The Unity of Man and Nature

The concept of holism not only refers to the integrity of the human body itself, but also the unity of the human body and nature. Man is the product of natural evolution, and has the same material property as nature. Therefore, the changes in nature have a direct or indirect effect on the functional activities of the human body, which is forced to make corresponding reactions, normal within the physiological threshold, otherwise pathological.

The unity of man and nature is expressed in The Classic of Internal Medicine as “man correlates with heaven and earth, and corresponds with the shift of the sun and the moon.”

It can be expounded in two aspects: the natural and social impacts on man’s physiological activities.

4.1.2.1 Natural Impact on the Human Body

The unity of man and nature is also called “correspondence between man and nature”

in TCM. For one thing, human survival and reproduction totally depend on the following conditions: the physical conditions (such as space, gravity, magnetic field, temperature, air and water, etc.); the chemical conditions (such as elemental abundance, compounds, and organism); and biological conditions (biosphere and food chain). These conditions are prerequisite to normal life activities. For another, mankind is the product of the interaction of celestial qi and terrestrial qi, yin, and yang, as well as their regular movements and changes. Therefore, human beings are subject to and have to adapt to natural laws.

That life originates from nature is one important proposition for ancient Chinese philoso-phers. It is said in Zhuang Zi: Zhi Bei You that “the existence of human beings is determined by qi. Its accumulation ensures life, while its dispersion causes death,” from which the au-thors of The Classic of Internal Medicine drew a conclusion that everything in the world including human beings was the product of nature. The same idea is stated in Plain Ques-tions, Chapter 68, “man comes from qi jiao,” where descending celestial qi and ascending terrestrial qi converge. It is qi jiao that causes the wane and wax of yin and yang, and produces five basic elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water), based on which four distinct seasons are formed and human beings live. Over 2,000 years ago, authors of The Classic of Internal Medicine were not aware of the concept of biological evolution, and they only intuitively perceived that everything in the nature originates in a certain way. That “the interaction of celestial qi and terrestrial qi makes everything come into being” (Plain Ques-tions, Chapter 2) indicates that the movements and changes of nature provide the material basis and natural conditions for everything (including human beings) to generate, develop, and change. “The world depends on the energy from the sun to go around” (Plain Questions, Chapter 3); “the heavens provides human beings with five kinds of energy, and the earth provides human beings with foods of five tastes (pungency, bitterness, sweetness, sourness, and saltiness)” (Plain Questions, Chapter 9). They all emphasize the significance of natural conditions in the life process.

Things, including life, vary with the distinct temporal and spatial conditions where they generate, grow and die. Plain Questions, Chapter 22 points out that the flourishing and

44 Chapter 4 Basic Features of TCM declining of visceral qi occurs in different temporal and spatial dimensions. Namely, man is coherent with nature, yin-qi and yang-qi are the roots of life, and their interaction is the basis for life movements and changes.

Natural impact on the human body is reflected in several aspects, among which natural climate and geographic environment are the most obvious ones.

Living things have to adapt themselves to the seasonal variations. Spring pertains to wood, characterized by warmth; summer pertains to fire, characterized by heat; late summer pertains to earth, characterized by dampness; autumn pertains to metal, characterized by dryness; winter pertains to water, characterized by cold. Therefore, warmth in spring, heat in summer, dampness in late summer, dryness in autumn, as well as cold in winter, reveal the general law of the seasonal variations in a year. Accordingly, sprouting occurs in spring, growth in summer, transformation in late summer, reaping in autumn, and storing in winter.

Likewise, human beings change to adapt to the seasons. First, it is reflected in the changes of body fluids, e.g., “The muscular interstices open when one wears thick clothes in summer, and that is why there is sweating; the muscular interstices close when it becomes cold, and that is why dampness cannot be excreted and water is retained in the bladder to form urine or to cause retention of urine” (Spiritual Pivot, Chapter 36). This shows that in spring and summer, yang-qi is in predominance, and qi and blood tend to flow in the superficies, manifested as loose skin, open sweat pores and profuse sweating, etc. In autumn and winter, yang-qi is stored, so qi and blood tend to flow inside, manifested as tense skin, frequent urination, scanty sweating, etc.

Second, the pulse varies from season to season: “In spring, pulse is floating up like fish swimming under the water surface; in summer, the pulse is on the skin, more than enough;

in autumn, the pulse sinks slightly under the skin like a hibernating worm entering the hole;

in winter, the pulse sinks to the bone, like a hibernating worm hiding in the hole” (Plain Questions, Chapter 17). Pulse appears floating and strong in spring and summer, sunken and weak in autumn and winter, which are the adaptations to the alternation of four seasons through blood and qi.

Third, the flow of qi and blood in the human body also relate to the seasonal variation in the form of wind, rain, dimness, brightness, e.g., “If it is fine and sunny, the blood circulation will be smooth and the defensive qi will be abundant; if it is cold or cloudy, the blood circulation will be stagnated and the defensive qi will be sunken and hiding” (Plain Questions, Chapter 26).

The alternation of day and night also affects the human body, which can be expounded in terms of yin and yang. For example, “if we divide one day into four periods, dawn corresponds with spring, noon to summer, dusk to fall, and midnight to winter” (Spiritual Pivot, Chapter 44). Although the temperature changes in day and night are less obvious than those in the four seasons, they do show certain impacts on the human body, e.g., “yang-qi governs the exterior in the day time, which begins to emerge at dawn, prospers at noon, grows weak at dusk, and henceforth the sweat pore closes” (Plain Questions, Chapter 3).

Regional climates and geographical environments also affect the human body’s physio-logical activities. The climate in the Yangtze River region, for example, is damp and hot, and therefore a human’s muscular interstices are loose; North China is dry and cold, so the muscular interstices are dense. That is why people need some time to adapt themselves to a new place.

