Yin and Yang and the Five Elements

Before one begins to study Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is important to grasp the fundamentals of its philosophy.

The most pivotal concept to explore is that of Yin and Yang, the duality in the nature of all things which drives all interplays in the universe. Yin and Yang are interconnected, diametrically opposite, and constantly transforming into each other; that is, each has the seeds of the other within it, and they cannot be separated in life---to separate yin and yang is the beginning of death. Yin and Yang are graphically represented in the famous Tai Ji symbol.

Yin is feminine, soft, moist, cool, dark, receptive, structural.
Yang is masculine, hard, dry, hot, bright, active, motive.

The concept of Yin and Yang can be applied to anything in existence on a theoretical level, but in Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is used in a very strategic way to break down patterns for diagnosis and treatment.

Another foundational concept is that of qi. Qi is roughly translated as"finest matter substance", but we can more easily understand it like electricity flowing through a wire. Qi runs in the meridians of the body, which travel the trunk and limbs, and it can be accessed through the acupuncture points. Different points along the meridians have different functions in terms of their effect on manipulating the qi, and each one takes on a distinct personality in terms of needling sensation and overall effect. People generally become more attuned to their own qi in each point as they have more experiences getting acupuncture.

The meridians in the body function as travel networks to the different organs, and Traditional Chinese Medicine speaks of 12 main organs and 5 "extraordinary" organs. These "organs" differ slightly from our Western definitions and include the energetic functions of the organ and meridian.For example, the Chinese Medicine concept of "spleen" is a digestive organ, whereas the Western "spleen" is an organ participating in blood cell filtering. The Chinese Medicine "liver" includes the functions of the Western "liver", but it has the additional significance of regulating our responses to stress.

In addition, these organs are not viewed as fragments which can be separated from each other, but seen as integated parts of a whole system. The body is seen as a microcosm of nature, subject to natural laws, and the organs are assigned syncretic correspondences with the five elements of earth, metal, water, wood, and fire.

The elements are said to generate one another: earth produces metal, metal produces water, water grows wood, wood burns into fire, and fire produces ashy earth when it is spent.

Similarly, the elements are said to control each other: wood controls earth, fire controls metal (like a crucible), earth controls water (like a dam), metal controls wood (like a knife), water controls fire (by dowsing it).

This is more than poetry; it is the basic skeleton of a complex medical system wherein all of the energies produced by various organ systems at work influence each other. Each element also corresponds to a different season (i.e. time of year when the qi resides mainly in this organ), taste (which stimulates the organ), smell (odor of the body used as a diagnostic tool of imbalance in an organ), color (in diagnosis also), and emotion (which impacts that organ).

Each organ exists as part of a pair, with one yin organ (more internal) and one yang organ (more external, usually part of the GI tract), in each of the elements:

Lung and Large Intestine make Metal. Season is autumn, color is white, taste is spicy, emotion is grief.

Spleen and Stomach make Earth. Season is late summer, color is yellow, taste is sweet, emotion is overthinking.

Heart and Small Intestine make Fire. Season is summer, color is red, taste is bitter, emotion is joy.

Pericardium and Triple Warmer are also part of Fire. Pericardium wraps the heart. Triple Warmer (San Jiao) is a distinctly Chinese concept, representing the energetic system of the upper, middle, and lower parts of the body.

Kidney and Urinary Bladder make Water. Season is winter, color is black, taste is salty, emotion is fear.

Liver and Gall Bladder make Wood. Season is spring, color is green, taste is sour, emotion is anger.


Chinese medicine pays special attention to the emotions, because they are considered to be at the root of many internal diseases. Western medicine gives lip service to this by calling certain diseases psychosomatic, but in Chinese Medicine, there is a direct link between a given emotion and the patterns of organ imbalance which are expected to occur; hence, the meridians can be used to mitigate these emotional stresses fairly specifically.