Zang and Fu

Chinese medicine and Western medicine are quite different over the basic philosophy and understanding of the human body. Western medicine takes a micro approach to diseases and uses anatomy as a source to provide evidence for its theories. Chinese medicine uses a more macro approach to describe the human body and its diseases. The phrase “The human body is a small universe” is commonly used in Chinese medicine scriptures as Chinese medicine tends to treat the body as a complete, inter-related system.

In Chinese medicine, the human body has 10 main internal organs. These 10 organs are the source of all chronic illness. The organs include heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidney, small intestine, large intestine, stomach, gallbladder, and bladder. The pancreas is considered to be a part of the liver system because it does not have a corresponding meridian line. In Chinese medicine theory, each main internal organ has a corresponding set of meridian. The meridian lines are placed on either side of body and symmetrical to each other. Along the meridian lines, there are several points that are called acupuncture points. Through stimulating the acupuncture points, one can then stimulate the meridian lines and modulate internal organs’ conditions. Acupuncture therapy is a well known method where practitioners place needles on these acupuncture points in order to cure certain illnesses.

In recent years, Chinese doctors have performed open heart surgery under acupuncture anesthesia. The patient was conscious during the entire procedure and the surgery was a success. This successful operation further strengthens the argument that the meridian system and meridian points do exist.

In “The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine,” it states that each internal organ’s meridian line is linked together with another internal organ’s meridian line. For instance, the heart meridian and the small intestine meridian are symmetrical along each arm. The lung meridian and large intestine meridian are also symmetrical, as well as the liver and gallbladder meridian, spleen and stomach meridian, and kidney and bladder meridian. What is interesting about the pairings is that each pair consists of an organ that is hollow and an organ that is solid. Large intestine, small intestine, stomach, gallbladder, and bladder are organs that are considered hollow and are often used as containers for the body. Heart, lungs, liver, spleen, and kidney are solid organs that contain mechanism apparatus. The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine defines hollow organs as Fu and solid organs as Zang.

5 Zang: Heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidney.

5 Fu: Small intestine, large intestine, gallbladder, stomach, bladder.

Furthermore, the Emperor’s Classic states that each Zang organ corresponds to a Fu organ. This relationship is valuable during diagnosis as illness located in Zang organs may have originated from Fu organs and vise versa.

Corresponding Zang and Fu organs:

- Heart and small intestine

- Lungs and large intestine

- Liver and gallbladder

- Spleen and stomach

- Kidney and bladder

These corresponding relationships can be seen in many symptoms during illness. For instance, when a person catches a cold, Chinese medicine defines the symptoms as originated from lungs. Because lungs and large intestine are interrelated, during cold illness, the person will often experience symptoms of constipation. Another example is the enterovirus that is common in Taiwan during summer times. Using the system above, we can see that the heart and small intestine are interrelated. During summer times, the high temperature will cause the heart to increase activity, thus affecting the bacteria within the small intestine area. Using Chinese medicine, one can relieve the symptoms of enterovirus by stabilizing the heart activity through meridian.

The Emperor’s Classic interprets the human body system as a system that is made out of 10 organ sub systems. Each sub system includes the organ and its meridian. Moreover, each sub system is connected to another sub system through their meridian lines. Since the 2 interconnected sub systems react similarly to body changes, The Emperor’s Classic merges the 2 sub systems into 1, which means the entire body system can be divided into 5 sub systems. This classification made it easier for Chinese medicine practitioners to observe the relationships between body organs and utilize the body system model.

It is rather common to divide complex systems into 5 sub elements. For instance, I have been a business management consultant for many years; we can see this type of classification in business management. Any business can be divided in to 5 parts – production, sales, personnel, research and development, and financial affairs. Any change in any of the 5 elements will have an impact on the other 4 elements. The most important job of a business management consultant is to balance the 5 elements when they are imbalanced. Such job task is very similar to the one of a Chinese doctor.

