🌿 Folk Prescriptions

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Listening diagnosis includes assessing voice and odor. For example, a weak voice with shortness of breath and reluctance to speak indicates deficiency syndrome; a loud voice with restlessness and excessive talking indicates excess syndrome. Wheezing with coarse breathing and phlegm sounds in the throat indicates asthma; dry cough without phlegm suggests lung dryness; low cough indicates lung deficiency. Bad breath usually indicates stomach heat; sour-smelling breath suggests retained food; foul-smelling stool indicates heat syndrome; fishy odor indicates cold syndrome; strong-smelling or turbid urine often indicates damp-heat; foul-smelling leukorrhea indicates damp-heat; abundant, fishy-smelling leukorrhea indicates deficiency-cold. Inquiry is a broad-ranging diagnostic method crucial for obtaining disease information. Many renowned old physicians highly value questioning. Inquiry includes asking about general conditions, lifestyle history, family medical history, past illness history, onset of illness, current symptoms. Ming Dynasty’s Zhang Jingyue compiled the "Ten Questions Song": "First ask chills and fever, second ask sweating, third ask head and body, fourth ask bowel movements, fifth ask diet, sixth ask chest, seventh ask deafness, eighth ask speech, ninth ask old illnesses, tenth ask causes, then add questions about eye and medicine changes, women must especially be asked about menstruation—delayed, early, missed, or heavy bleeding—all visible. Add a few words for pediatric cases: smallpox and measles can all be diagnosed." This song summarizes key inquiry points. Pulse-taking is the most common method of pulse diagnosis, even becoming a hallmark of TCM. TCM holds that blood vessels are interconnected throughout the body, circulating via heart and lung functions. Any bodily lesion affects blood and qi circulation, which manifests through the pulse. By pulse diagnosis, one can understand the overall condition of blood and qi. Qing Dynasty’s Jiang Bi Hua composed a pulse diagnosis poem: "On both wrists, the high bone defines the 'cun' point; cun pulse measured at the tiger's mouth, chi pulse aligned with the arm bend. Left cun governs pericardium, left guan governs gallbladder and liver, left chi governs bladder and kidneys, right cun governs lungs in chest, right guan governs stomach and spleen, large intestine and kidney are clearly indicated by right chi." Li Shizhen of the Ming Dynasty wrote "The Pulse Studies of Binhu," detailing 27 pulse types and their associated diseases. However, pulse theory is subtle and difficult to discern; easy to understand mentally but hard to perceive under fingers. A tiny error leads to great deviation, hence the saying “skill lies in feeling the pulse.” Beginners find it hard to master, but with long-term clinical practice, insight naturally develops. In summary, each of the four diagnostic methods has unique roles and cannot replace one another. To make comprehensive and accurate judgments, all four must be combined organically and used together—none can be missing. Some believe TCM diagnosis only involves pulse-taking and tongue inspection, which is incomplete. TCM integrates data gathered from the four diagnostic methods with TCM theoretical knowledge and clinical experience to draw conclusions. But disease is a complex process; symptoms and signs may be intricate and sometimes deceptive, such as “great excess appears as weakness, extreme deficiency shows signs of abundance” or “true cold mimicking heat, true heat mimicking cold.” Thus, doctors must think actively, analyze objectively, carefully distinguish facts, either “discard pulse for symptoms” or “discard symptoms for pulse,” penetrate appearances to grasp the essence of disease, enabling accurate diagnosis and effective treatment.