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A tongue fur stained by foodstuffs or medicines. Milk and soybean milk stain the tongue fur white; coffee, tea, and tobacco leave brown stains; egg yolk, oranges, coptis (Coptidis Rhizoma, 黄连 huáng lián), and ass hide glue (Asini Corii Colla, 阿胶 ē jiāo) leave yellow stains. Blackberries and similar fruits leave purple stains. Staining normally affects only the surface of the tongue fur and is washed away by saliva. When examining the tongue, these factors must be ruled out before the color of the tongue fur is taken as a diagnostic datum.

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