When studying and going through the basic theories of Traditional Chinese Medicine, you will often find it difficult to grasp those foreign concepts.

Have you ever wondered where those crazy concepts like Dao, Chi, meridians, and dampness come from?

‘Why does Chinese Medicine sound nothing like medicine to me?’

If that’s the case then sit back because we’re going to go through the foundations of Chinese Medicine.

Basic Theories of Traditional Chinese Medicine

In this post you are going to learn:

  • How the historical and cultural landscape shaped the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
  • The core Philosophy supporting TCM.
  • A basic introduction to the theories like Yin and Yang, Meridians, and Textures.

Historical Landscape and development

Chinese Palace

The first thing we must do is locate ourselves in time and space for better context and understanding.

No need for meditation or astral projections. Just read on.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a corpus of theories and practices developed for almost 5000 years aimed at describing the functioning of the human body, its relationships with the surrounding environment, diseases, their causes, and their treatments. Ancient Chinese used their observation and drew conclusions based on their findings creating what we now know as Chinese Medicine and its several treatment modalities.

The most common healing method we always associate Chinese medicine with is acupuncture. It is the one that is exclusive to TCM (that I know of) but also covers dietary therapy, herbal medicinal formulas, healing exercises (Qi Gong/Chi Kung), and massage therapy (TuiNa, GuaSha).

Herbal medicine

Theory and Practice come together

It is somewhat diffuse (and pretty useless) to point out the exact moment the theories that now sustain TCM were adopted as part of medical knowledge. However, it is important to note some key things about the development of both separately.

(The following is my opinion and a product of my studies, yet I acknowledge there may be some flaws)

How the philosophy came into being

East Asian cultures and more specifically ancient Chinese culture is heavily influenced by philosophical schools of thought, i.e. Daoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and so on. You cannot have one without the other.

What’s common to all those philosophical/religious currents is their reliance on observation. Ancient sages spent time observing the world and how it functioned, once they found patterns and uncovered the hidden mechanism behind them they created their philosophical statements which later on became a way of thinking.

The fascinating thing is that the theories and philosophy used in TCM are related with one another like links in a chain, one comes after the other and one depends on the other.

As both philosophical knowledge and medical practice developed, ancient Chinese doctors began to incorporate theories and philosophy into their system of knowledge.

Now, here is a quick overview of each of the theoretical foundations of TCM.

Daoist Philosophy

Daoism is a philosophical current that dates back to at least the Sixth century BC. It finds its zenith in Lao Zi who is said to have lived in that century (although other sources claim that Lao Zi is just a fictional character and/or that he lived in other centuries). Lao Zi condensed all his teachings into what we now know as the Dao De Jing/Tao Te King.

Lao Zi with the Taijitu (Yin and yang) symbol

Just as I said before, Daoism was based on the observation of natural cycles and phenomena.

The core teaching of Daoism can be summarized in this way:

There is an intangible and invisible force in the universe that puts everything into motion. It is the cause of all things and it is what keeps all things working, and everything in this universe keeps a cyclical nature. This invisible intangible force is referred to as the Dao.

It also states that each one of us is a microcosm and a part of the greater macrocosm and therefore we share similar qualities and phenomena.

Daoism would then also merge with the Yin and Yang theory to explain the mechanisms behind the universe.

Yin and Yang Theory

Yin and Yang philosophy developed separately from Daoist philosophy but it got incorporated into it later on because of the amazing complementary relationship between both.

Yin and yang philosophy states that everything in this universe is composed of two opposed qualities: yin and yang. These qualities although they are opposite, they are not antagonistic but complementary to each other. While Yin represents that which has structure and is tangible, Yang represents that which has function and is intangible.

It also states that each quality has the seed of the other quality within it, therefore yin can generate yang and vice versa.

But it also gives us a very valuable tool of knowledge which is the principle of infinite division:

Everything has a yin and a yang aspect, but within the yin aspect itself there are yin and yang qualities, and so on infinitely.

The merging between Daoist cyclical thinking and the complementary dualist thinking of Yin/Yang theory brought a fuller explanation of the way the natural phenomena work better explained in the Taijitu diagram or the yin and yang symbol as it is commonly known:

Yang begins begotten by Yin, it grows until it reaches its peak while Yin is waning off, then it starts to contract while Yin begins to grow and ultimately yang reaches its lowest and Yin is at its highest.

Taijitu symbol with yin and yang

Five Elements Theory and Zhang Fu Organs

Five Elements Theory

Five Elements theory, Five phases, or Five movements theory states that as well as having a yin and a yang quality; everything in the universe has five elements or phases within them or five kinds of Chi. These elements were Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.

These names are symbolic and are used to represent the nature of the movement.

