[Music] previously we have looked at the important Chinese philosophical Concepts such as inyang and the five faes of us I have also introduced um the concept of te these Concepts that were first developed in the Joe Dynasty increasingly um became mature by the end of of the Dynasty uh in a period known as the Waring states that was marked by intense violence as Chinese medicine also evolved during this period um a period that witnessed so Much Death destruction and human suffering medical thinkers also adopted many philosophical Concepts as they formulated new medical theories after all
these Concepts were not just purely intellectual um Concepts um they are not products of intellectual exercise but rather they provided the Chinese with a complex but structured way of viewing and understanding the world while at the same time pondering their relationship with this world and the universe as individuals when China entered the Imperial age with the founding of the Ching Dynasty centralized ation of the state led to an intense Purge of knowledge um that the Ching regime did not agree with many books were destroyed as a result but medical texts which um were considered um
beneficial to the state managed to survive now I believe this helped with the later consolidation of medical knowledge that took place during the longer lasting Hasty and by the end of the d as the medical practitioners and thinkers had produced a coherent system of medical knowledge that inform and influence Chinese medical theories for the next 2,000 years in this lecture um we will examine how the human body or the Chinese medical body to be exact was understood from the hand Dynasty onwards in order to do that we will have to turn our attention um to
perhaps most important um classic medical text in the history of Chinese medicine also known as the the inner classic of the yellow emperor in English the inner classic is um the oldest text or a group of texts in the received tradition of East Asian medicine and has been cited since um the Song Dynasty to explain and justify medical practices there are different theories regarding the origins of the inner classic of the yellow Emperor U most Scholars uh at least agreed that the work is a collection of texts of various lengths um written by different people
this group of texts were circulated among Physicians and Scholars by the end of the Han Dynasty and was somewhat considered as uh authoritative um at least it was um what people used to believe in um however recent studies on the uh canonicity of the inner classic suggest that there um there also are the important medical text that existed besides the inner classic by the late Han Dynasty it was unlikely that the the H um ever reached the complete standardized version that we know today by the late Han also texts in the Han Dynasty and before
were really nothing like the book that we know today a book back in those days was um a collection of writings on bamboo strips string together into Scrolls they were heavy and were prone to damage um okay they're not as bad as paper but still in other words these Tex were difficult to produce and they were expensive and a Tex like w aing would consist of multiple Scrolls since is meant to be a collection of different Texs therefore it is not something that one could sta in one's bag and bring along with him um as
such it was slly that Scholars or Physicians um owned only parts of the inner classic instead of the entire collection now that was the reason why later Scholars uh such as hang fui uh who was also an imperial physician of The Zing Dynasty found the inner classic texts in this array and decided to edit and compile them so from the third to the 9th century uh Chinese Scholars continued to work hard preserving this ancient medical classic while at the same time uh re-editing the existing versions um sometimes even adding new chapters to replace those that
um they think were lost this text likely only reached its final form with the invention of paper and printing and once the text was um standardized by the Song Dynasty in the 11th century it quickly became the preeminent text in Chinese medicine um as it was now easily um circulated in a paper book form the standard addition of the inner classic of the yellow Emperor is divided into two texts by the time of the S Dynasty the first of these two Texs is known as um or um basic questions sometimes translated into inquiry into the
fundamental Su which consist of 24 J or books covers the theoretical Foundation of Chinese medicine and its diagnostic methods the second text is the lingu um or spiritual pivot or numinous pivot um and lingu discusses acupuncture therapy in great detail originally consisting of nine books or nine gen um Ling was eventually expanded to 24 books just like swen many of the books um ideas particularly those relating to anatomy and physiology would obviously seem primitive and maybe attach outdated to Modern readers but no more so than ideas from a similar time in Western medicon but the
basic ideas remain relevant even up to the present day the Hang recognizes that for everyone the processes of the body follow certain natural um rules and that health and disease um are both influenced by natural aging processes as well as the environment now all this needs to be underst stood uh to ensure accurate diagnosis and specific treatment for a medical condition we will now look at what the inner classic of the yellow Emperor has um to say about the human body according to um the inner classic uh the the visceral and the Bowers are found
inside the human body now previously I have talked about the organs that uh function as long-term depositories of um the spirit ocean now this type of organs um is also known as Tang right I believe you um remember that we can call it the Tang organ uh or viscera um the other category are the short-term um depository organs um known as fool we can also call the them the full organs or Bowers now besides the Tung and full organs there is the meridian Network or oring that is made up of um different Meridian Channel known
