Overview of Visceral Manifestation在线视频

Hello everyone

We have gone through several basic characteristics

and theories of TCM

Hope you have become interested in TCM

For today’s class

we’ll study a new chapter

the visceral manifestation

which is much more specific

and professional than previous contents

The visceral manifestation theory is the knowledge

about the zang-fu organs in TCM

As the important component part

of the basic theory in TCM

the visceral manifestation theory

includes the simple anatomy physiology

pathology syndrome differentiation and therapeutic principles

of zang-fu organs

And the theory is used to guide the clinical practice

Now let’s take a look at section 1

overview of visceral manifestation

Before we go through the contents of

zang-fu organs of TCM

let’s see the view of western medicine

about the body structure

Western medicine lays stress on the experiments and anatomy

and localization of lesions applies deduction

This leads the western medicine to develop

in the experimental analysis way

and form the characteristic of reductionism

Reductionism is also called method of analysis

Based on reductionism

the complex things can be reduced to

smaller and smaller units

until they are no longer divisible

the smallest possible substantial particle

then find the nature of these units

This method is used to deduce

the nature of the complex system

In order to understand the reductionism better

let’s look at this picture

In the picture

one of the doctors took a heart out of the body

and showed it to the other doctors

and there were a lot of bodies

and skeletons along the wall

This is a typical scenario that western doctors

tried to figure out what’s going on

inside the body by opening the body

The anatomy is an application of reductionism

Specifically

western medicine tries to know the body

with organs tissues even cells

instead of the whole body by using anatomy

Still the reductionism is used

Therefore for the western medicine

it tries to understand its internal structure

as well as action mechanism of interrelated life activities

by opening the human body

This method is called “White Box”

It means everything in the “box” can be seen

The content of viscera is radically different from Western medicine

TCM always has the holistic thinking

it lays stress on observing living individuals

and ignoring the structures

Based on the holistic concept

the human body is thought

to be a very complex organic whole

Each part of the human body

is in separable in the structure

mutually useful in function

inter-related in metabolism

and mutually affected in pathology

Therefore

TCM tried to find the relationship

between the internal and external part of the body

This method is called system theory

which is different with reductionism

TCM tried to know the human body and life

on the basis of “xiang”

depending on the observation comparison analysis

on intact alive human being

Xiang means symbol external appearance of internal organs

All the relationships between the internal organs

and external appearance were verified

modified and systematized by clinical practice

Then the ancient Chinese doctors gradually developed

the visceral manifestation theory

This reasoning method is called “Black Box”

which means everything inside body

can’t be seen directly

Both medical systems have a logic theory

and have their own approaches

and are empirically proven

However the two systems have different historical developing

cultural background and philosophical background

so they have different methodologies to know the body

Because their different view-points

each aims at different aspect or link in the pathogenic

chain

Let’s take bacterial infection as an example

For western medicine antibiotics is commonly

used to treat the disease by destroying the bacteria

For TCM

different therapeutic methods may be used

to enhance the patient’s healthy qi

which refers to the immunity

Actually TCM doesn’t care whether or not

the bacteria are in body

or what kinds of bacteria they are

TCM focuses much more on the sick people

instead of the disease itself

The visceral manifestation is based on

clinical observation of patients over thousands of years

The ancient Chinese doctors applied

the visceral manifestation to their clinical practice

then summarized the visceral manifestation theory

which focuses on the outward manifestations of internal organs

The theory plays an important role

in the theoretical system of TCM

The visceral manifestation is called zang xiang

Zang sharing the same pronunciation

with viscera in Chinese

refers to the organs inside the body

Xiang sharing the same meaning with manifestation

means the signs and images

Zang-fu is the generic term of the internal organs

Generally speaking

visceral manifestation is usually used to

refer to the shape and structure of the internal organs

as well as the sign of the physiological functions

and pathological changes of the internal organs

that are reflected outside of body

Therefore

the concept of visceral manifestation refers to

the internal organs

and the external manifestations of

their physiological and pathological states

The theory is used to discuss and recognize

the rules of the physiological functions

and pathological changes of internal organs

by analyzing the external signs

and manifestations of human body

Now let’s see how does the theory work

in the clinical practice

For example

a patient has the symptoms

such as cough nasal obstruction and running nose

The doctor may ask the patient the nature of the nasal discharge

the medical history

may check the tongue and take the pulse for the patient

And based on all the information

the doctor infers that external cold pathogen

getting into body through the skin

cough is a symptom of lung

lung is closely related

with skin nose nasal discharge

Finally the doctor may give a diagnosis

like cold attacking lung

From this case

the condition of lung inside body was revealed

by observing the external symptoms and signs

All the zang-fu organs inside the body usually are

divided into three kind of types

five zang organs

six fu organs and extraordinary fu organs

The five zang organs include

the heart Lungs spleen liver and kidneys

The functional activities of these organs

are mainly generating and storing essence

The six fu organs include

Gallbladder stomach small intestine large intestine

bladder and triple energizer

The functions of these organs are mainly receiving

and transporting water food and dregs

The extraordinary fu organs include

brain marrow bone vessel

gallbladder and uterus

All these organs commonly store the essential qi

Ok we just got an overview on the visceral manifestation

We should know the TCM concept of viscera

is quite different with the western medicine

TCM thinks that human body is an organic whole

and disorders of the internal organs

will be manifested on the exterior of the body

These exterior manifestations are linked

with the internal organs

in accordance with classification of five elements

that can be used to determine the location

severity and progress of disease

More details about the five zang organs

will be introduced in next class

That’s all for today

I’ll see you in next class