (Questions of Simplicity), it says, "Red from the south goes to the heart, opens on the ear, hides spirit in the heart." So, we can tell one's congenital physique from one's ear color, high or low position, thickness, flat or round shape, and firmness. We may even be able to tell the pathologies of many generations from the ear's shape and appearance.
So, how do we judge the actual situation of the internal organs by observing the ear's color, shape, or thickness? In "The Chapter of Organs" in Ling Shu it says, "If the ear is black and small, the kidney is small. If the ear is thick, the kidney is big. If the ear is high, the kidney is high. If the back of the ear falls then the kidney is low. If the ear is firm, the kidney is firm. If the ear is thin the kidney is weak. If the kidney is small then it is safe and difficult to be injured. If it is firm, it does not get sick. If the kidney is big, big means empty and an empty kidney causes deafness or tinnitus."
Most of us may not know that one of the major characteristics of ear acupuncture treatment is stopping pain with obvious curative effectiveness.
One day, a patient with tooth pain came to see me. He said, "Doctor, the money I spent on dentists over these past years could buy a house…." After one ear of acupuncture treatment, the pain stopped and he didn't have tooth-pain anymore.

This article originally appeared on http://www.pureinsight.org/node/1343

Chinese Medicine Can also Cure Emergencies or Acute Illnesses

Press acupoint Du26 for fainting patient. (web photo)

In many cases, Chinese medicine is actually the best choice for urgent and acute illnesses.
I learned my acupuncture skills from my family going back several generations. My patients near and far know me as a diligent and conscientious doctor. I try my best to deserve that reputation.
My clinic has three treatment rooms. Most of the time things are relatively quiet. My patients are from various backgrounds, comprised of various races, ages and dispositions. For the most part, they come to see me for their back pains, headaches, sore shoulders, pains in their arms, knees, wrists, and ankles, and stomach troubles. But from time to time I do treat emergency cases and complicated illnesses that other doctors feel helpless to treat.
You may ask, "Why isn't a patient in an emergency situation sent to an emergency room, instead of to a Chinese medicine doctor who can only inspect the tongue and read the pulses? Does this not endanger the patient's life?" Many people think that Chinese medicine is capable of only treating and curing chronic illnesses. Actually, other than emergencies such as amputations and surgical organ removal because of serious internal bleeding, Chinese medicine is actually the best choice for many urgent and acute illnesses.
This is because, 80% of patients who visit emergency rooms are forced to go there because they suffer from symptoms that cannot be controlled, such as angina pectoris, excessive bleeding, heatstroke, coma and asthma. The pains or the symptoms of the illnesses are beyond their tolerance level, and they cannot wait for an appointment that might be two or three months down the line. The patients feel helpless and have to seek urgent help from the emergency services. Acupuncture can promptly treat, control and cure many acute illnesses, and take patients out of danger.
In fact, using acupuncture to treat acute disease is not a new invention. It has a long history in China. Many such cases are documented extensively in ancient Chinese books. For example, Shi Ji: Bian Que Chronicles described how Bian Que, a famous Chinese doctor who lived during the Period of Warring States, used acupuncture to bring back a prince who had been pronounced dead for half a day. In the book Prescriptions for Emergency Cases written in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Ge Hong described how to use acupuncture to save people from heart failure and other complicated, acute illnesses such as cholera.
In Theories on the Root Causes of Various Diseases written in the Sui Dynasty, Chao Yuanfang described how to use acupuncture to treat stroke and other acute heart problems. In Essential Emergency Prescriptions, Sun Simiao of the Tang Dynasty wrote extensively on using acupuncture to treat acute diseases such as stroke, severe vomiting and diarrhea, urinary obstruction, uterine bleeding, lung problems, swollen midriff, snake bite, rabies, epilepsy, and other acute illnesses. He indicated that these treatments were highly successful in clinical applications.
Recently, I treated a patient who had a long history of having fevers so high that he would fall into a coma. When his family brought him to my clinic, he had become allergic to all kinds of medicines and his body was covered with a rash from the allergic reactions. Doctors of western medicine did not know what more they could do. The patient's fever just would not go down and he was beginning to exhibit signs of respiratory failure. I used a needle to scratch his ear lobe and let out 5 to 7 drops of blood. In less than five minutes, the high fever was gone. The medical effect was so remarkable that the patient's family members were astonished.
Why is it that letting go of several drops of blood from the ear by means of an acupuncture needle can lead to something western medicine and treatment cannot achieve?
It is because there is a direct relationship between the ear and internal organs. I will cover that in the next instalment.
Origin of article: http://www.pureinsight.org/node/1312

