Qi Dynamics in Medicine: The 5 Phases (五行) and 5 Zang "Organs" (五臟)

The four fundamental movement patterns in East Asian Medicine are based on the four seasons. Each season is associated with a direction, based on the placement of the season on the wheel of time (田), as covered in the article Qi Dynamics in Nature: The Seasons (時). And if you haven't already read that article, as well as the one before it on Qi Dynamics in Nature: Heavenly and Earthly Qi, you may want to read those first to better understand the content in this article.

In addition to each of the seasons being associated with a direction, each was also associated with a phase/element, and an "organ." Organ is in quotes because the translation of the zàng (藏) into organ in English is misleading, at least in terms of early Chinese thought. In modern Chinese language, the zang characters are used to describe the same-named organs of the physical body (Liver 肝, Lung 肺, Spleen 脾, Kidney 腎, Heart 心), but in ancient China, each of the “organs” was simply a way of naming and categorizing the movement patterns associated with each of the seasons to corresponding activities in the human body, thus differentiating them from the same patterns expressed in the physical world, which were similarly categorized as the five phases or elements (wood 木, water 水, fire 火, earth 土, metal 金). This is the reason why most of the characters for the zang include a moon/flesh/yin radical 月----to denote that each movement pattern is being expressed in the physical body. Now, just for folks who may be curious, the fù 附 organs are not paired in the classics to the larger concepts of movement patterns and will not be included here for that reason. Personally, I feel that the fù 附 were added further along the way, probably as the energetic concepts became more enmeshed with physical anatomy and physiology, which was already happening as early as the compilation of the Neijing.

Now, to further clarify how these same energetic movement patterns were named differently depending on the medium through which they are expressed, we can categorize them within the tripartite framework of heaven-human-earth (天人地 tiānréndì):

(1) 天 the heavens :: Seasons are an expression of unseen energetic patterns.

(2) 人 humanity :: Zang organs are an expression of the patterns in the human being, and the human being includes aspects of both the heavens and earth. Therefore the zang encompass the expression of the patterns in the body in ways that are observable (physical-material manifestations), as well as ways those that are unseen (immaterial and energetic manifestations).

(3) 地 earth :: The five phases are an expression of how the patterns appear in the objects of the physical-material world, which also includes the physical-material manifestations in humans.

Spring : East : Wood : Liver

Qi pattern: Rising

Qualities from Suwen 2: Emergence and Display(發陳)

In spring, qi begins to stir after the nadir of winter’s dormancy. Two primary energetic movements mark the initiation of spring: the outward expansion of heavenly qi and the rising of earthly qi. As Sandra Hill writes, “early descriptions of yin and yang express the two great movements of life generated by the interaction and interpenetration of heaven and earth, as seen in the constant warming and cooling, ascending and descending of vapors as heat expands and cold contracts” (Hill, 2014). This combination of expanding paired rising equates to “yang qi,” as rising and expanding mirror the energetic movement pattern of heat. Thus, the warmer months occur in the half of the year where there is the greatest expression of yang qi, from the period of the spring equinox through the autumn equinox.

In the time leading up to and including spring, the rising aspect is more pronounced, but with the transition to summer, the expanding aspect becomes more prevalent and the rising aspect recedes. In the human body, the qi of spring results in increased movement activity (Liver qi) and an increased likeliness for qi to move up toward the top of the head (Liver yang rising). In people that already have a tendency for qi to move up in the body, symptoms will be exacerbated in the form of headaches, feelings of ungroundedness or dizziness, whereas people whose qi tends be difficult to move, will likely have an amelioration of symptoms in the spring.

