Glad to see you all. This class we will talk about the fifth chapter: theory of organs and meridians. Chinese Medicine believes the core parts of human body are the viscera, also named internal organs. Which is basically in concert with modern medicine Lack of arms or legs are not fatal, but one can not live without viscera If one is without heart, liver or kidney, will he be able to live? The answer is obvious: no! That’s because they are the most essential organs of life, and they are indispensable Is the viscera in Chinese Medicine the same with which in modern medicine? There is an essential difference between these two. Modern medicine defines viscera from the anatomical point of view It observes interior human organs, which are different in both tissues and forms, while Chinese Medicine define viscera from the functional point of view. Sometimes, they are quite different from the anatomical conceptions. This class aims to teach you the basic idea of Chinese Medicine’s viscera conceptions is there a difference between the internal organs Zang and the hollow organs Fu In Chinese Medicine, "Zangfu"(internal organs) is the generic term for interior organs But there is an essential difference between the two 我们首先介绍中医里的“五脏” First let’s introduce the five internal organs in Chinese Medicine The five internal organs refer to liver, heart, spleen, lung and kidney. Most of them all parenchymatous organs, full of energy Their main function is storage, namely the five internal organs can deposit cereal nutrients for the maintaining of life activities. 如精、气、血等。 Such as energy, qi, blood and so on. Are the heart and lung in Chinese Medicine the same with those in the modern medicine? Heart and lung, parts of the five internal organs, are basically the same with their counterparts in modern medicine. But are more close in positions and in forms. The slight distinction is Chinese Medicine refers to pericardium as heart-sac, or Danzhong, to show its difference from modern medical heart. Especially when the pericardium or heart is experiencing pathological changes, the differences are more distinct. Then is there a huge difference between their functions? Yes, from the point of its functions Chinese Medicine believes that except from blood transporting, heart also posses the function of "Zangshen", namely charging deities Or we can simply call it the function of governing spirits Lung, except from the respiratory function can also smooth the water channels and help body fluid metabolize People often say that kidney and spleen are the most fundamental organs Which modern medicine does not back up Then can we assume kidney and spleen in Chinese Medicine are not the same with them in modern medicine? This is a very good question. They are not entirely the same. Chinese medicine believes that kidney mainly helps human growth, reproduction body fluid metabolism and also helps to provide and tend to the viscera. 从上述功能看,应该是多器官的综合体, From these functions, we can see it is a combination of multiple organs Aside from kidney in modern medicine It should also include male’s testicles and some functions of female’s ovary. Among them kidney is the key part, which is the shared knowledge of generations of therapists. For example, Huang di’s Canon of Medicine: Su Wen And Yi Guan all mentioned that “(kidney) is under the fourteenth vertebra, the width of each is 1.5 fen The shape is like two face-to-face and curved cowpeas, cling to the backbone and is covered by yellow grease.” This is the same with the anatomical kidney And the spleen? Chinese Medicine believes the spleen has two main functions One is to govern digestive functions and the other to govern blood transporting From the functional point of view, instead of looking it as the modern medical spleen We should rather call it the modern digestive system It including stomach, liver, pancreas and intestinal digestive and absorptive functions And it also has the function of governing blood, which has no claim in modern medicine. So what are fu, namely the hollow organs? We just mentioned the Chinese five internal organs Now we talk about Chinese five hollow organs: gallbladder, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, bladder and sanjiao Morphologically, they are hollow and not full of energy as "Zang" Functionally, they can not generate and deposit energy like "Zang" They have the function of transforming and storing essence. Here whether the stomach, small intestine and large intestine are overlapped with the spleen? This is a good question and ostensibly, they are. But actually Chinese Medicine resolved the functions of stomach and intestines And distribute the functions of transporting food and chyle to the stomach, small intestine and large intestine, namely three of the five hollow organs And the digestive and absorptive functions to spleen Then what are the functions of gallbladder? From modern medicine’s point of view, gallbladder has the function of deposit and secrete bile When needed, it will secrete bile into intestines When non-needed, it will conserve it in the cholecyst Yi Xue Jian Neng mentioned that “Gallbladder, one of the five hollow organs, belongs to the wood, mainly functions to ascend the clear and descend the turbid and smooth the middle earth” Compared with liver, it has the functions of "Fu"the five hollow organs, so Chinese Medicine allots it to the five hollow organs. But at the same time, it has the function of conserving essence So it was called extraordinary organs along with the brain, cell, marrow, bone and vein. Because they share some similarities Morphologically, it is hollow like the five hollow organs. Functionally, it conserves essence, like five internal organs What is Sanjiao? According to the five elements, Chinese medicine only has five internal organs and five hollow organs, and Sanjiao is not included. Actually Sanjiao is not at the same classification level as the five internal organs(Zang) and the five hollow organs(Fu) Huang di’s Canon of Medicine: Su Wen: Ling Lan Mi Dian mentioned that “Sanjiao, the functional organ which governs the body fluid’s channeling” which means that Sanjiao spreads all over human thoracic cavity and abdominal cavity And is the channel of blood, qi and other body fluids Traditionally, Shangjiao means the parts above the diaphragm, including heart and lung. The so called smoky Shangjiao refers to its dispersing function which makes qi, blood and body fluids all over the body like smoke Zhongjiao lies under the diaphragm and above navel, including spleen and stomach When they transporting and transforming decomposed food, the food will be digested. So bubbly Zhongjiao refers to its digestive function Xiaojiao, lies below the navel, includes liver, kidney and bladder So Channeling Xiajiao refers to its excretory function From the discussion, we can basically draw the following conclusions. First, Chinese Medicine built the human body model based on viscera Second, the viscera in Chinese Medicine are morphologically Different from the modern medicine Knowing these two points, we know the nature of Chinese viscera That is all for today. Next we will further our discussion on the theory of visceral main and collateral.