A bowl of Fish Soup

What lesson did the author learn?
An old Chinese proverb tells us, "The chair in a carpenter's house often has three legs, the child in a tailor's family often has bare buttocks, and the sickness in a doctor's family often goes uncured."
I grew up in southern China, where fish soup is considered a delicacy. We had a large family with many children, and we could not afford to have fish soup very often. Other than major holidays such as the Chinese New Year, the only time that we the kids got to drink fish soup was when we got sick. It was given to us as a treat. Although I was the youngest, my brother who is 2 years older than me was the favorite of my grandmother. He got sick from time to time, and my grandmother often gave him fish soup to drink.
When he drank the fish soup, he sometimes looked distraught as if he was drinking Chinese herbal medicine. But other times I could see the pleasure in his eyes when he was drinking it. I was always in the perfect health and so I never had the chance to drink any. I became envious of my brother and I decided quietly that I would intentionally get sick so I could get some fish soup for myself. I tried hard to get sick, but the best I could manage was a runny nose. After a long time of trying, I finally got a bad enough cold to be given the fish soup. Grandma boiled a bowl of steaming hot, fragrant, and wonderful looking fish soup. However, as soon as I smelled the soup, I began to vomit. My brother saw that. He said, "If you really cannot drink it, let me help you." I did not want to give it away, as I got sick for the sake of it. So I tried my best to sit up and drink the soup. But when I smelled the fish soup, I wanted to vomit again. I really could not drink it. I had to give it away and saw him drink the soup with gusto.
When my mother, who was a physician, came home that day, I asked her, "What type of cold makes a person lose appetite and what type of cold does not do that? How come my brother can eat and drink as usual when he is sick, and yet I do not want to eat or drink anything when I am sick?" Mother took one look at me and immediately knew what I had done. She said, "Because you deliberately got sick, you have caught a Feng-Han cold (according to traditional Chinese medicine, there are two types of cold, Feng-Re or Wind-Heat cold and Feng-Han or Wind-Cold cold), which upsets your stomach, makes your body ache and makes you lose your appetite. Drink a lot of hot water and you will be fine after you rest a little bit." Mother's tone was very tender. But I still thought I was not treated very fairly. How could my family give sick children fish soup to drink when sometimes it is not good for them?
After I recovered from the cold, I found that my mother had felt sorry for me after all and put fish soup on the dinner table more often. But every time I drank the soup, I recalled what I did before. It taught me a profound lesson: the more one wants something, the less likely he will get it [or enjoy it if one does get it].

Ancient Chinese Anesthesia

Hua Tuo was the discoverer of anesthetics in ancient China.

What was used as anesthesia 2000 years ago?
Guan Yu is a legendary figure in China. He was a general in the kingdom of Shu during the period of Three Kingdoms (from AD 222 to 265). In a battle in Fan City, a poisoned arrow injured Guan Yu's right arm. The most famous surgeon at that time, Hua Tuo, made an incision in his right arm, and scraped off the poisoned muscle and bone. During the operation, Guan Yu continued to drink and play chess. He talked and laughed as if nothing was happening. His composure brought him admiration and respect from all soldiers and other generals that had witnessed the operation. They were amazed by how Guan Yu was able to control himself so well in the face of such pain. But the fact is that, before the operation, Hua Tuo might have applied a topical anesthetic called mandrake to his arm. Hua Tuo is probably the first person to invent and use anesthesia.

