12/23/2023
I often speek in chinese medicine classes of how modernization is a populist menace. let's talk today about rebellious qi. what does it mean? And why is it symptomatic for the modernization of tcm. It is interesting to see how deep the influence of Western mechanical biological language goes.
in modern language they speak of biological processes as being in balance. that is called homeostasis in modern medical language. we find it nowadays in tcm all the time, showing how tcm has become allopathic medicine with a Chinese dress up.
In Chinese medicine in the past the concept of balance 平衡 is rarely used compared to harmony 和谐.
Also, in modernized tcm qi is seen as a thing, while in the past it was seen as a manifestation of harmony and proper function of a body part, action or organ. It wasn't a thing by itself. In language qi is primarrily added to another word to declare it functional. the qi of an organ then just means it is working as it should. but people treat it as a thing. it is wrong language that causes midernization, not proper understanding.
If the organic whole was disrupted in larger or smaller scale, there simply is no harmony, and thus no qi. There might still be yin or yang or any of the other things required to find harmony.
Rebellious qi then is the change of f.i. Yang turning into fire, or channel content stagnating, going in reverse and many other disruptions and doing this perfectly, and thus manifesting clarity in its rebelliousness. When rebelliousness is still unclear, it is just a disruption. it is just like in society. there is discontent, that needs to be remedied by correcting the functioning of state and its explanation to the people, or there is rebellion, which has a momentum of its own.
Chinese medicine always took society and the state as a metaphor. a metaphor is a comparison between real things. not just a bunch of pictures.
rebellious qi, such as of the stomach, it is not the qi rebelling, it is the breakdown of digestion after some time of discontent and loss of the harmony of the system. the qi was already gone. when the discontent gathers momentum, when the yang turns into fire, the fire has qi when successful, making you puke.
It also manifests in how you move, your skin, your psychological make up. That is why our program is soon full of exercise, drilling in how to use diagnostic theory such as provided by yijing, neidan practice and doing service to your community by helping them to achieve a healthy lifestyle.
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