Bai Hua She (Qi She)

The parenthetical Pinyin 'Qi She' specifically identifies the substance as Bungarus multicinctus, the many-banded krait — a slender, brilliantly black-and-white-banded elapid snake of southern China, Taiwan, and northern Vietnam, reaching 1–1.8 m. Adults inhabit lowland woodland edges, paddy borders, and disturbed habitats; the species is nocturnal and possesses extremely potent neurotoxic venom. The medicinal preparation consists of the whole, dried, gutted juvenile snake, coiled into a flat disc and traditionally split open along the ventral surface; the head is usually retained. This is not a plant. Note that the bare Pinyin 'Bai Hua She' is also applied to Deinagkistrodon acutus (the long-nosed pit viper) in much TCM literature, and the two snakes are sometimes confused or substituted in commerce.