Prior to Hua Tuo's time, in order to prevent the patient from squirming and moving restlessly during a painful operation, prior to surgery the doctors would tightly bind the patient by the hands and feet. Or the doctors would hit the patient's head or release some blood in order to make the patient unconsciousness.

In order to reduce the patient's pain during the operation, Hua Tuo tried everything to find an herb for anesthesia. One day when Hua Tuo was on a mountain to collect herbs, he met a woodcutter who was severely injured. The woodcutter grabbed a couple of leaves, mashed them and pressed them against his wound. After a while, the pain disappeared. Hua Tuo was pleasantly surprised at the sight of the magical herb, and eagerly asked the woodcutter for the name of the herb. The leaves came from a plant called mandrake. After many trials and errors, Hua Tuo finally produced a famous anesthesia called "Ma Fei San".

In the sixteenth chapter of a famous Chinese novel All Men Are Brothers (another name for it is the Shui Hu Legend), a counselor from the Liang Mountain [1], named Wu Yong, put some narcotic in the drink and successfully robbed the treasure off Yang Zhi, who was in charge of delivering the treasure. After Yang Zhi and his guards drank the wine, the fifteen of them could not do anything but helplessly watch the seven men take the treasure in front of them. They couldn't stand up, move, or even speak a word. In fact, Wu Yong mixed anesthesia with the wine. The Chinese anesthesia he used was called "men han" drug. "Men" means "pass out" and "han" means "a grown man" in Chinese, so "men han" drug means a drug that causes a grown man to pass out. The main active ingredient in the drug was mandrake.

The Illustrated Guide to Plants explained, "Mandrake lives in the wild prairies in Guangxi Province. Bandits often take its stem, mash the stems, and put them in the food to make their target victims unconsciousness so that they can steal their belongings. The men han drug must have been made of this kind of herb."

There are many Chinese herbs that can be used for anesthesia. Besides mandrake, there are more than forty other different kinds of herbs that can be used as an anesthetic. It was only since the past century that modern Western medicine began to use dimethylether as an anesthetic in operations. But Chinese medicine had already invented and used anesthetics as early as Hua Tuo's time, some two thousand years ago.

Note:
[1] Mount Liang: The home base of a gang of hero-bandits in ancient book [Shui Hu} (aka All Men Are Brothers), written by Shi Nai-An.

Tales of Chinese Wolfberry

What Are the Benefits of Wolfberry?
Chinese Wolfberry can be used to nourish a weak body, improve vision, and promote longevity. There are many legends associated with Chinese Wolfberry. A famous Chinese physician, Li Shizhen (1518 - 1593) who lived during the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644 A.D.), compiled the Great Compendium of Herbs (or Compendium of Materia Medica), which stated, "The Bao Shou herb store recorded an elixir that promotes longevity. A bizarre barefooted man named Zhang passed the formula of this elixir to an elderly person in Yi Shi county, who followed the recipe and lived over a hundred years. The elderly man could walk extremely fast as if he was floating. His gray hair turned black again. His aged teeth were replaced with new ones. He was very virile in the bedroom. The herb is mellow and can be taken often to eliminate excessive heat in the body, and will also improve vision."

The Chinese Wolfberry is sweet and soothing. It is good for the liver and kidney. It nourishes the kidneys and liver, benefits the lungs, and improves vision. Traditional Chinese medicine uses Chinese Wolfberry to treat problems related to liver, kidneys and impotency, muscle ache in the waist and knees, headaches, dizziness, blurred vision, excess tears, fatigue, coughs, thirst, and seminal emissions.

