Most Chinese medicines are derived from natural plants, animals and minerals, most of which are plants. Therefore, in ancient times, traditional Chinese medicine was also called “herb”. The discovery and application of traditional Chinese medicine are generally believed to originate from Shennong. The legend of “Shennong tasting hundreds of herbs” is widely spread among the people. It is said that Shennong was born with a crystal belly, and he could see all his internal organs clearly. At that time, people often fell ill or even died because they ate indiscriminately. Shennong is determined to taste everything. The delicious food is put in the left bag beside him for people to eat, and the bad food is put in the right bag for medicine.
For the first time, Shennong tasted a small tender leaf. As soon as the leaf fell into his stomach, he scrubbed all the internal organs up and down to make them fresh, like a patrol. Shennong called it “check”, which is what we now call “tea”. Shennong put it in the left bag. The second time, Shennong tasted a light red flower like a butterfly. It was sweet and smelling. It was licorice. Shennong put it in the bag on the right.
In this way, Shennong tasted all kinds of herbs. Every time he was poisoned, he relied on tea to save him.
Later, there were 47, 000 kinds of edible flowers, roots and leaves in the bag on his left, and 398, 000 kinds of medicinal plants in the bag on his right. But one day, Shennong tasted the “Heartbroken Grass”, which was so powerful that he died before he could take tea to detoxify it. In order to commemorate the contributions made by Shennong to the people, later generations all respected Shennong as the originator of traditional Chinese medicine.
It is recorded in Shennong’s Herbal Classic that pine pollen powder has a sweet and non-toxic smell. It is mainly used to cure the cold and heat evil in the abdomen, facilitate urination, eliminate blood stasis, nourish the heart and lungs, and prolong life by taking it lightly pine pollen powder is listed as medicine.
1. The first characteristic of traditional Chinese medicine: four qi
The “Qi” of a drug refers to the four different characteristics of a drug: cold, cold, warm and hot. For example, mint gives people a cool feeling, so its “qi” is cool, and ginger gives people a warm feeling, so its “qi” is warm.
Different medicines all have different qi. Cold and cold belong to the same nature, while warm and hot belong to the same nature, but the degree is different: the colder is cold, so sometimes cold is called “slightly cold”; The extreme temperature is heat, sometimes called “great temperature”.
In addition to “cold, cool, warm and hot”, some traditional Chinese medicines are neither hot nor cold, which is called “calming” medicine in traditional Chinese medicine. However, traditional Chinese medicine is still used to call the description of drug properties “four qi” rather than “five qi”.
Cold, cool, gentle, and hot
Human body temperature is relatively constant, which is regulated by the balance of heat production and heat dissipation. When the internal balance is destroyed, resulting in disease, the balance of heat production and heat dissipation is also destroyed. If the heat is generated and dissipated, there will be fever, hyperfunction and other symptoms, manifested as fever; If heat production is insufficient, there will be chills, functional decline and other symptoms, manifested as cold.
The “four qi” of medicine is to correct the imbalance between cold and heat.
Cold herbal medicine can inhibit the metabolism of the human body, slow down the activities of viscera and organs and blood circulation, and is used to treat fever; Warm medicine can enhance the metabolism of the human body, accelerate the activities of viscera and organs and blood circulation, and is used to treat cold.
The Shennong Classic of Materia Medica says that “heat medicine is used to treat cold, and cold medicine is used to treat heat”.
Only by understanding the basic characteristics of drugs can we use drugs to treat diseases.
For example, blood stasis syndrome includes blood stasis caused by cold evil invading the human body and coagulating blood, and blood stasis caused by heat evil invading the human body and suffering blood.
When selecting drugs for activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis, it is necessary to consider the cold and warm properties of drugs:
For blood stasis caused by cold evil, we should choose blood activating drugs with warm performance, such as safflower, cinnamon twig, wormwood leaf, etc; For blood stasis caused by heat evil, blood activating drugs with cold performance should be selected, such as red peony, red peony, red sage, etc. If you choose the wrong way, it will not only fail to promote blood circulation, but will lead to aggravation of the disease.
When we treat diseases, we all have a mentality: we want to be cured quickly and recover. In most cases, we take too much medicine.
No doctor is so clever that he can adjust the disease properly. Excessive drugs will cause drug-induced diseases in the body.
Now drug-induced diseases have reached a very terrible stage. Statistics found that one third of patients did not die of the disease itself, but did not use drugs properly! Many patients with hypertension who have taken antihypertensive drugs for a long time either die of cardiovascular disease or renal failure. The number of deaths caused by drug-induced diseases is 10 times that caused by infectious diseases, and it is increasing year by year!
Therefore, a good doctor first regulates the disease to a state close to “flat”, and then uses “flat” drugs to regulate it.
pine pollen powder “Qi” is flat, which is a medicine of “calmness”, so it can regulate heat and cold in both directions, and cure cold and heat evil.
