TCM Theory
Qi and Life Energy
Qi in Chinese is literally “air” or “gas”; in the broad sense it
means life force, as in life energy. The “way”, or “Dao”, the form, of
it is such that one can definitely feel but not see it. An image
applicable here is that indeed you see the leaves of trees being moved
by the breeze, and you can also feel the breeze, yet you can not
directly perceive the breeze with your eyes, with your sense of sight.
The wind energy is there to make the leaves move, and your life energy
is there to enliven you and to make your body function as needed. It
is desirable that your life energy should flow as freely and smoothly
as the gentle wind blowing through the tree branches, as forcefully as
the wind that clears away the fall leaves, as the energy should clear
away the old, tired cells in your body, and as regularly as the four
seasons in following their specific rhythm. Acupuncture is one of the
highly effective ways for regulating the life energy flow to meet the
body’s needs. It works with the body meridians
(the acupuncture “channels”) and their collateral systems,
which may be likened to a map
of criss-crossing roads and streets. The acupuncture needles, inserted
at known, strategic points on this map, are like traffic conductors,
not only controlling the red and green lights but also solving traffic
jams and clearing away the debris of accidents.
Yin Yang and Balance
The concepts of Yin and Yang are very broad, both in their
denotations and connotations. While in certain fundamental ways they
are “opposites”, in other ways they are interrelated and even
interchangeable and rooted in one another. They relate directly to
such universal phenomena as sun and moon, winter and summer, day and
night, fire and water, male and female. Here, the sun, summer, day,
fire, male are yang elements, while the moon, winter, night, water and
female gender are yin elements. In any such pair, one aspect cannot be
recognized as such without the other; they are rooted in each other.
The striving to promote and reinforce the balance of such opposites,
including of the yin and yang factors in the human body and psyche, is
the core and foundation of Chinese medicine. For example, we shall
live in all these elements and not be harmed by the extremes of any of
them: we need sunlight, but not to be burned by it; in winter the cold
yin element is predominant, therefore we need to protect ourselves by
adding warm clothing or using an alternative yang element, fire, to
balance the cold temperatures. The organs of the human body, too, are
categorized according to their predominantly yin or yang properties;
for instance, the five parenchymatous viscera, also called the five
solid viscera: lungs, heart, liver, spleen, kidneys are yin organs,
whereas the six hollow viscera are yang organs.
Five Elements
The five elements are wood, fire, earth, metal and water; they form gendering and otherwise controlling cycles. Thus wood will make fire stronger (gendering), water will dissolve the fire (controlling). The ancient Chinese physicians in turn applied these elements to component parts of the human body, also according to their properties. The heart thus corresponds with fire, the liver with wood, the kidneys with water.
The Meridian Network
Meridians and their collaterals are the traffic roads wherein the Qi travels. There are 12 regular meridians (channels), eight extra meridians, fifteen collaterals, twelve bypass collaterals, twelve tendon collaterals, twelve skin areas and innumerable micro- collaterals, superficial collaterals and blood collaterals. They are distributed all over the body and are interconnected with each other. Some of them are deep within the body, some are on the body surface. Again, one may conceive them as though viewed on a (road-)map, with many linkages connecting the highways and country roads, and allowing them to criss-cross each other. Acupoints are the points anatomically arrayed along these energy pathways that connect to interior organs and all parts of the body. By virtue of these pathways, the “acupoints” affect the nervous system and brain functions, as well as the endocrine, digestive, reproductive, musculo-skeletal and cardiovascular systems.