An ancient tale states that in the prime of the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 A.D.), a caravan on the Silk Road stopped for a rest at an inn and noticed a young lady reprimanding and whipping an old man. A merchant approached them and asked the young lady, "For what reason are you assaulting and abusing this elderly person?" The lady replied, "I am disciplining my great-grandson. It is none of your business." Everyone at the scene was shocked by her reply. Further inquiries revealed that the lady was more than three hundred years old! The old person was being punished because he refused to take a type of herb and started to age. Amazed at the magic of the herb, the merchant bowed to the lady with respect and asked, "May I be so bold as to ask the lady what type of magical herb do you take?" The lady replied, "This herb has five names. You want to take a different part of the herb each season. In spring you take its leaves, which is known as the essence of heaven herb. In summer you take its flowers, which is known as the longevity herb. In autumn you take its fruits, which is known as Chinese Wolfberry. In winter you take the bark of its roots, which is known as the skin and bone of the earth, or the staff of the deities. Taking these four parts in the four seasons respectively, will give you a life as lofty as heaven and earth."

Later the Chinese Wolfberry was introduced to the Middle East and Western countries and was eulogized as the divine herb from the East.

There are modern endorsements for Chinese Wolfberry. In the fifties, the Domestic and Foreign magazine in China reported the story of Li Qingyun in Sichuan province, who died at the age of 250 in 1930.

As part of his own account Li says, "When I was 139 years old, and before I met my master, I could still walk and do the power walk, as if I practiced Chinese martial arts. As a result some people thought I might be a deity or an accomplished swordsman. At the time I thought it was really amusing. I think the reason that I have lived this long and am still perpetually healthy is because nothing has irritated me since I was 40 years old. Because of that, my heart is very calm, peaceful and divinely tranquil. That is why I am free from any illness, and always healthy and happy. At the age of fifty when I went on a mountain to collect herbs, I met an elderly man living on a secluded mountain, who appeared to be somewhat supernormal. He took big strides when he walked, as if he was floating on air. No matter how hard I tried, I could not keep up with him. Later, I met up with him again. I knelt before him and begged for his secret. He gave me some wild fruits and said, "My only secret is that I only eat these fruits." I took the fruits, and found that they were Chinese Wolfberries. Since then I consumed three qian of Chinese Wolfberries daily (a qian is the weight used to measure Chinese medicine and is equal to five grams). From then on I became healthy and agile. I can walk a hundred li (a li equals half a kilometer) and not feel tired. I became better in strength and stamina than any average person."

Processing of Chinese Herbs for Medicinal Preparations

This illustration depicts a man grinding herbs during
the Qing Dynasty.

Processing of herbs was a very delicate practice in ancient China.

The processing of Chinese herbs significantly influences the plants' healing effects. After obtaining the raw materials, various methods are employed, such as using heat or moisture, washing and cutting to remove toxicity.

Bencao Gangmu (Compendium of Materia Medica), authored by Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty, contains records of more than a thousand herbal medicines. For each herbal medicine, the author decribed its functions and how it is blended. Bencao Beiyao (Notes from Materia Medica), compiled by Wang Ang in the Qing Dynasty, is a condensed version of Bencao Gangmu. It contains records of more than three hundred well-known herbs and two hundred more obscure herbs. The book provides a general introduction to the properties and medicinal effects of each herb, and also describes how they should be processed.

According to the book, there are four major methods to provide "fire" or heat during the processing of herbs. They are forging, stewing, roasting and stir-frying. In roasting, herbs are mixed with honey or other dips and heated dry. In stir-frying, herbs are heated without any additives.

There are three processing methods using water and they are immersing, soaking and washing. Besides water, alcohol can also be used. The function of the alcohol is to bring the effective components of the herbs to our upper body. In other words, if we want to target an organ in our upper body, such as head, upper diaphragm and breast, alcohol needs to be used to process herbs since it has lifting effects.

"Processing with both water and fire" includes steaming and stewing.

