Relación de los Requerimientos del sistema

I. The Patient II. The Personality: shen, hun, po III. Decision. Imagination

I. The Patient

The Nei states:

Everyone is ill in his own way. sage must take Similarly, according to the Da Cheng

For the same illness, the treatment for each person is

The individualization of an illness due to the characteristic energetic imbalance producing suscepti-bility to disease. The patient’s particul state and constitution determine his particular symptoms and their degree of manifestation. The presentation of symptoms and their relative strength will be different for each patient.

Guided by the pulses, one can determine the specific energetic disharmonies which produce the illness and lead to other illnesses if not redressed. In the Da Cheng it is remarked:

The 404 varieties of illness cannot be described, Their modijcations are too numerous. But it is enough to care for the meridians to remove all illnesses.

However, even if each person is sick in his own way, it is possible to distinguish large groups of patient types. It is not a question here of physical types but of similar reactions from the point of view of energy. It is consistently a question of:

I) “High-placed” people (gui) and “common” people (jian). The former generally describes intellectuals and city people. In China, from the third century onward, “high-placed” people formed a select group, since in order to aspire to state positions it was necessary to present three generations of letters from both the paternal and maternal side of the family.

The high-placed are frail. One must avoid acting brusquely. It is advisable to act quickly and ( D A C H 1 3 r )

When it is a matter of cold or rheumatism for the high-placed people, one must calm them and give drinks (while common people require heated needles).

High-placed people, also called the “Great Ones” are yang and have very developed yang energy.

Therefore, it is good to the yin. Commoners, also called “cloth-shirts, are the physical, country people, the manual workers whose minds are less exercised than the body. They are yin and have very developed yin energy.

It is advisable to the yang. (DACH I,

The commoners are resistant and rough. One must act strongly, deeply a long time. (DACH II, 13r) When there is the problem of cold or rheumatism, the “cloth-shirts” require the needles warmed

(DACH I,

The physical aspects of each type are opposite:

People slim in appearance, with white, thin skin, fine lips, and soft voice, have blood which is pure; it is easy to exhaust their energy or weaken their blood. Puncture these people lightly and with short duration. They are the great ones; puncture slowly and with caution.

People with wide shoulders, thick necks, dark skins, and thick lips have thick, black blood. Their energy is rough and slow. These people of materially large appearance have blood: their dermis is hard like leather. Their illnesses are from abundance. Puncture deeply and leave a long time. (DACH

2) Thin people. If, as experiments conducted in France seem to prove, the acupoint is in the aponeurosis or under the connective tissue, there is a significant difference in depth location between thin and fat people. It is in this sense that we should interpret this passage: “For fat people, act slowly and deeply, as in autumn and winter; for thin people, act quickly and superficially, as in summer.” The following passage concerning fat and thin people is more obscure:

Fatpeople are empty in the then afterwards, disperse. Thin people in the disperse, then afterwards, (DACH IV,

In fact, fat, pale people are yin; it is necessary to tonify the yang. Thin people are yang; it is advisable to tonify the yin.

For thin people, some precautions must be taken:

For puncturing thin people we must warm the needle a little in order to better link rong and (yin and yang).

The introduction of yang energy thinness and weakness. (DACH Ii,

Cold metals, such as steel, make the skin contract, increase pain, and do not allow easy insertion of the needle.

3) Children and the aged. For different reasons, children and the elderly have special responses to the different methods of acupuncture.

Children have delicate less blood, and weak energy. Consequently, in puncturing them, very fine needles should be used. Puncture superficially and quickly. However, _if there is an outbreak the same day, one can punc-ture again. (DACH

The elderly are generally devitalized; it is particularly necessary to tonify them. Repeated moxas are thus recommended. The needles must not disperse the energy or be used often.

4) Men and women. In theory, men are yang, women yin. In practice, nervous tension and overstimulation of yang are more noticeable in women (in whom yang must not abound). The lack of yin physical strength is more noticeable in men (in whom yin, lassitude, and rest should not abound). Men are more sensitive to pain than women. Con-versely, women often have more violent internal reactions, fatigue, or fainting.

