Long summer is not independent, and the dampness is healthy in the middle earth (above)
Text/Jing Mingshi
Everyone knows that there are four seasons in a year, but Chinese medicine divides the year into five seasons.
In the summer solstice, the cicadas chirp and the frogs chirp, the pomegranate is red and the bamboo is green, the lotus flowers are in full bloom, the rice is fragrant, the antlers are solved, the lizards are singing, and the half summer is born, the phenology grows vigorously, matures and flourishes, and it is the season of "being born like the splendid summer flowers".
Changxia is a term in traditional Chinese medicine. According to the theory of the five elements of wood, fire, earth, gold and water, the ancient Chinese medicine classic "The Yellow Emperor's Neijing" divides the four seasons into five seasons, namely spring, summer, long summer, autumn and winter, and the five organs of liver, heart, spleen, lungs and kidneys are matched in the human body. Among them, the spleen is the acquired foundation of the human body, and the five elements (wood, fire, earth, gold and water) belong to the earth, which is connected with the qi of Changxia.
But what time period does the long summer season refer to? We use the national "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" textbook "Basic Theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine" with the 24 solar terms to mark the statement, the period of long summer is based on "the five organs should be four hours, and the spleen and the four hours outside the 'long summer' (summer solstice - heat) should be connected", and the long summer contains five solar terms in time, namely the summer solstice, the small summer, the big summer, the beginning of autumn, and the summer heat, totaling 75 days. Therefore, the long summer is actually not an independent season, as soon as the summer solstice arrives, the long summer is established.
The long summer belongs to the soil in the five elements, the main dampness in the six qi (wind, cold, summer, dampness, dryness, fire), and the main dampness in the five transformations (growth collection). The so-called "transformation" refers to the transformation of all things, and it is the node of quantitative change and qualitative change; In nature, the days are long, the sun is sufficient, all things grow vigorously, and the transformation is mature; In the main diet of the human body, the digestion and absorption of water valley is converted into subtle substances, that is, nutrients, and transportation, distribution and metabolism, and this process is the main division of the spleen, which is called the main transportation of the spleen.
The pronunciation of "long" in Changxia is based on Wang Bing's theory in the Tang Dynasty. Wang Bing said when supplementing "Su Wen": "The so-called long summer is also in June." The earth is born in fire, grows in the middle of summer, and is both long and vigorous. Therefore, the clouds are long summer. It means that Changxia is the sixth month of the lunar calendar. Fire gives birth to earth, and it grows and grows because of the breath of summer, so it reads long (zhǎng) summer. If you read long (cháng) summer, which means long summer, it is probably the meaning of today's people, not an ancient precept.
The long summer is in parallel with the three summers and the three dog days in the season. The three summers are the small heat, the big heat, and the summer heat, which belong to the 24 solar terms, and the three dog days are not the solar terms, but they have their distinctive climatic characteristics, which have a certain guiding role in agricultural production, life and rest, and health preservation. Traditional folklore says that "the summer solstice is three Geng, and the number of volts", that is, combined with the Ganzhi day, the third Geng day after the summer solstice is the first volt, the fourth Geng day is the middle volt, and the first Geng day after the beginning of autumn is the last volt. "Hanshu Suburban Ritual Notes" recorded: "The subdued person is said to be yin qi will rise, and he is forced to rise due to the remnant sun and has not been raised, so it is hidden ambush, because of the name of the Fu day." That is, because the yang energy is blazing and pressing, the yin energy is hidden and has not risen, the summer and humidity are parallel, and the weather is hot and humid, so it is also called the summer sun. The original meaning of Fu Zhi is Fu Yin, although the summer solstice is a yin birth, and at this time it is hot and humid.
The dog days of 2024 start on July 15 and last until August 23, for a total of 40 days. Dog days are often considered to be the hottest and humid days of the year. "Three Dog Days" and "Three Dog Days" both represent high temperature and hot weather, and "Three Dog Days" involve four solar terms: small heat, big heat, beginning of autumn, and summer heat. This period overlaps with the long summer, so its climatic characteristics are no different.
