ISO/TS 17948:2014 health information traditional chinese medicine literature metedata

Courtesy: ISO/TS 17948:2014 health information traditional chinese medicine literature metedata

TCM distinguishes many kinds of qi (气; 氣; qì). In a general sense, qi is something that is defined by five “cardinal functions”:

1. Actuation (推动; 推動; tuīdòng) – of all physical processes in the body, especially the circulation of all body fluids such as blood in their vessels. This includes actuation of the functions of the zang-fu organs and meridians.
2. Warming (温煦; 溫煦; wēnxù) – the body, especially the limbs.
3. Defense (防御; fángyù) – against Exogenous Pathogenic Factors
4. Containment (固摄; 固攝; gùshè) – of body fluids, i.e., keeping blood, sweat, urine, semen, etc. from leakage or excessive emission.
5. Transformation (气化; 氣化; qìhuà) – of food, drink, and breath into qi, xue (blood), and jinye (“fluids”), and/or transformation of all of the latter into each other.

Vacuity of qi will be characterized especially by pale complexion, lassitude of spirit, lack of strength, spontaneous sweating, laziness to speak, non-digestion of food, shortness of breath (especially on exertion), and a pale and enlarged tongue.

Qi is believed to be partially generated from food and drink, and partially from air (by breathing). Another considerable part of it is inherited from the parents and will be consumed in the course of life.

TCM uses special terms for qi running inside of the blood vessels and for qi that is distributed in the skin, muscles, and tissues between them. The former is called yíng-qì (营气; 營氣); its function is to complement xuè and its nature has a strong yin aspect (although qi in general is considered to be yang). The latter is called weì-qì (卫气; 衛氣); its main function is defence and it has pronounced yang nature.

Qi is said to circulate in the meridians. Just as the qi held by each of the zang-fu organs, this is considered to be part of the ‘principal’ qi (元气; 元氣; yuánqì) of the body (also called 真气; 真氣; zhēn qì, true qi, or 原气; 原氣; yuán qì, original qi).

Xie

In contrast to the majority of other functional entities, xuè or xiě (血, “blood”) is correlated with a physical form – the red liquid running in the blood vessels. Its concept is, nevertheless, defined by its functions: nourishing all parts and tissues of the body, safeguarding an adequate degree of moisture, and sustaining and soothing both consciousness and sleep.

Typical symptoms of a lack of xiě (usually termed “blood vacuity” [血虚; xiě xū]) are described as: Pale-white or withered-yellow complexion, dizziness, flowery vision, palpitations, insomnia, numbness of the extremities; pale tongue; “fine” pulse.

Jinye

Closely related to xuě are the jīnyè (津液, usually translated as “body fluids”), and just like xuě they are considered to be yin in nature, and defined first and foremost by the functions of nurturing and moisturizing the different structures of the body. Their other functions are to harmonize yin and yang, and to help with the secretion of waste products.

Jīnyè are ultimately extracted from food and drink, and constitute the raw material for the production of xuě; conversely, xuě can also be transformed into jīnyè. Their palpable manifestations are all bodily fluids: tears, sputum, saliva, gastric acid, joint fluid, sweat, urine, etc.

Zang-fu

The zàng-fǔ (脏腑; 臟腑) constitute the centre piece of TCM’s systematization of bodily functions. Bearing the names of organs, they are, however, only secondarily tied to (rudimentary) anatomical assumptions (the fǔ a little more, the zàng much less). As they are primarily defined by their functions, they are not equivalent to the anatomical organs; to highlight this fact, their names are usually capitalized.

The term zàng (臟) refers to the five entities considered to be yin in nature – Heart, Liver, Spleen, Lung, Kidney – while fǔ (腑) refers to the six yang organs – Small Intestine, Large Intestine, Gallbladder, Urinary Bladder, Stomach and Sānjiaō.

The zàng’s essential functions consist in production and storage of qì and xuě; they are said to regulate digestion, breathing, water metabolism, the musculoskeletal system, the skin, the sense organs, aging, emotional processes, and mental activity, among other structures and processes. The fǔ organs’ main purpose is merely to transmit and digest (傳化; chuán-huà) substances such as waste and food.

Since their concept was developed on the basis of Wǔ Xíng philosophy, each zàng is paired with a fǔ, and each zàng-fǔ pair is assigned to one of five elemental qualities (i.e., the Five Elements or Five Phases). These correspondences are stipulated as:

• Fire (火) = Heart (心; xīn) and Small Intestine (小腸; xiaǒcháng) (and, secondarily, Sānjiaō [三焦, “Triple Burner”] and Pericardium [心包; xīnbaò])
• Earth (土) = Spleen (脾; pí) and Stomach (胃; weì)
• Metal (金) = Lung (肺; feì) and Large Intestine (大腸; dàcháng)
• Water (水) = Kidney (腎; shèn) and Bladder (膀胱; pángguāng)
• Wood (木) = Liver (肝; gān) and Gallbladder (膽; dān)

The zàng-fǔ are also connected to the twelve standard meridians – each yang meridian is attached to a fǔ organ, and five of the yin meridians are attached to a zàng. As there are only five zàng but six yin meridians, the sixth is assigned to the Pericardium, a peculiar entity almost similar to the Heart zàng.