Kidney Disease Is Worst in Winter and Most Dangerous at Midnight — Why Is Noon the Hardest Time for a Heart Patient? And Why Does Chinese Medicine Use Huang Lian (Coptis) for Uremia? Doctor Luo Dalun Presents Doctor Ni Haixia’s Thirty-Third Lecture on the Huang Di Nei Jing: The Zang Qi Fa Shi Lun (On the Qi of the Organs and the Laws of the Seasons, Part Two) — the Symptoms of the Five Organs, Telling Disease by the Hour, and the Five Colored Foods

Patient search terms: when does kidney disease get worse / why is heart disease worst at noon / why can’t lung patients eat cold food / how does Chinese medicine treat uremia / is a heavy body a sign of spleen disease / legs too weak to walk / waking up between 1 and 3 am / how full should you eat / what are the symptoms of each of the five organs / what foods are good for liver disease / does eating too much salt hurt the kidneys / how do you let blood

Corresponding medical names: Su Wen · Zang Qi Fa Shi Lun (On the Qi of the Organs and the Laws of the Seasons, the twenty-second chapter), second half: heart disease (heals on wu-ji earth days / turns severe on ren-gui water days / clearest at noon / worst at midnight hai-zi hours / the heart likes softness — eat salty to soften it / sea salt versus refined salt) · spleen disease (heals in autumn, severe in spring / heals on geng-xin, severe on jia-yi, clearest at wei hour, worst at yin-mao / the spleen likes slowness — eat sweet to slow it, bitter drains, sweet tonifies / avoid dampness) · lung disease (heals in winter, severe in summer / cold food and drink forbidden / heals on ren-gui, severe on bing-ding / the lung likes gathering — eat sour to gather it, acrid drains it / emphysema gathered with sour) · kidney disease (heals in spring, severe in chang xia / avoid hot food and fire-dried clothes / heals on jia-yi, severe on wu-ji / the kidney likes firmness — eat bitter to firm it, salty drains it / the bitter flavor enters the heart — Huang Lian resolves uremia) · when evil qi lodges in the body the organs attack each other (heals at the generating season / severe at the conquering season / holds at the generated season / rises again at its own position / first fix the pulses of the five organs) · the symptoms of the five organs (pages 198-200): liver disease — pain below both ribs pulling to the lower abdomen, easily angered (in deficiency, blurred vision and deafness, fear as if seized / take the Foot Jue Yin and Foot Shao Yang channels / liver qi rebelling upward causes headache / excess with heat — let blood from congested vessels) · heart disease — chest pain, pain through the chest, back, shoulders, shoulder blades and inner arms (against surgical drainage of lung water / in deficiency, large chest and abdomen, pain linking ribs and lower back / take the Hand Shao Yin and Hand Tai Yang channels, let blood from Jinjin (EX-HN12), Yuye (EX-HN13) and the xi-cleft points below the tongue) · spleen disease — body heavy as if carrying a thousand jin of gold, muscle wasting, feet that will not obey (in deficiency, abdominal fullness, borborygmus, diarrhea with undigested food / take the Spleen and Yang Ming channels, let blood from congested vessels on the Kidney channel — earth conquers water, the kidney suffers first) · lung disease — wheezing, coughing, rebellious qi, shoulder and back pain (yang qi insufficiency / in deficiency, shallow breath, deafness, dry throat / take the Foot Tai Yang and Jue Yin channels and let blood) · kidney disease — large abdomen, swollen shins, wheezing and coughing, heavy body, night sweats, aversion to wind, ice-cold limbs (take the Kidney channel and Foot Tai Yang, let blood from congested vessels / only let blood where green veins are visible) · telling disease by the hour (discomfort at noon — heart / discomfort at hai-zi — kidney / waking at chou — liver) · the acupuncture methods (mother-child tonification and drainage / shu-mu points / yuan-luo points / pricking the collaterals to let blood) · the five colored foods (liver green — eat sweet: rice, beef, dates, mallow / heart red — eat sour: small beans, dog meat, plums, chives / lung white — eat bitter: wheat, mutton, apricot kernels, xie scallions / spleen yellow — eat salty: soybeans, pork, chestnuts, huoxiang / kidney black — eat acrid: yellow millet, chicken, peaches, scallions) · recognizing herbs by form, color, qi and flavor plus xiang shu (star anise — eight points, wood’s multiplier, enters the liver, acrid enters the lung, standing between liver and lung / the orange cut open looks like a heart, sour green oranges enter the liver and the heart / acrid disperses, sour gathers, sweet slows, bitter firms, salty softens / the five grains nourish, the five fruits assist, the five meats benefit, the five vegetables complete / combine qi and flavor and take them to supplement the essence and boost the qi) · Su Wen · Xuan Ming Wu Qi Pian (Clarifying the Five Qi, the twenty-third chapter), opening: the five flavors enter the five organs (sour enters the liver, acrid the lung, bitter the heart, salty the kidney, sweet the spleen) · the five flavors must not be taken to excess · seven or eight parts full — eating too much generates heat in the middle

