A note on Li Dong Yuan

Many of the theories and strategies I work with in my practice can be traced back to the work of Li Dong-Yuan, also called Li Gao, a master Chinese medicine practitioner from the Jin-Yuan dynasties of China.

His ideas have great historical significance in the development of Chinese medicine, yet at the same time, have great relevance to the state of health and life in our world today. When I read his works, it is easy to feel endeared to him and inspired by his perspective, so I wanted to share a bit about him with you.

Tragedy and training

Li Dong-Yuan lived between 1180 and 1251 CE. He was born into a very wealthy family that owned lots of land and lived among the upper class of the time. He had access to a top-quality education, and he was an excellent student, but due to the intergenerational wealth of his family, he did not have to train or work in a profession to make money.

When Li was young, his mother became very sick. The best doctors in the area were summoned to care for her, but none of them could understand her illness, reach a diagnosis, or help her find health again. She passed away from this illness. Li blamed himself for his mother’s death. He felt he should have studied harder or known enough about medicine to help her. In the wake of her passing, he committed himself to the study of medicine.

Li became an apprentice under a renowned doctor in the area. He studied for many years and eventually became a distinguished practitioner himself. He did not practice medicine to earn money. Instead, he considered his medical practice “an expression of Confucian benevolence” and cared for others without pay.

Observation, evolution, and contributions

While Li was a practicing doctor, a famine fell on the region he lived (1201-1208 CE), with the co-occurrence of epidemics that led to widespread illness. Up to this point, the predominant way of understanding illness in China was through a framework of externally-contracted disease - a pathogen from outside of the body entered and led to illness. Many doctors used status-quo treatment approaches of the time, which were centered on sweating and purging techniques that corresponded to the external contraction model of disease. But Li approached people differently.

Li was known for the depth of careful observations he made with each individual. During this era of famine and illness, he came to understand illness as rooted in internal damage, rather than external invasions. Instead of treating most people with herbs that would make them sweat or purge, he instead directed his attention to the spleen and stomach* and centered digestive health in his approach to health. He developed many herbal formulas from this innovative point of view, many of which are still commonly used today.

*The spleen here can be understood as the spleen and pancreas. The spleen and stomach are indicative of the body’s digestive capacity

Li wrote about the importance of the spleen and stomach and connected digestive health to many other aspects of health. In his seminal work, Treatise on the Spleen and Stomach, he wrote about these ideas, even connecting emotional wellbeing and digestive health - an idea considered cutting-edge in today’s foremost biomedical science.

Relevance today

I return to Li Dong-Yuan’s work often, as well as texts that come from his school of thought. Though ancient, I find the concepts he developed to be extraordinarily useful today, especially because most of the health challenges I see clinically are chronic conditions, rather than acute illnesses. Many people live with digestive distress, menstrual irregularities, allergies, headaches, and pain, and Li’s writings show us how integral digestive health is to the resolution of these health imbalances.

It’s exciting to me to better understand how these ancient findings can live on dynamically in today's world, with practitioners tailoring and shifting these teachings to address our modern health challenges. We can look to the past as we move forward into a healthier future.

Warmly,

Artemisia

Clinical Herbalist | Chinese Medicine

innervillagehealth.com

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