The Emperor’s Classic explains that a healthy body is one that is balanced in the 5 sets of internal organs. Most illnesses are caused by imbalance within the organ systems and the most important part of healing is to restore such balance. The Zang and Fu terms in Chinese medicine not only the meridian system is similar to our everyday house lighting system. Each internal body organ can be considered as a light bulb within the lighting system. Meridian lines are similar to the wiring from the power supply to the light bulbs. Meridian points are similar to the light switches. A complete lighting system consists of the light bulb, the wiring, and the switches. When a light bulb is not responding, it could be that the power supply is malfunctioning. It could also be that the light switches are broken, or there could be something wrong with the wiring or even the light bulb itself. Similarly, when a body organ is malfunctioning, it could be because that the body’s power supply, or in this case, the body energy level is low. Or it could be that there are abnormal clogging near the meridian points (Light switches), or there could be clogging within the meridian lines (wiring), or it could be that there is something wrong with the organ itself (light bulb).

The knowledge of the meridian system allows Chinese doctors diagnosis illness and determines its original cause. For instance, when person experiences spasms in the foot area, the diagnosis from a modern doctor would most likely be focused on nerve damage or muscle sprain. A Chinese doctor however, in addition to modern doctor’s diagnosis, will determine which meridian line is related to the spasms according to the location of the spasms. Once the meridian line is determined, Chinese doctors can judge whether the spasm is caused by 1 of the 10 internal organs.

Besides the 5 Zang and 5 Fu meridian lines, there are several additional meridian lines according to The Emperor’s Classic. These meridians are the pericardium meridian which affects the viscosity of the fluid between the heart and the pericardium, the heart meridian that affects blood flow, and finally the “Three Jiao” meridian. Chinese medicine defines the chest area into 3 sections, upper Jiao, middle Jiao, and lower Jiao. The Three Jiao meridian affects the air flow within the chest cavity. Since the chest cavity shares the hollowness characteristic of a Fu organ, it is considered as the 6^th Fu of the body. Thus, the term “Five Zang Six Fu” and the 12 related meridians became the common terms that Chinese people use to describe the human body.

The original "Manual for Human Body" - The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine

Appromixmately 3000 years ago, a mysterious medical scripture appeared in China. The scripture was titled “The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine.” (皇帝內經) The scripture explains the relationship between the human body and nature, and teaches people how to live healthily during different seasons. For instance, people should sleep late and wake up early during spring and summer, whereas people should sleep early and wake up late during fall and winter. Basically, a person’s biological clock should be based on the time of dawn and dusk. The scripture then talks about the various causes of illness that can be avoided during daily life and various ways to deal with illness once it occurs. Through reasoning and analysis, the scripture explains how each illness symptoms relate to different body organs as well as how different moods have an effect on the body.

There has been no confirmation as to who the author of the scripture is, as well as the exact day that the scripture was published. But for the past 3000 years, almost all of the practitioners of Chinese medicine acknowledge the scripture as the bible for Chinese medicine. It has been said that if a doctor can master 1/10 of the scripture, he would have the ability to treat patients. If a doctor is able to master 1/3 of the scripture, he would become one of the more famous doctors of that era. Throughout history, only several doctors have ever mastered the entire scripture.

In the past 3000 years, there has not been any significant advance in terms of Chinese medicine theories that has not already been covered by the Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine. In the past 50 years, many Chinese scientists attempted to prove some of the theories that were stated in the scripture through scientific experiments. There has been more and more evidence to show that these theories are indeed accurate. For instance, the scripture stated that the body fluids can be classified into 2 groups, “Ron-Qi” and “Wei-Qi”. Chinese scientists have recently proven that “Ron-Qi” is another term to describe the blood inside the blood vessel and “Wei-Qi” is another term to describe the body fluid that flows along the meridian. With the current speed of progress, perhaps it will take many more decades until we can prove the majority of theories from the scripture.

From the story of King Midas, to the development of Modern Medicine vs. Chinese Medicine

When I was young, the story of King Midas left a deep impression in my mind. King Midas had the power to turn everything that he touches into gold, making him the wealthiest person in the world. Although this power ended up becoming a burden for the king, the idea of creating gold has been an aspiring one. Alchemy, the investigation of nature with the goal of converting metals into gold and silver has long been a major driving force of Western science up to the 18^th century. Many alchemists made significant contributions to what was the modern day chemistry and physics through their quest to uncovering the recipe of gold making. The study of alchemy helped lay the foundation for modern day chemistry which is also the basis of modern day medicine.

