What I learn

wisdom in traditional chinese medicine

26. Chinese characters in TCM

1. Ai (in ai zheng, cancer) suggests a serious internal disease, caused by one’s emotions, thus, this disease is considered closely related to one’s emotions.  (ai used to be pronounced yan – the character is written as 3 rocks on 3 mountains)

When one cannot express emotions effectively, blood and Qi do not flow smoothly, one cannot discharge one’s metabolites, so metabolites will accumulate in the body and form bulges, which become malignant, i.e. then cancer.

2. Headache is a serious disease in TCM – the character headache has the passage character in it, which reflects a passage between two stone walls; it refers to the passage where Qi and blood of a person flow; where Qi and blood do not flow smoothly, there’s ache.  But to treat headaches, TCM doctors need to know if the headache is caused by cold, or internal injury, or deficiency of blood or Qi.

3. All characters relevant to both TCM and emotions contain the character xin (heart).  In TCM, human emotions are manifestations of internal organs.

4. According to TCM, a human has five major internal organs – liver, heart, spleen, lung and kidney which are associated with five emotions, namely, joy, anger, anxiety, grief and fear:
heart is related to joy (xi)

liver to anger (nu)
spleen to anxiety(you)

lung to grief (bei)
kidney to fear (kong)

e.g. 

(i) excessive anxiety damages the spleen/stomach; many intellectuals suffer from gastric ulcer because when they eat, they think about their problems, so blood flows to the head and not the stomach, thus, leading to stomach problem, i.e. Qi stagnation caused anxiety.
(ii) Qi will disperse when one bursts into excessive joy, causing spirit dispersion, affecting the heart as spirit is stored in the heart.

5. With development in society, the five emotions evolve into seven emotions, namely joy, anger, pensiveness (si), anxiety, grief, fear, fright (jing).

6. Difference between fear and fright in TCM – fright is related to heart. Unlike fear, fright is a kind of dread in the heart. In the bone oracle script, the character fear contains the pictorial of someone hammering the ground (gong) over the heart character – fear is associated with such a sound. If one is timid, scared all the time, he is short of kidney Qi, i.e. always scared for no reason, thus fear and kidney are closely related.

7. Fright is related to the heart (emotion that is caused by an external stimulation).
Fright (jing) shows a character composed of a lower horse character, thus, jing means a frightened horse; in TCM, it refers to being unprepared when an unexpected thing happens, one’s nerves are taxed.  (If fright persists it can become fear and moves to the kidney as fear (kong) is related to kidney.)

8. In TCM, diseases caused by the cold and summer are easier to treat but caused by the heart which is related to emotions are not so easy.  A person can stay healthy if he can control his seven emotions.  In TCM, all diseases come from the heart including those caused by exogenous pathogenic factors.

9. There are many radicals (of Chinese characters) closely related to TCM.

10. In TCM there are five emotions, there are also five secretions, namely sweat, tears, saliva, nose mucus and spit.
i. Saliva is different from spit as saliva is secreted by parotid gland while spit is secreted by sublingual gland.
ii. Tears are related to liver – liver can protect eyesight.  
iii. If a person drools excessively, his spleen and stomach have problem; if a baby drools, his spleen and stomach not fully developed yet – do not kiss the forehead or he will drool more.  
iv. Nose mucus is associated with lung because nose is the entrance of the lung.  Spit is associated with kidney Qi.  If kidney is weak, an old man goes often to the toilet at night; he needs to drink often too.
v. Sweat is directly associated with the heart – sweat is vital Qi, according to the Yellow Emperor Internal Canon.  It is part of blood.  Sweat is associated with blood veins, heart is also associated with blood veins.  Sweat is secreted by the body and blood veins, are closely connected by the heart.  
We should not sweat too much.  In TCM, “Those who lose a lot of blood won’t sweat and those who sweat a lot lack blood”.  Blood becomes thick due to excessive sweat.  Thick blood that cannot be discharged accumulates in the heart so causing metabolic imbalance, and one suffers from heart disease.  If one doesn’t sweat, Qi and blood do not flow smoothly; if one sweats excessively, Yang Qi and blood fluid are hurt.

 

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