UNUSUAL HEART FUNCTIONS FROM THE NEI JING
I have been consulting the Nei Jing for 35 years initially in its French translation (by Chamfrault) and later in Chinese. As we all know, the Nei Jing is a mine of information and most of the things we do in practice are in this text. It should be stressed that the Nei Jing was written by many different doctors and edited several times notably during the Song dynasty. For this reason besides containing all the familiar theories, the Nei Jing also has many passages that present unusual theories. This clinical tip and subsequent ones will discuss the more unusual aspects of the Nei Jing, the first one being about the Heart. The Heart and the eyes There are many passages of the Nei Jing that make correlations between a Zang and the sense organ that are different than the usual ones (e.g. Liver and eyes, Lungs and nose, etc.). For example, chapter 81 of the Su Wen correlates the Heart to the eyes. It says “ Among the 5 Zang, the Heart is the orifice of the eyes and ...