Study on the Mechanism of Traditional Fire Therapy Based on Metaphorical Cognition / 世界科学技术-中医药现代化

ABSTRACT

This paper takes the records of “the fire therapy” in “Shanghan Zabing Lun” for example,starting from the characteristics of natural fire,to explore how the traditional Chinese medical (TCM) physicians recognize the process of metaphorical cognition from “natural fire” to the “fire therapy”,the understanding of the mechanism of fire therapy in traditional Chinese medicine comes from the ancient knowledge and experience of the natural fire.The mapping from source domain “natural fire” to the target domain “the fire therapy”,makes ancient TCM experts realize fire could be used to drive out evil spirits and cure of disease.The mechanism of smoking,ironing,warm acupuncture,fire needle,moxibustion and other five kinds of fire therapies originate from the characteristics of fire,such as warming,rising,transforming and destroying.