The temperature is high in the summer day, the air pressure is low, the wind speed is small, and the rain is abundant, often thunderstorms and heavy rains, and the air humidity is large, so it is called "summer and dampness", at this time it is the five solar terms included in the long summer, and its climate characteristics are not only hot, but also humid and heavy, so the ancient Chinese medicine will be the main wet in the long summer.
Why does the long summer include these five solar terms? It depends on the climatic characteristics:
Summer solstice:
As for the summer of June 20~22, the day of the sun is 90 °, and the position of the sun directly hitting the ground reaches the northernmost point of the year, almost directly hitting the Tropic of Capricorn. High temperature, high humidity, occasional thundershowers, and possible flooding in the southern part of the continent are the meteorological characteristics after the summer solstice. The summer solstice anode is the beginning of the yin (the summer solstice is a yin birth), the day is the longest, the pole has no shadow, the Jianghuai plum rain, and all things grow vigorously.
Little heat:
The combination of "high temperature + high humidity" may bring us infinitely close to the "thermal limit" of the human body - wet-bulb temperature. Extreme heat can be deadly.
Great heat:
The ancients believed that the Great Heat was the hottest solar term of the year, with high temperatures and extreme heat, frequent thunderstorms and typhoons. Therefore, it is necessary to do a good job in emergency response and prevent geological disasters.
Liqiu:
It is the third hottest solar term among the 24 solar terms after the big heat and the small heat. The climate is still very hot and hot, and it is in the midst of "dog days". But the beginning of autumn means that precipitation and humidity are at a turning point in the year, tending to decrease or decline.
Heat:
After the summer heat, the direct sun point continued to move southward, the radiation weakened, and the subtropical high also retreated southward, and the heat gradually disappeared. After the second half of July to the first half of August, the main rain belt in the eastern part of the mainland moved northward to North China and Northeast China, reaching the northernmost position of monsoon rainfall in the middle of the year. According to the record of "Seventy-two Candidate Explanations of the Lunar Order": "Place, go, the summer will stop here." "After spending the dog days, the heat is out of the summer, and the hot and humid weather is finally coming to an end, so you can say, "It's cool and autumn." ”
According to the meteorological performance of the above five solar terms, their common climatic characteristics can be summarized, that is: heat + humidity.
At that time, the growth of all things was characterized by the transformation of the quantitative change of growth into the qualitative change of maturity, which the ancients abstractly summarized as a word "transformation".
The ancients called "fire and heat" together, which was the main qi of summer. "Su Wen Treatise on Heat" says: "The first summer solstice is the sick temperature, and the second summer solstice is the sick heat." "Temperature, heat, and fire here are of the same nature, but the degree is different, the so-called temperature is the gradual heat, and the fire is the prosperity of heat. After the summer solstice, before the beginning of autumn is the summer day, in the six climatic factors of wind, cold, summer, dampness, dryness and fire, heat stroke is also the main gas of summer, formed by the heat, only because the heat is more damp, humid and stuffy, so it is called heatstroke, and the severe heat stroke in summer is also called heat stroke.
Because the six qi have their own unique meteorological characteristics, the ancients used the theory of the five elements to explain the existence and evolution process of the natural world, therefore, the ancients abstracted the two characteristics of "wetness" and "transformation", and established it as Changxia, and in the human body, it was attributed to the spleen, which was called the spleen main movement, the spleen main dampness, and completed the construction of the five elements theory in the human body, which has practical and irreplaceable significance in health care and clinical medicine, and is the specific application of ancient materialist dialectics in traditional Chinese medicine.
In ancient times, the Five Elements Theory was equivalent to the construction model of system theory, in which the soil system is: the soil is called the crop, the center of the soil is the center, the color is yellow, and the corresponding human organs are: muscles (smooth muscles, limbs), lips (mouth), spleen, and stomach. The weather corresponds to: wet. In terms of health preservation and physiological pathology, dampness can invade the human body externally (one of the six prostitutions), or it can be endogenous (referring to internal dampness), forming the dampness of human pathology. The relationship between the spleen and dampness is that the spleen mainly transports water and dampness, on the contrary, dampness can trap the spleen and cause various diseases, so it is called "the spleen likes dryness and hates dampness". Therefore, in the view of traditional Chinese medicine, the human body is an open giant system, and the spleen is a subsystem, which is the corresponding holistic concept of heaven and man.
