Reference

Glossary

The vocabulary of Chinese medicine is compact and easy to misread in English. These are short working definitions of the ideas used across the compendium, kept to what a skin page needs, with links to pages where each idea does more work.

Entries are grouped by family rather than alphabetically, because the concepts make most sense in relation to their neighbours: the vital substances, the organs, the pathogenic factors, and the terms used to describe points and stages.

For terms that are easiest to learn side by side, the comparison guides (compare points and patterns side by side) and the acupoints with an indirect skin rationale list set out the differences between closely related entries: Dang Gui Yin Zi vs Xiao Feng San, Quchi (LI-11) vs Xuehai (SP-10) and Damp-Heat vs Blood-Heat.

Foundations Organs Pathogenic factors Points and stages

Foundations

The vital substances and the frame of diagnosis that everything else rests on.

Blood 血xuè

Blood is the densest and most nourishing of the vital substances, moistening the skin and anchoring the mind. When it is deficient the skin turns dry, dull and scaly with a mild constant itch; when Heat has entered it the skin reddens and may bruise or bleed; when it stagnates the colour becomes dusky, purple or fixed. Much of chronic skin disease in this library is read as a problem of Blood in one of those three ways.

Pattern of Disharmony 证候zhèng hòu

A pattern is the central unit of TCM diagnosis: a cluster of signs that says how the body has lost balance. Treatment is chosen for the pattern rather than for the disease label, which is why one skin condition can appear under several patterns and one pattern can appear across several conditions. In this library every condition page lists its patterns and links to them, and the pattern pages gather the conditions in which each one appears.

Qi 气qì

Qi is both the refined material the body makes from food and air and the activity that material performs: it warms, protects, holds, moves and transforms. The skin is where Qi is most visible, because defensive Qi circulates between skin and muscle and the surface is the first place a deficiency or blockage shows. Weak Qi tends to mean slow healing, easy catching of colds, spontaneous sweating and a surface that reacts to weather.

Skin, Cou Li and the Exterior Defensive Layer 皮毛 · 腠理 · 卫表

Three classical terms describe the body surface. Pí máo (皮毛) is the skin and body hair, governed by the Lung. Còu lǐ (腠理) is the space between skin and muscle where defensive Qi circulates and the pores open and close. Wèi biǎo (卫表) is the defensive exterior as a functional layer. Together they are the territory in which every skin presentation in this library is located, and why skin signs so often sit next to respiratory ones.

Related pages: Wind-Heat Hegu LI-4 Contact dermatitis

Yang 阳yáng

Yang is the warming, activating and protective side of the body, arising from Yin as its material base. When it is deficient the signs are cold: cold limbs, pale and slow-healing tissue, and a skin that repairs slowly. Defensive Qi is Yang, so Yang weakness also means poor surface defence and easy reactions to wind and cold, and it can allow Dampness to gather because nothing is transforming the fluids.

Yin 阴yīn

Yin is the cooling, moistening, substantial and resting side of the body, the material that anchors and restrains Yang. When it is depleted a relative Heat appears, which on the skin means dryness with a fine low-grade redness, a sensation of warmth and an itch that is worse at night. The Heat is empty rather than full, so the treatment is to nourish rather than to clear.

Yin and Yang 阴阳yīn yáng

Yin and Yang describe two complementary aspects present in everything: cooling, moistening and resting on one side, warming, activating and protecting on the other. They are not fixed opposites but relative and interdependent, and each contains the seed of the other. Every other idea in this library depends on the relationship between them, which is why deficiency of one can look like excess of the other.

Organs

The organ systems of TCM are functional descriptions, not the organs of anatomy. Their names are capitalised on this site to keep the two apart.

Heart 心xīn

In TCM the Heart governs the Blood and houses the Shen, the spirit or consciousness, so sleep, anxiety and complexion are all read through it. On the skin it appears in hot, red, inflamed acute patterns and in the pale, dull dryness of Heart Blood deficiency. Emotional agitation is often part of the picture, which is why calming the Heart and settling the spirit can be part of a skin treatment.

Kidney 肾shèn

The Kidney stores the inherited essence and is the root of Yin and Yang for the whole body. Its decline is read on the skin as dryness, thinness, loss of elasticity and premature ageing. Kidney Yin deficiency in particular produces dry skin with a low-grade warmth that is worse at night, and longstanding skin disease is said to draw on the Kidney over time.

Liver 肝gān

In TCM the Liver stores Blood, keeps Qi moving smoothly and is the organ most closely tied to internal Wind. When Qi is constrained, usually by sustained stress, the stagnation can turn into Heat and produce flares that follow the mood. The Liver is also behind the paroxysmal migrating itch that comes from Blood deficiency generating Wind.

Lung 肺fèi

The Lung governs Qi and the surface of the body, and the classical statement that the Lung rules the skin and body hair is the closest thing in TCM to a dermatological axiom. The Lung spreads defensive Qi and fluids to the surface, so external Wind, Dryness and Heat often enter through it and show on the skin as well as in the chest. Where the Lung is weak, the surface is poorly defended and reacts to weather.

San Jiao 三焦sān jiāo

The San Jiao, or Triple Burner, is a functional system that divides the body into upper, middle and lower regions. It is not a single organ with a visible structure; it describes the pathways along which Qi and fluids move, and it is used to locate a pattern in the body. Skin conditions tied to Damp-Heat in the lower burner or Phlegm in the middle burner are read through it, and its channel supplies several points used for Heat and fluid problems.

Spleen 脾pí

In TCM the Spleen transforms food and drink into Qi and Blood and moves fluids through the body; it is not the anatomical spleen. When it is weak, fluids gather as Dampness, which is the commonest internal root of chronic weeping skin disease in this library. The signs are usually digestive as well as cutaneous: a heavy feeling after eating, loose stools and a greasy tongue coat alongside oozing or crusting skin.