Opening: last lecture covered the liver — today Doctor Ni finishes the other four organs in one go

Last lecture covered when liver disease gets better and when it gets worse. Doctor Ni says that once you grasp the principle behind these patterns, you do not need to memorize anything — the heart, the spleen, the lung and the kidney all follow by the same logic.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: As long as you grasp the principle, you do not need to memorize it — it just extrapolates onward. If spring passes without recovery, you have escaped; summer holds steady; then chang xia (long summer) starts the cycle again. This passage of the Huang Di Nei Jing — the more we go on, the finer it gets: the qi of the organs and the laws of the seasons. This passage is extremely, extremely important.

Heart disease: worst on the ren-gui days, most dangerous at midnight in the hai-zi hours

Start with the heart. The heart belongs to fire, and what it fears is water:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: Heart patients get worse when they encounter the ren-gui days — ren-gui is water, and water conquers fire. On the jia-yi days, wood generates fire, so at the generating season he holds steady; on the bing-ding fire days the heart disease flares up again, and he must pass once more through the danger of the ren-gui days. Heart disease is clearest to see at noon (zhong wu) — because the heart is fire. At midnight, in the hai-zi hours, water conquers fire, and that is when heart attacks are most severe. At dawn, in the yin-mao hours, wood generates fire, and he holds steady.

The heart likes softness: saltiness can soften hardness — sea salt is best

After the hours, the medicine — how do you treat the heart?

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: Xin yu ruan, ji shi xian yi ruan zhi — the heart likes softness; when urgent, eat salty flavors to soften it. Use salty to tonify it, sweet to drain it. Because water conquers fire, when the heart is too hard we must use salty — saltiness can soften hardness. Just put a little salt in.

Here Doctor Ni settles in passing the age-old question of whether kidney patients may eat salt at all:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: Western medicine says kidney patients cannot eat salt. That is not wrong — it just was not explained clearly. When they say salt cannot be eaten, they mean refined salt, right? Actually sea salt is the best — we grew up eating sea salt. Never buy industrial salt, that harms badly. You say: teacher, how miserable, do I have to go catch my own salt in the sea and dry it myself? No need — there is a salt field down in Tainan; go buy sea salt from there, a few bags at a time. Coarse salt is best.

Spleen disease: heals in autumn, turns severe in spring, avoid dampness

Next is the spleen:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: Spleen disease heals in autumn. If autumn passes without recovery, it turns severe in spring; if spring does not kill, you have escaped, summer holds steady, and chang xia (long summer) starts the cycle again. When we treat spleen disease, the taboos are: do not wear damp clothes; avoid places that are too low-lying and damp.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: When the spleen is diseased, the geng-xin days are metal — the generating days, and it heals. If it does not heal on the geng-xin days, then on the jia-yi days wood conquers earth and it turns severe. If it survives jia-yi, on the bing-ding days fire generates earth and it holds steady; then on the wu-ji days it comes again and starts to flare. When the spleen is diseased, it is clearest in the afternoon wei hour — wei is the earth position; in the early morning yin-mao hours, wood conquers earth, most severe; at dusk in the shen-you hours, earth generates metal, and it settles down to hold steady.

