典藏书目

In the winter of the Gengwu year, I was invited by a Zhu family in Suzhou. While frequently attending to patients, someone from the Zhu family came to invite me to treat appendicitis (blind intestine inflammation). The condition was urgent and did not allow for delay. However, a stroke patient in the Zhu household could not wait either. Reluctantly, I agreed to return that night. Returning at Shen hour (3-5 PM), I was welcomed at the station. The patient was about thirty years old and worked for the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway. He mentioned that a family member had died from appendicitis after abdominal surgery. His father, Mr. Xi'an, was seventy-eight years old. Seeing his son ill, he was anxious and distressed, with his panic evident in his words and demeanor. The symptoms were severe pain in the lower right abdomen and an inability to extend the right leg. I only needled the Guilai (ST29), Zusanli (ST36), and Qihai (CV6) acupoints. The pain stopped immediately, and the leg could be straightened. After three treatments, he could walk normally. He visited my residence for treatment, and within five days, the illness disappeared. Mr. Xi'an was a prominent figure in Renhe, skilled in painting and poetry. Due to his son Mr. Luqi's illness, he painted four bamboo screens, one of which contained the poem: "Bamboo poles cutting through wind and smoke, standing out among Huangshan and Baiyue; The golden needle relieves all worldly misfortunes, The true transmission of Taiyi requires no elixir." This reflected his unexpected joy at his son's recovery from serious illness, making both the poem and paintings vibrant with life.

Master Lan Ting was old but vigorous. In a certain year, he came to Shanghai and stayed at the home of Pu Yinxian. Waking up at midnight, he suddenly experienced facial paralysis (deviation of mouth and eyes), difficulty speaking, and simultaneous numbness/paralysis of half his body. He consulted Western doctor Wang, who said there was no specific medicine in Western medicine for this disease. If I were consulted, it would likely be effective. Master still hesitated and consulted a Chinese medicine doctorate from another country, trying various treatments, but saw no improvement. Thus, he asked me to treat him. I said the disease was in the Shaoyin channel, known as Fei syndrome (a condition characterized by flaccidity and loss of sensation). I needled Qihai (CV6), Huantiao (GB30), and Shenshu (BL23) acupoints. Within moments, the paralyzed half of his body could turn and shift on its own. Ten days later, he was completely cured. A Western doctor heard of this and said it was miraculous. Master was then sixty-three years old and had another son the following year.

The calligrapher Yan Ermin suffered from Changpi (dysentery) for over ten years, experiencing extreme suffering, without cure from Chinese or Western medicine. In the Yichou year, after resigning from the Shaanxi army and returning home, I met him in Hanshang. He earnestly requested treatment. I needled several acupoints of the Hand-Yangming Large Intestine channel to drain heat and unblock stagnation. He recovered in a few days. Mr. Yan wrote a couplet ("Iron cavalry intimidates border regions; The golden needle saves the world") to express his gratitude. Changpi involves both deficiency and excess patterns. Mr. Yan's case was excess, hence the rapid effect. If it were a deficiency pattern, nourishing Yin and tonifying Spleen, clearing Stomach heat and securing collapse, would be indispensable. Indeed, using acupuncture and treating diseases may seem similar, yet the difficulty varies greatly. Therefore, learning acupuncture is easy, but identifying syndromes is difficult.