Science of Symbols
All levels of scholarly discourse in Chinese medicine are presently saturated with a general confusion about the term “science” and its relationship to the roots of the field. Prof. Deng Zhongjia, former dean of the Foundational Studies Department at Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, once aptly summarized this predicament in the following manner: “TCM has made the concept of ‘science’ an equivalent to ‘Western medicine’ while our roots are shoved off into the museum; there they stand on a pedestal gathering dust.”
Prof. Deng’s statement echoes the age-old scholar-physician’s lament over the erosion of the cosmological sources of medical knowledge–the concept of the body as a microcosm, which demands that all bodily micro-sciences remain embedded in a macrocosmic frame of reference. Since the creators of Chinese medicine, now often referred to as Huang-Lao Daoists, took the implications of this maxim further to produce a highly complex system of diagnostics and therapy, physicians of all ages have called for a return to this system’s view of the world. What is remaining unclear, however, is how Chinese master physicians envisioned this return, and what, exactly, they thought was so worth while returning to.
The materials presented in this section introduce the preliminary results of a research project that was conceived to shed light on these questions. Since 1998, Prof. Heiner Fruehauf has directed a detailed investigation of ancient Chinese medical symbolism in cooperation with the CCM Terminology Research Group of the School of Classical Chinese Medicine at National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon. The focus of this research was to demonstrate how ancient symbols, such as the names of organ networks or acupuncture points, contain very detailed information spanning from the material layer (this is how it looks) to the functional layer (this is what it does) to the macrocosmic layers of space and time (these are the planets and seasons by which it resonates and is influenced). The results reveal a tightly woven system of symbolic references that spell out in detail the multi-layered qualities of macrocosmic and microcosmic reality, including the “how,” “where,” “when,” and “why” of the connection between the Above and the Below.
For additional material about the science of symbols, please visit the Associates Forum.
SMALL INTESTINE, TRIPLE WARMER, PERICARDIUM, GALL BLADDER, BLADDER AND LIVER
For the last 14 years, Heiner Fruehauf has led a research project decoding the ancient Chinese science linking macrocosm and microcosm, which so crucially informed the original definition of the 12 organ networks of classical Chinese medicine.
These introductory talks are being featured on the internet radio health program “True Nature Radio“. You can join us live every Thursday for the program, or download the full episodes as podcasts.
MAP DESCRIBING THE RESONANCE OF MACROCOSM AND MICROCOSM
by Heiner Fruehauf
For the last 14 years, Heiner Fruehauf has led a research project decoding the ancient Chinese science linking macrocosm and microcosm, which so crucially informed the original definition of the 12 organ networks of classical Chinese medicine.
By Heiner Fruehauf
The six conformations represent another system of symbolic methodology that is of great importance for the practice of classical Chinese medicine. Its origins are related to both yin-yang and five phase element theory, yet it is often the primary diagnostic modality that certain practitioners, especially those trained in the lineage of Shanghan lun herbalism, choose to utilize.
von Heiner Frühauf
Übersetzung ins Deutsche Markus Goeke
Die Sechs Schichten stellen ein weiteres System symbolischer Methodologie dar, das von großer Bedeutung für die Praxis der Chinesischen Medizin ist. Seine Ursprünge stehen sowohl zur Yin Yang-Theorie als auch zur Theorie der Fünf Wandlungsphasen in Beziehung, dennoch ist es häufig die primäre diagnostische Vorgehensweise, die bestimmte Praktiker verwenden, besonders jene, die in der Abstammungslinie der Kräuterheilkunde des Shanghan lun ausgebildet sind.
Compiled by Heiner Fruehauf
By Heiner Fruehauf
By Heiner Fruehauf
By Heiner Fruehauf
By Heiner Fruehauf
Compiled by Heiner Fruehauf
By Frank Fiedeler
Translated by Gabriel Weiss
Joseph Needham, to whom we may be thankful for a multiple volume work on the culture of China from a scientific and historical perspective, once characterized the uniqueness of Chinese thought in the following way:
The key words in Chinese thought are system and above all pattern (and if I may whisper it for the first time, structure). Collectively the symbolic correlations or correspondences constitute parts of a single colossal pattern. Individual phenomena transpired as they did, not because of previous events or the influence of other phenomena in some specific way, but rather because they were gifted with an intrinsic character as a result of their inherent position in the constantly moving, cyclical universe and this made their behavior unavoidable.
Die Wurzeln der chinesischen Medizin: Daoistische Kosmologie und die Alchimie der Symbole, Teil II1
von Heiner Frühauf
Aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Sepp Leeb
III. Angewandte Wissenschaft von den Symbolen: der Akupunkturpunkt tianfu (P3, LU3)
Neben dem allgemeinen Prozess der Benennung, wie er oben (siehe 1. Teil dieses Artikels in Chin Med 2002, Heft 1; S. 1-12) dargestellt wurde, enthüllen uns die Akupunkturpunkt-Namen eine noch tiefere und detailliertere Ebene der Symbolwissenschaft, mit der die Aufgaben der Funktionsbereiche genauer definiert werden. Als Beispiel für die mehrdimensionalen Bedeutungsfacetten, die in jedem Akupunkturpunkt-Namen enthalten sind, sei hier der dritte Punkt des Lungen-Funktionsbereichs herangezogen. Wie bei anderen Akupunkturpunkten wird auch bei tianfu eine bestimmte Stelle auf der Leitbahn mit funktionalen Aspekten in den Sphären des Himmels, der Erde und des sozialen Umfeldes des Menschen assoziiert. Die folgende Analyse zeigt am Beispiel von tianfu, wie ein Akupunkturpunkt mikrokosmische und makrokosmische Existenzebenen miteinander verbindet und wie das funktionelle und klinische Bedeutungsspektrum dieses Punktes in seiner ganzen Vielfalt deutlich wird, sobald wir uns eingehender mit den mehrdimensionalen Aspekten seines symbolischen Kodes befassen.