And the medicine? The spleen likes slowness:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: Pi yu huan — the spleen likes slowness, likes relaxation. Use sweet-flavored medicines, sweet-tasting medicines, to slow it; use bitter to drain it and sweet to tonify it. So bitter medicines can drain the spleen, sweet medicines can tonify the spleen.

Lung disease: heals in winter, turns severe in summer — cold food and drink absolutely forbidden

Now the lung. This passage is almost as counterintuitive as the heart patient’s “avoid hot food and warm clothing”:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: Lung disease should heal in winter. If winter passes without healing, summer turns severe; if you are lucky enough to escape summer alive, chang xia (long summer), when earth generates metal, holds steady; it rises in autumn, and when the same season returns it flares up again. Jin han yin shi — cold food and drink forbidden. Lung patients must drink hot fluids and absolutely cannot eat anything cold — raw vegetables, salads, cold noodles, cold dressed noodles, none of these; wearing clothes that are too thin will not do either. Hot drinks and hot food only, and the body must be kept warm.

The lung’s relation to the days: heals on ren-gui (water days, metal generates water); if not healed on ren-gui, bing-ding (fire) turns severe; if it survives bing-ding, wu-ji (earth) holds steady; it rises on geng-xin (metal days). Within a single day?

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: Lung disease is clearest at dusk in the shen-you hours — shen-you is metal. At noon, fire conquers metal, most severe, so a lung patient is at his worst at noon, during the si and wu fire hours. At midnight in the zi hour, metal generates water, the generating relation, and it holds steady. If you know this timing, when treating a lung patient, keep watch at the you hour (5 to 7 pm) — if he survives past the you hour, you can go to sleep. You can arrange your own time.

The lung likes gathering: in emphysema the lung has scattered — gather it with sour

How do you medicate the lung? Here Doctor Ni gives a wonderfully vivid comparison:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: Fei yu shou — the lung qi is like a balloon; it likes to gather and contract. Ji shi suan yi shou zhi — eat sour to gather it; use sour to tonify it and acrid to drain it. Is there such a thing as emphysema? The lung gets a hole poked in it, the whole lung scatters, the qi disperses — you must use sour to gather it. Lung qi is itself acrid; the same acrid flavor that shares its nature can drain it. So when we pick medicines later on, we will come back to this passage.

Kidney disease: heals in spring, turns severe in chang xia — avoid overheating

Then the kidney:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: Kidney disease heals in spring. If spring passes without healing, it lodges in chang xia (long summer), and chang xia makes it worse (earth conquers water). If it survives chang xia, autumn holds steady (metal generates water), and winter starts it again. Absolutely avoid food that is too hot — barbecue, scalding hot pot, all bad for the kidneys; eat things warm. And absolutely do not wear clothes that were dried over fire — in old days clothes were dried over fire; nowadays everything is machine-dried or sun-dried.

A true story: one week before his scheduled dialysis, one dose of medicine meant he never needed it

Speaking of kidney disease, Doctor Ni told on the spot a case he was treating at that very time:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: One of my recent patients had been doing very well — autumn was fine, but when winter came he became unstable again. He came back to find me away, and he was frightened, scared to death. I told him he would not die — it would last until an earth day, at the turn of winter and spring, the week before the Beginning of Spring. I told him to rest easy, and hearing my voice he calmed down a little. This patient had been about to start dialysis — the artery and the vein had already been connected. A week before the scheduled dialysis they told him he needed it; of course he did not want that, so he came to me. He took the medicine once — there, you do not need dialysis — and I sent him away. Now in winter it is a bit heavier again; that is fine.