TCM holds that man adapts to the changes of the nature aspiringly and actively, rather than negatively and passively. Such an attitude enables them to figure out many valuable measures to improve their health and prevent diseases, for example, “to take physical activ-ities to avoid the cold, and to live in the cool place to avoid summer-heat” (Plain Questions, Chapter 13); “man should live in the solid house without any cracks to evade wind and rain”

4.1 The Concept of Holism 45 (Valuable Prescriptions for Emergency⁷¹); “house must always be maintained clean, and in summer, it is kept open, while in winter, it is closed and kept warm” (A New Book on Health Preservation for Old People)⁷²; “retained fluid as well as the pertinacious illness may result in new diseases; and if the ditch is well dredged and the house is kept clean, people will be away from pestilence” (A Book on Health Preserving)⁷³. All of these are concrete measures that people take to adapt to nature.

Though seasonal climatic changes are important for living things’ sprouting, growing, transforming, and reaping, they may also become adverse factors to human beings, for man’s capacity to adapt to the natural environment, namely, the self-regulation function, is limited. Failing to adapt themselves to the drastic climatic changes, human beings may suffer diseases.

Seasonal changes can cause some seasonal or epidemic diseases. “Epistaxis tends to occur in spring; the disease in the chest and hypochondrium easily happens in midsummer; acute diarrhea and endogenous cold diseases often happen in late summer; wind-malaria disease is mostly seen in autumn; and in winter arthralgia syndrome often arises” (Plain Questions, Chapter 4). In addition, certain chronic diseases, such as arthralgia syndrome and asthma, often break out due to drastic climate changes or the sudden alternation of seasons.

The alternation of day and night also has an impact on the progression of disease to a certain extent. “As to various diseases, most of them are light at dawn and stable in the daytime, aggravate in the evening and get worse at night.” That’s because “at dawn, yang-qi of the human body begins to form and the pathogenic factors decline; during the daytime yang-qi grows and defeats the pathogenic factors; in the evening, yang-qi starts to decline and the pathogenic factors begins to generate; at night, yang-qi is stored into the viscera and the pathogenic factors reside alone in the body” (Spiritual Pivot, Chapter 44).

Obviously, the conditions of disease varies with the changes of yang-qi in the day and night.

In addition to the seasonal and climatic factors, the geographical environment may cause some endemic diseases, too. For example, “South China, the place suitable for the growth, is abundant in yang-qi, low-lying in terrain, foggy and dewy. People there prefer sour and fermented food. That is why their skin is dense and red, and they are likely to suffer obstructive syndrome with muscle contracture” (Plain Questions, Chapter 12).

Geographically, Northwest China features high terrain, low temperature, and humidity, while Southeast China has low terrain, high temperature, and humidity. It decides that people in different regions differ in the susceptibility to different diseases, and they differ in different clinical manifestations even with the same disease, which is why doctors should use different therapeutic methods to treat the same disease in different geographical envi-ronments.

Because of such an opposite but unified relationship between man and nature, treating in accordance with season, climate, and geographical environment becomes an important principle of TCM therapeutics. Therefore, while treating based on syndrome differentiation, the relation between the external environment and the internal entirety must be taken into much consideration.

4.1.2.2 Social Impacts on the Human Body

Human beings are constituents of society, which on the one hand is affected by man, and on the other hand affects man’s life.

First of all, the progress of society brings much benefit to people’s health. When food and clothes become increasingly abundant for people to choose, and the inhabiting conditions become more comfortable, people are more likely to be in a healthier condition. Besides, the more people know about themselves, diseases, and the ways to stay healthy, the likelier they

46 Chapter 4 Basic Features of TCM are to live longer. However, social advances may also bring about many side-effects threat-ening people’s health, such as the noise produced by power-driven vehicles, the pollution of water, soil, and air from industrial development, and excessive life stress. These problems, however, propel TCM to produce more effective measures. A case in point is that when it is found that those of rich kidney-qi are resistible to deafness caused by intense noise, TCM advocates reinforcing the kidney. Another example is that the excessive life stress can bring on various diseases like anxiety, headache, and dizziness. TCM found qigong and taiji boxing can be employed to relax both muscle and mind.

Second, peace or turmoil the society has great impacts on the human body. In a stable society, people have a regular life and strong immunity, so they are less likely to get ill and more likely to have a longer life span. In contrast, in a chaotic society where people lead an irregular life, immunity decreases, so it is easy for people to get ill and have a high mortality.

World history has witnessed the physiological impacts of wars, i.e., countless people died from destitution and homelessness, irregular diet, overstrain, and pestilence.

Third, the change of an individual’s social status inevitably brings about the change of his material and spiritual life, and thus affects his health indirectly. This has been taken into consideration in the diagnosis of TCM, e.g., “Before diagnosis, one must inquire of the patient of his social conditions. If the patient turns from noble to humble, though he has not been attacked by exogenous pathogenic factors, he may suffer the so-called exhaustion of ying. If the patient changes from rich to poor, he may suffer the so-called depletion of essence. Both diseases are due to the depression of spirit and the gradual accumulation of the stagnated energy and blood” (Plain Questions, Chapter 77). Therefore, the ancient Chinese claimed that to stay healthy, a person should not lay too much emphasis on wealth and rank. “When one is completely free from desires, ambitions and distracting thoughts, indifferent to fame and gain, congenital energy will maintain. When one keeps a sound mind, how can any illness occur” (Plain Questions, Chapter 1)?

To sum up, TCM takes the human body as an organic integrity, which is governed by the heart and centers around the five zang-organs. Meanwhile, it maintains that a human is inseparable from nature and society. This concept of holism runs through every field of TCM, and has become one of the basic features of the theoretical system of TCM.