The Essence of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Essence, Qi and Shen, known as the three treasures in Chinese medicine, is an indication that these three are extremely important to the human body.

Essence

Let’s talk about sperm first. It is the material basis for the body’s growth, development and reproductive capacity. Chinese medicine attributes sperm to the kidneys, and the Nei Jing says, “The kidneys are the main source of water, and receive the sperm of the five viscera and six bowels and hide it.” It also says: “The kidney is the main dormant, the essence of the seal, where the essence is also.” And because “the two essence of the fight, combined and formed” and “people are born, first into the essence”, then brain, marrow, bone, tendons, veins, skin, flesh, hair and other physical tissues gradually generated, essence for the foundation of life, so called the kidney for “the first day This is why the kidneys are called “innate”. After birth, it depends on diet to feed, which is the role of the spleen and stomach, so the spleen and stomach is called the “after day”, and in the clinical disease that the congenital deficiency, can be used to regulate the after day.

Sperm has a close influence on physical strength, so people suffering from spermatorrhea mostly have sore back, back pain, soft feet and weak legs; in serious cases, they are tired and weak, short of breath, skin is not moistened, tinnitus, eyes are not bright, and cannot stand for a long time, which is called “sperm pole”. Since the kidney is the main reservoir of essence, the above symptoms are generally referred to as kidney deficiency, and the main focus is on tonifying the kidney.

It must be pointed out that in many places in Chinese medicine books, it refers to essence in a broad sense, that is, the essence of the human body. For example, the Nei Jing says: “When essence is taken away, it is deficient.” It also says: “When the essence is exhausted, the body is destroyed and depressed.” In terms of disease, such as “winter does not hide essence, spring will be sick warm.” and “Tasting rich and then poor is called loss of essence” and so on. There is also a single reference to a substance, such as saying: “heat is evil, sweat is also essence.” All these should not be confused with essence in the narrow sense.

Qi

The second talks about Qi. Qi and blood go hand in hand, and moreover, Qi is used as the commander of blood, which is a physiological approach to understanding in Chinese medicine. There are many names for qi, including yuan qi, true qi, and essence qi, all of which refer to the qi and blood and other substances and abilities in the whole human body, although they have different names, they are actually one. There are also the names of yang qi and yin qi, which are the two major functions of the qi, one can defend the body and the other can keep the energy from being lost, so they are also called true yang and true yin. There are also Zong Qi and Zhong Qi, which means that part of the Yuan Qi belongs to the upper jiao lung and the other part belongs to the middle jiao spleen and stomach, so they are also called lung Qi and stomach Qi. In a nutshell, they are all Yuan Qi.

The qi of qi and blood, in some places, represents the ability and in some places represents the material, so there is a saying that qi is invisible and blood is tangible. Our experience. The former people put qi and blood on a par with each other, blood is material, qi should also be material, the effect of qi is “ability”. The blood travels throughout the body and is nourished by it, and the qi improves the function of the blood and helps the blood to run normally. This means that the two can never be separated. If Qi is stimulated psychologically and environmentally, whether it is happiness, anger, sadness or joy in terms of emotion, cold or heat in terms of climate, and work, it will affect the blood. Therefore, people in the past paid special attention to qi, saying that “qi is the commander of blood”, and that “all diseases are born of qi”.

Generally speaking, although blood part of the disease should be treated with blood part of the medicine, but there are also qi and blood, move qi to remove blood stasis, blood off the benefit of qi and other treatments, because the qi line is blood line, qi stagnation is blood stagnation, in order to make the blood circulation normal, first make the qi relaxation; to make the blood stasis removed, first make the qi flow. In case of severe anemia, according to the principle that yang will grow when yin grows, it is also necessary to use qi tonics to accelerate recovery. All these methods are effective in the clinical symptoms.

Most of the qi referred to in Chinese medicine refers to the gas produced by the dysfunction of the internal organs or indigestion. Commonly, the terms qi stagnation, qi congestion, qi depression, qi accumulation, qi gathering, and qi closure are used to explain the pathology. The diseases in which these symptoms occur also use the word qi as the name of the disease, such as qi syncope, qi diaphragm, qi distension, qi dropsy, qi er, qi gonorrhea, qi constipation, qi gall, qi hernia and liver qi, stomach qi pain and so on. For example, the symptoms of syncope, diaphragm, and distension seen in clinical cases have various causes, among which those caused by qi can disappear as long as the qi mechanism is regulated. Therefore, the physiological term qi and the pathological term qi have different meanings and should be distinguished.