The kidney likes firmness: bitter firms the kidney — what Huang Lian (Coptis) resolves is precisely uremia

The kidney’s medicine is the most brilliant part, and Doctor Ni explains the “bitter flavor” with a secret Western medicine cannot see:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: Shen yu jian, ji shi ku yi jian zhi — the kidney likes firmness; when urgent, eat bitter to firm it. Use bitter to tonify it, salty to drain it. The bitter flavor can clear things out of the kidney, and the salty flavor can strengthen the kidney’s function — so we must eat a little salt, not huge amounts; a little sea salt is very good for the kidneys. Eating too salty drives the salt up into the blood, and the blood becomes thick and sticky.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: Since bitter can tonify it, what about the uremia patient? Uremia — the urine has run into the blood, water conquers fire, right? The bitter flavor enters the heart. When you look in the ben cao (herbal pharmacopoeia) at Huang Lian (Coptis) jie du — resolving toxins — what toxin does it resolve? It resolves precisely uremia! Very fast. In the early stage of uremia, add a little Huang Lian to every formula — even if his kidney function fails, uremia cannot hurt him, because the bitter flavor is in there and has already dissolved the uremia. So what toxin does Huang Lian jie du resolve? Not the heat toxin of teenage acne — uremia! That is what the Huang Di Nei Jing says. I do not know where people read otherwise.

The periods of death and life: know the five organs, the solar terms and the hours, and you know when disease gets better and when it turns severe

On page 197 there is a programmatic passage, and Doctor Ni says this is slowly entering the very center of the Huang Di Nei Jing:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: Fu xie qi zhi ke yu shen ye, yi zang xiang jia — when evil qi lodges in the body, it attacks by the relations of the organs: zhi qi suo sheng er yu — it heals when it reaches the season that generates it; zhi qi suo bu sheng er shen — it turns severe when it reaches the season that conquers it; zhi yu suo sheng er chi — it holds steady at the season the organ itself generates; zi de qi wei er qi — it rises again when it returns to its own position. Bi xian ding wu zang zhi mai, nai ke yan jian shen zhi shi, si sheng zhi qi ye — you must first fix the pulses of the five organs, and only then can you speak of the times of ease and severity and the periods of death and life. This is the human record; this is where heaven resides.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: So as long as we know which organ is involved, know the changes of the solar terms, know the twelve hours of the day and the heavenly stems and earthly branches on the calendar, we can know when the disease will get better and when it will kill. Of course you can also look at the complexion — the complexion must match the timing. Some people are not seriously ill at all and will never die, yet you are over there panicking — because the disease is shallow, there is nothing to worry about.

The symptoms of the five organs (1): liver disease — pain below both ribs, and the patient flares up easily

Starting on page 198, Doctor Ni covers the main symptoms of the five organs. The first is the liver:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: A liver patient will certainly have pain below both ribs, pulling down into the lower abdomen — the liver channel runs from below the ribs down to the abdomen and up to the testicles, and the liver channel pulls on that whole region. Ling ren shan nu — he flares up extremely easily. The liver has deficiency and excess: in deficiency the eyes cannot see clearly — the liver opens into the eyes and stores the blood, and when the blood is insufficient there is nothing to moisten the wood; er wu suo wen — deafness, because the liver and gallbladder are interior-exterior, the gallbladder qi enters the ear, and when the liver is deficient the gallbladder qi cannot enter the ear; shan kong — fear, as if someone is about to seize him. When the illness is critical and the patient is nervous, seeing as if someone is coming to grab him — that is liver deficiency. For treatment, take points on the Foot Jue Yin Liver channel and the Foot Shao Yang Gallbladder channel.

When liver qi rebels upward, Doctor Ni gives a diagnostic tip for headaches:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: Gan qi shang ni — liver qi rebels upward — headache. The liver opens into the eyes, so patients often say: I have a headache. Ask him where it hurts. Behind the eyes — liver qi rebelling upward. The crown of the head, pain at Baihui (GV20) — liver qi coming up. If it is liver excess with heat, the mind unclear, the two flanks swollen, then let blood from the congested vessels — excess pattern, we let blood.

The symptoms of the five organs (2): heart disease — chest pain, plus a scolding for surgical drainage of lung water

The heart’s symptom is simple: pain in the chest.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: The heart — the chest is the seat of heart yang; the chest is where yang qi lives. A chest that does not hurt is normal, because yang qi is circulating. When you have chest pain, the yang qi cannot circulate. In heart disease the chest hurts, the ribs feel full and the area below the ribs aches; the pain runs through the chest, the back, the shoulders and shoulder blades, and down the inner sides of both arms — chest pain reaching around to the back, all of it belongs to the heart. In deficiency, the chest and abdomen are large, and the pain links the ribs all the way to the lower back.