It is recommended (for use with steel needles):

For men, press the point lightly, push the needle in a little, wait for the energy (yang) to spread. For women, press heavily on the point, puncture deeply, the rong energy (yin) to spread.

One other remark has been made, which has not been possible to verify:

The energy of men is above in the morning and below in the evening, while the energy of women is below in the morning and above in the evening. (YXRM I,

II. The Personality (Shen, Hun,

It may be useful to explain here certain terms linked to the personality, which we see appearing frequently in medical texts. These terms have no direct correspondences in Western languages.

First, we must note that although Indian Buddhism spread the idea of the division between spirit and matter, it was not able to extirpate the ancient Chinese notion that no spiritual or emotional function is separable from the organs. Kong-zi (Confucius) wrote in the fifth century ^B.C., “What makes the blade is the edge; no edge without a blade, no blade without an edge.”

The medical texts depict man as being composed of three elements: and po. A passage of the Nei (VIII, sixth line) explains the relationships of these elements to man:

When hun and po are injured, there is depression, and poor memory. When there is no more shen, one is no human.

Shen.

The ideogram for this word is formed of the elements: “that which drops from the sky; passing through the body”; that is to say, the ethereal element of cosmic energy; the cosmic force that animates form and gives it reason.

Shen represents the intelligence, or reason guided by principles and morals and not by instincts or needs.

The encyclopedia ( ‘Shen article) explains: “The shen can be measured in the yin-yang energy.” The Nei Shu article further states: “The shen is the sexual energy in the yang.” And in the Hun article: “The shen linked to energy forms

The term shen is often found in descriptions of remarkable beings: the geniuses, the guardian-spirits of a region, the gifted. Idiots and deranged people are said to be without shen.

Volume II -The Management of Energy

is stored (has its lodging) in the heart. It can be compared with our concept of consciousness: the external world and its possibilities are analyzed, and the realization of internal impulses sought. But it also includes a cosmic element specific to man; it must be combined with reason and moral inspiration, without which, it is said, we are not yet fully human.

Hun.

The ideogram is formed of “speech; ghost.” Speech and the breath are indications of the strength of energy, and the energy is what animates the ghost of the physical body.

The represents physical vitality, as opposed to the mental and emotional energy of the The is instinctive intelligence, not guided by the principle of reason, as is the Conniving behavior, instinct, and instinctive needs are all ruled by the The encyclopedia ‘Hun article) explains: “The shen linked to sexual energy forms the

The is stored (has its lodging) in the liver It is known to have a marked influence on the sex-ual life and its lodging place is at (ST-25).

The term hun is used in the sense of the subconscious and can be seen as representing the collective life of the organs. In India, it is considered to be the intelligence animating each organ and assuring their functions. It may be formed of the collective intelligence of the cells.

PO.

The ideogram is formed of the elements: “whiteness (an abbreviated form describing oneself) and ghost,” that is to say, the shadow of oneself, the unconscious part of the ego.

The encyclopedia ( “Hun article) states:

Man just being born, beginning to modify himself, is the po. Life and the immaterial linked to the form, constitute thepo.

And in the “PO” article of the Ci Yuan we find:

Thepo is the principle constituting the body. By analogy, we callpo the dark silhouette of the moon, as opposed to the luminous crescent.

The po is stored (has its lodging) in the lungs DACH VIII, Iv). Its “lodging place” is at ^tianshu (ST-25).

Chinese doctors often use this expression in the sense of the animal material life, as opposed to the mental shen, and the instinctive and organic hun.

The wondrous tales about apparitions imply that after death, the shen is the first to leave, then the hun, and always last, the po. If the stays too long in the body, it impedes the decomposition of the corpse and can animate it, turning it into a bloodthirsty, evil vampire.

