TIP: Read the section on yin/yang and qi in your challenge journal before reading this lesson, if you are not already familiar with those concepts. (pp. 158-163)
May You Live 100 Years
Chinese medical theory believes that the human organism is built to live 100 years. According to the first chapter of the Beijing (Inner Classic), the "Bible" of Chinese medicine, most people have enough essence to last five-score years. Barring accidental death or infectious disease, we are designed to last 100 years. The key is to stay in balance, both with your activity levels and diet. Keeping in balance will also keep you at a healthy weight.
Like Goldilocks - Getting it Just Right
In Chinese medicine, exercise and rest/relaxation are seen as the yin/yang aspects of a single issue. If we are too active, we consume too much fuel or substance. Therefore, rest and relaxation are the flip side of the coin of activity.
Because the fundamental view of Chinese medicine on health and disease is based on the Doctrine of the Mean (zhong yong) functional activities should be moderate—not too much and not too little.
If there is too little exercise, form or material substance is not adequately consumed and transformed and starts to accumulate and gum up the works in the form of phlegm, dampness, turbidity, and blood stasis.
If there is too little rest, (hyperactivity - be that physical, mental, or emotional), consumes too much substance and overheats the organism leading to burnout (qi and yin vacuity). This means that diet on the one hand must be balanced by adequate activity and rest/relaxation on the other.
Get to know your digestive system
In Chinese, the digestive system is called the xiao hua xi tong. Literally the first two words translate to system. Xiao means to disperse and hua means to transform. In Chinese medicine, digestion equals the dispersion of pure substances to be retained and the impure substances to be excreted after these have undergone transformation.
Therefore, the digestive tract is called xiao hua dao or pathway of dispersion and transformation. In Chinese medicine, digestion is described mostly in terms of the functions of the spleen and stomach. Once you understand the functions of the spleen and stomach, Chinese dietary therapy becomes very clear and logical.
The Triple Burner
The spleen and stomach are a yin-yang pair The stomach is one of the six bowels and is relatively yang. The spleen is one of the five viscera and is relatively yin. The stomach's function is to receive food and liquids and to "decompose and cook' these. In Chinese medicine, the stomach is likened to a pot on a stove.
Both reside in the Triple Burner or Triple Energizer, the trunk of the body. There is an upper burner containing the heart and lungs, a middle burner containing the spleen and stomach, and a lower burner containing the kidneys, intestines, liver, and reproductive organs.
The Stomach as a Pot
The stomach is the pot of the middle burner, and the spleen is both the fire under this pot and the distillation mechanism to which this pot is attached. Just as a mash rottens and ripens in a pot, so foods and liquids decompose and are cooked within the stomach.
In Chinese medical terms, this means that, as foods and liquids decompose and are cooked, the pure or clear and impure or turbid parts of these foods and liquids are separated. It is then the spleen’s function is to distill or drive upward the purest parts of foods and liquids, the so-called finest essence of liquids and foods, sending the pure part of foods up to the lungs and the pure part of liquids up to the heart.
The stomach then sends down the impure or turbid part of foods to be further transformed by the large intestine, and the impure parts of liquids to be further transformed by the small intestine. In Chinese medicine, the large intestine’s function is to reabsorb the pure part of the impure foods or solids.
This becomes the postnatal or latter heaven fuel for kidney yang or the life-gate fire. The small intestine's function is to reabsorb the pure part of the impure parts of liquids. This is transformed into the body's thick liquids such as cerebrospinal and intra-articular fluids and nourishes postnatal kidney yin.
The large intestine conducts the impure of the impure solids down and out of the body as feces. The small intestine conducts the impure of the impure liquids to the bladder from whence they are excreted as urine. This sending down of the impure part of foods and liquids initiated by the stomach is called the downbearing of the turbid.
So, we can see that in Chinese medicine, digestion is spoken of as the separation of the dear and turbid.
This separation is dependent upon the qi-transformation of the middle burner or spleen-stomach and upon the spleen qi’s ability to move or transport foods and fluids. Hence, Chinese spleen function is summed up in the two words yun (movement) and hua (transformation).
Since movement implies dispersion, the concept of movement and transformation is simply an older, more traditional way of describing the digestive system's dispersion and transformation.
Creating the perfect microbiome
The analogy of the cooking pot introduced above is very important. It is said in Chinese that the stomach has an aversion to dryness. In other words, stomach function is dependent upon the creation of a mash or soup in its cauldron or pot. It is also said in Chinese that the spleen fears dampness. Since spleen function is likened to a fire under a pot distilling the essence from the mash held in the stomach, it is easy to understand that too much water or dampness can douse or damage this fire.
Using this analogy, it is both simple and crucial to understand that according to Chinese medicine, the digestive process consists of first creating a 1 00° F soup in the stomach. Whatever facilitates the creation of such a 100° soup in the stomach benefits digestion, and whatever impedes or impairs the creation of a 100° soup in the stomach impedes or impairs digestion.
This is basically true even from a Western medical perspective. Most of the insights and principles of Chinese dietary theory and therapy are logical extensions of this common sense and irrefutable truth.
Citations
Flaws, B. (1998). The Tao of Healthy Eating: Dietary Wisdom According to Chinese Medicine 2nd ed. (Directly quoted)
Zhang, Y. (2020). A Comprehensive Handbook of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Prevention & Natural Healing. (Referenced)
Zhang, Y. & Yao, Y. (2012). Your Guide to Health with Foods & Herbs: Using the Wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine. (Referenced)