Chinese Medicine: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 607: Chapter 607: Ghostly Legacy Formula

"Mr. Ma, I’m going to need your cooperation."

Li Xu picked up a piece of Poria Cocos and held it out to Ma Pengfei. "Here, please smell this."

Although Ma Pengfei was still angry, he wanted to find the cause of his problem, so he suppressed his discomfort and took a sniff.

"Nothing’s happening."

Next came Atractylodes, papaya, licorice...

Ma Pengfei smelled five or six different herbs in a row without any unusual reaction.

It wasn’t until Li Xu picked up a small, brown piece of Agarwood and held it out to him.

The moment he brought it close to his nose...

"ACHOO! ACHOO!"

Ma Pengfei suddenly let out two violent sneezes, and tears immediately began to stream down his face.

"Jeez... This smell... How is it so strong?"

Before he could even complain, he felt dizzy and his vision swam. His chest tightened as if something was blocking it, and an inexplicable sense of irritation and panic washed over him. The feeling of ants crawling all over his skin grew even stronger.

"That’s the one."

Li Xu’s eyes narrowed. He quickly pulled the Agarwood away.

His initial diagnosis: an allergy to Agarwood.

To be safe and to alleviate the symptoms, Li Xu first had a nurse administer an injection of a Western anti-allergy medication.

Once the symptoms subsided, Li Xu sought to confirm the diagnosis. After getting Ma Pengfei’s consent, he decocted three grams of Agarwood on its own and had him take a small sip.

Just as he thought!

In less than ten minutes, the symptoms of itchy skin, irritation, and chest tightness reappeared. Although they were milder due to the small dose, it was enough to prove the point.

It was irrefutable proof.

"Mr. Ma, I’ve found it. You’re allergic to the herb ’Agarwood’," Li Xu explained. "While Agarwood is an excellent herb for improving energy flow and relieving pain, your body is particularly sensitive and cannot tolerate its volatile oil components."

’Now that I know the cause, the rest is easy.’

Li Xu readjusted the formula, removing the Agarwood. He substituted it with Dried Tangerine Peel and cyperus rhizome to regulate qi, and also added Saposhnikovia root and Cicada Shell to counter the allergic reaction.

"You can drink this without any worry. I guarantee it’ll be fine."

Seeing the confidence in Li Xu’s eyes, most of Ma Pengfei’s anger subsided.

’It’s been an ordeal, but this doctor was certainly quick and efficient at finding the cause. And he didn’t try to shift the blame.’

"Fine, I’ll trust you one more time!"

「Three days later.」

Ma Pengfei returned to the clinic for a follow-up appointment.

This time, he came bearing a silk banner.

"A Divine Physician! You’re truly a Divine Physician!" Ma Pengfei’s face was glowing with health, the swelling in his body had mostly gone down, and he walked with a spring in his step. "After I switched the medicine, I didn’t have a single bad reaction. In fact, I had diarrhea for two days, and it flushed all the excess fluid out of my system. Now my appetite’s great, and I’m sleeping like a log!"

Li Xu breathed a sigh of relief.

He meticulously documented Ma Pengfei’s allergy case in his casebook, adding three heavy exclamation points for emphasis.

’A hard-earned lesson.’

Western medicine can cause allergic reactions, and traditional Chinese medicine is no different. In fact, because of its complex ingredients, the cause is often much more elusive.

A single decoction can easily have over a dozen herbs, and each herb in turn contains hundreds or even thousands of chemical components like alkaloids, volatile oils, and saponins.

For someone with a particularly sensitive constitution, ingesting these natural "hodgepodges" is tantamount to unleashing a biochemical storm in their body.

’You live and you learn.’

’From now on, when I write prescriptions—especially for herbs rich in volatile oils or those with strong, ’drying’ properties—I have to be more vigilant. I must always ask about a patient’s allergy history.’

...

「The next morning.」

Li Xu opened his eyes and habitually checked the system interface.

[Today’s Intel: *Liu Juanzi’s Ghost Remedy*, Complete Edition.PDF]

"Hm?"

Li Xu looked at the quaint e-book icon in his mind, and his heart skipped a beat.

As someone formally trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine, he knew exactly how significant *Liu Juanzi’s Ghost Remedy* was.