Wood refers to those processes that involve expanding, growing, and getting into the unknown. Fire represents consummation, fulfillment, and ecstasy. Earth refers to equilibrium and balance. Metal refers to contracting clear boundaries. And water refers to stored potential, to condensing.

This theory also states that for everything to flow smoothly and in the right way, the relationships of generation and control must be balanced. If an element is weak it collapses and it can’t neither generate nor control affecting the chain. Everything has to be balanced.

I’ll explain these theories more in-depth in further posts.

Five elements depiction with dragons

Zhang Fu organs

Along with the Five elements Theory we have the Zhang Fu Organs theory. Parting from the Daoist and Ying and Yang theory we can now state that all of the important functions and phenomena in the human body are made by 5 (or 6) pairings of Ying and Yang organs which are called Zhang Fu. Every one of these organs represents an element.

  • Zhang refers to the solid organs, yin organs: These are the Spleen, Lung, Kidney, Liver, Heart, and Pericardium.
    Chinese Medicine separates the heart from the pericardium but they share the Fire element
  • Fu refers to the hollow organs, yang organs: Those are Stomach, Large Intestine, Bladder, Gallbladder, Small Intestine, and San Jiao/Triple Burner.

Many more associations are made using the Five Elements and Yin and Yang theory Framework which gives us a more organized way to look at the human landscape. More on that in future posts.

It is important to note that while the Organ Networks are named after a major organ, it does include other organs and structures both structurally and functionally.

For example:

  • The Heart network also includes the blood vessels and the thyroid gland.
  • The Lung Network also includes the skin as well as the entire respiratory system, not only the lungs.
  • The Kidney network also includes the brain and the bone marrow.

Textures

Textures is also known as the Theory of Essential Components. This theory describes the essential textures or components of the world. In this classification, we have Chi/Qi, Blood, Essence, Spirit, and Body Fluids.

  • Qi/Chi: Perhaps the most common and the most misunderstood one. Chi refers to the quality that everything is made of and what defines everything. It is commonly known as the ‘vital energy’ but this concept doesn’t encapsulate all of the real meaning behind the concept of Chi. Everything in this world, inorganic, organic, and human is made of Chi and is defined by its Chi.
  • Blood: Westerners refer to blood as what goes through our veins and arteries. The Chinese concept of blood isn’t quite that. While sometimes it refers to the fluid, it also refers to the energetic component and function of blood as a texture. Blood circulates through the vessels and also the meridians, it nourishes and moistens.
  • Essence (Jing): Essence is the texture that separates the organic from the inorganic. It is the most important component because from it we can have the other substances. All living things have Essence. Essence can be defined as the deep stored potential in all living things. It is ultimately the one in charge of determining life quality.
  • Spirit (Shen): Spirit must not be associated with what we commonly know as spirit i.e. the ethereal landscape and otherworldly creatures. In TCM, Spirit has more to do with the psyche but it’s not limited to it. Spirit (Shen) talks about both the psychological landscape of the person as well as personality traits and virtues. This Shen is stored in each of the Zhang Organs of the body and any disturbances in them will cause disturbances in Shen with consequences in the psyche.
  • Body Fluids: The human body has other types of fluids apart from blood, including sweat, saliva, gastric juices, and urine. They have the function of moistening the organs, joints, and ligaments and nourishing them. They are separated into two categories: Jin which refers to lighter and clearer fluids that mostly lubricate and moisten; and Ye which refers to thicker and heavier fluids that mostly nourish.

Meridians

Meridians are the energy pathways or channels through which Chi and Blood circulate. They go through the entire body connecting every organ and region creating an energy circuit. There are plenty of channels at various levels of depth but the most common and the ones used for therapy are the 12 main channels. These main channels or meridians are named after the Zhang Fu organs (Spleen, Stomach, San Jiao, Pericardium) and two Special Meridians (Conception Vessel/ Ren Mai and Governor Vessel/Du Mai).

It is in these channels that acupuncture takes place, by using needles and the right technique you can regulate the flow of Qi and restore and heal the disturbances presented. The needles are placed in the acupuncture points which are low resistance points for electricity (yes, we have electricity in us) and are where the therapeutic effects are triggered.

These points have their Chinese classical name but have also been named in numerical order for better learning.

e.g. You have Stomach 36 whose classical name is Zusanli.

Here’s a diagram of the Acupuncture channels of the body.

Classical Painting of Meridians

Nowadays we use more modern illustrations for better learning:

And that’s it. Now you know the core foundations behind Traditional Chinese Medicine. I strongly advise you to invest a lot of time studying and understanding these core theories. They are your foundation for great knowledge.

See you in the next post!


Mat González

Mat is a Medical Doctor trained in Cuba, a martial artist, and a passionate Traditional Chinese Medicine enthusiast. He's looking forward to becoming the best TCM doctor possible and helping spread awareness and knowledge about this ancient healing method with the most recent scientific trends and advances.

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