中医脏腑概念

Glad to see you all. This class we will talk about the fifth chapter: theory of organs and meridians.

Chinese Medicine believes the core parts of human body are the viscera, also named internal organs.

Which is basically in concert with modern medicine

Lack of arms or legs are not fatal, but one can not live without viscera

If one is without heart, liver or kidney, will he be able to live?

The answer is obvious: no!

That’s because they are the most essential organs of life, and they are indispensable

Is the viscera in Chinese Medicine the same with which in modern medicine?

There is an essential difference between these two.

Modern medicine defines viscera from the anatomical point of view

It observes interior human organs, which are different in both tissues and forms,

while Chinese Medicine define viscera from the functional point of view.

Sometimes, they are quite different from the anatomical conceptions.

This class aims to teach you the basic idea of Chinese Medicine’s viscera conceptions

is there a difference between the internal organs Zang and the hollow organs Fu

In Chinese Medicine, "Zangfu"(internal organs) is the generic term for interior organs

But there is an essential difference between the two

我们首先介绍中医里的“五脏” First let’s introduce the five internal organs in Chinese Medicine

The five internal organs refer to liver, heart, spleen, lung and kidney.

Most of them all parenchymatous organs, full of energy

Their main function is storage,

namely the five internal organs can deposit cereal nutrients for the maintaining of life activities.

如精、气、血等。 Such as energy, qi, blood and so on.

Are the heart and lung in Chinese Medicine the same with those in the modern medicine?

Heart and lung, parts of the five internal organs, are basically the same with their counterparts in modern medicine.

But are more close in positions and in forms.

The slight distinction is Chinese Medicine refers to pericardium

as heart-sac, or Danzhong, to show its difference from modern medical heart.

Especially when the pericardium or heart is experiencing pathological changes, the differences are more distinct.

Then is there a huge difference between their functions?

Yes, from the point of its functions

Chinese Medicine believes that except from blood transporting,

heart also posses the function of "Zangshen", namely charging deities

Or we can simply call it the function of governing spirits

Lung, except from the respiratory function

can also smooth the water channels and help body fluid metabolize

People often say that kidney and spleen are the most fundamental organs

Which modern medicine does not back up

Then can we assume kidney and spleen in Chinese Medicine are not the same with them in modern medicine?

This is a very good question.

They are not entirely the same.

Chinese medicine believes that kidney mainly helps human growth, reproduction

body fluid metabolism and also helps to provide and tend to the viscera.

从上述功能看，应该是多器官的综合体， From these functions, we can see it is a combination of multiple organs

Aside from kidney in modern medicine

It should also include male’s testicles and some functions of female’s ovary.

Among them kidney is the key part, which is the shared knowledge of generations of therapists.

For example, Huang di’s Canon of Medicine: Su Wen

And Yi Guan all mentioned that

“(kidney) is under the fourteenth vertebra, the width of each is 1.5 fen

The shape is like two face-to-face and curved cowpeas, cling to the backbone and is covered by yellow grease.”

This is the same with the anatomical kidney

And the spleen?

Chinese Medicine believes the spleen has two main functions

One is to govern digestive functions and the other to govern blood transporting

From the functional point of view, instead of looking it as the modern medical spleen

We should rather call it the modern digestive system

It including stomach, liver, pancreas and intestinal digestive and absorptive functions

And it also has the function of governing blood, which has no claim in modern medicine.

So what are fu, namely the hollow organs?

We just mentioned the Chinese five internal organs

Now we talk about Chinese five hollow organs: gallbladder, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, bladder and sanjiao

Morphologically, they are hollow and not full of energy as "Zang"

Functionally, they can not generate and deposit energy like "Zang"

They have the function of transforming and storing essence.

Here whether the stomach, small intestine and large intestine are overlapped with the spleen?

This is a good question and ostensibly, they are.

But actually Chinese Medicine resolved the functions of stomach and intestines

And distribute the functions of transporting food and chyle to the stomach, small intestine and large intestine, namely three of the five hollow organs

And the digestive and absorptive functions to spleen

Then what are the functions of gallbladder?

From modern medicine’s point of view, gallbladder has the function of deposit and secrete bile

When needed, it will secrete bile into intestines

When non-needed, it will conserve it in the cholecyst

Yi Xue Jian Neng mentioned that

“Gallbladder, one of the five hollow organs, belongs to the wood, mainly functions to ascend the clear and descend the turbid and smooth the middle earth”

Compared with liver, it has the functions of "Fu"the five hollow organs, so Chinese Medicine allots it to the five hollow organs.

But at the same time, it has the function of conserving essence

So it was called extraordinary organs along with the brain, cell, marrow, bone and vein.

Because they share some similarities

Morphologically, it is hollow like the five hollow organs. Functionally, it conserves essence, like five internal organs

What is Sanjiao?

According to the five elements, Chinese medicine only has five internal organs and five hollow organs, and Sanjiao is not included.

Actually Sanjiao is not at the same classification level as the five internal organs(Zang) and the five hollow organs(Fu)

Huang di’s Canon of Medicine: Su Wen: Ling Lan Mi Dian mentioned that

“Sanjiao, the functional organ which governs the body fluid’s channeling”

which means that Sanjiao spreads all over human thoracic cavity and abdominal cavity

And is the channel of blood, qi and other body fluids

Traditionally, Shangjiao means the parts above the diaphragm, including heart and lung.

The so called smoky Shangjiao refers to its dispersing function

which makes qi, blood and body fluids all over the body like smoke

Zhongjiao lies under the diaphragm and above navel, including spleen and stomach

When they transporting and transforming decomposed food, the food will be digested.

So bubbly Zhongjiao refers to its digestive function

Xiaojiao, lies below the navel, includes liver, kidney and bladder

So Channeling Xiajiao refers to its excretory function

From the discussion, we can basically draw the following conclusions.

First, Chinese Medicine built the human body model based on viscera

Second, the viscera in Chinese Medicine are morphologically

Different from the modern medicine

Knowing these two points, we know the nature of Chinese viscera

That is all for today. Next we will further our discussion on the theory of visceral main and collateral.

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