Lung and Large Intestine: Regulation, Diffusion-Descent, and Conduction

Lung

The West gives rise to Dryness; Dryness gives rise to Metal; Metal gives rise to pungency; pungency gives rise to the Lung. The Lung is “the official of the minister and chancellor, from which regulation emerges.” All qi belongs to the Lung, and it stores the po. Its trigram is Dui; in the body it corresponds to skin and body hair; its color is white; its tone is Shang; its voice is weeping; its emotion is sorrow; its movement-change is coughing; its orifice is the nose; its flavor is pungent. Its fluid is nasal discharge, its odor fishy, its external luster the body hair, its number nine, its grain rice, its domestic animal dog, its creature the shelled class, its fruit peach, and its vegetable scallion. The Lung is paired with the Large Intestine and is controlled by the Heart. It dislikes Cold; bodily chilling and cold drink can injure it. Lung disease may cause panting and cough, counterflow of qi, shoulder and back pain, sweating, and pain extending through the sacral region, thighs, knees, lower legs, and feet. In deficiency there may be shortness of qi, difficulty completing a full breath, deafness, and dry throat.

Large Intestine

The Large Intestine is “the official of transmission, from which change emerges.” It belongs to Metal and is the fu paired with the Lung. It connects above with the Small Intestine. Once the refined essence of food has been extracted in the Small Intestine, the residue becomes dregs and is expelled; this expulsion depends on the transmitting function of the Large Intestine. In the classical explanation, the Large Intestine can transmit because it is paired with the Lung and receives the downward movement of Lung qi. For this reason, regulating the stool is said to require attention to Lung qi.

A classical passage states that Large-Intestine disease may cause cutting abdominal pain with loud gurgling; renewed exposure to Cold in winter may produce diarrhea; pain may center around the navel; the person may be unable to stand for long. The Large Intestine is examined together with the Stomach in this framework.