Summer : South : Fire : Heart

Qi pattern: Expanding

Qualities from Suwen 2: Flourishing and Blossoming (華實)

Summer represents an apex of the rising and expanding energies of heaven and earth, where the expansiveness of heavenly qi becomes the dominant energy. At the height of summer, the energy is therefore at its most ascended and expanded state, and this contributes to the luxuriant growth of the plants and arrival of flowers, fruits, and grains. The characters for grain 禾 hé, rice 米mǐ, and fruit 果guǒ, all show images of plants and sprouts that have expanded outward from their central axis. In humans, this same movement causes qi to move up to the head and out toward the skin, exacerbating any symptoms arising due to heat and ameliorating any symptoms due to cold. As blood moves toward the surface, symptoms are more likely to manifest at the level of the skin or the smaller blood vessels (arterioles and capillaries), with visible signs of redness or an increased tendency toward any kind of bleeding (nosebleeds, menstrual bleeding, etc).

Autumn : West : Metal : Lung

Qi pattern: Contracting

Qualities from Suwen 2: Harvest, Pulling In and Waning (殺急明)

At the beginning of autumn, the contraction of heavenly qi paired with the apex and descent of earthly qi causes the remaining seeds, flowers and fruits of summer to drop from plants and trees, as the energy begins to descend and move toward the interior and down toward the roots for storage in winter. In humans, this same movement pulls qi, fluids and blood from the exterior toward the interior, causing dryness of the skin and mucous membranes, and leading to dry skin and cough. This is the reason why autumn is associated with dryness, as qi moves inward, water follows. When qi is predominantly descending in the body, fluids accumulate, leading to internal dampness, which is the reason why the Shānghán Lùn pathology of Tàiyīn corresponds to autumn.

Winter : North : Water : Kidney

Qi pattern: Descending

Qualities from Suwen 2: Closing and Storage (閉藏)

In winter, the absence of yang energy causes qi to retract and move inward, the energetic movement pattern or cold. Outside, earthly qi has completely descended back into the soil. Water hardens to ice, perennial plants have finished moving their energy into the roots, above-ground foliage dies and falls onto the earth, animals hibernate into caves and burrows, and the energy in humans moves from the exterior to the core and to the lower body. Parallelisms from the Neijing such as, “qi is located at Kidney,” refer to the location of qi in the body, with "Kidney qi" referring to qi located close to core depth or in the lower body, reflecting the movement pattern of winter. It does not necessarily mean that qi is located near the anatomical Kidney organs proper.

Between Seasons : Pivot : Earth : Spleen

Qi pattern: Transformation

There are two important aspects of earth that can be found on the wheel of the year. The first is in the center, which represents the still space of generative potential from which things can pivot into and out of kinetic expression. The second aspect of earth is that of pivoting or transformation, and is located on the wheel at the points that fall exactly in the middle of the four solstices and equinoxes, the qi nodes, or "beginning of the seasons" on the Chinese lunar calendar. These are transitional points of enantiodromia, and are represented by the diagonal lines in the symbol for the eight directions, 米, and represent places where the qi changes from one dominant expression to another.

Different expressions, same patterns

To review, the four seasons, five phases, and the five zang "organs" represent different expressions of the same fundamental movement patterns of rising, descending, expansion and contraction that result from the interaction of heavenly and earthly qi, with the fifth phase/zang representing the places where things pivot, or transform from one pattern to another.

Rising and expansion are dominant during the yang half of the year in the height of spring and summer. In spring, the rising aspect of earthly qi is more prominent, whereas in summer, the expansive aspect of heavenly qi becomes more pronounced. For this reason, the primary energetic direction associated with correspondences of spring-east-wood-Liver is rising, whereas with north-summer-fire-Heart it is expanding. The same trend continues through the yin half of the year, which houses the apex of autumn and winter. In autumn, the metal-descending quality is most observable, whereas in winter, the water-contraction aspect becomes more apparent. For this reason, the primary energetic direction associated with autumn-west-metal-Lung is descending and for winter-south-water-Kidney, it is contraction. The illustration below summarizes these concepts:

References

Hill, S. (2014). Chinese medicine from the classics: A beginner’s guide.

Citation

Juniper, Evren. “Qi Dynamics in Medicine: The 5 Phases (五行) and 5 Zang "Organs" (五臟).” Universal Qi, 2022, https://www.universalqi.org/post/the-5-phases-and-5-zang-organs.

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