About ‘Five Elements’ – Fire and Metal, Wood and Earth
By Jubong Kang, K.M.D.
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Fire and Metal – Fire Controls Metal
In Eastern Medicine, the term fire can be interchangeably used with heart, summer, hot or warm, ascending and inflammation. The term metal can be interchangeably used with the lung, autumn, descending, dry and enduring fire.
Our ancestor understood the relationship between two organs the heart and the lung through relationship between fire and metal of nature, symbolized in the sentence fire controls metal.
For example, if we think about an engine and a radiator in a car, then the relationship between two organs – the heart and the lung would be understood easily. Continuously driving a car generates a large amount of heart, so that an engine may overheat unless the heart is cooled off by a radiator. It is possible to say that the relationship between fire – the heart and metal – the lung can be compared to an engine and a radiator in a car.
For another example, a computer can be used to explain about the relationship between fire and metal. A CPU in a computer is made of many collected transistors and it is well known that CPU is vulnerable to heat. For this reason, around the CPU, aluminum plates are placed to radiate heat away from the CPU and fans are placed near the CPU to expel heat. When a computer is turned on, we can hear the sound of a machine rolling. This is because of the spinning fans used to expel heat from a CPU.
The engine of a car can be compared to the heart organ, and a CPU to the brain. We are able to see the relationship between fire and metal in a car and in a computer; it is possible to say that metal – the lung – radiates fire from the heart and the brain. If liquid in the lung is too deficient to expel the heat by respiratory system then the heart and the brain becomes hot and many symptoms can occur, such as asthma, chronic throat inflammation, severe nose bleeding, tinnitus, inflamed face and eyes, insomnia and even schizophrenia.
In this case, some herbs which have abundant nourishment and minerals are necessary to supply liquid to the lung, such as Shengdihuang(生地黃), Maimendong(麥門冬), Xuanshen(玄蔘), Danshen(丹參), Wuweizi(五味子).
Many well-known formulas which treat liquid deficiency of the lungs and the heart are: Maimendong Decoction(麥門冬湯) in Jin Gui Yao Lue(金匱要略) and Zhi Gancao Decoction(炙甘草湯) in Shang Han Lun(傷寒論), Qing Xin Lianzi Decoction(淸心蓮子湯) of He Ji Lu Fang(和劑局方), Sheng Mai Powder(生脈散) of Dong Yuan((東垣; one of famous doctor in Jin Yuan Period 金元時代), Qing Ying Decoction(淸營湯) in Wen Bing Tiao Bian(温病条辨) and Qing Xin Lianzi Decoction; as propounded by the great scholar Lee Jae Ma.
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Wood and Earth – Wood controls Earth
One of the five elements wood symbolizes sour, the liver, spring, spreading out, angry, and blood. Earth symbolizes sweet, the spleen, the pancreas, between summer and autumn, nourishment, lymphatic liquid, humidity, dampness. In Nature, the earth supplies nourishment and waters to the woods.
In the liver, the blood is stored in a condensed state without abundant liquid. If this condensed blood moves into the vessels, then the liquid of lymph from the lymphatic system comes into the vessels and then the condensed blood becomes properly diluted for use in any region or organs in the body.
The relationship between wood and earth is explained through a process of the mixture of the blood from the live, the lymph from the spleen (In Traditional Eastern Medicine, the term pancreas is used as the spleen and vice versa) and the lymphatic duct system.
It could be said that the key point of the relationship between wood and earth is the density of the blood. The term wood controls earth means that the stored blood in the liver manages the lymph liquid of the spleen to adjust the density of blood in the vessels.
For example, if the balance of wood and earth relationship is not balanced in the body, because of bad weather, stress or tiredness, then much kind of illnesses can arise.
When the relationship between wood and earth becomes unbalanced and the blood become denser than a normal level, then reddish face, palpitation, vexation, menstrual pain or vertigo may appear. In a severe case, stroke or heart disease can occur, too. On the other hand, if the blood becomes more diluted than a normal level, then vertigo, headache, nausea, diarrhea, edema, insomnia, depression or panic may occur.
In order to treat upper body symptoms from condensed blood, herbs which can nourish and augment the volume of the blood are prescribed such as Danggui, Shaoyao, Chuanxiong or Dihuang. And in opposite case, to make the blood dense, herbs which increase the urination output are used, for example: Fuling, Zhexie and Mutong.
The relationship between wood and earth is one of the foundations which explain the constitutional properties of the four constitutions. On the basis of the relationship between the liver and the pancreas, each constitutional blood property is as follow;
Spring Type: Large liver and Large Spleen, Normal Blood with Large Volume.
Summer Type: Small liver and Large Spleen, Thin Blood with Large Volume.
Autumn Type: Small liver and Small Spleen, Normal Blood with Small Volume.
Winter type: Large liver and Small Spleen, Dense Blood with Small Volume. (This contents can be derived from the basis of the functional size or organs, refer to PART Ⅲ, Chapter 2)
For example, with a summer type person, herbs such as Fulling, Zhexie and Zhuling are used frequently to make the blood dense, because this constitutional type has a character to be diluted from his large spleen.
For a winter type person, herbs that invigorate the blood such as Danggui, Chuanxiong, Shaoyao are used often, because he has a large liver and a small spleen, therefore the blood easily becomes dense and stagnant.
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Earth and Water
The contents of this notion are omitted, because the concepts are beyond the scope of this introductory level book.