2. The second characteristic of traditional Chinese medicine: five flavors
The “taste” of a drug is the taste, which is the feeling of the taste buds on the drug, mainly including “sour, bitter, sweet, spicy and salty”. Some medicines have no special taste, which is called light taste. Traditional Chinese medicine attaches it to sweet taste; There are also some medicines with astringent taste, which is similar to astringency and acid. Traditional Chinese medicine attaches astringent taste to acid taste. It is still customarily called “five flavors”.
Traditional Chinese medicine practice found that sour medicine has astringent effect; Bitter medicine has the effect of purging fire and drying dampness; Sweet medicine has tonic effect; Light medicine is beneficial to water infiltration; Acrid medicine has the effect of opening and dispersing; Salty medicine has the effect of purging and softening.
According to the above theory, we can speculate and discover the role of drugs from the taste of drugs:
Jujube kernel, Schisandra chinensis and Cornus officinalis all have sour taste, so they have the effect of astringent and antiperspirant;
Scutellaria, Coptis chinensis and Cortex phellodendri all have bitter taste, so they have the effect of clearing away heat and drying dampness;
Astragalus, Codonopsis pilosula, prepared ground and wolfberry all have sweet taste, so they have the effect of tonifying the body;
Mustard and ginger have pungent taste, so they have the effect of opening and dispersing;
Glauber’s salt, oysters, and salt all have a salty taste, so they have the effect of purgation, defecation, softness and firmness;
Poria cocos and Job’s tears have light taste, so they are beneficial to water seepage.
Pine blossom powder tastes sweet, so it enters the spleen and plays a tonic role. pine pollen powder also has a astringent taste, which can enter the liver and regulate the function of the liver.
Five tastes and five zang organs: “sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, salty” five tastes into “liver, heart, spleen, lung, kidney” respectively. The relationship between the five flavors and the five zang organs is a great invention of Chinese medicine. Remembering the relationship between the five flavors and the five zang organs is very helpful for treating diseases. In traditional Chinese medicine, there is a prescription for tonifying the kidney called “Qing’e Pill”, which is mainly composed of walnut kernel, fructus psoraleae and eucommia ulmoides. Its main function is to warm the yang and tonify the kidney, and it is mainly used to treat various lumbago caused by kidney qi weakness. How to take it: warm wine, salt soup. Wine is used to promote blood circulation, while salt soup is used to strengthen the kidney tonic effect of drugs by taking advantage of the effect of salt entering the kidney.
3. The third characteristic of traditional Chinese medicine: meridian tropism
Gui” means “Belonging”; “Jing” refers to the meridians and collaterals of the human body and the viscera to which it belongs. “Channel tropism” refers to the special therapeutic effect of different drugs on a certain meridian and its viscera.
The flow of qi and blood through the human meridians is described by a doggerel: the lung communicates with the large intestine, and the stomach with the spleen; Heart transfer to small intestine, bladder and kidney are suitable; Triple energizer pericardium, gallbladder transfers liver; The circulation of qi and blood never stops. Life goes 50 weeks a day and night.
Because different medicines have different tastes, Qi and blood carry different medicines to reach the organs they should go to, so as to achieve the therapeutic purpose. The sour taste enters the liver, and the sour medicine is transmitted to the liver through the liver meridian. Only the liver and its system can absorb the sour medicine, and other viscera cannot absorb it; Bitter taste enters the heart. Bitter medicine is delivered to the heart through the Heart Channel; The sweet taste enters the spleen, and the sweet medicine is transmitted to the spleen through the spleen meridian; The pungent taste enters the lung, and the pungent medicine is transmitted to the lung via the lung meridian; Salty taste enters the kidney, and salty medicine is transmitted to the kidney through the kidney meridian.
The Herbal Classic Interpretation says that pine pollen powder enters the Liver Channel of Foot Jueyin and the Spleen Channel of Foot Taiyin. That is to say, pine pollen powder can be absorbed by the liver system and spleen system at the same time to regulate the functions of the liver and spleen.
In traditional Chinese medicine, the five zang organs and six fu organs have exterior interior relations. The viscera that are exterior interior relations are like a couple sharing weal and woe. It can be said that they share weal and woe.
The internal organs are the internal organs, the external organs are the external organs, the internal organs are the internal organs, and the external organs are the external organs.
Specifically, the lung and the large intestine are in the exterior, the lung is in the interior, and the large intestine is in the exterior; Spleen and stomach are exterior and interior, spleen is interior and stomach is exterior; The heart and small intestine are exterior interior, the heart is interior, and the small intestine is exterior; The kidney and bladder are exterior interior, the kidney is interior, and the bladder is exterior; The liver and gallbladder are exterior, interior and exterior.
Songhua powder enters the liver and spleen meridians, and its gallbladder and stomach will also benefit.
4. Characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine IV: floating and settling
It refers to the different tendencies of the effects of drugs on the human body. Rising means rising, floating means floating and diverging; Sinking means sinking, falling means falling. The tendency of rising and floating, falling and sinking is very similar, and it is difficult to distinguish them completely, so they are often referred to as “rising and floating” and “settling”.
