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Dr. Xu: A Chinese Medicine Novel

Chapter 15 When Queens Meet · Nov 09, 2026

↩︎ Three formula names. As in the previous chapter, wan identifies pills, while san names a powder formula; a powder formula may also be prepared as a decoction. Hong Kong Baptist University’s database places Xiaoyao San in Taiping Huimin Heji Jufang, translated there as Formulas from the Imperial Pharmacy, and Sini San in Shang Han Lun, the Treatise on Cold Damage. The novel describes the former as an adaptation of the latter. The entries support their respective textual sources and traditional uses, but do not establish that direct historical relationship. Liver constraint is the traditional pattern discussed earlier, rather than simply another name for feeling unhappy. Sources: HKBU — Xiao Yao San; HKBU — Si Ni San.↩︎ Dou Dizhu. The phone game seen in earlier chapters is based on a three-player card game, with one “landlord” playing against the other two players. Ben’s absorption in it supplies the contrast with Evan’s medical reading. The game name does not establish that Ben is gambling for cash. Source: JJ Games — Dou Dizhu rules (in Chinese).↩︎ Period pain and Clara’s market. Dysmenorrhea is the medical name for painful menstruation. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists describes it in over half of menstruating women, commonly lasting a day or two each cycle. That is different from Clara’s assumption that every young woman she contacts must have it. The passage follows her increasingly reckless sales logic. The assurances sent from the account are Clara’s promotional claims, including her claim that nothing can be done once pain starts; they are not conclusions supplied by this source. Source: ACOG — Dysmenorrhea: Painful Periods.↩︎ Liver, sinews, and internal wind. In this traditional framework, the Liver is a functional system associated with storing blood and nourishing the sinews, the tissues involved in movement. “Wind” names a category of disturbances involving movement, including tremors and spasms; it is not air traveling inside the body. Heat and deficient yin or blood enter the traditional explanations of these patterns. Evan runs through that vocabulary because he mistakes a social signal for a possible symptom. His questions do not establish a neurological or Liver disorder in this patient. Source: WHO — Chinese medicine terminology, entries 138, 143, 432, 1237, and 1258.↩︎ Qi and blood deficiency. This traditional pattern combines diminished functional strength, described as qi deficiency, with inadequate nourishment by blood. Pale complexion and tongue, fatigue, dizziness, and palpitations belong to its descriptive vocabulary. Evan connects the timing and amount of menstrual bleeding with two traditional ideas: insufficient nourishment can cause pain, and qi helps contain blood. His conclusion is a pattern assessment, not a laboratory finding of anemia. The individual links between these ideas and this patient’s symptoms remain his clinical reasoning; the terminology standard defines the categories without proving that reasoning. Source: WHO — Chinese medicine terminology, entries 434, 442, and 1122.↩︎ The sea of blood.Taichan Zhengzhi is the Chinese title given by the novel, approximately “Patterns and Treatments for Pregnancy and Childbirth.” In traditional reproductive theory, the sea of blood is an image associated with the Chong Vessel and the supply of menstrual blood. “Empty” describes depletion within that framework. The quotation connects pain after bleeding with that depletion; it does not report a measurement of blood volume. The English is translated from the novel’s quotation. Its exact wording and location in an independently checked edition remain unverified. Source for the concept: WHO — Chinese medicine terminology, entry 2953, printed p. 403.↩︎ Cun, guan, and chi. These are three adjacent positions used to feel the radial pulse at the wrist, not three separate arteries. The familiar examination is interrupted here before Evan obtains or reports a pulse finding. Source: WHO — Chinese medicine terminology, entry 883.

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