(Sorry the picture diagrams of this article are missing,
the link to the origional article is at the end of the article)
Origins of Chinese Wisdoms of Wellness
Daniel Monti, M.D., and Jingduan Yang, M.D.
Mar 08, 2005
Working in a university-based integrative medicine program, we have observed a tremendous surge in attention to and use of Classic Chinese medicine (CCM), which in part may be due to greater availability of CCM modalities and increased research reports validating the efficacy of CCM, especially when used in conjunction with conventional Western Medicine.
There are now numerous studies that have shown that CCM techniques can be very helpful for a wide variety of pain problems such as headaches, and that certain illness populations such as cancer patients can achieve symptom relief of things like chemotherapy-induced nausea. There are many other examples as well.
However, one of the difficulties for people in the Western world is an understanding of what CCM is, where it came from, and how its different components are related. Those questions are sometimes a challenge even for people in the East, especially because we do not really know when in time CCM began; the roots are definitely before recorded history. The earliest recordings are very interesting and give us a sense of the foundation of CCM.
As we take a look at them, it is important to keep in mind that CCM comes from a broad philosophy of life, and that well-known techniques such as acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, Tai Chi, I-chin and Feng Shui are derived from this larger framework. Sometimes there is a tendency with these modalities to cut them away from the holistic framework that founded them.
So, let’s take a look at this broader framework by briefly exploring some of the early recordings and reviewing the basic philosophical concepts that define this all-encompassing framework of health, illness, contentment, spirituality; in essence life itself.
Let’s start with the stories of He Tu and Lo Shu.
The Story of He Tu (The River Map)
Fu Hsi was believed to be the first of China's mythical emperors. His miraculous birth as a divine being with a serpent body is said to have occurred in the 29th Century BC.
One day, as Fu Hsi was sitting on the bank of the Yellow River, a mythical divine animal called Chi Lin rose out of the waters and approached him. On its back it carried certain markings that represented the secrets of life. The markings are organized in a pattern called He Tu, as shown below:
In this pattern, there are two kinds of dots, black dots, and white dots. The black one represents Yin, and the white one represents Yang. On each side, there are both White dots and black dots, which means Yin and Yang are always together.
This is the source of Yin/Yang theory that everything possesses a positive bright side (Yang) but at the same time has a negative dark side (Yin), that is often represented in the popular tai chi symbol. Yin and Yang are complementary and integrate with each other, and it is believed that harmony can only be achieved with a balance between the two. In this sense, the terms positive and negative are not meant to suggest good or bad, but rather the qualitative aspects of the two poles of energy within every living thing.
In this pattern, you can see that the dots are arranged in five distinct groups, each of which represents one of the five elements: water, fire, earth, wood, and metal and five directions. These five elements represent the material aspects of the universe. That is, every tangible thing in the universe is composed of one or more of these elements. More importantly, living things, such as human beings, are composed of all of the five elements. This is the source of five elements theory.
The clockwise direction of the overall pattern: starting from the center (Earth) to the West (Metal), then to the North (Water), then to the East (Wood), then to the South (Fire), then back to the Center (Earth), represents the cycle of birth.
In other words: Earth [5,10] produces Metal [4,9], Metal produces Water [1,6], Water nourishes Wood [3,8], Wood nourishes Fire [2,7], Fire produces Earth and so on).
Cycle of Birth
This cycle of birth (shen) has guided Chinese medicine to rebalance the human body system and its functions. It especially provides a foundation for understanding elemental states of deficiency and excess.
There is another important cycle in TCM called the Cycle of Death (ko). This cycle was discovered separately and provides another level of understanding of the balance of states of deficiency and excess. Like the shen cycle, the discovery of the ko cycle has a mythological story.
Story of Luo Shu
Hsia Yu
The schematic symbol of the death or ko cycle is Luo Shu, which translates as the book of the Luo River. However, it is not actually a book but, like He tu, it is a schematic of aspects of the five-element system. The Luo Shu was said to be discovered by a prehistoric personality, Hsia Yu, whose claim to fame was taming the Yellow River of floods.
One day Hsia Yu saw some very interesting markings on the shell of a giant tortoise that emerged from the River Lo in Central China. The pattern of the markings has become known as Lo Shu.
A reproduction of the original Lo Shu is like this:
Again, you see both white dots and black dots representing Yin and Yang.
If you put it into numbers of the dots, you will get form of a 9-square chart with each square representing a direction in the compass (see diagram below) namely North, South, East, West, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest and the center (total 9 locations.)
In this chart, you can see five groups of numbers, and they are exactly the same as the He Tu.
If you examine the chart counter-clockwise, you will get this:
This forms the cycle of death: Earth [5] destroys Water [1 & 6], Water destroys Fire [2 & 7], Fire destroys Metal [4 & 9], Metal destroys Wood [3 & 8], and Wood destroys Earth.
Again, this cycle of death guides treatment strategy in classic Chinese medicine.
Thus, the five elements have a systematic relationship. They describe the qualities of a living being and encompass all aspects of a living being, from emotions to energy channels.
One example of how an illness would be thought about in this system is arthritis. Arthritis in Chinese medicine involves at least three elements: water, wood and earth, that corresponds with the kidney, liver and spleen respectively. You have to address all these elements in treatment.
In chronic arthritis, deficiency and blockage in the above three elements are responsible for causing the pain, therefore, selecting acupuncture points and Chinese herbal formula that strengthen these elements are the key to reduce the pain. Using cycles of birth and death theories, you can further strengthen the water by enhance the metal as metal gives birth to water, also you reduce fire (manifested as inflammations at times) by enhance the water which controls fire.
Moreover, emotion of fear, anger and worry affects the three elements respectively; therefore, taking care of emotional balance is also important aspects of treatment.
In this example, everything in the person’s entire mind-body-energy system is considered, and the particular joint causing pain is only one of many considerations in the overall approach. That is the essence of TCM in its purest form; harmonious balance on all levels is the goal.
This approach requires a broader perspective of human life, and ideally both the health practitioner and patient would share in this perspective. It has been our experience that when that happens, the journey forward has many rewards and possibilities.
The interesting thing is that even though this may seem for some to be a new way of looking at health and illness, it is actually goes so far back that we are unable to put an originating date on it. This pre-historic wisdom has not only survived the ages, but is now re-emerging as a valid approach to health and illness, which is interesting to consider given that often times people assume that prehistoric cultures were primitive.
We have only scratched the surface in this brief program of the intricacy and mathematical elegance that is integral to the foundation of this ancient science.