Pathogenic factors

The influences that disturb the body and the skin. They can come from outside or arise internally from a weak organ or a stagnant substance.

Blood stasis 血瘀xuè yū

Blood stasis is blood that has stopped moving or is moving too slowly, often after Qi stagnation, Cold, injury or longstanding disease. On the skin it shows as fixed dark or purplish discolouration, hardness, or a boring pain that stays in one place rather than moving around. It sits behind stubborn pigmentation, bruising that lingers, and plaques that will not shift, and treatment moves the Blood rather than clearing the surface.

Dampness 湿shī

Dampness is the pathogenic factor of heaviness, turbidity and persistence. On the skin it produces weeping, oozing, crusting and swelling, and it tends to settle or return to the same sites rather than moving. It usually has an internal root in weak digestion and fluid transformation, which is why damp skin patterns so often come with a poor appetite, loose stools and a greasy tongue coat.

Dryness 燥zào

Dryness is the pathogenic factor of desiccation, producing dry, scaly, finely cracked skin with a dull itch that stays in one place. It is the opposite of Dampness and is most associated with the Lung and with the autumn season. Internally it usually comes from Blood or Yin deficiency, so the dry surface is treated by nourishing moisture rather than by clearing.

Related pages: Dry-Wind Yin deficiency Skin dryness

Heat 热rè

Heat is the pathogenic factor of redness, warmth and accelerated activity. A red, hot, inflamed lesion is read as Heat until shown otherwise, and Heat combined with Dampness is the commonest skin picture in this library. When Heat enters the Blood it produces widespread redness, a feeling of heat and sometimes bleeding into the skin, and when it concentrates further it becomes Toxic Heat.

Related pages: Excess Heat Damp-Heat Acne

Phlegm 痰tán

Phlegm is a pathological product of failed fluid transformation, thickened out of Dampness, often with Heat or Cold added to it. It is described as obstructive and stubborn, and it can settle in the skin, the channels or the organs. On the skin it tends to produce firm nodules, cysts or thickened lesions that soften slowly and resist simple clearing, which is why the treatment also addresses the Dampness underneath.

Related pages: Phlegm-Heat Damp-Phlegm Sebaceous cysts

Toxic Heat 热毒rè dú

Toxic Heat is Heat concentrated enough to damage tissue. On the skin it means pustules, boils, ulceration, marked redness and swelling, often with fever, and it is the pattern most likely to correspond to an infection that needs medical treatment. It is the most urgent concept in the library, and the pages that discuss it say plainly when a presentation should be assessed rather than self-treated.

Related pages: Toxic Heat Cellulitis Huang Qin

Wind 风fēng

Wind is the pathogenic factor of movement and sudden change. On the skin it produces itching that moves, lesions that migrate, and symptoms that come and go quickly, which is why Wind is the central concept for itch in this library. It can enter from outside or arise internally, most often from Blood deficiency or a Liver imbalance, and the treatment principle is usually to dispel or settle it.

Related pages: Wind-Heat Urticaria Fengchi GB-20

Points and stages

The measurement and stage vocabulary used on acupoint pages and in the warm-disease model.

Back-shu point 背俞穴bèi shù xué

Back-shu points lie on the Bladder channel along the back, where the Qi of each organ is said to infuse. Each of the five Zang and six Fu has one, and they are used mainly to tonify or regulate their organ rather than to treat the local area. On the skin pages they appear where an underlying organ pattern needs support, for example a Spleen or Kidney pattern behind a chronic skin picture.

Related pages: Pishu BL-20 Shenshu BL-23 Xinshu BL-15

cun 寸cùn

A cun is a proportional measurement used to locate acupoints, traditionally taken as the width of the thumb at the knuckle joint. It scales with the person, so the same point is measured differently on a child and an adult, which is why acupoint pages give distances in cun from named landmarks. The site uses the convention that one cun is roughly one inch on an average adult and explains the measure on each point page.

Related pages: Zusanli ST-36 Sanyinjiao SP-6

deqi 得气dé qì

De qi is the sensation reported when a needle reaches an acupoint, often described as a dull ache, heaviness, distension or tingling. The practitioner may also feel a change in the tissue under the needle. It is a traditional marker that the point has been reached, though not every style or every treatment requires it, and the acupoint pages describe what to expect for each point.

Related pages: Hegu LI-4 Zusanli ST-36

Jue Yin 厥阴jué yīn

Jue Yin is the terminal Yin stage of the six-channel model, associated with the Liver and Pericardium channels. Its patterns are described as mixed, often with Cold below and Heat above, or with deficiency and Qi stagnation together, which is why they can be hard to read from a single sign. The Foot Jueyin is the Liver channel and the Hand Jueyin the Pericardium channel, and both supply points used in skin prescriptions.

Related pages: Ligou LR-5 Quze PC-3 Liver Qi stagnation

Ying level 营分yíng fēn

The Ying, or nutritive, level is one of the four levels in the warm-disease model of externally contracted Heat. Heat at this level has moved inward from the surface and may show a rash, restlessness and a crimson tongue. It sits between the Wei, or defensive, level and the Blood level, and the distinction guides whether treatment clears the Heat, cools the Blood or nourishes the fluids.

Using the glossary

The definitions are working summaries, not textbook entries: each is written for the way the term is used on a skin page, and some classical concepts have a much longer history than four sentences can carry. Where a term matters to a page, follow the related links to see it in context.

If a word is missing, search the library, or start from the beginning. For the signs that mean a skin problem should be seen urgently, read When a skin problem needs urgent care.