Our lives are consisted of numerous big and small cycles. Now let’s take the annual cycle for example.
It’s illustrated herein above that what’s inside is Yin, and what’s outside is Yang, therefore the most inner part of a body–abdomen, is Yin; the external parts, such as limbs and skin, head and back, are Yang. This is quit plain when a person taking a curled-up position. Something is moving between Yin and Yang parts along with the change of the seasons.
| Human body is around 70% water, and the water is warm and hot due to the metabolic heat, furthermore, the hot water is moving and circulating in the body ceaselessly. Interestingly enough, the earth is around 70% water too, one more proof of the similarity between the body’s Taiji and the earth‘s Taiji.
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As YinYang and Wuxing is a motion cycle, you may wonder what is moving inside our bodies. The answer is Jing, among which HOT WATER is a major part of it. It is the hot water that is moving in the body between Yin and Yang parts as the changes of four seasons. There is a concept of Qangqi in TCM, which is hardly understood by
Western minds. In fact, Qangqi can be easily understood as a most common thing, which is HOT WATER, and this statement will be further explained in detail in future chapters .
The hot water in our bodies begin to be more active and circulate quicker in spring (grow), and reach the top of Yang in summer (blossoming), and become less active and circulate slower in autumn (contain), and finally retreat and store in the most Yin part in winter (store) to prepare for next year’s cycle. Hot water tends to evaporate as Qi in warm and hot seasons, and liquefy into fluid in cool and cold seasons. Literally, the Wuxing cycle is an express of Yinyang motion cycle in a more detailed approach.
| Review:
As to dynamic state, YinYang refers to their motion treads, what is inside (Yin) always trends to move towards Yang, aiming to disperse itself as Qi; and what is outside (Yang) always trends to move towards Yin, aiming to liquefy into fluid |
The hot water is transforming its form at the process of circulating between Yin and Yang. For instance, due to a faster metabolic rate in summer, the body generates more heat, there is more heat in the water, hence the water circulates faster and closer to the skin, the top of Yang, and the body sweats more to cool down itself. Meanwhile, as the hot water are closer to Yang, there is less in Yin, as a result many people don’t have good appetite in summer, and feel week to digest meats, as the digestive systems are located in Yin. Contrarily, our will find that our skin are dry and withered in autumn and winter, no longer as ruddy and smooth as in spring and summer, however, we feel more comfortable to digest meats. The change of our skin is not only affected by humidity in the air, but more influenced by the water circulation in our bodies.
For the earth, the water on the surface of the earth circulates faster and vaporizes more in the sky due to the heat from the sun in hot season, thus generates more humid in the air, and circulates slower and closer to the surface of earth in cold season, and makes less vapor in the air. We breathe in and breathe out synchronously with the earth, we are an united part of the whole ecosystem.
However, we are experiencing a forgetfulness under the impact of modern science and techniques, which greatly affected our opinions and lives. For example, the air conditioners have been changing the way how we adapt to the temperature and have been making a lot healthy problems. Our skin and pore became disorder when we frequently walk into and walk out of the air conditioner rooms with low temperature. Two seconds ago, our pore is open to sweat when we are in the hot open air, suddenly, they encounter cold air and get contracted. The hot water near the skin which is supposed to evaporate suddenly get blocked under the skin, consequently some of us have itching, redness and swelling of the skin, and begin to suffer from the onset of cold urticaria.
What’s worse, when the body can’t sweat as needed to cool down itself, we feel hot and drink very cold fluids, which further hurts our digestive system. There have been many cases in which people suffer from bellyache or diarrhoea after had very cold fluid or food. As there is stress reaction in every alive organisms, the warm gastrointestinal tract (around 40℃) will contract naturally when it encounter cold stimulations(around 5℃). The contraction of gastrointestinal tract will cause a bellyache, and the body will loss the ability to absorb water, thus there is more water in the stools.
In other cases, some people get used to cold food and fluid, stress reaction are not acted upon, however will have fluid-retention syndrome characterized by different symptoms according to the individual’s different well-being states.
The against-four-seasons habits also include but not limited to sweating massively due to strenuous exercise, swimming in cold water, taking shower every day, wearing too less in winter and so on, as the hot water is supposed to be contained and closer to Yin instead of Yang, and our bodies are supposed to be in a storing state in autumn and winter. Animals are still conscious of the changes of the seasons and nature and will reduce activities and even go into hibernation state in winter, while we are forgetting that we are a part of the nature.
taoistmedicine.org 