Asma in Chinese and the associated vessels or collaterals the now um and and finally we have the Zin or the essence in the body uh the tea and the sh of spirit now Essence and spirit are often linked in a compound word J um or used singly or interchangeably the phrase Essence and spirit um of course that could also be expressed as Essence Spirit J um and according to um the author they were under the control of every individual person a person's Behavior Uh determine um whether the spirit was able to extract itself from control
which of course is a bad thing as Spirit should be stored in the various tongue organs in the first place and shouldn't be uh extracted T moves around the body in a regular rhythm through the Meridian networking now so how does t move in the first place te has to First Infuse movement into blood and and so that blood may carry te throughout the body all right so that's a close relationship between blood and tea now all this is a simple explanation of what goes on inside the human body according to Chinese medicine but what
goes on inside the human body cannot be seen as being independent from what goes on on the outside the body is not an inde dependent entity it is a microcosm of the unified political State and the state as a microcosm of the universe book eight in suan um introduces the 12 organs uh the tang and the fu so we know that the Tang is um or rather are the storage organs that uh that provide long-term storage they're also known as visera and uh fol uh which are the short-term storage organs also known as Bowers these
Tong and F are they are homologous uh with the collaborative hierarchy of the emperor and his court official it is not as simple as the Imperial bureaucracy at standing is reach into the human body but rather it's the other way the human body is actually one with the state such concept could only have developed because of the relative stability um brought by the establishment of the Han Dynasty bureaucratic organs um control the bod's fluid in this case both tea and blood as if they were officiers stationed along the imperior waterways controlling uh controlling the flow
um of the the traffic the flow of the the boats and ships along the various waterways in China organs in Chinese is tan and official in the Imperial bureaucracy um was also um aan the government office is Guan F in Chinese um so if you recognize the character for in this case for office right it actually shares the same origin um as fo in organs at the center of the Imperial power we have the emperor and in this case um that is actually represented by the heart in the body the heart holds the office of
sovereign the radiance of the spirit stems from it the lungs hold the office of Chancellor regulating rhythms um stems from it the lever holds the office of General conception of plants stems from it suen book three the organs in the body combin to function like the Imperial government with a hierarchy um where by at the top we have the emperor followed by his Chancellor which is um like a chief minister who manages the rest of the ministers and at the same time there is the military faction in the government represented by the military uh General
and so Madison in this way echoed the transition from the final Decades of the Waring States very chaotic time to um the new forms of government established by the sing and Han regimes this government um uh was the centralized form of government and a centralized government RI on a strong bureaucratic hierarchy to mediate between the emperor and his people the objective is Harmony in society and the same objective is actually shared by the human body to have Harmony within the human body the inner classic of the yellow Emperor is the culmination of the synthesis of
various medical cosmological philosophical concepts of this long period and now we will examine on the concept of inyang uh that is found in the inner classic of the yellow emperor so how is the body related to according to is related to the body's interior or the interior of the body is represented by the abdomen or food and inside um the abdomen there are the five visceral you probably know by now that the five visero are Tang organs the long-term depository of um sh Spirit the five visera or the five T organs are the heart liver
splin lungs and kidney the exterior of the body is called bow when we sayi that basically means the inside and the outside the exterior is young in nature and it is represented by the back of the body Bay underneath the back of the body one will find the six poers or little food so we have the five visceral and the six Powers inside the human body according to the inner classic the six poers are the short-term storage organs the full organs they are the gallbladder stomach large intestine small intestine bladder and triple burner you have
some ideas of the organs mentioned so far as they match our knowledge of the human anatomy but what exactly is the triple burner or Sano also translated as triple warmer and triple heater the Sano is actually a body cavity that is divided into three sections and each section stores a number of internal organs the main function of the triple burner is to unify all the organs into an integrated and harmonious system the upper burner is the body cavity which houses the heart lungs pericardium throat and he it controls respiration and it spreads tea to all
the other organs tissues and skin the Met burner is between the diaphragm and the umbilicus it contains the spin stomach and G blather its main function is to transform and transport food and water its function is actually quite similar to the digestive system in Western biom medicine the lower burner contains the liver kidneys urinary bladder small intestine large intestine and uterus it will process fluids in the body retaining whatever that is Ben beneficial and escrting whatever that is not the triple burner can be described as having a name but no form as it is more
