The penetration of the theory of the five elements into traditional Chinese medicine not only promotes the formation of TCM's theoretical system, but also has an important significance in explaining physiological functions of the body and pathological phenomena, as well as guiding clinical diagnosis and treatment.
traditional Chinese medicine
Classifying the Body's Structure and Reflecting the Unity between the Internal and External Environment.
By applying the method of analogous relationships to the five elements, the body's structure is classified in the system of the five elements respectively according to the natures and features of the viscera and tissues. This view takes the five zang-viscera (liver,heart, spleen, lung, and kidney) as its center, corresponding to the six fu-viscera (gall bladder, small intestine, stomach, large intestine, urinary bladder, and triple-fiao), controlling the five body constituents (the tendon, vessel, muscle, skin and hair, and bone), opening up into the five sense organs (the eye, tongue, mouth, nose, and ear), being manifested in the body exterior (the nail, face, lip, hair, and head-hair). This lays the foundation for the visceral manifestation theory.
In addition, according to the perspective of "correspondence between man and nature", TCM classifies the related things or phenomena in the natural world, and relates these things to the body's structure in accordance with the property of the five elements. For example, the body's five zang-viscera, six fu-viscera, five body constituents, five sense organs, etc. , are related to the five orientations, five annual divisions, five flavors, five colors, etc. , in the natural world. Thus, the body and natural environment are united, reflecting the mutual correspondence relationship between the body's internal and external environment. Thus it is pointed out in Chapter 9 of Plain Questions that liver-qi "corresponds to spring", heart-qi "corresponds to summer", lung-qi "corresponds to autumn", and kidney-qi "corresponds to winter". Chapter 22 also says, "Spleen-qi corresponds to latt-summer. " To illustrate this, spring corresponds to the east orientation , and wind-agent is predominant in spring. So the weather is warm and yang-qi begins to germinate_ and ascend, leading to the development of all things. Liver-qi of the body corresponds to these phenomena, hence liver-ql is exuberant in spring.