Speaking of surgery, Doctor Ni gave an on-the-spot example of why he so strongly disapproves of the knife:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: Take this patient — water in the lung, a lot of water pooled in the lower part of the lung. We clearly have medicines that can clear it away, but before he took any Chinese medicine, the Western doctors poked a hole in him and drained it — drained it two or three times, and what came out was blood, because there is a great deal of essence-blood in the lung. After that we started working; we restored the lung qi, and by rights the patient should have recovered — but he was in great pain, because the wound was right there. Our treatment was exhausting; every time we thought it was done, the patient was much better, but the qi was still stuck there and the chest still felt tight. Why? Two holes poked in him — like two holes poked in the sky. I had to become Nuwa and mend the sky, fetching the five-colored stones to patch it. A disease that was originally simple became more and more troublesome the more it was treated. It can still be cured, of course — it is just troublesome.

Heart disease is treated through the heart channel and pericardium points, plus letting blood under the tongue:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: For treatment we take his channels — the Hand Shao Yin (Heart) and Hand Tai Yang (Small Intestine), or under the tongue: below the tongue there are two extraordinary points, Jinjin (EX-HN12) and Yuye (EX-HN13). Even if you have never studied acupuncture you have heard of them — prick a few holes and let blood out. If there are changes, we can prick the xi-cleft points to bleed — Yinxi (HT6), Yanglao (SI6), all these points can be bled; between the middle and ring fingers too. All right — we were talking about heart disease.

The symptoms of the five organs (3): spleen disease — the body as if hung with several thousand jin of gold

For the spleen, Doctor Ni says patients really do describe it exactly this way:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: When the spleen is diseased, the body is heavy — the spleen governs the muscles and governs dampness; the whole body feels heavy, as if carrying several thousand jin of something, as if carrying a load of gold. The muscles waste away, and the body feels heavy. Patients really do tell you: I do not know why, but my body just feels heavy. When the spleen is diseased, the chest and ribs also hurt; the flesh wastes and shrinks, and the feet will not obey — you cannot control your walking, the feet are weak, you cannot steer left or right. Hernias and easy cramping; the lower legs and calves ache. In spleen deficiency the abdomen is full, with borborygmus and diarrhea, and food is not digested — the spleen and the stomach are interior-exterior.

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: To treat the spleen, take points on the Spleen channel and the Yang Ming channel, and you can also look on the Kidney channel (the Shao Yin channel) for places of blood stasis and let blood — because earth conquers water; when the spleen and stomach have problems, the kidney is the first to be affected. That is treatment on the channels. Of course we also have medicines — but this whole Huang Di Nei Jing, from beginning to end, talks about acupuncture; it mentions only a few herbs, and when it does it discusses the nature of the herbs: the flavors sour, bitter, sweet, acrid and salty. It never says how to use any particular herb.

The symptoms of the five organs (4): lung disease — wheezing, coughing, rebellious qi; shoulder and back pain means yang qi insufficiency

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: Lung disease — chuan ke ni qi: wheezing, coughing, rebellious qi — qi should sink downward; such qi is going against the way. Jian bei tong — shoulder and back pain. Remember: whenever a patient tells you the back of the shoulder and the back hurt, yang is insufficient. I had a case: this man kept sleeping — fifteen hours without waking, someone had to call him. When he got up to eat, his neck had no strength — the two points at the back of the neck are Tianzhu (BL10); the back of the neck and shoulders ached, always without strength. That is yang qi insufficiency. When he sweats, the genitals, the buttocks and the groin all sweat and hurt at the same time; the thighs, calves, knees and heels all ache — yang qi rises, yang qi runs contrary, and below, where yang is insufficient, there is pain. In deficiency, shao qi bu neng bao xi — the lung qi is weak, the breathing is very shallow and short, cannot complete a deep breath, together with deafness and a dry throat. For treatment, besides the Foot Tai Yang (Bladder) channel, the Jue Yin channel too — you can look on the Liver channel for blood stasis and let blood.