Traditional Chinese medicine has cold, cold, warm and hot four qi: warm and hot medicine can make substances in human body move upward and outward, showing the characteristics of floating. Cold medicine can make human substances move downward and inward, showing the characteristics of sedimentation. This is the relationship between the four qi of traditional Chinese medicine and ups and downs.
What is the relationship between the “five flavors” of traditional Chinese medicine and ups and downs? Xin Neng San, acid energy recovery; Bitter can purge, sweet can repair; Salt can be soft, and light taste can seep moisture. It can be divided into two categories: one is to excite and enhance the human body, such as the release of acrid taste, the tonic of sweet taste, and the moisture seepage of light taste, which is characterized by floating; The other kind has the effect of inhibiting and weakening the human body, such as the convergence of sour taste, the purging of fire of bitter taste, and the purging of soft and hard salty taste, which reflects the characteristic of sedimentation.
The texture of drugs can also affect the rise and fall characteristics of drugs: drugs with light texture (such as flowers, leaves and powders) have the rise and fall characteristics; Heavy drugs have the property of sedimentation.
For the treatment of diseases in the head, face, muscle surface, upper focus and other parts, it is necessary to select drugs with light texture, and use its floating characteristics to make the drugs reach the outside. “The governance of Jiao is like a feather. It must be light.”.
For the treatment of diseases in the waist, abdomen, lower extremities, lower energizer and other parts, it is necessary to select drugs with heavy texture, and make use of its settling characteristics to make the drugs sink. “It is as important as power (weight) to govern”.
If you don’t pay attention to the characteristics of the rise and fall of the medicine: treat the scorched disease and mistakenly choose the medicine with heavy texture, for example, if you want to swim on the water, you must tie a big stone to your body; To cure the disease of lower energizer, you mistakenly choose the buoyant drug with light texture, just like you want to dive to the bottom, but you have to wear a life buoy.
However, in clinical practice, sometimes it is necessary to take some medicine with heavy texture to treat the disease of upper energizer; The treatment of Xiajiao needs some medicines with light texture. What should we do? For example, Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi is a kind of heat clearing and detoxification drug. It is cold in air and bitter in taste. The cold drug shows sedimentation characteristics. The bitter drug is mainly used for purging, and also shows sedimentation characteristics. Therefore, Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi is a drug that focuses on sedimentation. When there is fever in the head and face, the sedimentation characteristics of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi do not make it a good treatment for the fever in the head and face.
How can we not only preserve the cooling properties of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, but also enable it to obtain the characteristics of floating? This requires that it be treated to change its original floating and settling characteristics, which is called “processing” in Chinese medicine. The Compendium of Materia Medica mentions: “The ascending person who leads it to cold will sink to the lower energizer; the sinking person who leads it to wine will float to the top.” Stir fry Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi with wine, which can not only retain its original cold and cool properties, but also obtain the characteristics of floating, so as to effectively treat head and face fever.
The warm medicine itself has the characteristics of rising and floating. If it is fried with salt water, it can change the characteristics of warm medicine as sedimentation and treat the cold syndrome of scorching due to the salty taste and the soft and hard properties. For example, Eucommia ulmoides Olive, Psoralea corylifolia, Alpinia oxyphylla and other warm medicinal saline have been fried, and the medicinal properties can settle to the lower energizer, giving better play to the role of tonifying the kidney and warming the yang. In addition, stir frying drugs with vinegar can enhance the astringent and analgesic effects of drugs; Stir fry the medicine with ginger juice, which can enhance the divergence of the medicine.
In a word, the effect of drugs with buoyant properties on human body tends upward and outward, so they can enhance yang qi and release the effect of dispersing cold; The effect of settling drugs on the human body has a downward and inward tendency, so it can have the effect of suppressing yang and adverse reactions, calming down convulsions and purging fire, and catharsis.
The pine pollen powder is recognized according to the four qi, five flavor, meridian tropism, rising and floating sedimentation characteristics of the drug:
1. pine pollen powder has a flat air and can cure cold and hot evils;
2. Pine blossom powder has a sweet taste, and it can nourish the spleen and stomach. The spleen can produce clear blood, which can transform into qi and blood and nourish the acquired essence.
3. Pine blossom powder can regulate the function of the liver and spleen by entering the Liver Channel of Foot Jueyin and the Spleen Channel of Foot Taiyin.
4. Pine blossom powder is light in texture and has the characteristics of floating, which can moisten the heart and lungs, and make the body light after taking it for a long time.
Ye Gui of the Qing Dynasty said in the Summary of the Materia Medica Classic: “The diet enters the stomach, the spleen qi dissipates essence, and is infused into the heart and lungs. Pine blossom tastes sweet and beneficial to the spleen, and the temperature can work. The spleen is the stomach that transports its body fluid, and is infused into the heart and lungs, so it moistens the heart and lungs.