In the relationship between the five elements of life and restraint, earth gives birth to gold, earth gives birth to water, fire gives birth to earth (giving birth to me as a mother, and giving birth to a son), and wood and earth: the earth is prosperous and wood, so that it can be dredged; The soil can produce gold, and the gold drains the soil; Strong soil to get gold, the party to control it; Soil can overcome water, and water is more soil flow; When the water is weak and the soil is weak, it will be silted; The earth is born by fire, and the fire is scorched; Fire can give birth to earth, and soil is obscure.
In short, the soil here can be seen as (representing) the spleen in the physiological state and (representing) wet in the pathological state. For example, "fire can give birth to soil" for the mother to give birth to children (physiological relationship), "the soil is more firey", and the mother is stolen for the child, that is, the spleen deficiency can not be damp, and the qi deficiency and dampness resistance affect the heart fire, which can also affect the function of the main blood (blood circulation) of the heart, and the symptoms of palpitations, chest tightness, shortness of breath and fatigue, and insomnia after eating.
There are various relationships between the heart and spleen, such as mother and child, yin and yang, qi and blood, and meridians. Clinically, the theory of heart and spleen can be used to treat digestive system diseases, cardiovascular system diseases, and nervous system diseases. Modern research has confirmed that there is a dual distribution of peptides in the gastrointestinal tract and nervous system, which have the dual effects of hormones and neurotransmitters, and are called "cerebro-intestinal peptides".
For example, traditional Chinese medicine believes that excessive thinking, straining the heart and spleen, can make the spleen not healthy, can lead to insufficient qi and blood, heart and mind loss, palpitations and insomnia symptoms, commonly used to Gui Spleen Tang (Atractylodes, Fushen, Astragalus, longan meat, sour jujube kernel, ginseng, wood incense, boiled licorice, angelica, Yuanzhi) treatment, to strengthen the spleen and nourish blood, nourish the heart and calm the nerves, is a common prescription for the treatment of the heart and spleen.
In fact, there have always been many sayings about the main time of Changxia and the land of the five elements, and here are a few examples, each of which has its own special purpose, and you can refer to it in health care and clinical practice.
Taking the small summer solar term as the long summer, the summer sign of "summer solstice" is assigned to the normal summer, indicating that midsummer has included the "summer solstice". The season of "Long Summer" is clearly mentioned in the "Suwen Jin Kuizhen Speech", and the original text is as follows:
"The so-called winner of the four times, spring wins over long summer (according to: Mu Ke Tu, five elements of Xiang Ke, the same below), long summer wins winter (soil and water), winter wins summer (water and fire), summer wins autumn (fire and gold), autumn wins spring (Jin Kemu), the so-called victory of the four seasons also. …… Therefore, the spring is good for sickness, the midsummer is good for chest and flank, the long summer is good for the cold, the autumn is good for wind malaria, and the winter is good for paralysis. ”
The midsummer mentioned in the text is before the long summer, and the midsummer is the two solar terms of the mango seed and the summer solstice, and it is obvious that the long summer is counted from the small summer heat after it, that is, the four solar terms of the small summer, the big summer, the beginning of autumn, and the summer heat are the long summer.
There is also a saying that the long summer equinoxes the main four seasons and the last 18 days of each season. "Su Wen: Tai Yin and Yang Ming Theory": "The spleen is also the soil, and the central government is often governed by four long and four Tibetan, each with 18 days, and it is not allowed to be the sole master of the time." Accordingly, it has been proposed that the long summer equinox is the last 18 days of the four seasons. Therefore, it can also be said that humidity is present in all seasons and is not unique to summer.
