My provincial fellow examinee Jiang Yanxiong traveled to Beijing for the Jingzhao imperial examination and lodged with me at the Three-Loyalty Shrine. We frequently engaged in literary discussions and banquets, enjoying each other’s company. In early autumn, continuous rainy weather persisted for over ten days, exacerbated by his northern constitution being unaccustomed to dampness. One day after attending a friend’s banquet, he returned extremely thirsty and excessively drank water. The next day, diarrhea ensued with dozens of episodes daily, leaving him severely debilitated.
He self-prescribed Bu Zhong Yi Qi Decoction (a qi-tonifying formula) to “lift and strengthen” himself. By dawn the following day, he developed dizziness, nausea, abdominal pain, and fever. By afternoon, he could no longer rise from bed. When I knocked on his door, he weakly said: “My condition is severe today.” I reassured him: “Summer diarrhea helps purge accumulated impurities—no need for excessive worry.” Only then did he disclose his medication use. I exclaimed: “How could you act so rashly?” He defended himself: “I remembered my father’s diarrhea improving dramatically with this formula. Yet now it worsens—I cannot comprehend it.”
I explained: “Your elderly father likely had chronic slippery diarrhea from age-related qi deficiency and uncontained middle qi. Bu Zhong Yi Qi Decoction effectively raises central qi in such cases. But you overconsumed water, disrupting the body’s clear-turbid separation. With blocked urination, all fluids discharge through the bowels. This urgently requires diuresis, yet you used lifting medication instead. Had this persisted, abdominal distension and systemic edema would have developed.”
I immediately sent a servant to purchase 60 grams of Wei Ling Wan (a combined formula of Ping Wei San and Wu Ling San) to be taken with ginger decoction. Urination normalized the next day, and by the third day, the watery diarrhea fully ceased.
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