Yin and Yang in Medicine

The article “Yin and Yang” in the Medicine book was taken from The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine; it is called the Neijing Suwen in Chinese. The original text is a dialog between the Huang Di, the Yellow Emperor and his acupuncturist, Qi Bo. Maoshing Ni translated this text to English in 1995. The text gives a holistic picture of human life. It tells how our way of life and our environment affect our health. The Yellow Emperor introduces his theory by telling us “ the principle of Yin and Yang is the foundation of the entire universe.” Yin and Yang are opposite but interdependent; one can’t exist without the other. Yang stands for heaven, brightness and destruction. Yin stands for earth, darkness and d conservation.

Yang creates the air while Yin creates the senses. The human needs both air senses to survive. Yin and Yang are imbalance; the body feels physical pains. Man force associates with heat, and female force associates with cold. Too much of Yin or cold injures the body while too much of Yang or heat injures the spirit. In the text, The Yellow Emperor also says “the Weather characterizes by cold, heat, dryness, moisture and wind.” Human experiences those can fell joy, anger, sympathy, grief and fear.

Life is no longer secure when Yin and Yang exceed one the other. When Yang is stronger, the body is hot, which help human survive through the winter. When Yin is stronger the body is cold, people survive through winter. Yin and Yang are different but relative so do the diseases. If one can’t equalize the influence of Yin and Yang, his life will be going down. Living in joy and peace help people live longer, stronger. The narrator, Qi Bo learns about illness by examining external symptoms. Experts feel their pulse and determine whether it is Yin or Yang that causes the disease. In order to know that, one must be able to distinguish a light pulse of low tension from a heard and pounding one. With a disease of Yin, Yang predominates. In Chinese medicine, health is represented as a balance of Yin and Yang. The shift in the balance of yin and yang is very natural. When one dominates the other, that health is compromised, resulting in illness and disease. Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners attempt to determined the exact nature of the imbalance, then correct it through the use of acupuncture, herbal remedies, exercise, diet and lifestyles. As balance is restored in the body, so is health.

In conclusion, The Yellow Emperor helped starting this source of wisdom to order to pursue health and happiness. The body is at healthy state when there exists a balance of everything. Too much of something causes problem. This text was written to all people who want to stay healthy and to medicine experts when they judge and cure disease.

Works Cited:

Maoshing Ni. “The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine, Yin and Yang.” Medicine. Spec. issue of Lapham’s Quarterly. 2.4 (2008): 59-60. Print.

Coyle, Mark. “Yin and Yang in Medical Theory”. http://fly.cc.fer.hr/~shlede/ying/yang.html