（Tools used to process Chinese herbs during the ancient times in China）

Herbs can sometimes  be processed with ginger. Ginger is warm and has a dissipating effect. Processing herbs with salt helps the herbs target the kidney. In traditional Chinese medicine it is believed that salt can soften the harshness of some herbs. So salted herbs can not only target the kidney, but also reduce the harshness of a herb. Herbs processed with vinegar help target the liver. Vinegar is acidic and its effect is astringent.

In addition, rice swill, the water left after washing rice, is also used to process herbs. It has a soothing effect. It helps remove dryness and is neutral. There is also milk processing. Milk includes cow milk and human milk. Milk helps rejuvenate withered organs and produces blood because milk contains rich proteins. It also has a soothing effect and can neutralize the dryness of herbs.

Processing with honey can slow down the effect of herbs. Honey is sweet and slow, and good for human vitality. Dust from old houses made of soil can also be used for processing and it is called "Chenbitu." Chenbitu has the property of earth and helps herbs target the spleen and the stomach. Sometimes breading is used in herb processing. Smashed herbs are sometimes breaded with flour paste and then acted on by the growth of moldy fungus. This process can lower the strength of herbs, so as not to hurt organs in the upper body.

Herbs soaked with black bean and licorice soup, will be detoxified. On the other hand, the soup also helps neutralize powerful herbs. Some medicines, for example, tiger bones, can be processed with sheep fat or lard, which can penetrate those dense materials and make them easy to break apart after baking. For herbs with pulp, such as watermelon, the pulp needs be removed to avoid the feeling of bloating for some patients. For some herbs with cores, for example, lotus seed and Maidong, their cores need to be removed, as they are believed to be irritants.

In traditional Chinese medicine, various methods are used to process drugs so that some special functions of medicines can be brought into full play. For example, an extract of beef stomach can be used to treat stomach and intestinal diseases. Modern medical scientists have also taken advantage of these methods. If we want drugs to be released in the intestines, we can cover the drug with a coating for the intestine. These drugs are called coated pills. If we want the drug to be released inside the stomach, we can wrap it in a layer of gastric coating (the secretion of gastric mucous). Then the pill will dissolve in the stomach. If we want drugs to release quickly in the intestines and the stomach, we can use a sugar coating. In ancient China, different processing methods of herbs were used for different symptoms. There are some special methods to make drugs. For instance, pills could have many different coatings, like water, honey, mashed glutinous rice and even vermilion.

Chinese medicine espoused the importance of various methods of herb processing thousands of years ago. In the first volume of Bencao Gangmu, the author wrote, "some herbs are suitable to make pills, some as powder form; some are suitable to soak in alcohol; some are good to boil with water. For some herbs, any processing method works, while some must not be soaked in alcohol or boiled in water. Different agents require different processing methods and the proper way to process each herb should be strictly followed." Different processing results in differing effects on patients. Tao Hongjing, a famous physician, once said, "Based on different diseases, pills are preferred for some patients; some need a powder form; some need decoctions; some should take liquor and others should use an ointment. It is better to give medicine in different forms based on the specific situation of the patient." Hua Tuo, another famous physician, said, "Some patients might need to take pills and decoctions; some need powder forms; some need defecation medicine; some patients should take medicine which leads to vomiting while others need medicine which results in sweating." This strategy is called "sweating, vomiting, and defecating." Decoctions can wash and clean up the internal organs. They can also open up the main and collateral channels and harmonize yin and yang. The healing effect is quickly felt by the patient. However, a too rapid internal wash and cleanup can occasionally result in damage to internal organs. Pills can "get rid of coldness and break up hard and accumulated rubbish in internal organs." Herbs in powder forms can be used to treat cold, hot and damp illnesses. All illnesses that are caused by external factors, especially those acute diseases such as bacteria and virus infection, are often treated with medicine in the powder form. All components are ground to a fine powder, which significantly shortens the cooking time and increases the extraction efficiency.

