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The aim of syndrome differentiation of meridians and collaterals is to analyze the involvement of the meridians and the states of asthenia, sthenia, cold and heat accord-ing to the distribution and indication of meridians for the purpose of providing evidence for selecting the needling methods.
4. 1.2. 1 Syndrome differentiation methods
4. 1.2. 1.1 Identifying meridians through exam-ining the location of diseases
Identifying meridians through examining the location of diseases means to identify the involvement of the me-ridians in the pathological conditions according to the dis-tribution of the meridians where disease and pain occur. Take headache for example. The yang meridians run up to the head, but distribute differently. Yangming meridian runs up to the forehead, shaoyang merdian to the lateral side of the head, taiyang meridian to the posterior side of the head, and jueyin meridian to the vertex. Therefore headache over the forehead indicates the involvement of the yangming meridian, migraine indicates the involve-ment of the shaoyang meridian, and so on. Another exam-ple is toothache, the upper toothache is related to the foot-yangming meridian while the lower toothache is relat-ed to the hand-yangming meridian.
4. 1.2.1.2 Identifying meridians according to symptoms
This syndrome differentiation method is mainly based on the pathological manifestations of the twelve meridians recorded in the Chapter of Meridian in Lingshu (Spir-itual Pivot). For example, the symptoms of the lung me-ridian are "Cough, asthmatic breathing, asthma, vexation and fullness in the chest", so cough and asthma are the symptoms of the lung meridian. The symptoms of the stomach meridian are "singing in a high place and running about without clothes", so the manifestations of mental diseases are related to the stomach meridian.
4. 1.2. 1.3 Identifying meridians through the location of disease and symptoms
Some parts or zang-fu organs are connected with sev-eral meridians, or one single disease can be manifested over several meridians. Hence in the syndrome differenti-ation of the disease, both the location of disease and the pathological manifestations of the meridians must be taken into consideration for making accurate diagnosis. For ex-ample, the heart is connected with the heart meridian, the spleen meridian and the kidney meridian.
4. 1.2. 1.4 Identifying meridians according to the zang-fu organs
The twelve meridians are related to the correspond-ing zang-fu organs respectively, so the involvement of the meridians in the pathological conditions can be identified according to the theory of zang-fu organs. Take retention of urine for example. It is a disorder of the bladder and kidney and the corresponding meridians are the bladder meridian and kidney meridian.
4. 1.2.2 Syndrome differentiation of the twelve main meridians
This part is discussed in Chapter 2.
