Every medicine is a language, a vocabulary of concepts that establishes the criteria within which we perceive and explain our "dis-ease" and even to some extent ourselves. Using that grammar, we determine how to identify and remedy problems. This of course brings up another subject regarding "definitions" and disease, why do we seek to define disease and our universe, possibly to control it? all of which is a philosophical discussion for another article.
An understanding of Chinese medicine proceeds from the assumption that each person is a universe in miniature. The logic is that the same forces that shape the macrocosm swirl within each of us, organizing our interior. We are a microcosm of the universe around us.
Within Chinese cosmology, all life arises from the magnetic interplay
of Yin and Yang, Earth and Heaven. The north side of the hill was moist,
cool, and vegetated. The south side was hot, dry, and barren. These defined
two basic opposites, Yin and Yang from which infinite permutations (AKA
"the ten thousand things") sprang forth. Just as dark and light, night
and day, cold and heat, inner and outer, wet and dry are known only in
relation to each other, all living processes are seen as a set of interdependent
relationships and conditions. Chinese thinking is holographic: by observing
the world we gain knowledge of a single being, each aspect of the body
is reflective of the whole of which it is a part, and all the
parts are connected and in constant interaction with each other.
A human body, like a landscape, is an ecosystem. As a mountain vista
is composed of sky, river, and ground, so a human person is comprised of
three basic constituents: Qi, Moisture, and Blood. Just as nature is ordered
by five primordial powers (wu te) and their progression through five Phases
(wu xing) - Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and
Water- people are organized by five functional systems, the Organ Networks:
Liver, Heart, Spleen, Lung, Kidney. These Networks generate and circulate
Qi , Moisture, and Blood . As air, sea, and land are bounded by Heaven
and Earth, the human organism is formed by the intermingling of psyche
and soma, known as Shen and Essence. Shen is associated with the immaterial
expression of the individual; and Essence represents the body's material
source.
In simple terms, health is determined by the quantity, quality, and
distribution of Qi, Moisture, and Blood, and the harmonious interaction
of the five Organ Networks. Illness is understood as a consequence of either
insufficient or obstructed Qi, Moisture, or Blood, and disturbances within
or between the Organ Networks. InChinese medicine, the impact of the unseen
upon the visible is recognized. Even though the invisible cannot be captured,
measured, or dissected, it is considered central. Even though no one has
ever seen thoughts or emotions, in Chinese medicine they are acknowledged
as being inextricably linked to physiology, equal to the influences of
food, climate, and physical
activities.
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