For some herbs, only their scents are needed for the medicine. For others, the physical substances in the herbs are needed. When cooking the herbs whose scent only is required, heat should be stopped as soon as the scent is released. For when the physical substances are required, the cooking time is usually very long to ensure good extraction efficiency. If medicinal substances are required to enter the inside of body, the cooking time should be very long.

There is a prescription called "Cassia Twig Decoction." In ancient China, the cassia was chewed by mouth for a long time and then cooked. Very short cooking time was needed and the decoction was carried out as soon as the smell of the cassia twig appeared in the air. If a patient needed to open a clog or stimulate the appetite, prescriptions in powder forms are preferred. Li Gao, also called Li Dongyuan, the founder of the Spleen Earth School, specialized in curing gastric and spleen diseases. He said, "Liquid soups quickly wash off harmful elements in internal organs, so they should be used when patients are suffering from serious illnesses. Prescriptions in powder form are good at releasing so they should be used on acute diseases such as colds. Pills are slow so they can be applied to chronic illnesses." He advocated chewing the herbs by mouth first. He believed decoctions made by such method could easily reach the upper body and could be absorbed or make people sweat readily.

If diseases are in the upper body, prescriptions should be decocted with liquor. If removing dampness is needed, the medicine should be processed with ginger. Dates can replenish one's vitality, scallion stalks can free one from colds, and honey can remove phlegm above the midriff. If prescriptions are grounded into powder, they can break up clogs in the chest and internal organs because "herbs in powder form don't go through energy channels." If an herb has a strong odor, boiling it with water and then drinking the liquid is often sufficient. If an herb has a weak odor, it should be cooked for a long time and the patient should also eat the residues in addition to drinking the liquid.

Chinese medicine divides the human body into three sections from top to bottom, and each section is called a Jiao. To treat diseases at the Upper Jiao (top 1/3 of the body), pills need to be made with a thick flour paste. Since dough is pretty hard to digest, it will stay in the stomach and intestines for a long time. For diseases at the Lower Jiao (lower 1/3 of the body), the pills are very large in size and also polished to make them even harder to digest. So they will stay in the intestines and stomach even longer. The pills used to treat diseases in the Middle Jiao are smaller in size, and the pills used to treat diseases in the Upper Jiao are smaller in size still.

Processing of herbs was a very delicate practice in ancient China. From this, one can catch a glimpse of how advanced traditional Chinese medicine truly was.

