Chapter 3 Chapter Two Basic Theories and Features of Diagnosis and Treatment of Traditional Chinese Medicine

The ancients said: A scholar is half a doctor.But modern young intellectuals cannot easily learn Chinese medicine.This is because the current knowledge structure has undergone tremendous changes compared with ancient times.The theory of traditional Chinese medicine is based on the occurrence and development of ancient Chinese philosophy. It is two completely different academic thought systems from modern medicine. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, due to the rapid development of social productive forces, great changes have taken place in society, and it is transitioning from slavery to feudalism.There has also been an unprecedentedly active situation in the academic world where "all schools of thought rise up and a hundred schools of thought contend".Chinese medicine has absorbed the reasonable parts of the philosophical thoughts of various schools that can indeed guide medical practice, and has formed a TCM theoretical system with simple materialism and spontaneous dialectics, which has promoted its own development.Now let's take a look at the important influence of ancient philosophy on the theory of Chinese medicine.

It is said that Fuxi's family "fixed the heaven and the earth and divided Yin and Yang".In fact, the concept of yin and yang has attracted great attention in the academic circles, and it has been continuously deepened and extended, which should be attributed to the Confucian classic "Book of Changes".The book is generally considered to be written in the late Yin and early Zhou dynasties.It was originally a book of divination in ancient times, but ancient scholars extracted the simple dialectical thought of "Yin and Yang" from it, which was used to explain the general law of changes in all things in nature.Even in the Warring States Period, the academic school of "Yin Yang School" was formed.Medicine naturally also absorbed "yin and yang" as a basic concept.Therefore, scholars of traditional Chinese medicine have always attached great importance to it. Until the Qing Dynasty, the medical profession still had the admonition that "those who do not know "Yi" should not be imperial physicians."

Lifting the veil of mystery and explaining the mystery of "yin and yang" in modern language, it is not difficult to understand the true meaning of its simple dialectics, so modern people are completely acceptable. Generally speaking, Yi Xue believes that yin and yang are two attributes of things, and it is impossible to talk about yin and yang without specific things.Yin and Yang are two opposite and interdependent aspects of things, such as movement and stillness, rising and falling, outside and inside, heat and cold, use and body, hyperactivity and decline, etc. The former belongs to Yang; the latter belongs to Yin. .Everything in nature can be divided into yin and yang.Each aspect can be further divided into yin and yang, so the analysis is endless.For example, the "Nei Jing" said: "There is yin in yin, and yang in yang. From dawn to noon, the yang of the sky is the yang of yang; from noon to dusk, the yang of the sky is yin of yang; at night When the rooster crows, the yin in the sky is the yin in the yin; when the rooster crows to Pingdan, the yin in the sky is the yang in the yin.” Another example is the five internal organs: “The back is yang, and the yang in the yang is the heart; the back is yang. The yin within yang is the lung; the abdomen is yin, and the yin within yin is the kidney; the abdomen is yin, and the yang within yin is the liver; the abdomen is yin, and the most yin within yin is the spleen.” The exterior is yang, the body is yin; the back is yang, the abdomen is yin; the six internal organs (gallbladder, stomach, large intestine, small intestine, triple burner, bladder) are yang, and the five internal organs (liver, heart, spleen, lung, kidney) are yin; The function is yang, and the plastid of viscera is yin.

The Tai Chi Diagram vividly expresses the meaning of mutual roots and opposites of yin and yang.Black represents yin, white represents yang, and the two are unified and transformed into each other. Black dots represent yin as the root of yang; white dots represent yang as the root of yin. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that only when Yin and Yang are balanced and coordinated, can the body maintain normal life activities, otherwise, diseases will occur, and even life activities will be terminated.Therefore, "Su Wen Qi Tong Tian Lun" said: "Yin balances Yang secret, spirit is cured; Yin and Yang are separated, essence and Qi are eliminated."

