Histamine & Allergy

Foretelling Disease Progression (lines 4 and 5)

By Fornia ⋅ February 21, 2008 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

In lines 4 and 5, Mr. Zhang is very discriminating. He decides to go against the even more primitive ideas of the Suwen and to make a judgement of his own.

伤寒一日，太阳受之，脉若静者为不传；颇欲吐，若躁烦，脉数急者，为传也。 (line 4)

Line 4 says: On the first day of Cold Damage (伤寒), when the Greater Yang (exterior) is compromised, a tranquil pulse means the disease won’t progress inward to another channel. A need to vomit, agitation (燥) and vexation (烦), a rapid and urgent pulse, all mean a progression inward. Note that a need to vomit is one manifestation of Lesser Yang (少阳) disease, while agitation and vexation with a rapid and urgent pulse tells us that that Yang Brightness (阳明) could be manifesting.

伤寒二三日，阳明少阳证不见者，为不传也。 (line 5)

Line 5 says: On the second or third day of Cold Damage (伤寒), if you still don’t see signs of the Yang Brightness (阳明) or the Lesser Yang (少阳) pattern, then it means that it’ll remain in the Greater Yang stage of disease – generally this means the disease will continue manifesting exterior signs.

What he’s doing here is he’s attempting to to determine which of the six meridians to classify the disease under. By doing so, he has moved away from 内经’s idea of “one meridian per day (一日一经)” which meant a maximum of 6 days for the disease to reach the last meridian. This sets the tone for how we do diagnosis these days as well. These are my takeaways from the two lines:

• A guy who’s got some exterior symptoms (like a mild fever and aversion to cold) but with a tranquil pulse (instead of a floating one) is probably handing the illnesses well enough that it doesn’t progress inward to cause Lesser Yang or Yang Brightness manifestations.
• Even if the guy’s got a floating pulse together with the other exterior signs, the disease is unlikely to progress inward if by the second or third day, we don’t see Lesser Yang or Yang Brightness manifestations.

Summary: If we take a broader view of things, we can make a general hypothesis: By feeling the pulse and observing any changes in disease manifestation, we can foretell how the disease will (or will not) progress.

Popularity: 9% [?]