In fact, the movement of the spleen is not divided into seasons, but there are prosperous and declining periods, when the period of prosperity, there is also a time rhythm, and it is also the time of humidity. Moreover, traditional Chinese medicine has always had the theory that the spleen is unified and the four organs are controlled, and the central government is used to transport the four sides. "Su Wen: The Theory of the True Dirtiness of the Jade Machine" clouds: "The central soil is filled with four sides", "The five internal organs are all endowed with qi in the stomach, and the stomach is also the foundation of the five internal organs." The central soil refers to the spleen and stomach, which is said to be the foundation of the acquired spleen and stomach, and it is not limited to the solar terms of the time and the four internal organs. In fact, in the practical application of clinical practice, that is, pay attention to the time of solar terms, take care of the spleen and stomach, and do not cling to this, that is, there is no fixed law, the so-called "look at its pulse and evidence, and treat it with the evidence".
In addition, there are other sayings of soil and spleen, such as: Chen Shu Chou is not four seasons of soil, that is to say, each quarter of the four seasons has three months, and the third month belongs to the earth, according to the method of solar terms and dry branch years, respectively, the spring moon (Qingming, Guyu), the end of summer (big and small heat), the autumn month (cold, frost), and the winter ugly moon (small, big cold). This is mainly used in the Ganzhi calendar to calculate the year, month and day, and is also used in ancient numerology, while health preservation is mainly based on referring to the meteorological changes of the solar terms.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the health of the human body is closely related to the temporal changes in nature, and in the theory of meridian flow in traditional Chinese medicine, Chen, Xu, Chou, and Wei represent the four hours respectively, namely morning (chen), afternoon (wei), evening (戍) and night (ugly). These hours are closely related to the functioning of the body's internal organs and the flow of qi and blood. Therefore, understanding the impact of different hours on human health is of great significance for TCM acupuncture treatment, timely medication and health care. Ruchen time (7~9 o'clock): This period is the time of the stomach meridian, and Chinese medicine believes that at this time, yang qi is generated, and the stomach qi is vigorous. Therefore, it is advisable to eat breakfast during this time period to promote digestion and absorption to replenish energy and improve health. Another example is Hai Shi (9~11 o'clock in the evening): Chinese medicine has the saying that Hai Shi Sanjiao leads to a hundred pulses, and taking medicine to maintain health (including various health preservation methods) at this time is very beneficial to the body.
According to the above, in the summer solstice - the five solar terms of the summer heat, we can understand that the heat is the dog days, the wet is the long summer, the long summer is the spleen when the order, the spleen is used to strengthen the spleen and dissolve the dampness, and the dog days are used to nourish the yang as the general principle, and the three dog days are used to paste the three dog stickers. However, although the spleen and soil are divided into prosperity and decline in the season, in health preservation and clinical diagnosis and treatment, it is to treat dampness when it is wet, and it is not necessarily a certain solar term. However, when the viscera meridians are prosperous, the use of medicine may multiply the effect with half the effort, the so-called four or two dialing a thousand catties, which has been confirmed by research in modern time medicine.
In conclusion, "wetness" is a very important etiological and pathological concept in Chinese medicine. Here the soil - wet - chemical - long summer - spleen...... It belongs to the five elements system and is the basic theory of the "Five Elements and One Visceral Elephant Theory" of traditional Chinese medicine. To sum up, it can be understood that Changxia, like the spleen, is a "functional unit", and its elements are the standard configuration of wet, soil, chemical and transportation, and the time is mainly in the summer and humid season.
We will discuss this below.
(End of Part I)
About author:Jing Mingshi is the deputy chief physician of traditional Chinese medicine. A native of Gulang County, Gansu Province. He graduated from Beijing University of Chinese Medicine in 1982 with a bachelor's degree, and has worked in many hospitals such as Beijing Anding Hospital and Jingmian Group Hospital for 40 years. Papers and popular science articles have been published in Tianjin Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Sichuan Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chinese Hospital Management, Journal of Electroencephalography and Neuropsychiatry, Health News, Medical Health Care News and other academic journals. Since his retirement in 2015, he has been rehired to work in the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine of 82 Center in Chaoyang District, Beijing. Occasionally, his works have been published in the media.