In a hospital, doctors often did not care much about whether poop was soft, hard, dry, or watery; they cared more about the color.
In the doctors' eyes, feces usually had seven colors, which were just about as many colors as the rainbow.
Normal feces were yellow and brown in color. They looked normal and would not catch the attention of the public. People with normal feces would not actually be subject to various questions. Bleeding feces had a whole range of colors from bright red to dark red. The brighter the color was, the closer the bleeding point was to the an*s, meanwhile, if the color was dark, it meant that it was further away from the an*s. Therefore, bright red feces often indicated rectal-bleeding-related problems such as hemorrhoids, while dark red or maroon-colored feces often indicated gastrointestinal bleeding.
Translator’s Note:
[1] Old monster of Black Mountain: The King of Monsters from A Chinese Ghost Story.