The Basics of Chinese Medicine

Globalization has offered us a one-time chance to utilize the best of all the world's cultures in comprehending humanity's dilemmas. Despite the process being hijacked by a few for their own profits, this possibility still exists and waits for us to take advantage of it. The Taoist, or Chinese, approach to medicine is the longest documented effort of any religion or science to describe how energy flows in the body. For this reason, and because our own healthcare system appears inept at fostering health, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) deserves a closer look.

The seminal text, The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, was actually a collection begun around 300 BC. The earliest surviving herbal pharmacology appeared in the first century AD and updated versions were compiled throughout the following centuries. Sometime in the first two centuries of the common era, during the Han Dynasty, two texts were consummated on sexual healing, The Handbook of the Plain Girl and The Art of the Bedchamber. Formulas and theories were passed orally for a long time before being recorded, and legend tells of three emperorsaround 3,000BC who laid the groundwork for Chinese Medicine. Before and after the texts were scribed, people were engaged in experimenting, making observations, and telling others what they found.

The primary texts I will refer to, in describing the healthy body, are contemporary works written for Western audiences. The first, authored by Stefan Chmelik, is an introductory guide to the basics of TCM as taught in universities of Chinese herbalism and acupuncture. The other two, authored by Mantak Chia, are in-depth study guides to Taoist medical philosophy, the practice of meditation for emotional stability and healing, and the healing of others with the hands that were compiled with the permission of several Taoist Masters from different schools.

Yin and Yang are the central forces for everything within the Universe and body. The first recorded references to them occurred in the Chou dynasty sometime after 770 BCE. Yin can be thought of as potential energy, Jack and Jill on top of the hill. It's characteristics are expanding, relaxing, downward, moistening, and cool. Yang is the seeming opposite. Yang is kinetic energy, Jack tumbling down and Jill running after. It is contracting, exertion, upward, drying, and hot.

Sexually, Yang is masculine and Yin feminine. The man thrusts forth with contraction in giving of the exterior, and the woman spreads for and supports him in relaxation and interior reception. All kinetic energy must pass through the potential phase before being realized. This is a simple explanation that sets us up for a duality though, because it doesn't accurately describe the relationship.

Central to Taoism, whether medicine or politics, is the idea that universal forces (of Yin, Yang, or others to be described) always act in concert with their seeming opposite within the harmonious system. Some of one is always to be found in the other. To some degree, the woman is always thrusting her gifts and leading the action, the man is always receiving and replenishing her, just as the Universe never does one without the other. Further, the balance of one person, couple, or group will never look exactly like another, just as every aspect of the Universe will mirror every other, but never in a tit for tat way.

Taoists recognize within the body five major yin organs, embodying the five elemental phases of energy, with five Yang counterparts. The healthy body as a whole, being slightly more Yang than Yin, presents the opposite within the major organs. These organs being more Yin thus require a Yang nature of their counterparts. Likely we could continue to consider interactions on a smaller and smaller scale as physicists have done with the atom and the quark, but looking to the organs provides the most opportunity for recognizing a body in harmony with itself and the world.

As we consider each of the major organs, try to notice the parallels in their qualities, try to see these as the original observers must have thousands of years ago while also matching them up with what you already know about disease. The descriptions will be purely of healthy organs. We all have an organ/element which best describes our personality. This may not be apparent here for some, because I'm only focusing on the positive aspects of each organ. In the discussion on disharmony, which is yet to be written, this element may become obvious, because we tend to be more susceptible to diseases of our dominant organ.

Two terms here need defining. Energy and Chi (Qi) are somewhat interchangeable with subtle differences. Chi most specifically refers to energy which is traveling directly to, from, and within one of the body's energy pathways, or meridians. Energy is a more general term which refers to both Chi and the forces which create, nurture, and disperse it. For this first article I will mostly stick to using the term energy for the sake of simplicity.

The heart is by some measures the central Yin organ. It is characterized by the qualities of heat, dryness, excitement, and generation of energy. The emotional qualities associated with a strong heart are honor, sincerity, love, joy, and respect. Heart energy is key to circulation and hormonal balance, as it insures hormones produced elsewhere arrive at their destination and in a timely manner, and the heart's health can most easily be seen in the facial color. The primary sense organ paired with the heart is the tongue, and it's Yang counterpart is the small intestine.

Seemingly opposite the heart is the yin organ of the kidneys. Kidney energy balances the heart's fire with water, coldness, and the conservation of energy. Emotionally, the kidneys provide a calm alertness, willpower, and gentleness. Their energy sustains reproductive and urinary functions, maintains strong teeth and bones, and is the source of head hair. The ears are the kidney's sense organ , and the bladder is their Yang counterpart.

The next pairing Yin organs are the lungs and liver. The lungs are cool and dry and the guardians of the body. Lung energy strengthens the skin, and the emotional qualities are righteousness, courage, seriousness, generosity, purity of intent, and a forgiving nature. Lungs facilitate respiration, the elimination of toxins (through exhalation, pores of the skin, and rashes in extreme cases). Their energy also provides for the growth of body hair. Their sense organ is the nose, and their Yang counterpart is the large intestine.

