Spleen-Stomach Central Earth and the Generation of the Five Phases in the Body

The spatial model of the Five Phases appears repeatedly in many chapters of the Inner Canon and is commonly related to the Hetu (River Diagram). Examples include the Suwen chapters “Prohibitions in Needling,” “Treatise on the Seasonal Laws of the Zang Qi,” and “True Words of the Golden Chamber,” among many others.

The ancients understood the world as containing fractal or nested structure, which permits relationships such as the following:

• the Five Phases contain Yin and Yang;
• Yin and Yang contain the Five Phases;
• each of the Five Phases may itself contain the Five Phases;
• Yin may contain Yin and Yang, and Yang may contain Yin and Yang.

The generative numbers of the Hetu, represented by black and white dots, can be taken as an example of Yin and Yang nested within the Five Phases. For the moment, these dots may be treated as indices for different fields or modes, representing distinct resonant states and frequencies within the model.

Another point of orientation is important: in traditional Chinese medical diagrams, facing forward conventionally means facing south. The Sun rises in the east and sets in the west; when translated into left–right body orientation, this becomes a model of Yang qi rising and descending.

Thus, when the qi of the Five Zang forms a circular movement, the left–right rotation is described as Liver rising on the left and Lung descending on the right. But when we move into the central Earth axis of Spleen and Stomach, the Spleen is placed on the left and the Stomach on the right; in medicinal reasoning, herbs such as Atractylodes (Bai Zhu) and Poria (Fu Ling) are used to turn or restore this central axis.

Diagrammatic Exploration of Origins

Earth has no exclusive position. It lodges and flourishes for eighteen days at the end of each of the four seasons, while its principal governing period lies around the sixth lunar month. Earth combines with the Four Images, and this is called the Five Phases; the human being participates with Heaven and Earth. When Yin and Yang first arise, there is Ancestral Qi. Ancestral Qi is the Taiji of the human body and contains Yin and Yang within it. Between Yin and Yang is Central Qi. The center is Earth. Earth is divided into Wu and Ji. When Central Qi turns left, it is Ji Earth; when it turns right, it is Wu Earth. Wu Earth is the Stomach and Ji Earth is the Spleen. Ji Earth moves upward: Yin rises and transforms into Yang. Yang rising on the left becomes the Liver, and rising to the upper region becomes the Heart. Wu Earth moves downward: Yang descends and transforms into Yin. Yin descending on the right becomes the Lung, and descending to the lower region becomes the Kidney. Liver is Wood, Heart is Fire, Lung is Metal, and Kidney is Water—these are the Five Phases of the human body. Within each of the Five Phases there are Yin and Yang. Yin gives rise to the Five Zang and Yang to the Six Fu. Kidney is Gui Water and Bladder is Ren Water; Heart is Ding Fire and Small Intestine is Bing Fire; Liver is Yi Wood and Gallbladder is Jia Wood; Lung is Xin Metal and Large Intestine is Geng Metal. The Five Phases each have one position, but Fire is divided into sovereign and ministerial Fire: among the zang, the Heart governs the Yin aspect of Sovereign Fire; among the fu, the Sanjiao represents the Yang aspect of Ministerial Fire. Human beings correspond with Heaven and Earth and are born by receiving Yin and Yang, yet illness may arise from excess or insufficiency. This principle of qi-transformation is therefore taken as a source of medical theory; the essentials of the classical passages are gathered into the diagram that follows.