How Chinese medicine "walks" in the body
To learn Chinese medicine, it is not enough to know the role and properties of a medicine, but also to understand how it walks. There is a concept called "vector" in Western physics, such as force, which has magnitude and direction. Traditional Chinese medicine is similar. The size is equivalent to the nature of the drug, and the direction means how and where the drug will go after it reaches the human body. This involves the issue of lifting, falling, and returning. Medicinal properties, everyone attaches great importance to them; However, everyone does not pay too much attention to the direction of medicine, or forgets it when it comes to use, which greatly affects the effect of medication.
1- Lifting and sinking
Different drugs go in different directions. Some drugs go up, some go down; Some medicines go to the five organs, and some medicines go to the limbs; Some go up to the coke, some go to the middle coke, and some go down to the coke...... are all different. Therefore, you have to choose the medicine according to the location of the disease, according to the difference in and out of the evil qi.
How to grasp the ups and downs of medicine? Of course, rote memorization is not possible. Our teachers never ask to carry anything. In the past, we were required to memorize the "Medicinal Properties", what kind of songs, and songs, but we have never memorized. Let's go through it. Knowing the truth of it, these things will naturally be remembered. If you don't understand the truth, rote memorization is useless. Many medicines, the name itself reflects the ups and downs. For example, cimicifuga must be upward; Agarwood: It must be sinking. Agarwood is agarwood, and the general wood floats in the water, but the agarwood will sink when thrown into the water, and it will sink when used in the human body, and it can reduce gas. We must pay great attention to the names of medicines, prescriptions, and acupuncture points in Chinese medicine, which contain many codes that can be cracked. Botanical medicine, we can look at which part of the plant it grows in to determine its nature and direction.
2- The flowers and leaves rise and scatter, and every son will fall
The flowers and leaves are elevated, and they are in the most superficial layer of the plant. The flower exudes a fragrance, it is scattered; A large amount of water evaporates from the leaves every day, which is also dispersed. It also has the effect of lifting and dispersing when used in the human body. Anyone who has caught cold medicine should know that a prescription does not taste much and the amount of medicine is not large, but it is a big bag when it is caught, mostly flowers and leaves, and the texture is very light, because it is necessary to take its ascending and dispersing properties to diffuse the evil qi on our body surface. The flowers and leaves rise and disperse, but there are exceptions, such as the spiral flower, which does not rise or disperse, but falls.
Every son will fall. The seeds of plants, such as sulforaphane seeds, schisandra chinensis, white mustard seeds, psyllium seeds, neem seeds, etc., have to fall to the ground after the branches are ripe, so that they can take root and sprout, which is going down. Acting on the human body, it also has a descending effect. There are also peach kernels, almonds, cypress kernels, and sour jujube kernels, which are not only seeds but also have obvious oiliness, so they can moisten and moisten the intestines. Another characteristic of these seed medicines is that they are biased. Without warmth, how can it have the strength to sprout? But there are exceptions, such as vitex is upward, and it is cool, it is light in texture, and can be used to disperse the wind of the head.
3- The branches walk on all fours, and the stems go up and down
The branches of the plant will walk the limbs of the human body. We can say that they are in the same breath. For example, cinnamon branches, mulberry branches, and perilla side branches all walk on all fours. Like arm pain, finger numbness, menstrual medicine can be used mulberry branches, if because of the cold is deep, you can also add cinnamon branches; If it's just because of a little cold temporarily, you can use perilla side branches and mulberry branches. The stem, which is the middle stem of the plant, is also called the main stem. Nutrients are transported from the roots through the stems; The energy synthesized by photosynthesis from the leaves is transported to the roots for storage, as well as through the stems. Therefore, the stem can rise and fall. The perilla stalk and Huoxiang stalk that we often talk about can ventilate, regulate qi, rise and fall in the human body, and the qi regulation is completed in this lifting.
4- The root is divided into three parts
Root medicine is a little more complicated. Leaning on the upper root, it mainly transports nutrients to the upper plants, and it goes upward; The roots of the lower part are to be pierced downward, and its nature is to go downwards to cure the disease of the lower scorch; As for the root in the middle, it is to keep the center and cure the disease of the middle scorch. For example, Angelica, according to the upper, middle and lower parts, can be divided into three parts: Angelica head, Angelica body, and Angelica tail. Now everyone uses the roots not too clearly, and the whole root is used together.
Of course, there is still a need to pay attention to the use of reeds and beards. The reed is at the top of the root, where the root and stem of the plant meet, for example, ginseng has a ginseng reed. The reed is single-mindedly upward, because the nutrients from the roots are transported to the whole plant in the reed, and the reed has a strong upward effect, and can even cause vomiting. When we use root medicine, we generally remove the reed. We are reluctant to throw away its reed, and because it has a very special effect, we stay, and when we meet a person with a weak physique, there is evil in the scorch, and you want him to vomit, but you don't dare to use those strong emetic drugs, so use ginseng reed.
The root is at the bottom of the root, and it goes down hard and drills into the soil, so it has a breaking effect. For example, licorice, if you use it to mix the medicines, and you don't want him to stick too much to the middle focus, you can use licorice shoots, and he will go down a little faster; For example, if the urine is bloody and the urine is stinging, licorice shoots are generally used. Licorice shoots can walk the penis and urethra, and have the effect of clearing profits.
