Foundations of Traditional Chinese Medicine - Guest post by Guo Feng

Today, I invited my friend Guo Feng to share with you the philosophy behind Traditional Chinese Medicine and how you can apply its principles to enjoy a healthier lifestyle.

Guo Feng is currently studying TCM at Singapore College of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

I often wonder how westerners look at Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Do they wonder how it works? Does it seem like witchcraft to them instead of a credible, alternative medical approach?

A pair of bat wings, a lizard's tail, a handful of grass roots, a jar of broken hearts, a pinch of misery, ..... and we're done! This concoction is perfect!

In order for more people to appreciate the beauty of TCM, I’m touching on the theory behind it. The theory behind TCM is mostly built around the yin-yang and five elements.

Yin and Yang

The yin-yang is a way of classifying things by the Chinese, it can be either absolute or relative. For example, a lady is definitely yin, and a man is definitely yang.

I'm sure you've heard of the yin-yang haven't you? It is depicted in various movies, usually as a symbol of balance.

But, if we are only comparing Justin Bieber and Arnold Schwarzenegger, we can say that Justin Bieber is yin while Arnold Schwarzenegger is yang.

Basically anything duller in colour, heavier, lower in temperature, lower in position(height), closer to the core of an object, timewise nearer to the night, more feminine, is classified as yin, while yang being the direct opposite.

The Five Elements

The five elements is another way of classifying things. Here's a table of how things are generally classified under this theory.

*note that the spleen in the table refers to the digestive system in general.

The chinese believes that things do not remain static, but are dynamically reacting with/against one another. They are either supporting or opposing one another according to the elements they belong to.

Black is supporting, Red is opposing.

This could be hard to remember, use the imagery below instead.

Supporting Relationship:

Wood burns to produce Fire,

Fire dies out and there are ashes(Earth),

In the Earth there are ores(Metal),

When Metal ores are heated they melt into a liquid state(Water),

Water is necessary for the growth of Wood.

And thus the circle is formed.

Opposing Relationship:

Fire is extinguished with Water,

Rushing Water is stopped/absorbed by the Earth

Nutrients from the Earth is absorbed by the roots of plants(Wood)

Trees(Wood) are cut down with axes(Metal)

Metal melts when heated on a Fire

Yin ki and Yang ki

So how are these related to TCM?

The Chinese believes that there's an energy flowing in the body, channeling around the body in a complex system of meridians, much like how the blood circulatory system work

This energy is referred to as 'Ki'.

The Ki flowing in the body,like all other things, is also divided into 'yin' ki, and 'yang' ki.

The Chinese believes that illnesses are caused as a result of, or an external simulant(viruses) being the trigger and resulting in, either the imbalance between the two types of ki, or the general deficiency in ki or blood, of a certain organ.

If there is a general deficiency in ki or blood, we just provide them with the medicine to supply them with what they lack.

Re-establishing Balance in Ki

In the event of an imbalance though, there are four different situations in total. First, we need to identify whether it is 'Yang' more than 'Yin', or 'Yin' more than 'Yang'.

In the case of the imbalance caused by the 'Yang' ki being more than the 'Yin' ki, next we need to know whether it is because of a surplus in the 'yang' ki, or a deficiency in the 'yin' ki.

picture speaks a thousand words

This is portrayed in their symptoms. E.g. a 'yang' illness caused by the deficient of yin will display symptoms like [feeling hot at the top of the head, the palms and the soles of the feet], [thirst], [lesser amounts of urine], [dried and hard faeces].

Only after diagnosis, we could then provide them with the correct medicine.

Treatment using Five Elemental Theory

So how does the five elemental theory into play? The Chinese believes that the course of a medical condition in an organ will lead to another condition of the organ which either supports it, is supported by it, opposes it, or is opposed by it, depending on the status of the condition itself.

E.g. The deficient of the 'ki' in the lungs could eventually lead to a 'ki' deficient in the spleen(the organ supporting the lungs). So there are other methods of tackling a problem except the classic head-on style from the yin-yang theory above.

It's kinda like in a pool game when you use a proxy instead of hitting the target ball directly.

Using the five elemental theory, we could either:

1. Boost the ki of the supporting organ (usually used in deficient type conditions) OR
2. Reduce the ki of the supported organ (usually used in surplus type conditions) OR
3. Boost the ki of the opposing organ (usually when the condition in the current organ is being caused by the weakening of the opposing forces(deficient type condition in organ opposing) OR
4. Reduce the ki of the opposing organ (usually when the condition in the current organ is being caused by the strengthening of the opposing forces(surplus type condition in organ opposing)

Applying TCM for a Healthy Life

If you noticed so far both theories stress the importance of balance, whether it is the balance of yin-yang, or the balance of the five elements in your body. The balance, is the ultimate thing that keeps you healthy. So how do we maintain the balance in our body?

There’s always an advice of ‘don’t overdo it, not too shabby too, you need to do it just nice’ around, but it doesn’t seem to fit well into the context of the modern society. People nowadays are generally extremists, either not doing anything, or do to the max of your capabilities, which is really bad for health. E.g. not eating for a long time, then stuffing yourself with so much food you feel like you would explode.

If you ask me for health tips, what more can I say except to:

1. Sleep on time (mainly before 11pm because that is the shift from yin to yang.)
2. Eat regularly, 80% full will do.
3. Don’t completely avoid any type of seasonings, do not eat too much of a certain kind of seasoning too, yes, no matter how good/bad it tastes or how much you love/hate it. It keeps the five elements in balance.
4. Do not have sex every single day. 3 times a week would suffice.
5. Do not have a habit of drinking something really cold or really hot. Best to drink it warm or at room temperature. And by room temperature I meant temperature at the equator, which is around 30°C

In real practice there are a lot more factors to consider besides two theories above. It's far more complex than that, but it would make this post too long if I were to write everything.

Seriously, if it was only this simple why would the symbol not be this instead?

Btw it totally looks like the stickman version of the DC supervillain two-face