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In rural China during the Qing Dynasty, a poor scholar named Fan Jin yearned to pass the imperial examination and become an official. After years of perseverance, he finally saw his name on the official list, achieving the rank of a county magistrate. Overwhelmed by the news, he fainted. Revived by rice soup, Fan Jin exclaimed, “I did it! I did it!” He began laughing uncontrollably, running down the street until he fell into a roadside pond, covering himself in mud. His euphoria had turned into madness. Concerned, his family didn’t know how to help him.
A government official suggested a solution: He explained that Fan Jin’s exultant joy had caused a buildup of phlegm, leading to mania. He suggested that if someone Fan Jin feared confronted him and declared that he had failed the exam, the shock would make him expel the phlegm and recover. Fan Jin’s father-in-law, a pig butcher who often belittled him, approached and shouted, “You failed the exam!” Slapped hard across the face, Fan Jin momentarily fainted, then slowly regained consciousness, asking, “Why am I here?”
This story illustrates a traditional Chinese medicine method for treating emotional disorders. According to traditional Chinese medicine, emotions such as happiness, anger, worry, sadness, and fear are governed by the five internal organs: the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys. For example, the heart governs joy, but excessive joy can harm it, causing mania (as in Fan Jin’s case). The kidneys govern fear, and fear can counteract excessive joy. Thus, inducing fear (through the father-in-law’s confrontation) helped subdue Fan Jin’s manic state. The liver governs anger, the spleen governs worry, and the lungs govern sadness. In addition to acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, emotional disorders were sometimes treated with simple, practical therapies like the one in Fan Jin’s story.
Although we cannot use these crude methods to help patients today, according to the theory of mutual generation and mutual restraint of the five elements in traditional Chinese medicine, patients with diseases of excessive heart fire, such as irritability, insomnia, or manic syndrome, can use acupuncture points with the function of nourishing kidney water, such as KD 3, KD 1, etc.; or Chinese medicines such as Cornus officinalis, Rehmannia glutinosa, Anemarrhena asphodeloides, which apply the theory of the five elements that kidney water can extinguish heart fire to correct the deviation of excessive fire. Deviations in the functions of other organs can also be corrected using the method of the five elements, which have been widely used.
Another example is a patient whose mother died during the epidemic. She was very sad and soon contracted COVID-19. She coughed day and night, did not recover for two months, and had a poor appetite. I used the method of clearing the lungs and relieving coughs, nourishing the spleen and stomach, increasing appetite, supplementing nutrition, and controlling coughs. At the same time, I chatted with her and learned that she had just become a grandmother, so I suggested that she visit her grandson every day, allowing her to immerse herself in the joy of being a grandmother and dilute her sadness of losing her mother. She recovered in two weeks.
Chinese medicine believes that the sadness of losing one’s mother hurts the lungs, weakening the lung qi, and allowing the new coronavirus to invade. With insufficient positive energy, it is difficult to resist the disease, and recovery is prolonged.
In the theory of the five elements, the lungs belong to metal. The lungs represent the respiratory system, including the trachea, throat, and nasal cavity. The sound that comes out of the throat is dominated by the function of the lungs, just like metal can make a sound. The spleen and stomach belong to earth because the food absorbed and digested by the spleen and stomach comes from the soil, providing nutrition for the human body, just like the land nourishes all things in the world. Earth produces metal because metal minerals come from the earth and mountains, so the earth produces metals. This is why tonifying the spleen can treat lung deficiency cough. Emotionally, the heart governs joy, the heart is fire, and fire can overcome metals (fire can melt metal), so the joy of the heart can dissolve the sadness of the lungs. Since the sadness hurts the lungs, we can use the spleen earth of the nurse, and the heart fire (joy) that overcomes sadness, to correct the damage to the lungs: cough and sadness.
Specifically, I used Buzhong Yiqi Decoction and ST36, CV12, CV6, and other acupoints for tonifying the spleen, as well as Chuanbei loquat paste and BL12, BL13, LU6, and other acupoints for clearing the lungs and relieving cough. The patient received acupuncture treatment once a week and took Chinese medicine daily. She was cured after two weeks.