A general discussion of the medical arts

Huatuo, one of the ancient Chinese doctors

In the first year of the reign of Zhenguan (627 AD) of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin became the emperor. He established schools in order to cure diseases. The word "doctor" was created then, referring to people who studied medicine. [In Chinese, doctor is made up of two characters, the first one is medicine, and the second is student.] In the 27th year of the reign of Xuanzong, Emperor Li Longji ordered the placement of 20 doctors in each county with over 100,000 households, and 12 in each county with less than 100,000. These doctors traveled in their respective counties and treated people's illnesses. Then, the word "doctor" was imbued with a deeper meaning than the word "student," as it then referred to someone who engaged in medicine. This term is still used and known by everyday people today.
What is medicine? "Medicine is for curing diseases." The book, Records of Bringing Back to Life, says, "Medicine is the skill of keeping people alive." What is "being alive?" "It is the opposite of being dead." The book, Bringing Back to Life from Ten Thousand Diseases, says, "Medical skills, considered heavenly skills in ancient times, were originally for the purpose of saving people." The word "doctor" was for a person who cured diseases and saved patients. It was used as a general term for people engaging in medicine. There was no difference with regards to rank or wealth.
Sun Simiao, a famous Chinese doctor from the past, taught medicine with sincerity and a deep knowledge of his craft. He said, "When studying medicine, one must explore the origins of medicine and study with intensity and diligence." Xu Chunfu, a medical specialist in the Ming Dynasty, said, "Medicine has value based on one's knowledge. Without such knowledge, medical treatments will do the patient great harm." It means those with poor medical skills could injure people accidentally or even kill them. There is a saying in Chinese that states, "a tiny sickness might cause the patient to die. Yet a serious one might be cured. The subtle difference depends upon the doctors." Poor skills may kill people, but the two words, "knowledge" and "sincerity," can actually turn danger into safety and save the lives of seriously ill patients.
The ancients believed that in order to master the fundamental professional medical expertise, one must be content to lead a humble but virtuous life and must not admire fame and self-interest. A doctor who haggles over prices and puts profit before everything else does not care for his patient's safety. Whether rich or poor, patients should be treated in the same way.
Wan Quan, a famous pediatrician in the Ming Dynasty, had a foe named Hu Yuanxi, whose four-year-old son suffered from coughing up and spitting blood. Hu had been searching for famous doctors from all over, but none of them could cure the disease. He had no choice but to finally send for Wan Quan. Wan, aiming to save people, regardless of old grudges, immediately ran over to Hu's home and examined the child. After diagnosing the child, Wan sincerely told his old foe that the disease could be cured within a month. He wrote out a prescription right away. After the child took five doses of Wan Quan's prescription, his cough was reduced by seventy percent and his mouth and nose stopped bleeding. However, Hu Yuanxi felt that his son was recovering too slowly. He was always suspicious of Wan Quan, and believed that due to their old grudges Wan Quan might not be working diligently enough to help his child. He then decided to send for another doctor.
Thereupon, he sent for a man named Wan Shao. Normally speaking, Wan Quan would definitely leave and think nothing more of the issue. However, when others told Wan Quan that it was time for him to leave since Hu had already sent for another doctor, Wan Quan said that Hu had only one son and his illness could be cured by no one but Wan Quan himself. If he left, Hu would not send for him again, and it would negatively affect the child. Although technically not at fault, Wan Quan would still feel sorrowful if the boy were to die. So he asked to just take a look at Wan Shao's prescription. If it worked, he would leave immediately. If not, he would try to stop Wan Shao from using it. If he really could not stop Wao Shao, he would then leave. After looking at Wan Shao's new prescription, Wan Quan believed that it wasn't the correct treatment for the illness and would bring danger to the child. He then advised Wan Shao with sincerity, "The child's lung [energy] rises and doesn't fall. It is loose and not collecting. How can you use fangfeng and baibu [two kinds of Chinese medical herbs]?" But Wan Shao didn't listen to him. He argued instead, "Fangfeng and baibu are two kinds of miracle-working medicines for coughing." Hu Yuanxi also echoed aside, "It's his secret recipe." Wan Quan said very seriously, "What I worry about is the child. I am not jealous of you."
He could not passively watch somebody in danger. Just before leaving, he saw the sick child again. Stroking the boy's head, he said, "Don't take too much of the medicine. Poor child, what can you do when your disease comes out again?" He then left without saying goodbye. As expected, after taking just a small cup of Wan Shao's medicine, the child suffered from coughing again. He couldn't breathe and bled as before. The child cried and said, "I just felt a little better after taking Mr. Wan Quan's medicine. Father, you got this person to come to kill me with poison!" At this moment, his situation turned worse. Suddenly it looked like he would soon be in danger. Hu's wife worried about her son and blamed him. Hu started to regret what he did. In this moment of crisis, he had to send for Wan Quan again with a guilty conscience. Wan Quan did not make a big issue of it, but sincerely advised him, "If you had taken my advice at the beginning, you would not have had this regret. If you want me to cure your son, first of all, you must let go of your suspicion and trust me no matter what. Let's take one month as the time frame for the boy's recovery." He ended up just needing 17 days to cure the child.
Unfortunately, in today's Chinese medical circles, doctors even ask for "red envelopes" [bribe money put in a red envelope]. It is quite certain that the ancient Chinese culture and value has been firmly wiped away by the modern revolution in China.