of a collection of functions rather than a physical organ based on the concept of systematic correspondence the internal organs all correspond to the various Office of the Imperial bureaucracy the individual body mirrors the state inside the body we have these correspondences between the individual organs and the bureaucratic structure of the government so so there are 12 organs inside the body and that matches 12 government offices in um the world and they all share the same functions now if you have been paying attention you will notice that um that I just mentioned 12 internal organs um
shouldn't there be 11 in state since there are supposed to be five viseral and poers the U so in total that should be 11 right so what is this extra organ that was um not mentioned earlier now if you look at um this table you will see the different organs and the corresponding government agencies um uh which matched uh with the matching bureaucratic functions the Hut is at the top of the list and it corresponds to the ruler the Monarch or the emperor in um the inner classic of the yellow Emperor it is written that
the heart controls Spirit Brilliance sh the heart is the official functioning um as ruler Spirit Brilliance originates in it so what exactly then is this Spirit Brilliance it is Essence spirit and this is quite um like the concept of psyche um of the ancient um Greeks modern equivalent of human uh Consciousness or cognitive abilities now you are probably wondering by now shouldn't it be the brain that's doing the job of well thinking instead of the heart the original idea of the Chinese scene came from the philosophical development during the Waring States ethical guidance in Chinese
thought arises from both the cognitive function of the mind and the effective States attributed to the hearts s so as a result sing is translated to heart and mind so heart mind to better capture um its meaning the scene is then credited with um thinking s understanding mean knowing intention um moods and um emotions and of course desire in modern Western medicine the brain is the most um important organ because it Act as a control center um the ancient Chinese also recognize that that um there actually an organ um that acts as a control center
of for the body but instead of attributing cognitive functions to the um brain the ancient Chinese believed um it was the sink the heart um doing the job in contrast the brain is not included in the organs of Chinese medicine uh that is the five t organs and the six full organs um does not actually include the brain interestingly the brain functions are um scattered all over the human body in Chinese medicine for example the five Tung organs arouse various emotions heart liver spleen lung and kidney arouse happiness anger deep thinking Melancholy and fear respectively
brain or mental units are all seen as systematic disease instead of ERS of um single independent organs um this is because all organs are relational inside the human body just like the body is uh related and linked to the external World okay so let's get back to um this extra organ it is an organ uh called tanong all right according to Chinese medical theories tanong has um the bureaucratic function of a minister and Envoy and is responsible for the emotions of joy and happiness grade it is also known as um the pericardium or singal uh
which is a thin layer of membrane that wraps around the heart protecting it now the pericardium is um considered as a Tang organ at the same time tanong is an acup point sh way in Chinese uh that's being used in acupuncture we call it the T um yes that that is where you will insert a needle in acupuncture now where is this location it's actually quite easy to identify um this AC Point T is actually located um here um where you can feel the indent in the center um of your chest um this area that
is the Acure point and when you have started to correspond things of this physical world with the human body it would be very difficult to um just stop at in and yang and so we also have the correspondence between um the five agents or the natural pH phenomena and the human body and uh this is described this can be found in the inner classic of the yellow Emperor so if you look at this table you'll find that we have the five agents of wood fire earth matter and water corresponding to uh different directions um different
quality in terms of the weather the climate all right we have wind heat dampness dryness and cus um and then this also coincide with uh different flavors um sourness bitterness uh sweetness pungency and savory and and finally we have the various uh t or the visceral the five uh visceral of uh liver heart spleen lung and kidney okay and and these also corresponds to the various body parts as uh you know seen in this table we have examined earlier how um the five phase of five agents are mapped um to the various bodily organs inside
the human body in in this table you will find that the original five faes um has been expanded to six by dividing fire into two uh we have the weak fire and strong fire or Jun and sangho respectively this happened because um there was an expansion of of the visera if you recall from five Tang organs to six Tang organs with the addition of Tong or the pericardium the singal the dong or pericardium now matches the strong fire or sang of Summer the heart on the other hand corresponds to the weak fire or Jun um
of the summer season basically both dong and are so closely related that they can be seen as parts of a system um heart system as the names suggest the weak fire or Trin uh which means Mona ruler fire requires the um existence of the strong fire omal fire to promote the functional activities of the organs according to U the inner classic the Jun is brilliant while the sang must be in position now this suggests um hierarchy where uh the emperor is um at the top while his ministers uh assist him to govern the state if
the ministers decided to abandon their positions for whatever reason maybe treason Rebellion it will bring disorder to the state and if the state corresponds to the human body then the same logic applies in Chinese medicine sang when not staying in position will create excessive hot fire sing causing medical disorders such as um headache anxiety insomnia Etc so the six Tung organs must correspond to um the six phases um instead of five now all these six Tong organs that are map to the six faces are in turn make to correspond to one of the most important
