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Chinese Physiology
Wu-Xing: the Five Phases: Correspondences
diagnoses
definition
Basic Cosmological Correspondences
(directions, seasons, their particular climate, color and stage of development)
Wood = East, spring, windy, green or cyan and beginnings
Fire = South, summer, heat, red and growth
Earth = Center, Indian summer, humidity, yellow and maturation
Metal = West, fall, aridity, white (shiny or absence of color) and decline
Water = North, winter, cold, dark blue or black (darkness) and dormancy or termination (end of cycle)
Primary Physiological Correspondences
(Zang-Fu Organ, Sense/Sense Organ and Special Tissue)
Wood = Liver/Gall Bladder, vision/eye and sinew (tendon, ligament, nerve and muscle, i.e. the motor unit)
Fire = Heart/Small Intestine, speech/tongue and blood vessels
Earth = Spleen/Stomach, taste/mouth and muscles/flesh (as an indicator of nourishment, e.g. meat on the bones)
Metal = Lung/Large Intestine, smell/nose, integument (skin and mucosa)
Water = Kidney/Urinary Bladder, hearing/ear, bones and teeth, ("bones" includes marrow, which for the Chinese also meant the spinal column and the brain)
Secondary Physiological Correspondences
Taste, Odor, Symptom Reflex Area, Emotion and Vocal Sound
Wood = sour, goatish (like vinegar and stale sweat, a locker room), the finger and toenails, anger and shouting
Fire = bitter, scorched, the complexion, joy and laughter
Earth = sweet, fragrant, the lips, worry and singing
Metal = acrid, spicy, pungent, rank (like spoiled meat or fish), skin and body hair, grief, sorrow and weeping (sighing)
Water = salty, putrid (like old urine), head hair, fear, moaning and groaning
Five Phases in Anatomy and Physiology
each organ, with its corresponding channel and points, is associated with a particular phase
each organ/channel "sphere" implicitly contains all five phase energies within it
each channel possess a series of five points that represent each of the five phases
the points where the energy of a phase may be "contacted" coincide with the five shu points
footnotes