The Brief Theory of Viscus and Its Manifestations in Traditional Chinese Medicine

Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) includes the quintessence of classical Chinese philosophy, culture, and science from ancient Chinese history [1] . The earliest description of viscus in TCM is found in the handbook Huangdi Neijing , which termed viscus as zangxiang (臟象). “ zang ” (臟) refers to internal organ in Chinese, “ xiang ” (象) means manifestation of image or phenomenon. When used together, zangxiang refers to internal organs and the external manifestations of their physiological and pathological visualizations and states. The theory of zangxiang mainly studies the zang organs and the fu organs. That is why it is also known as “the theory of zang-fu organs” (臟腑學說) [2] . According to the ancient theory, all internal organs are divided into 2 major categories, namely the 5 zang organs and the 6 fu organs. The 5 zang organs include the heart (心), the liver (肝), the spleen (脾), the lung (肺), and the kidney (腎), and the 6 fu organs include the gallbladder (膽), the stomach (胃), the small intestine (小腸), the large intestine (大腸), the urinary bladder (膀胱), and sanjiao (the triple energizer). Besides, there is another group of tissues and organs, similar to the zang organs in function and the fu organs in form, which is termed the extraordinary fu organs, including the brain (腦), the marrow (髓), the bones (骨), the vessels (脈), the gallbladder (膽), and the uterus (女子胞) [3] . The content of the zangxiang theory is composed of a function system and 2 relationship systems. The function system contains the physiological function and pathological changes of all viscera. The 2 relationship systems include the correlations between the 5 zang organs and the body, organs, and orifices (竅, such as tongue, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, external genitals, Received: November 22, 2016 Accepted after revision: January 4, 2017 Published online: February 8, 2017