concepts of Chinese medicine the Meridian Network or Jing and in this case the Meridian channes also known as jingai are linked to the Tang organs now we have to thank uh wanging from the Tang Dynasty who um created um the concepts of The Sovereign fire Jin and the minister fire sang um as he tried to assimilate the five agents to the six channers um when he was actually editing um his version of um the inner classic of the yellow Emperor without his creation things would have been you know quite bad because things would not have
uh matched up nicely now okay let's get back to the Meridian chinina there are a total of 12 meridians um and these were divided into two groups of six one group of Meridian Chinas belongs to in while the other group belongs to Yang in this table um we are looking at the six in Meridian channel that are associated with the six Tang organs the six phases and also not forgetting the six seasons of course did you notice that there are six different types of ink listed here so what exactly is going on the ancient Chinese
from the Han period onwards um had developed this concept of different degrees of in and yang the idea follows the observation that in the 12 hours of the day the amount of Yang and in in this um world changes um they are not static now okay I I mentioned 12 hours because the Chinese hour is equivalent to two hours um in modern times so um the Chinese hour is called Su and uh there are 12 or in a day a day um corresponds uh to yang right during daytime and um night corresponds to in in
the early morning the Yi um that is present in this world is not as strong as the Yi um at midday uh which in um the Chinese hour is called um that is the origin of morning and afternoon in Chinese shangu or is morning and or is afternoon so the same um goes for Knight um Knight is assoc associated with in right so in is at its strongest at hour at the hour or which is between 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. around midnight since it's um the Chinese hour is 2 hours right so um it
is believed that Jong U the famous Han physician actually came up with this division of ying and yang um which is known as the six stages in Chinese medical Theory so when Yang is at its strongest it is known as um tang tang um is also the Chinese name um for the sun T so next we have bright yang or Yang Brilliance Yang Ming um interestingly that's the name of a very famous um Taiwanese actor wangyang Ming and wangyang Ming shares the same name um as um another wangyang Ming during the Ming Dynasty famous philosopher
and Statesman okay now um let's get back to the six stages uh Yang at its weakest is called shaoyang or lesser Yang the same applies for in now we have tight ink tight in right so um that's when in it's at the strongest around midnight that's followed by ler in or sha in uh and finally we have J in or terminal in um that's when ink is at its weakest because no uh it's it's going to be sunrise so ink and yang are m to the maridian channels and the body organs simply because the interior
of the body is supposed to fun like the external World um the passing of the hours the day and night U can all um be reflected in the human body here's an illustration of a in Meridian chel it's known as the or the hands major in L Meridian in the illustration you can see that um the Meridian Channel runs through the length of the left arm um like a river um in the physical world the name of this Meridian channel it's very clear uh this channel is found in the in the arm or so it
corresponds to um major in and it's linked um to the lung which is Aang organ that is it is um the long-term storage for the spirit ocean since we have the six um Tung organs corresponding to the six phases and six seasons and of course the six in Meridian channelers um it's not fair to live out the six Bowers or the six full organs so in this table we will uh we actually um have the six food organs also known as the Le Fu made to um correspond to the six phases with the division of
fire into two the same six seasons with the division of um s and finally the six Meridian Channel however this six Meridian Channel um belong to Yang unlike the previous um example the previous table where the Meridian channers actually belong to in so the yang F organs the young F organs corresponds to Young Meridian channelers while the inang organs correspond to the in Meridian channs I hope that is clear to all of you in this example we have another um hand Meridian Channel um as you can see in this picture is quite clear um however
these Meridian channel uh hand Meridian Channel um is different from the previous one it is linked to the Supreme Yang or Yang and the large intestine uh which is a full organ you should have noticed by now that there are also these um points um with names that are located along this Meridian channel right but is in this U illustration of in the previous example um these are acup points for acupuncture if for example right a person uh is inflicted with stomach Related Disorders such as abdominal pain um and other issues The Physician can decide
to use acupuncture as part of the treatment so how does that work um inas will be inserted acupuncture needers will be inserted into some some of these acup points uh that's shown in the picture uh that is along this Meridian Channel um because this Meridian channel is linked to um the starm okay just because you have abdominal pain um you should have needles inserted directly into your belly no that does not work right it does not work this way in Chinese medicine and so by the the end of the Han Dynasty the terminology and concepts
of in Yang the five faces and T could um explain all natural phenomena and their transformations in the universe these Concepts were now um deeply ingrained in um Chinese culture and the Chinese mind in Chinese medical Theory these concepts are adequate to explain all structures and functions of the human body all occurrence and development of um medical disorders and all principles of treatment [Music]
