TRANSLATED BY HEINER FRUEHAUF
National University of Natural Medicine,
College of Classical Chinese Medicine
A collection of classical texts are used etymologically to define the symbolic significance of the language in Huangdi neijing suwenChapter Eight, the defining quote about the lung organ network.
GERMAN TRANSLATION BY MARKUS GOEKE
TRANSLATED BY HEINER FRUEHAUF
National University of Natural Medicine,
College of Classical Chinese Medicine
A collection of classical texts are used etymologically to define the symbolic significance of the language in Huangdi neijing suwenChapter Eight, the defining quote about the lung organ network.
GERMAN TRANSLATION BY MARKUS GOEKE
輔行訣臟腑用藥法要 梁華陽隱居 陶弘景 撰 EXTRANEOUS SECRETS: The Essential Method of Using Medicinal Substances for Differential Treatment of the Organ Networks Attributed to the Hermit of Huayang, Tao Hongjing (456-536), As Recorded and Transmitted by Zhang Dachang (1926-1995) and his Disciples 辨肺臟病證文併方 On [...]
Explore the field of ancient symbolism that illuminates the physical, emotional, and spiritual functions of the lung organ network.
BY HEINER FRUEHAUF
National University of Natural Medicine,
College of Classical Chinese Medicine
Heiner Fruehauf has researched the ancient symbolism that defines the finer points of Chinese organ network function for 10 years. His prolific research project will eventually culminate in the creation of an illustrated compendium on the macrocosmic and microcosmic ramifications of organ network theory. Since the publication of this effort is still years away, he has decided to make a selection from his cache of existing research papers available now by publishing them on ClassicalChineseMedicine.org. The first installment of these papers consists of a detailed etymological analysis of the character of fei 肺 (lung), and the defining statement on the lung’s function/office in chapter 8 of the Huangdi neijing suwen.
GERMAN TRANSLATION BY MARKUS GOEKE
BY HEINER FRUEHAUF
The word 肺, in a more specific reference to the specific function of this organ system, is classified by the component 巿 po (in its seal script form, composed of the pictographic components grass 屮and eight 八), meaning “abundant foliage in the wind” (this is a clear reference to the anatomical appearance of the lung lobes, as well as to traditional descriptions of this organ: Chinese texts describe them as “leaves”; see Shijing: 東門之楊, 其葉肺肺 “The poplars at the Eastern Gate, their leaves flutter lung-like in the wind;” Neijing: 肺熱葉焦 “When the lung is hot, its leaves become charred”); note that the rain forest with its prolific canopy of leaves is considered to be the lung of the earth.
COLLATED AND TRANSLATED
BY HEINER FRUEHAUF
In this article of Chinese to English translations, Heiner Fruehauf explores the lung as a metal organ according to the five phase element system. Modern Chinese medicine discourse, therefore, has exclusively focused on this organ’s association with the metal season of fall. In original Neijing cosmology, however, the five phase system is paralleled by a more complex and inclusive system of twelve functional entities that correlate the twelve months of the year with the order of the twelve channel systems that we now refer to as the “organ clock.”