The Treatment of Modern Western - Biblio.nhat-nam.ru

➤➤➤INTRODUCTION 15if qi stagnation has not caused the engenderment of any ofthese yin depressions, over time, these yin depressions willgive rise to qi stagnation.Further, because qi is yang in nature, qi stagnation tends totransform into depressive heat or fire. Because qi stagnationis commonly mixed with blood stasis, damp accumulation,phlegm obstruction, and food accumulation, these four yindepressions also commonly become mixed with evil heat.Hence, blood stasis commonly becomes stasis heat, dampaccumulation becomes damp heat, phlegm obstructionbecomes phlegm heat, and food stagnation becomes complicatedor mixed with stomach and intestinal heat. Thus, inreal-life clinical practice, when one has one of these sixdepressions, one typically has more than one.LI DONG-YUAN’S YIN FIRE THEORYLi Dong-yuan, a.k.a. Li Gao, was arguably the greatest of thefour great masters of the Jin-Yuan dynasty, at least in termsof understanding how to treat the “difficult to treat, knottydiseases” most Western practitioners of acupuncture andChinese medicine are called on to treat as our daily fare. InChinese, there is a saying, “For external diseases, [Zhang]Zhong-jing; for internal diseases, [Li] Dong-yuan.” Li isremembered today as the founder of the Bu Tu Pai, theSchool of Supplementing the Spleen and Stomach, and hisgreatest literary masterpiece is the Pi Wei Lun (Treatise on theSpleen & Stomach), available in a new 2004 translation fromBlue Poppy Press. However, if, judging from the title of Li’sbook, we think that it is about nausea, indigestion, diarrhea,and constipation, we will be greatly mistaken. If we know thecommon clinical manifestations of modern Western diseases,we will immediately recognize that the clinical examples Lipresents primarily correspond to allergies and autoimmunediseases.Li’s main theory is called the theory of yin fire. Like LiuWan-su, Li thought that most diseases eventually displayheat patterns. However, Li’s vision of where this heat comesfrom and how it is engendered is somewhat different fromLiu’s. Although Li accepted Liu’s theory of similar transformation,he felt that, at least in the case of chronic, enduringdiseases, heat is typically mixed with vacuity and especiallyspleen vacuity. The term yin fire has several meanings in Li’swork. First, yin fire develops from the lower burner, the yinpart of the body. Secondly, yin fire is commonly associatedwith damp or yin evils. And third, this heat or fire is pathologicaland, therefore, also yin. 16 Yin fire is a pathologicaltransformation, hyperactivity, and upward stirring of ministerialfire. According to Chinese medical theory, ministerialfire or lifegate fire is only healthy and beneficial when itremains calm or level in the lower burner, its lower source.The Chinese word ping ( ) means both calm in an abstractQI & 4 YIN DEPRESSIONS➤DAMPNESS➤➤➤➤➤➤FOOD➤➤QI➤➤BLOOD➤➤➤➤➤PHLEGM➤FIGURE 5