This was China’s earliest extant surgical treatise.

According to legend, during the Liu Song dynasty of the Southern Dynasties, a man named Liu Juanzi encountered the "Yellow Father Ghost" in the outskirts of Danyang and was gifted this book of remedies.

The original work consisted of ten volumes, but sadly, most of it was lost to the ravages of war long ago.

During the Southern Qi dynasty, Gong Qingxuan recompiled it into five volumes, which is the version that circulates today.

Even in its fragmented, five-volume state, the book documented a vast number of invaluable and exclusive surgical techniques.

Volume one discussed the diagnosis of carbuncles.

Volume two detailed the external treatment of blade wounds.

Volume three specialized in dorsal and mammary abscesses.

Volume four was a treatise on "Yellow Father" carbuncles.

Volume five covered various miscellaneous ailments and first aid.

And now, incredibly, the system had given him the complete text—including the five lost volumes that had vanished from the world for over 1,500 years.

Li Xu could hardly conceal his excitement.

Although with the development of modern medicine, technologies like surgery and antibiotics have advanced by leaps and bounds, this doesn’t mean the wisdom of the ancients is outdated.

The miraculous healing effects of traditional Chinese surgery—concepts like "cultivating pus to grow flesh" and "removing rot to birth new muscle"—remain a pinnacle that modern medicine struggles to reach even today.

Besides, this was a legendary lost text.

’It’s a shame it’s just a digital copy.’

’If it were the original physical copy, it would be more than just a priceless medical text; it would be a national treasure, a cultural relic that could shake the entire fields of archaeology and medicine.’

Li Xu took a deep breath, reining in his excitement. He opened the PDF and began to read intently.

Traditional Chinese Medicine, in fact, is an extremely vast concept.

In ancient times, it wasn’t called "Traditional Chinese Medicine." It went by other names, like the "art of Qi and Huang," "the green satchel," or "the apricot forest." Only in modern times, to differentiate it from Western medicine, did the umbrella term "Chinese Medicine" come into being.

Under this broad framework, there isn’t just the internal medicine we are familiar with, but also surgery, gynecology, pediatrics, and even the essence of ethnic medicines like Mongolian and Miao medicine.

Many people know that the *Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor* is the progenitor of TCM internal medicine, but few know that there was actually another book, the *Yellow Emperor’s Outer Canon*, which specifically discussed surgery and external treatment methods.

Unfortunately, the *Outer Scripture* has long been lost, and along with it, Hua Tuo’s *Qingnang Book* and the legendary formula for the Mafeisan anesthetic. Their disappearance remains one of history’s greatest regrets.

But the brilliant legacy of traditional Chinese surgery never died out.

From Hua Tuo scraping bone to treat poison, to the differentiation of carbuncles in *Liu Juanzi’s Ghost Remedy*, to later masters like Chen Shigong and Wang Weide... generation after generation of surgical saints used herbs, scalpels, and needles to safeguard the health of the Chinese people.

Li Xu focused on examining the five lost volumes.

The more he read, the more shocked he became.

It actually contained detailed records on bone fracture reduction, severed finger reattachment, and even the detailed steps for abdominal surgery and post-operative recovery formulas. Some of the concepts were extremely advanced, even by today’s standards.

During his morning consultations, there was a lull in the clinic, and Li Xu was still engrossed in his phone, immersed in the archaic and profound text.

CREAK—

The door was pushed open.

A woman who looked to be in her early forties walked in, leading a teenage boy of about sixteen or seventeen.

The woman was dressed simply but neatly, and she was carrying a large X-ray film envelope.

The boy, however, had his head down, wore a baseball cap, and kept his hands in his pockets, seeming a bit self-conscious.

"You must be Dr. Li, right?"

The woman looked at the shockingly young doctor sitting behind the desk and asked hesitantly.

"I’m Li Xu. How can I help you?"

Li Xu greeted them.

"Hello, Dr. Li."

The woman quickly gave a slight bow, then pulled the boy down into a seat. Her voice was earnest as she said, "We came all the way from the next city over, Linyang. A relative told us that you work miracles with difficult cases. We’ve run out of options, so we came to see if we could try our luck."

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