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THE SHEN, YI AND ZHI AND NEEDLING IN THE NEI JING

THE SHEN, YI AND ZHI AND NEEDLING IN THE NEI JING The Nei Jing, and especially the Ling Shu, contains very many passages with instructions to acupuncturists as to how to needle. All these passages give instructions as to how to engage the Shen, Yi or Zhi (of the practitioner) when needling. Just as a reminder, Yi is the mental faculty of the Spleen which refers to “focusing”, “attention”, “concentrating”, “idea”. Its character is based on the Heart radical which means that this mental faculty relies on the overlapping natures of Yi and Shen (and therefore Spleen and Heart). 意 Yi 心 Xin (heart) Zhi of the Kidneys refers to “will power”, “intention”, “resolve”, “commitment” but also “memory”, “will”. Its character is based also on the heart radical together with the character for “Shi” which means scholar, soldier, gentleman, person trained in certain field, general, officer. 志 Zhi 士 Shi (scholar, soldier, gentleman, general, officer) What is evident from all these passages is that the re...
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ST-40 Fenglong

The last Clinical Tip discussed the treatment of Dampness and Phlegm and it started with a reference to ST-40 Fenglong. It seems therefore appropriate now to discuss the clinical use of the point ST-40 Fenglong. As I said in the previous Clinical Tip, whenever I mention ST-40 in the course of my lectures, everybody associates it with resolving Phlegm. As we shall see, this point has many other extremely valuable actions. ST-40's name Fenglong means "Abundant Bulge": this obviously refers to the bulge on the fibularis longus muscle where the point is situated. However, the word feng meaning "abundant" or "rich in" has also another meaning: it refers to the quality of the Yang Ming channels of being "rich in Qi and Blood".[i] Feng, therefore, refers to the quality of the Stomach channel of being rich in Qi and Blood and, because of this, to its use in invigorating the channels. ST-40 Fenglong is the Luo point of the Stomach channel and we shall...
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THE FIVE ELEMENTS - CLINICAL APPLICATION OF THE COSMOLOGICAL SEQUENCE

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In this blog post, I would like to discuss the clinical use of the Five Elements and, in particular, their Cosmological sequence.  By "cosmological sequence" (my own term, not a Chinese one), I mean the arrangement of the Five Elements in a cross-like fashion rather than the circular arrangement of the Sheng and Ke cycles that are very familiar to every practitoner and student of Chinese medicine.  The "Cosmological Sequence" has Water at the bottom, Fire at the top, Wood on the left, Metal on the right and Earth in the centre. These are associated with the compass directions of South for Fire (at the top), North for Water (at the bottom), East for Wood (on the left), West for Metal (on the right) and no direction for Earth in the Centre.  Earth has not compass direction as it is the centre, the point of reference. Translation Although the translation of Wu Xing as “5 Phases” has gained acceptance, it is not without its problems and many sinologists reject it. Wu X...
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