The role of blood is described in the Book of Internal Medicine as follows: “The eyes can see by blood, the feet can walk by blood, the palms can hold by blood, and the fingers can take in by blood.” This means that the whole body is nourished by blood, so it is also said, “To serve the body, nothing is more valuable than this.” In terms of physiology, it is specifically stated that “the heart produces blood, the liver collects blood, and the spleen regulates blood.” When the heart is weak or the blood is deficient and the circulation is out of order, palpitations, alarm, and intermittent pulse will occur; when excessive mental stimulation affects the function of the liver in collecting blood, epistaxis will be easily caused; when the spleen is diseased, it will also lose its function of regulating blood, resulting in bleeding in the stool and excessive menstruation and leakage in women. Most of the methods commonly used in treatment to harmonize Blood, nourish Blood and induce Blood to return to the meridians are directed at the Heart, Liver and Spleen. When the treatment of the heart, liver and spleen is not effective, the target is shifted to the kidney, focusing on the “innate heaven”, as stated in Sheng Ji Zu Lu: “Inadequate appetite, strain on the kidney, depletion of the essence and blood, deficiency of the internal organs, and failure of the blood to be nourished.”

Blood will be stagnant if it gets cold, and delusional if it gets heat, which includes cold and heat from outside, cold and heat from diet, and cold, heat and liver fire from the body. Therefore, blood disease is mainly divided into blood stasis and bleeding, and of course, there is also a close relationship with Qi. Blood deficiency mostly starts from excessive fatigue, excessive bleeding from trauma and after illness and woman’s delivery. When it has become a blood deficiency, it should be treated from the heart, liver and spleen, and further from the kidney if necessary.

Shen

Let’s talk about Shen. In the past, people believed that all tissues of the human body are tangible, but there is also an advanced, invisible ability that presides over the activities, which is called “Shen”. If Shen is full of energy, the internal organs and body will be active, but if Shen is not, everything will not work. Shen’s activity in the internal organs, the “difficult scriptures” has pointed out: “the organs of the human spirit of the house of the collection, the liver to hide the soul, the lungs to hide the spirit, the heart to hide the spirit, the spleen to hide the intention and wisdom, the kidney to hide the essence and will.” It can be seen that the soul, prana, will, and zhi are used to distinguish the activities of each organ in Chinese medicine, and although the names are different, in general it is just a Shen.

Since the heart governs the internal organs, it is generally used to summarize the gods of the other four organs, and they are closely related to each other. The Nei Jing says: “The coming of life is called the essence, the two essences fighting each other is called the god, the one who comes and goes with the god is called the soul, and the one who comes and goes with the essence is called the spirit. Therefore, those who are in charge of things are called the mind, the mind has a memory is called the intention, the intention of the existence of the will is called the will, because of the will and the existence of change is called the thought, because of the thought and the distant admiration is called the consideration, because the consideration and the handling of things is called the wisdom.” This series of activities of thought and consciousness is the role of Shen.

When the mind becomes diseased, it will produce a series of symptoms such as boredom in the chest and diaphragm, discomfort in the two hypochondrium, mental inability to be autonomous, weakness in the hands and feet, insanity, failure to recognize people, memory loss, atrophy of the anterior yin, soreness in the lumbar spine, and inability to turn sideways. Prescriptions such as Zhu Sha An Shen Wan and Amber Ding Zhi Wan are used to treat this disease. However, Shen is not empty and needs substances to be nourished, as stated in the Nei Jing: “The five tastes enter the mouth and are hidden in the intestines and stomach; the tastes are hidden to nourish the five qi; the qi is harmonized and born; the fluids become each other and Shen is self-generated.” This means that when treating the disease of the Shen, we cannot rely on tranquilizing the mind alone, but must combine it with nourishing the blood and replenishing the qi.

Essence, Qi and Shen have a chain relationship. Qi is born from essence, and essence is transformed into Qi. If essence is abundant, Shen will be active, and vice versa, if Shen is not abundant, there will be insufficient essence. At the same time, if Shen is overactive, it can also affect the essence, thus weakening the body. Therefore, it is necessary to take care of each other in terms of health care and treatment.