5- Other methods of determining the direction of the drug
In addition, the nodes of the plant go through the joints of the human body, the skin walks on the surface of the human body, the heart enters the heart, the network leads to the network, the vine goes up, and the thorns pierce...... All of this requires us to be aware of things and observe the medicine itself. Metals, minerals, fossils, shells, etc. These drugs are very heavy, and as long as they are heavy, they will go down, which is their basic direction. There is also animal medicine, known as "flesh and blood products", it and the human flesh and blood are the same, the effect on the human body will be very obvious, it can make up for the shortcomings, search for stubborn evil. The human body has a deficiency, and it can be used to make up for you very violently. For example, deer antler velvet is a supplement to the true yang; The turtle plate is a great complement to the true yin. There are also deer tendons, clams, deer whips, etc., which are bought in health care stores, which are all used to replenish the human body. You can make it up when you need to make it up, and when you don't need to make it up, it will be too much.
When the human body has a very stubborn evil spirit, ordinary medicine cannot be attacked, and animal medicine, especially insect medicine, can be used to search for it. A bone, gnawed up, there is still some minced meat left on it, we can't gnaw it down, some are in the gaps, can't be removed, thrown on the ground, many ants climbed up, began to eat the meat on the bone, and soon the bones were gnawed naked, this is the search function of insects. The medicine of insects will also drill into the cracks of the human body's muscles and bones, and remove some stubborn wind, cold and dampness evils like searching for muscles and flesh from the bones, so as to achieve a good effect of dispelling evil spirits.
However, let's not use insect medicine lightly. Healers are to save people, to save the lives of sentient beings, and they cannot kill more sentient beings because they save one person. Use it when you use it, and don't abuse it when you don't have to. This is a sentiment that a doctor must have. It is not a skill to use insect medicine at every turn. Traditional Chinese medicine is also called materia medica, not this worm, in fact, it is also a reminder to use plant medicine as much as possible, and insect medicine should not be abused.
6- Entering the qi and entering the blood
Insect medicine also has the difference between qi and blood. Ye Tianshi is better at using insect medicine, and he concluded: "Those with blood enter the blood, and those without blood enter the qi." "Some bugs have blood, some bugs don't. For example, if you kill an ant, there will be no red blood. Of course, in a biological sense, you can say that it has blood, and its blood can be other colors, but it is not red, and it is called bloodless in traditional Chinese medicine. When you know that you are dead, you peel it off, and you can't see the red one, and you know that there is no blood, but the serpent must have blood. Therefore, the cicada will go to the gas division, and the snake will take the blood division. We can see for ourselves.
The same is true for other medicines. The red ones are mainly in the blood, and the cyan ones are mainly in the qi. The perilla leaves are red on one side and green on the other, and some leaves are green in spring and summer, and turn red in autumn. This shows that it must be able to communicate qi and blood. In other words, when it is green, it is mainly collected into the qi, and when it is red, it is mainly collected into the blood. But no matter when you pick it, because it changes relatively quickly between red and green, it will definitely be able to communicate qi and blood.
7- Where there are regularities, there are exceptions
Of course, there are rules and privileges, and there are exceptions to rules, and there are no absolutes in everything. For example, safflower is red, and it is divided into blood, which is the law; Honeysuckle is not red, so it enters the qi, which is also a law; But honeysuckle is also in the blood, which is another matter. For another example, Panax notoginseng is a medicine that blindly invigorates blood and dispels blood stasis, and it must enter the blood. What color is Panax notoginseng? It is grayish-white or yellow on the outside, dark green on the inside, and very hard. I hadn't heard it was red, but it still bleeds.
8- Walking speed of the drug
There is also a speed of walking in medicine. Some medicines go fast, some go slowly; Some medicines are left but not kept, and some medicines are kept but not left. For example, rhubarb, it walks very fast in the human body, never stays, just like Guan Gong passed five passes and cut six generals, it is called walking but not guarding, from Dongling Pass to the Yellow River ferry, he will not occupy which pass will stay there and not go, this medicine will quickly pass from top to bottom, and take the pass and cut the general. Some medicines are guarded and not left, and after drinking them, they will walk very slowly, and they will even stay in a certain place for a while.
For example, licorice. In fact, many sweet medicines like to keep; And a lot of bitter medicine, it goes relatively fast. Of course, there are exceptions, such as Coptis chinensis walking slowly. Coptis chinensis and licorice are guarded and not left. Especially in small doses of licorice, it goes especially slowly. How do these drugs fit together? Pull each other along. It's like two people, if they are both urgent, they will urge each other to hurry up, rhubarb and miscanthus are like this together, and they will poop immediately after drinking it. If you add magnolia bark and citrus aurantium to the two downward medicines on this basis, they will go faster, which is Dachengqi soup.
Sometimes we don't want them to go so fast, and they can't stand it because they have diarrhea so much. At this time, you can add some licorice, and the slower it goes, the slower it goes, and the more it goes, the more it will do the work of cleaning up the dirt on the way. This is the stomach and Chengqi soup, which uses licorice to contain rhubarb and miscanthus salt. Rhubarb and miscanthus are leaving, but licorice is not leaving, what should I do? I'll wait for you for a while, and the rhubarb and miscanthus will slow down. Of course, it won't be too slow, licorice wants to stay here, rhubarb and manganese say "We're leaving, why don't you go?" Licorice had no choice but to say, "If you go, I'll go, and you wait for me for a while!"