The lungs' balance is the liver, with its warm, damp, upward and outward flowing energy. Harmonious liver energy produces control, decisiveness, aids creativity, raises the body's stress tolerance, and makes one discreet. The liver's sensory organ is the eyes, and it oversees the recycling of toxins, blood storage and nutrition levels, and nail growth. Liver energy feeds the nerves and tendons, and it's Yang counterpart is the gallbladder.

The heart and kidneys, lungs and liver, accounted for, we are left to consider the major yin organ which balances out the others. It is important to note that the spleen on this level, though not with the specifics of acupuncture charts, refers to the pancreas and stomach as well. The spleen has a stabilizing energy and a mild temperature, both owing to its ability to integrate the energies of the other organs. The emotional qualities of spleen energy are sensitivity to others, spontaneous action, hospitality, a sociable nature, and rootedness. Spleen energy feeds the muscles, the flesh, and the tissues which hold the organs in place, called the fascia. The spleen's sensory organs are the lips and mouth. As food enters the mouth, the spleen is responsible for interpreting the flavors, sending each to its respective organ. This is an important aspect of both diagnosis and herbal treatment of disharmony which will be discussed later.

Western nutritionalism believes that we have two sources of energy, food and air. Taoists have long observed three other sources of importance and place food at the bottom of the list, due to it being the densest and hardest to process energy. The first task in Taoist meditation is to recognize and make use of Cosmic Particle energy, also known as smiling. The Inner Smile collects this energy at the mid-brow and sends it through the eyes to the Yin organs, the digestive and excretory systems, and the nervous system from brain to base of spine. Perennially, scientific studies point to the health benefits of smiling, a welcome confirmation of what Taoists, among other traditions, have long known.

The other two energy forms not recognized by Western science are the Universal and Earth. These correspond to the Yang and yin qualities discussed earlier. Universal energy pulls the body up and the spine straight, as it enters through the Crown point on top of the head. Earth energy provides rootedness for the body, anchoring it to the ground as it enters the Bubbling Springs point in the center of the sole of each foot. These three energy sources collect and blend in an area around one to one and a half inches down from the navel called the Dan Tien. This area is also known as the body's center of gravity.

There are two laws which govern the associations between the organs as they make use of these energy sources. The first, the Law of Creation, makes most sense when considering the seasonal relationships of the organs. The year begins with Spring, which is Liver/Wood energy with the growing quality. This feeds the Summer, Heart/Hot energy with a generation of abundance. Summer's energy becomes harvest time or Indian Summer, the spleen's mild, Earth energy of balancing. The Autumn follows with Lung/Metal energy and a contracting quality. Finally Winter is the season of the kidneys/Water and conservation in preparation for the coming Spring's growth. Each organ's energy, just as each season's, becomes the energy of the next. This law allows each organ in a harmonious system to correct a deficiency in the following organ.

The Law of Control is the means for each organ to check an excess in the controlled organ and is best understood in elemental terms. Briefly, the fire of the heart controls the metal of the lungs and is controlled by the water of the kidneys. The wood of the liver controls the earth of the spleen and is controlled by the lungs' metal. Finally the spleen's earth energy controls the kidneys' water. Both laws are most aptly expressed visually as a pentagram.

Our bodies are designed to be healthy and harmonious, physically and emotionally. We know however that there is much disease in the world. Despite the massive amount of money being spent on healthcare, or because of it, each year sees more disease than the last. This is not a "natural" occurrence, by which I mean it wouldn't happen if the laws we lived by were in accord with the laws of ecology. Air conditioning and the mining of oil do not break these laws. The laws are broken when we plant hundreds of acres in one crop, and then use pesticides, herbicides, and genetic engineering to stave off the inevitable increases in competition and disease. Raising cows and hogs for human food does not break the laws. It does break the laws to raise them in confinement with only others of their kind, and then use antibiotics, vaccines, and genetic engineering to stave of the inevitable diseases.

Once you recognize the laws, see them in your daily life, you will gravitate with more or less effort to them, because this is how we evolved, we remained a viable species on this planet for hundreds of thousands of years following these laws implicitly. However, it appears rather unlikely that society is going to follow the laws of life without systemic collapse of its major institutions. This means that for the short-term disease will continue to spread and Western medicine will continue to be just as inept as it has in the past. The next article in this series will be an overview of disease and diagnosis in Taoist medicine.

History sources:

http://purifymind.com/HistoryMed.htm

http://www.owsleyphoto.com/stud_sites/anais_site/sextimeline/ancientchina.html

Medical sources:

Chia, Mantak. 2007. Chi Nei Tsang: Chi Massage for the Vital Organs. Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books.

Chmelik, Stefan. 1999. Chinese Herbal Secrets: The Key to Total Health. New York: Avery.

A beginning student of Taoist medicine would do well to consult a more general book, like Chmelik's, one of Chia's earlier works, and a teacher of Tai Chi, or one of the many other Eastern healing traditions.