How To Understand Qi in Terms Of Traditinal Chinese Medicine

Many terms of Chinese medicine are not only unfamiliar to Westerners. Now that Chinese medicine has spread to the west, how to communicate the concept of Chinese medicine with Westerners is a topic we often encounter in clinical practice. Sometimes we all feel that if we spread TCM in a current way, we are promoting the death of TCM.

For example, when talking about the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine, the first thing we encounter is how to translate yin and yang. Western patients are generally told that yang is energy. Can this energy represent the concept of yin and yang in traditional Chinese medicine? In traditional Chinese medicine, and even in the entire Chinese culture, yin and yang refer to different concepts.

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For example, for structural things, the top is yang, the bottom is yin; the outside is yang, the inner is yin; the back is yang (such as the back of the human body), and the front is yin; but for mountains, the front (the side facing the sun). It is yang, and the back (the side facing away from the sun) is yin. What is the concept of energy in the Yang here? 

When talking about the relationship between function and structure, we say that the structural thing is yin, and the "thing" that can "move" the structure is yang. In the human body, the yang energy that makes the body move (breathing, heartbeat, glandular secretion, waste excretion, etc.) is relative to the sunlight that makes life on earth grow and reproduce. Only here can Yang, or Yang Qi, be related to the English word Energy. Since the concept of yin and yang in traditional Chinese medicine appears in both the structure-structure relationship and the structure-function relationship, using the word Energy alone obviously cannot make people understand the difference between yang at this time and yang at that time. 

Therefore, when encountering the meaning of Chinese words and cannot find suitable foreign words, you may wish to directly use Chinese pinyin instead of the foreign words that you have barely found. After all, different cultures understand things differently, and it is not surprising that the vocabulary produced in each culture is not the same. So, when we refer to yin and yang concepts such as structure and mutual position, it is translated as Yin-Yang in English, and when discussing yin and yang in structure and function relationship, we call yin qi and yang qi, Translated into English, they are and Yang-Qi. Of course, compared with foreigners, it is difficult to understand this yin or yang at first, but after explaining it, they can understand more according to the same concept in Chinese Medicine Theory. Otherwise, expect to find words in their native language that they are most familiar with to help them understand things they are unfamiliar with, and in the end, they will find it easy to misunderstand the true meaning of that word.

This is evident in the translation of acupuncture points. There are more than 300 acupuncture points listed on the Twelve Serious Meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians. The naming of many (certainly not all) acupuncture points is characterized by the name of the point and its function. For example, the Baihui acupoint on the top of the head is the meeting place of the yang meridians. Acupuncture at this point can boost yang energy throughout the body. The Jingming point on the corner of the eye and the Guangming point on the lower limb are the key points for the treatment of eye diseases; the Shenzhu point can improve the body's resistance; Xinshu is effective for palpitation, shortness of breath, and heart disease; Ganshu is effective for liver and mental diseases, while Shenshu is effective for urinary system diseases. and reproductive system diseases and so on. You can think of their functions just by looking at their names.

However, in the current nomenclature of acupuncture points, acupuncture points are represented by letters and numbers. For example, Baihui point is Jingming point Guangming point Xinshu, etc. The original information is completely lost in the name of the point. Another embarrassment in naming acupuncture degrees is that the number of extra-meridian acupoints is increasing, which can be said to be overwhelming. The Chinese names of these acupuncture points are closely related to their functions. the method is no longer appropriate. Therefore, we think it is better to directly translate the Chinese names of the acupoints into pinyin.

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