What I learn

 

wisdom in traditonal chinese medicine

28. Secret of Yang Qi

1. Yang Qi refers to life activities of human bodies such as prompt thinking, brisk movement, which are external manifestations of Yang Qi.

2. Yin Qi goes hand in hand with the production of blood, semen and other body fluids.

3. Yang Qi supports life activities, and Yin Qi forms tangible matters of the body tissues and fluids.

4. Abide by the principles of nature; according to Lao Tzu,
Man models on Earth
Earth models on Heaven
Heaven models on the Way
The Way models on Nature

Yang Qi is from heaven and the sun; Yin qi is from earth and the moon – work during the day, rest during the night.
Yang Qi is at the external body during the day, it returns to the body at night – Yang Qi is needed to maintain Yin Qi at night – both Yang and Yin Qi must be in the body to enable body to keep well – if you exercise at night, Yang Qi cannot return into the body.

5. To look after Yang Qi, women should look after the spleen, stomach and blood while men should look after the kidneys and semen.

6. Hot-natured food promotes Yang Qi, cold natured food suppresses Yang Qi, e.g. 
i. watermelon is red and sweet, is cold natured – red is related to heart which is of hot nature, i.e. red things go to the heart, thus, watermelon reduces heat in heart as one will pee after eating watermelon.

ii. lichee is hot, sweet, gentle; if weak spleen and stomach, can eat lichee because can promote Yang Qi; but not for hot-natured person, it can cause inflammation, so boil lichee peel in water and drink because peel is cold-natured.
iii. fresh ginger is gentle; yellow goes to the spleen and stomach.
iv. pepper/chilli is hot-natured and promotes Yang Qi better.
v. old duck is hot-natured; young duck is cold-natured.
vi. American ginseng replenishes Yang Qi fluids, is best eaten in summer.
vii. Nuts, peanuts, chestnuts, hazels, are seeds, so are good vegetable protein – seeds have vitality, carrier of vitality – promotes kidney Qi.
viii. “Each place has streams come in from all over the country”, i.e. follow own local practices and customs to keep well.

7. In TCM, foods of specific nature are medicines such as watermelon, ginger, pepper.

8. Medicine is less effective than food.  Extractive medicine or chemosynthetic medicine – avoid artificial/chemosynthetic medicine as a specific function of the medicine is exaggerated.

9. In spring and summer look after Yang Qi; in autumn and winter, look after Yin Qi.

10. Negative emotions affect Qi, e.g. rage causes Qi to rise; anxiety causes Qi to depress.
Overthinking/overworking affects Yang Qi, the spleen – deficient Yang Qi causes loss of appetite, abdominal pain, diarrhoea.
Diabetes, depression also affects Yang Qi.

11. Yang Qi must transform and transmit in body; there should not be Qi stasis or this will lead to internal heat.

12. The Yin-Yang Fish in the Eight Trigrams/Baqua is reflective of the origins of the universe – according to Sun Simiao, if man does not understand the laws of the universe, he does not understand the principles of life; it’s about the relation between macro Yin-Yang and micro Yin-Yang.

* Sharing a nugget of vitality, not to be swallowed whole.