The five elements of Chinese medicine
2 min readAnother powerful tool of analysis in TCM is called the Five Elements（or Phases）Theory.
Being in harmony with the universe was very important to the Taoists.The fundamental processes of the universe were considered as a good basis for understanding the world.The Five Elements Theory is an attempt to classify existence according to these processes.
Things such as tastes, human organs, sounds, grains, emotions, animals, and stages of growth were found to have something in common. They were associated in five phases: Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal. Being naturalist philosophers, the Taoists took the names from nature.
It’s a short jump from the principle of the interconnectedness of all things to the principle that all things contain a microcosm of the universe. Being a part of the universe, man contains a microcosm of it. Man therefore embodies the fundamental processes of the universe: the Five Elements or Phases. This being the case, man can be analyzed according to the Five Elements.
Let’s examine a simplified case.A man had a fight with his wife during breakfast. He became very angry and forgot about finishing his meal. He presented strong cramping pain around the lower right front ribs, nausea, greenish facial complexion, and a frontal headache which seemed to affect his eyes. These symptoms can find correspondences in the table above:
· Anger-the emotion of Wood
· Possible galbladder pain-Wood Yang organ
· Nausea-stomach-Earth Yang organ
· Green-the color of Wood
· Eyes-the sense organ of Wood
The diagnosis is that the gentleman’s Wood Element is out of balance and is affecting his Earth Element.
