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Ms. Yan, female, 33 years old, first consultation on October 9, 1982. The illness started due to overeating and overwork, with diarrhea persisting for over a month, and repeated treatments by both Chinese and Western medicine were ineffective. At that time, there was borborygmus and abdominal pain, with diarrhea occurring immediately after the pain, and slight relief after defecation. The stool was scanty and thin, extremely foul-smelling, occurring six times a day, without pus, blood, or mucus, accompanied by dry mouth and throat, drinking but not much, no pleasure in eating, yellow urine, red tongue with yellow coating, and a deep, thin, and rapid pulse. This was diagnosed as food injury (dyspepsia) diarrhea, and Harmony-Preserving Pill was prescribed to resolve the food stagnation, along with diuretic drugs to solidify the stool.

On the 12th, during the follow-up visit, after taking two doses of the above prescription, the diarrhea still occurred three to four times a day, with small hard fecal masses each time. I suddenly realized that the diarrhea was clear water, extremely foul-smelling, with hard fecal masses inside, dry mouth and throat, abdominal distension and fullness, irritability, and a deep, thin, and rapid pulse. This indicated that the prolonged food stagnation had transformed into heat and turned into yangming dryness and excess. The discharge of thin water could be seen as heat retention with watery discharge. This condition did not involve heat accumulation, and using Harmony-Preserving Pill to resolve food stagnation was already a delayed treatment, with significant damage to body fluids. Without emergent purgation to preserve yin, and instead using diuretic drugs to solidify the stool, further damaging the body fluids, if not realized early, unconsciousness and delirious speech would soon appear. The prescription used was Major Purgative Decoction:

Rhubarb Rhizoma 6g (to be decocted later), Submature Bitter Orange 10g, Liquorice Root 10g, Magnolia Bark 6g, Mirabilite 6g (to be decocted later)
. One dose of the above prescription was decocted with one bowl of water, first decocting the Submature Bitter Orange, Magnolia Bark, and Liquorice Root to make half a bowl, then adding Rhubarb Rhizoma and Mirabilite to infuse the flavor, removing the dregs, and taking it in two doses.

On the 13th, the patient reported that after taking the medicine yesterday, she had one episode of foul-smelling, thin stool at night, with a slightly larger amount than before, and this morning all symptoms were gone. Observing that her tongue texture was still red, and the pulse had turned floating and moderate, she was instructed to decoct the remaining medicine dregs with water to make half a bowl and take it to clear the remaining heat. Within a few days, the diarrhea stopped and the illness was cured.