III. Decision, Imagination

To hun, and po we add incontestable qualities which have their lodging in certain organs, one mental and the other emotional: the zhi and the yi.

Zhi.

The ideogram is formed of the elements “heart; minister.” In other words, the strength of character of the leader. This word is consistently used in the sense of decision, firm purpose, strength of character.

Its lodging is in the kidney with the sexual energy. Iv; DACH VIII, Yi.

The ideogram is formed of the elements: “The _sun (or speech) which rises above the heart-spirit.”

Its lodging is in the spleen-pancreas. I Iv; DACH Iv)

is often translated as “imagination,” but the term also implies ideation, the concentration of mind, or the faculty of understanding. Children who have a deficient spleen often perform poorly in school and have difficulty concentrating. However, when the spleen is correctly tonified these same children perform very well, particularly with subjects requiring concentration and analysis, such as mathematics.

Chapter IV Illness

I. Illness Itself II. Energy, the Origin of Illness III. Yin and Yang Illnesses

IV. Heat

Cold (Yin), Internal or External, Upper or Lower

I. Illness Itself

With the exception of homeopathy, since the time of Pasteur, disease has been seen in the West as a foreign entity defined as an invasive microbe. In China and Japan, disease generally was not viewed as having a microbial origin (although microbes were at least suspected since the question of the “animalcule of tuberculosis” was raised in a book of the sixteenth century.) Doctor elucidates the Far Eastern view on the etiology of disease when he writes: “The illness is not the invasion, but the weakness that calls in the invasion.“’

The several stages of disease are: the period of low resistance; the incubation period; the appearance of major symptoms; lesions or convalescence with lesions. In Europe, lowered resistance is never considered a part of the ill-ness. In China, it is part of the illness and even constitutes the true disorder.

The incubation period in Europe is scientifically studied, but only in terms of the length of time passed since the contagion; the symptoms which allow its recognition are ignored. In China, the slightest sign of incubation, perhaps as yet only psychological or emotional changes (representing energetic imbalances), are described and categorized.

Treatment is then immediately given to arrest or attenuate the full development of the sickness.

The major symptoms, with or without lesions, are considered in Europe as the “true” illness. In China, these symptoms are seen as the end of the illness; it is then only a matter of stopping the damage from spreading.

In Europe, a problem which may be chronic but which is not microbial, organic, or accompanied by physical symptoms, is considered of little importance, or due to psychological problems. The solution is to give sedatives. In China, great importance is attached to these emotional, mental or physical changes they are seen as the manifesta-tions of a disequilibrium of energy that will sooner or later lead to lowered resistance of an organ, a part of the body, or the entire organism.

To grasp the importance of Chinese diagnostic and treatment theory, a clear understanding of the differences between European and Chinese views of illness is necessary.

II. Energy, the Origin of Illness

illnesses energy. (Nei cited in YIX I,

Hundreds of illnesses begin [by attacking] the (yin) or (yang). then invade the skin, muscles and the vessels of the meridians. VI,

These initial attacks on the energy, described in the chapter, “Fullness or Emptiness,” always manifest through excess or insufficiency.

The study of the vital energy and the pulses has been of extreme value in determining slight functional problems often hardly noticed by the patient, but representing the beginnings of disequilibrium and loss of health. The concept that all emotional and mental disturbances precede health crises has come to China from both a knowledge of energy and medical subscription.

Medical subscription was traditionally a common practice in China. Yearly payments to the doctor were inter-rupted when there was illness, and the doctor was then obliged to provide medical care without charge until the patient recovered. The attention of the practitioner was consequently focused on the very first premonitional signs of illness, particularly the insufficiency or excess of energy. This method of medical subscription also encouraged the study and use of the most efficient therapies. Further, medical subscription motivated the clinicians to search for the causes of the insufficiencies and excesses of energy observed at the origin of all the subscribers’ illnesses.*

Two groups of causes were observed: internal and emotional causes, and external and physical causes.