The symptoms of the five organs (5): kidney disease — large abdomen, swollen shins, night sweats, aversion to wind, ice-cold limbs

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: Kidney disease — large abdomen, swollen shins, wheezing and coughing, heavy body. Why? The kidney governs receiving the qi — when the lung inhales, the qi must descend and enter the kidney; metal generates water. When metal does not generate water, there is wheezing and coughing. The kidney governs water, so the body is heavy. While sleeping, sweat pours out in night sweats, and he detests the wind. When the kidney qi is deficient, the chest certainly hurts, the lower abdomen and the upper abdomen both hurt; the four limbs are ice-cold, and he is depressed and joyless. For treatment, take the Kidney channel and the Foot Tai Yang (Bladder) channel; wherever the channels are blocked by stagnant blood, you can let blood.

Bonus: the art of letting blood — only let blood where you see green veins

Speaking of letting blood, Doctor Ni passes on the essentials of pricking the collaterals in acupuncture:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: In our acupuncture practice, besides mother-child tonification and drainage, there are also shu-mu treatments, yuan-luo treatments — many methods. When you see stagnant blood on a channel, drain that channel — the stagnant blood is right there on that collateral; let it out and recovery speeds up. When you let blood, only do it where you see green veins — do not stab an artery. Wherever you see green veins you can let blood, no problem.

The masterstroke of telling disease by the hour: discomfort at noon is the heart, discomfort at midnight is the kidney, waking up is the liver

This passage holds the most practical trick of the whole lecture — one sentence from the patient and you can localize the disease:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: When you know the generating and conquering relations of the five organs and follow the earthly branches, you can make the diagnosis on the spot. For example, someone calls you: all day I have been fine — only at noon I feel unwell. Heart disease. Done. Someone else says: strange — every night during the hai-zi hours (11 pm to 1 am) I feel unwell. Water — a water disease. He only feels unwell; he did not wake up. If it is insomnia, waking up, then it is liver disease (the chou hour, 1 to 3 am). Whatever time of day the discomfort occurs, you can diagnose it immediately — just by listening.

Why was acupuncture enough for the ancients, but not for modern people?

After the diagnostics, Doctor Ni lets out a sigh and points out the difference between ancient and modern times:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: You have seen it all by now — we can verify ourselves on the channels. If you use acupuncture well, sometimes you do not need medicine at all; even internal medicine diseases can be treated. The ancients did not have so much joy, anger, worry, thought, grief, fear and fright; they did not have so many desires. No cars, no airplanes, no air conditioning — so they were very close to nature: when the weather was hot, they hid in the shade of trees and mountains; when it was cold, they hid in caves or at home. They followed the solar terms, so their diseases were lighter, and acupuncture alone was generally enough. Modern people’s diseases need heavier treatment.

The five colored foods (1): the liver is green — sweet is best

On page 200, Doctor Ni begins “how to pick your food” — the most practical dietary guide he gives patients:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: We know the five flavors, sour, bitter, sweet, acrid and salty — how do we choose our diet? The liver’s color is green (qing); it should eat sweet — eating sweet-flavored food is best: rice, beef, dates and mallow (dong kui) are all sweet. Celery, red dates, beef, glutinous rice — all very good, all best for the liver.

The five colored foods (2): the heart is red, the lung white, the spleen yellow, the kidney black

The remaining four organs in one go:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: The heart’s color is red; it is best suited to eating sour — sour is gathering: small beans, dog meat, plums and chives. You tell me to eat dog meat — no thanks, and that is fine — this is only diet; we have plenty of Chinese medicines to cure you with. If you are vegetarian, I can cure you with vegetarian medicines too; do not be stiff-minded. In other words, even in the emperor’s time people ate dog meat. The lung’s color is white; it should eat bitter — because fire conquers metal: wheat, mutton, apricot kernels and xie (the Chinese scallion-like Allium) are all bitter, all edible. The spleen’s color is yellow; it should eat salty — soybeans, pork, chestnuts and huoxiang (agastache leaves). The kidney’s color is black; it should eat acrid — yellow millet, chicken, peaches and scallions, all acrid, all very good for the kidneys. That is how we choose our food.