用情緒治療情緒病
在清朝的中國農村，有個窮書生，一心想通過考試做官，考了很多很多年，終於有一天他在發榜的帖子上看到自己的名字，考上了舉人(相當於現在的縣長的級別)。 立刻驚喜的暈倒在地。 周圍的人馬上灌米湯，把他搖醒。他醒後大喊“ 我中了！我中了”，一邊大笑一邊往外跑，跌倒在路旁的水塘，渾身上下全是泥。 他不顧這些，爬起來接著跑，大笑不止，眾人勸阻不得。都說他高興過度，瘋了。家人正煩惱不知如何是好。官府來家裡報信的人說，我有一法，他最怕誰？他只是因為太高興，高興之氣上湧，痰隨氣上，迷了心竅，只要有個他害怕的人，打他一巴掌，說： 你沒中舉人， 那是假的！這一驚嚇，把痰吐出來，他就會醒了。範進平日最害怕他的岳父，岳父是殺豬的，平時看不上範進只會讀書，不會幹活，還常常一臉兇相，說難聽的話。這時，岳父走到渾身是泥土，蓬頭垢面，不停地奔跑的範進面前，大吼：「站住！該死的畜生！你沒考中！」同時，狠狠地煽了一個耳光。範進被打倒在地， 暈過去了好一會兒，慢慢醒來，氣息平穩後，坐起來，清醒地說，我怎麼在這裡？
這就是有名的故事- 範進中舉。其中演繹了中醫治療情志病的方法。 中醫認為，喜怒憂思悲恐驚，由五臟的心肝脾肺腎做主。 如心主喜，主火，但過喜傷心，心火過旺則狂（ 範進之病）；腎主驚恐，主水。水可以滅火，腎水可以滅火，所以用腎水之驚恐，來製服心火之狂喜（ 岳父恐懼之水，澆滅了範進的狂喜之火）。 此外，肝主怒；脾主思慮；肺主悲哀， 這些情志方面的疾病，除可以用針灸和中醫治療外， 民間也流傳著這些樸素的療法。
雖然今天我們不能用這些粗暴的方法幫助病人， 但按照中醫五行相生相剋的理論，心火過旺的疾病，如煩躁、易怒、失眠或髒躁症的病人，可用具有滋補腎水功能的針灸穴位如，太谿，湧泉等穴；或山茱萸，熟地黃，知母等中藥，就是應用了五行中，腎水可滅火的理論，糾正火旺之偏差。其他臟腑功能的偏差，同樣用五行生剋的方法來修正，而且 這些方法已經被普遍使用。
又如一個病人疫情期間，老母病故，悲哀。不久，本人患上covid，日夜咳嗽，2個月不愈，食慾差。 我用清肺止咳，補脾胃的方法，增進食慾補充營養，控制咳嗽。 同時與她聊天，得知她剛剛當上外婆，就建議她每天去看望外孫，使她更長的時間沉浸在當外婆的喜悅中，沖淡其喪母的悲哀情緒。二個星期痊癒。
中醫認為，失去母親悲哀傷肺，肺氣虛弱，新冠病毒乘虛入侵。此時正氣不足，難以抵擋病邪，病久不癒。
五行理論中 肺屬金，因為肺是整個呼吸系統，包括氣管、咽喉、鼻腔等。人從喉嚨發出的聲音由肺的功能來主導，就像金屬能發出聲響一樣，故肺屬金；脾胃屬土，因為脾胃吸收和消化的食物來自土壤，而且脾胃的功能是為人體提供營養，就像土地滋養世間萬物一樣，故脾胃的五行屬土。土可以生金 ，因為金屬礦物質來自大地山脈， 所以土生金。這就是補脾可以治療肺虛咳嗽的道理。 同時，情緒上，心主喜悅，心為火，火能克金（火可以融化金屬），所以，心的喜悅的情緒可以化解肺的悲哀。由此可見，悲哀傷肺，我們用五行相生的脾土（補益），和相剋的心火（喜悅），可糾正肺的損傷： 咳嗽和悲哀。
具體方法，我用了補脾的補中益氣湯和足三里，中脘、氣海等穴位；以及清肺止咳的川貝枇杷膏和風門，肺俞，孔最等穴位，病人每週針灸治療一次，每天服用中藥，兩週後基本痊癒。
By Ginger Zhang
Contact: [email protected]
