A case of the Fire spirit currents’ Fàn Zhōng-Lín

Translated from ‘Five Steps to Cold Damage Treatment According to Pattern Identification’

A 39 year old male farmer from the Jīn Niú district of Chéng Dū city presented at the clinic: 

Step 1: Chinese medical diagnosis 

In August of 1977 in the last third of the month, while working in the fields, the patient suddenly felt discomfort throughout his entire body. He experienced cold extremities, dizziness, cold sweats, abdominal pain and borborygmus. Shortly after, he experienced continuous diarrhea, which frequently contained pus and bloody discharge. On September 2nd he came in for a consultation. 

Every day, the patient would have over ten bouts of diarrhea. The stools were quite loose, sticky and jelly like, which had a yellowish-red color. This was accompanied by abdominal pain, with urgency followed by heaviness. In addition, he experienced dry retching, heart vexation, thirst, and cold extremities. His tongue was dark pale with a slightly red tip, with a yellow, slippery and thick coating. 

Step 2: List of Disease Mechanisms 

Dry retching, heart vexation, nausea, slightly red tongue tip, are all associated with upper heat. 

Reversal cold in the body and extremities, cold pain in the lower abdomen, clear-thin diarrhea, which are all described as ‘white’, ‘cold’, and ‘freezing’, are obvious signs associated with lower cold. 

This is one hundred percent an obvious case of upper heat and lower cold. Jué yīn is the qi of wind and wood that when vigorous will cause wind pathogens to flee to the upper (body). 

[Plain Questions-Treatise on Tài yīn and Yáng míng] says: 

“When one is invaded by a robber wind or depletion evil, yáng receives it. When food and drink are consumed without restraint, when rising and resting occur out of time, yīn receives it. When yáng receives it, then it enters the six bowels. 

When yīn receives it, then it enters the five viscera. When it enters the five viscera, then distension and blockage result. In the lower [body] it causes outflow of [undigested] food, and when enduring causes intestinal afflux (dysentery)”.

From this passage we can see that intestinal afflux is commonly due to the exploitation of yīn and yáng, with signs of intermingling cold and heat. 

In summary, the disease mechanism involved is the lack of mutual connection between the qi of yīn and yáng. The upper belongs to yáng, and pure yáng is heat; the lower belongs to yīn, and pure yīn is cold. Therefore, “When Jué yīn prevails” intestinal afflux will occur. 

Step 3: Comprehensive Analysis 

This is a pattern of cold and heat mixing causing intestinal afflux, with the disease in the Jué yīn level. 

Step 4: Formula According to Pattern 

The appropriate method of treatment is to eliminate evils and support the right using both cold and warm medicinals. Wü méi wán (Mume Pill) governs. 

Step 5: Medicinals According to Pattern 

Prescription:

wü méi (Mume Fructus) 30g

xì xïn (Asari Herba) 6g

gän jiäng (Zingiberis Rhizoma) 30g

huáng lián (Coptidis Rhizoma) 12g

däng guï (Angelicae sinensis Radix) 10g

zhì fù piàn (Aconiti Radix lateralis preparata) 60g (extended cooking)

shǔ jiāo (Zanthoxyli Pericarpium) 6g

guì zhï (Cinnamomi Ramulus) 10g

dâng shën (Codonopsis Radix) 12g

huáng bâi (Phellodendri Cortex) 10g 

2 packages were prescribed, and the patient was asked to refrain from eating oily, raw, cold and strong smelling foods (onions, garlic, leeks, etc.). 

After taking two packages of the formula, his intestinal afflux had resolved. On follow up consultation with the patient in June, 1979, he reported that in the year since his recovery, there had been no relapse of the condition. 

[Realizations] 

Wü méi wán (Mume Pill) is said to “govern enduring diarrhea”, yet in this case enduring diarrhea was not present.

Then why was this formula chosen?

Generally speaking in patterns of Jué yīn diarrhea there simply must be reversal. Enduring diarrhea is usually seen in patterns where there is a mixture of cold and heat, for which it is appropriate to use a combination of cooling and warming methods by mixing both cool and warm formulas. 

This was not a case of enduring diarrhea, but was originally seen as a Jué yīn condition with both cold and heat signs present. Wü méi wán (Mume Pill) is a formula which cools, warms and supplements simultaneously. Acrid, sour, sweet and bitter flavours are all present in the formula. The formula was correct for this presentation and therefore by adapting to the original formula, we were able to obtain positive results.

In actual fact, Wü méi wán (Mume Pill) has been used by countless physicians of past and present to treat various disorders, especially diarrhea, and its use is continuously expanding. 

Take the ‘Important Formulas Worth a Thousand Gold Pieces’ (千金方Qiān Jīn Fāng) for example, where it discusses Zhang Zhong-Jing’s concept of using wū méi (Mume Fructus) and huáng lián (Coptidis Rhizoma) in heat type diarrhea, combined with fù zǐ (Aconiti Radix), gān jiāng (Zingiberis Rhizoma), etc. in cases of deficient cold natured enduring diarrhea. 

The ‘Comprehensive Recording of Divine Assistance’ (圣济总录 Shèng Jì Zŏng Lù), mentions Wü méi wán (Mume Pill) for the treatment of unceasing post-partum cold and heat type diarrhea. 

In the ‘Standards for Diagnosis and Treatment’ (证治准绳 Zhèng Zhì Zhŭn Shéng), this formula is used for treating coughing issuing from the stomach and the vomiting of long worms. 

The Japanese physician Zhì Jiān-Huàn says that generations of physicians have had great difficulties in treating stomach reflux, and that this is an extraordinary formula for treating this pattern. (quoted from the Initial Draft of Lectures on Cold damage). 

According to Rèn Yìng-Qiū, Wü méi wán (Mume Pill) functions to strengthen the stomach and intestines, reduce inflammation and kill worms, and when used to treat chronic diarrhea, can achieve positive results. (Interpretation of the Shāng Hán Lùn). 

In the past, there have also been reports of using this formula in treating cases of chronic colitis of fifteen years.

From the above, we can see that the scope of using Wü méi wán (Mume Pill) is by no means limited to just treating roundworm reversal and enduring diarrhea, and in actual fact it’s use is continuously expanding.