Chinese medicine diagnoses diseases by grasping the eight characters of yin, yang, exterior, interior, cold, heat, deficiency, and excess, that is, "eight principles of syndrome differentiation", in which yin and yang are the general principles, that is, exterior, heat, and excess belong to yang syndrome; Inside, cold, and deficiency belong to yin syndrome.Of course, this is only in terms of its attributes in principle, that is, the most basic basis for analyzing the condition when diagnosing.In fact, the clinical manifestations of each patient are much more complicated, and it is impossible to be so simple. Often, the two opposite aspects appear alternately, which reflects the above-mentioned thought of yin and yang within yin or yang.Therefore, the more objective and detailed the analysis of the condition, the more accurate the diagnosis and the more suitable the treatment plan will be.

Traditional Chinese medicine treats diseases by regulating yin and yang to restore balance, that is, to "balance yin and yang secrets" as the purpose.Then the nature, taste and function of traditional Chinese medicine are also divided into two categories, such as pungent, sweet, and bland, and the medicines that are warm, dry, and dispersing belong to yang; The astringent medicine belongs to Yin.It can be seen that the theory of yin and yang runs through all aspects of physiology, pathology, syndrome differentiation, medicinal properties, and treatment in traditional Chinese medicine.

The earliest written record of the "Five Elements" can be found in the Confucian classic "Shangshu".Around the Spring and Autumn Period, it was very popular to use the five elements to explain things.So ancient medical scientists also infiltrated the five elements theory into the medical field.The Five Elements Theory classifies all things in nature with five attributes to summarize their properties and explain the connections between them.What grows belongs to wood; what grows on fire belongs to fire; what grows belongs to earth; what grows strong belongs to metal; what goes down cold belongs to water.They are born in the order of wood, fire, earth, metal, water, and wood; they are restrained in the order of wood, earth, water, fire, metal, and wood.This continuous movement of mutual support and mutual restriction promotes the development of things, so it is called "five elements" or "five constants".

Taking the five internal organs as an example, the liver, heart, spleen, lungs, and kidneys belong to wood, fire, earth, metal, and water in turn.For example, the liver belongs to wood, and its main function is to regulate the whole body's qi movement, just like the image of wood's growth and development.In the mutual growth relationship of the five internal organs, such as "water grows wood", it means that the kidney is strong and the essence is full, and the liver can be maintained.The mutual restraint relationship of the five internal organs, that is, the mutual restraint relationship, such as the clearing of the lung qi, can inhibit the hyperactivity of the liver yang, that is, "gold restrains wood".and so on.Regarding the laws of the five elements restraining each other, strictly speaking, any phenomenon that belongs to physiological restriction is called "restraint"; if it becomes an abnormal change of excessive restriction and rejection, such as a pathological phenomenon in which one viscera is hyperactive and the other viscera is deficient, It is called "multiplication".There is also the phenomenon of "anti-aggression", that is, the viscera that should be restrained is weakened, but the viscera that should be restrained suppresses the original viscera. This situation is called "insulting" or "anti-aggressive".Physiologically and pathologically, the five internal organs interact with each other according to the law of mutual growth and mutual restraint, which constitutes a fully coordinated physiologically and pathologically intricate situation.

The content of using the Five Elements Theory in therapeutics is also extremely rich.For example, in the treatment of liver disease, attention should be paid to invigorating the spleen at the same time, which is to prevent liver disease from spreading to the spleen; another example is to use the method of nourishing the kidney to treat liver deficiency, which is to use the theory of "water grows wood" and so on.At the same time, the five flavors of medicine also belong to the five elements.For example, sour medicine enters the liver meridian, sweet medicine enters the spleen meridian, etc., so the theory of the five elements also guides the law of medication.

The Five Elements Theory not only connects the various tissues and organs of the human body into a perpetual whole, but also forms an organic connection between the human body and various substances, organisms, seasons, time, directions, climate, natural phenomena, and pathogenic factors in nature.Therefore, the application of the theory of the five elements is the full embodiment of the "unity view of man and nature" in traditional Chinese medicine.