Traditional Chinese Medicine In Practice

The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon states, “All dizziness and vertigo belong to liver wood. All pains, itches, sores, and ulcers belong to heart fire. All dampness, swelling, and fullness belong to spleen earth. All issues with qi, such as distension, oppression, and weakness, belong to lung metal. All coldness and contractive sensations belong to kidney water.” Excess yang energy manifests as body heat without sweat; excess yin energy, as profuse sweating with a cold body. What is called ‘harmonious’ is warm hands and feet; what is called ‘adverse’ is cold hands and feet.”

All diseases fundamentally relate to the balance of yin and yang. Excess leads to fire; deficiency leads to cold. Yang generates qi, while yin forms the physical body. Preserving a portion of yang energy is akin to preserving a portion of life. Understanding this principle provides a basis for prescriptions, distinguishing between good and bad fortunes, and determining life and death.

The Imperial Physician Qi Bo said to the Yellow Emperor, comparing the human body to a house in a courtyard, “When the five sensory organs are differentiated, the courtyard will necessarily be open, then establish the ‘Bright Hall’. The ‘Bright Hall’ is vast and extensive, shielding from external influences, with square walls and a high base. The descending energy resides externally, and the five colors are in balance. Spacious and vast, one can live to be a hundred years old.”