Clear Heat / Drain Fire: Dan Zhu Ye

Dan "the sherpa" Zhu Ye

Characterizing an herbs properties can reveal a lot about a person's own mind. For example, I could call Dan Zhu Ye either a weakling, or I could call it gentle. I'll go with gentle (though, to be honest, after reading Bensky's entry on the herb, the first thing I thought was "Weakling!"). The functions of Dan Zhu Ye, which is a bland bamboo leaf, are similar to Shan Zhi Zi (the pretty little redish laterns - the seed pods of the Gardenia). But Dan Zhu Ye works only at the qi level, while Shan Zhi Zi goes to the qi and blood levels. Shan Zhi Zi also travels all over the place (to the Heart, Stomach, Lung, Liver, and San Jiao channels) while Dan Zhu Ye travels to just the Heart, Stomach, and Small Intestine channels. They both cool heat, put you in a better mood (eliminate the irritability that often attends heat), and make you pee (pee out the heat!). But only Shan Zhi Zi cools the blood (put a little Gardenia seed in that boiling blood to calm it down).

Gentle Dan Zhu Ye is good at assisting. This herb is sweet, but also bland. Perhaps I am not giving it enough credit. The tough guy always gets all the credit, and the sweet and bland among us tend to get none of it. Bensky mentions that it has been stated "Its therapeutic strength is rather weak. It cannot serve as the chief herb, but it can serve as an assistant." Maybe Dan Zhu Ye is under-rated. The only famous assistant I can think of right now who was obviously shortchanged is Tenzing Norgay, the Tibetan climber who accompanied Sir Edmund Hillary on his ascent of Mount Everest. Hillary was knighted for this feat; Norgay was not. He was "just" the sherpa.



So what is our gentle, sweet and bland sherpa, Dan Zhu Ye, capable of? Well, it must be rather strong because some sources say one should use caution prescribing it to someone who is pregnant. This is probably because Dan Zhu Ye is good at promoting urination, and clearing damp heat in the small intestine channel. Painful pee is enough to make anyone grumpy, and Dan Zhu Ye will remove the grumpies due to painful pee due to any kind of urinary tract infection.



The Small Intestine is linked to the Heart, and so it is also good for removing heart heat, as well as heat at the upper end of the Small Intestine -- the mouth. Mouth sores, gum pain, a dark red tongue tip, and thirst all find relief with Dan Zhu Ye.



I wonder if Tanzing Norgay could do all of these things for Edmund Hillary? Then again, Edmund probably didn't need this kind of help. They were on Mount Everest after all, and it is pretty dang cold up there, I imagine, just like Dan Zhu Ye (which is also cold).

Finally, even though this is bamboo leaf, it's not the typical kind of bamboo we are used to seeing. This leaf comes from a small stubby bamboo plant that doesn't grow that hard stalk. Maybe that's why it's so gentle? Some say it calms the spirit as well (Bensky doesn't say that, but other sources do). I think it looks like it would calm the spirit. Don't you?