Terms of service

These terms are between you and Bencao House · Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, People’s Republic of China, referred to below as “we” and “us”. They apply from the moment you pay, and they apply to the report we write for you and to your use of this site.

They should be read with the practitioner disclosure, the health data notice, the privacy policy and the refund policy. Where any of those says something more specific than these terms, the more specific document wins.

One written report, in English, about the answers and the photograph you send. US $39, charged once. No subscription, no renewal, nothing stored to charge again.

The report contains:

• A description of your answers in the language of Chinese medicine — which pattern the picture resembles, and why.
• Everyday food suggestions drawn from the shared-origin tradition.
• Acupressure points you can reach with your own hands.
• Notes on sleep, warmth and daily rhythm.
• A short list of things that should send you to a clinician where you live.

It contains no herbal formula, no product to buy, no illness named or ruled out, and no instruction about any medication you take. That boundary is set out at length on what we will not do and it is a term of this agreement, not a style choice.

You must be 18 or older and buying for yourself. You may not buy a report about another adult without their knowledge, and you may not buy one about a child.

We cannot write for someone who is pregnant, or who is currently under the care of a clinician for something serious, without that being said in the intake — not because we would refuse, but because it changes what is sensible to suggest, and in some cases it is the reason we decline and refund.

Answer honestly. This is the only obligation in these terms that actually matters. A report is a reading of what you told us; if what you told us is wrong, the report is wrong, and no care on our side can fix that.

• Give accurate answers, including about medication you take and conditions you already know about.
• Send a real photograph of your own tongue, taken in daylight, within the last two days. Not a stock image, not one from three years ago.
• Give an email address you can actually receive at.
• Tell us if something material changes between paying and receiving the report.

If the photograph is unusable we ask once for another. If we do not hear back within fourteen days we refund you and close the file.

Your report is emailed as a PDF within 48 hours of the later of two events: your payment clearing, and your intake being complete with a usable photograph.

If we are going to be late we write and tell you before the deadline, not after. If we are late without warning you, ask and we refund the fee in full and still send the report.

We may decline an intake. It happens when what you describe should be looked at in person, when the answers are internally contradictory, or when writing anything useful would require us to step over the boundary above. We say why, and we refund in full.

Buying a report does not make us your clinicians. No professional relationship of care is created by this agreement, by the report, or by any correspondence about it, and none is implied by the fact that the person who writes it is a licensed physician in China.

Put plainly: nothing we write is a diagnosis, a treatment, or a substitute for care from a clinician licensed where you live. The report is educational and general wellness information written from the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It does not replace anyone you see in person, and it is not an emergency service — nothing sent to us is monitored, and an email describing an urgent problem may sit unread for a day.

If something is urgent, call your local emergency number or go and be seen. We say this in the report as well, at the top, where it cannot be missed.

The report is yours to keep, for as long as you like, for your own use. Show it to your own clinician — we would rather you did. Print it, annotate it, forward it to someone helping you.

You may not:

• resell it, or republish it as though it were general guidance for others;
• present any part of it as coming from a practitioner licensed where you live;
• use it, or the essays on this site, as material to train a machine-learning model;
• scrape this site with automated tools, or attempt to reach parts of it that are not published.

We keep copyright in the words of the report and in everything published here. You get a permanent, personal, non-transferable licence to use your own report. The essays are free to read and free to quote with a link; they are not free to republish whole.

We promise that a licensed physician will read your intake carefully and write you something considered, in English, on time. That is the whole of what we promise.

We do not promise that you will feel different. We do not promise that the pattern we describe is the only way to describe you, or that another physician would use the same words. Chinese medicine is an interpretive tradition; two careful readers can differ, and where they might, we say so in the report.

Food suggestions are general and are not suitable for everyone. If you have an allergy, an intolerance, a restricted diet, or you take medication that interacts with food, use your own judgement and ask someone who knows your circumstances.

Our total liability to you in connection with a report, however it arises, is limited to the amount you paid for it: US $39.

We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, for loss of income, or for anything that follows from a decision you took after reading a report. You remain responsible for your own choices about your own body, including the choice to see somebody in person.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited where you live. If a court finds one clause here unenforceable, the rest stands.

Refunds are governed by the refund policy, which is more generous than these terms require and is written to be read in a minute.

You may stop at any point. Before delivery, tell us and we refund. After delivery, ask us to delete everything and we do — the health data notice sets out how.

We may end the agreement if the acceptable-use clause is broken, or if someone makes it unsafe or unreasonable for a person here to keep answering. In that case we refund anything not yet delivered.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and the courts of Hong Kong have non-exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute.

“Non-exclusive” is the part that matters to you. If you live in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or a United States state whose consumer law says otherwise, nothing here removes the protection your own law gives you, and you may bring a claim in the courts where you live. We will not argue that you agreed otherwise.

Before either of us goes near a court: write to care@bencaohouse.com. Almost everything is a refund and an apology, and a refund does not need a lawyer.

The version in force when you paid is the version that governs your report, even if this page changes afterwards. We keep every previous version and will send you the one you agreed to on request.

Changes take effect fourteen days after they are published, and anyone who bought a report in the previous twelve months is emailed before that. If a change is one you do not accept, tell us before it takes effect and we refund anything undelivered.