Recognizing herbs by form, color, qi and flavor: introducing a medicine from four angles

On page 201, Doctor Ni lays out the great framework for recognizing Chinese medicines — xing (form), se (color), qi and wei (flavor):

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: When we introduce a medicine, we start from four places: the medicine’s form (xing), its color (se), its qi, its flavor (wei). When we teach the ben cao (pharmacopoeia) we will use all of them, and I will also add the medicine’s image (xiang) and its number (shu). Take the star anise (ba jiao) — its number is 8; eight is the multiplier of wood, so it enters the liver; its acrid flavor enters the lung. So the star anise stands right between the liver and the lung. Colds are all about the lung — we introduced the transmission pattern earlier: if the lung is not cured the evil runs to the liver, if the liver is not cured to the spleen, if the spleen is not cured to the kidney, if the kidney is not cured to the heart — conquering once around the five organs, and that is death.

Image and number: an orange cut open looks like a heart — even a sour green orange enters the heart

The “image” of a medicine is the most entertaining part — Doctor Ni teaches you to recognize medicine in the market:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: In classical Chinese philosophy, the hardest thing to understand is xiang shu — image and number — using the image to see it. Go out and buy a small orange, cut it open — each section is a little square, and together they look like a heart. And there are always green oranges, very green and very sour — those are lemons; the name is different but the form is the same, and it is also sour flavor. Sour flavor enters the liver — entering the liver while also entering the heart, governing gathering, so it ripens quickly. Go to the market, pick up Chinese medicines and look at the colors, touch the forms — weapons are everywhere; they are in the mountain forests too. When we introduce the ben cao, how do you know whether something is poisonous? You can check immediately.

The general outline of the five flavors and the diet structure: the five grains nourish, the five fruits assist

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: The acrid flavor governs dispersing, the sour flavor governs gathering, sweet slows, bitter firms, salty can soften — saltiness can soften hardness; toxic drugs are used to attack the blood. The five grains nourish — you must eat the five grains. Make good use of toxic drugs — there is no way around it; when you must attack the blood, you use them. The five fruits assist — fruits help and augment the form. The five meats benefit — meat can tonify and benefit; look at vegetarians, all thin — we should eat more meat to build up. The five vegetables complete. Combine qi and flavor and take them, to supplement the essence and boost the qi. These five groups have acrid, sour, bitter, sweet and salty, each with its own benefit — some disperse, some gather, some slow, some quicken, some firm, some soften; in the four seasons and the five organs, disease follows what each of the five flavors suits. In learning Chinese medicine, we must know how to eat the grains — and you must tell your patients: what to eat for liver disease, what to eat for stomach disease, what to avoid.

Closing: opening the Xuan Ming Wu Qi Pian — the five flavors enter the five organs, take them in moderation, never to excess

Having finished the Zang Qi Fa Shi Lun, Doctor Ni moves into the twenty-third chapter, the Xuan Ming Wu Qi Pian (Clarifying the Five Qi). He says this chapter clearly analyzes the changes of the five kinds of qi:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: The so-called wu wei suo ru — the five flavors enter: sour enters the liver, acrid enters the lung, bitter enters the heart, salty enters the kidney, sweet enters the spleen. These five flavors entering the five organs means moderation — you cannot take any to excess; you must absorb them evenly. You cannot eat sour from morning to night, or sweet from morning to night, eating nothing but sweets — none of that works; excess of anything is bad. Take them evenly.

And it closes with a health advice everyone can use:

💬 Note from Doctor Ni: As for the definition of full: in the view of Chinese medicine, seven or eight parts full is enough — do not eat until you are stuffed. If you eat too much, the excess food generates heat in the middle; Chinese medicine says dampness and heat will rage within. So when you eat — seven or eight parts full.

Based on Doctor Ni Haixia’s Ren Ji (Human Records) lecture series on the Huang Di Nei Jing (Thirty-Third lecture)