The thinking of diagnosis and treatment in TCM which is exceeding space-time concept:upper and lower syndrome differentiation / 中华中医药杂志

ABSTRACT

Space-time is extremely attached importance to in the thinking of recognizing diseases and syndrome differentiations in TCM. For instance, internal/external and upper/lower in Neijing, are the concept of compartmentalization of the tissue and structure in the body, also are the mechanism of recognizing generations and changes of diseases by combining both space and time organically. Moreover, the thinking of upper/lower and internal/external syndrome differentiations and treatments in TCM constitute a relatively completely space-time system, which are in favor of systematicness and integrality of syndrome differentiation and analysis, and then are usually used clinically. Therefore, upper/lower syndrome differentiation is the medical concept deriving from yin/yang. However, it exceeds mechanical space-time concept, also has the meaning of‘principle’ to guide syndrome differentiation and treatment. Thus, raising an issue that blending the thinking of upper/lower syndrome differentiation into eight principles and other methods of syndrome differentiation, in order to make methods of syndrome differentiation more practical.