By contrast, ancient Chinese emperors have long been pursuing immortality. Qin Shi Huang’s (The first emperor of the Qin Dynasty) aspiration for eternal health has been well documented as well as various other emperors throughout Chinese history. Instead of wealth, Chinese emperors were more interested in prolonging their life. Such difference of goals between Western and Eastern rulers had a deep impact on the science development of each civilization. While alchemy was considered a serious science up to the 18^th century, Chinese emperors turned to Taoism and Taoist priests for guidance towards immortality.

If Western medicine was developed under the foundation of chemistry, Chinese medicine was a science built from systematology. Before the invention of computers, human have never built any product that had similar systematic make-up as the human body. Because of the lack of knowledge in systematology, Chinese medicine theories have been difficult to understand in the past for non practitioners and are often times considered as metaphysics or sometimes even as a religion. However, since computers became a commodity in the late 20^th century, systemotology has become common knowledge for many people. If we compare our body system to the computer system, we can see that they have many similarities. For example, a typical computer system consists of hardware, operation software, and application software. Similarly, Chinese medicine defines to body system into 3 parts, body, mind, and soul. The mind, in Chinese medicine in the sense of Chinese medicine, is not just the brain organ but rather the entire conscious of a person. If a person attempts to dissect a computer, he will not be able to find proof of the operation and application software. By the same token, mind and soul cannot be seen through anatomy. Operation and application systems can only be seen when the computer system is functioning. Similarly, a person’s heart and soul can only be found while the person is still alive. Many observations of Chinese medicine can only be found on a live person, these phenomenons disappear after the person dies.

Reincarnation is a concept that is believed by many Eastern religions. The believe that a person’s soul will remain after the person’s body is deceased is similar to a computer’s software being able to function on different computer hardware. However, because we cannot prove any of these theories through anatomy, we are unable to explain these occurrences.

Modern medicine, like most other sciences, is interested in evidence and proofs. Most of these proofs are obtained through anatomy, which is a field that Chinese medicine is lacking in. If anatomy is a science that is performed on a dead person, Chinese medicine can be described as a science that can only be performed on a living person. For instance, the meridian is a major system used in Chinese medicine. During acupuncture therapy, when the needle arrives at the correct meridian points, patients will report sensations such as soreness, numbness, and bloating feel. Acupuncturist will feel that the needle appears to “stick” to the meridian points once the needle is in place. Such event is known as “Attracted Needle” in acupuncture. Acupuncturists have attempted to perform acupuncture on corpses, however, these phenomenon do not occur on dead subjects. Thus, researches regarding acupuncture can only be done on living creatures, rather through plain anatomy. Besides acupuncture, the flow of the body fluid is also a key study in the meridian system. Yet once a person dies, the body fluids will no longer flow regularly. Therefore once again we cannot observe these phenomenons through anatomy. For these reasons, it has been much more difficult to provide proofs for Chinese medicine theories compare to modern medicine.

Besides the lack of proof using anatomy, Chinese medicine’s diagnosis is based on another system that is difficult to prove scientifically. Chinese medicine constructed a complete model to describe the human body system. This model divides the body’s 10 major organs into 5 groups, each group consists a pair of organs. Each pair of organs is related closely to each other. When an organ experience changes during illness, the organ that corresponds to sick organ will go through similar changes. Chinese medicine practitioners observed these changes and created a system that uses wood, fire, earth, metal, and water as symbols to describe the body system.

During Chinese medicine diagnosis, Chinese doctors need to observe the patient’s symptoms closely as well as the patient’s physical and mental conditions. Using the above system as a guide, Chinese doctors then use logical reasoning to diagnosis the illness. Such reasoning requires the doctor to be both experienced and skilled. Thus, traditional Chinese doctors are trained through the form of master and apprentice.

Similar to the meridian system, Chinese medicine’s model for human body system can only be seen on living body. With the current technology that we have access to, we cannot prove many phenomenons described in the model. Yet with the continuing technological progress, the real concepts of Chinese medicine should be able to be accepted as more and more people understand its various systems. And for many current chronic diseases, Chinese medicine may be the right direction towards finding a cure.