🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Autumn begins from Start of Autumn to Start of Winter, passing through six solar terms: Limit of Heat, White Dew, Autumnal Equinox, Cold Dew, and Frost Descent. Mid-Autumn (15th day of the 8th lunar month) serves as the climatic turning point.
*Guanzi* states: "Autumn marks the descent of yin energy, hence all things gather." "Descent of yin energy" refers to the gradual withdrawal of yang energy and the gradual growth of yin energy in autumn. "All things gather" means all things mature and reach harvest time. From the climatic characteristics of autumn, it transitions from heat to cold—the phase of "yang declining, yin growing." Human physiological activities shift accordingly—from "growth in summer" to "harvest in autumn." Therefore, autumn health preservation cannot ignore the principle of "gathering and nurturing." That is, autumn health preservation must prioritize protecting internal yin energy. As *Huangdi Neijing* says: "Nourish yin in autumn and winter." "Nourishing yin in autumn and winter" means cultivating the gathering and storing energy of autumn and winter, adapting to the natural trend of increasing and flourishing yin energy, thereby laying the foundation for the generation of yang energy in the coming year. One must not exhaust vital essence and damage yin energy.
How to preserve internal yin energy in autumn? The key is preventing dryness and protecting yin. Traditional Chinese medicine considers dryness the dominant factor in autumn, known as "autumn dryness." Its nature is clear and austere, dry. During prolonged dry, rainless periods, dryness pathogen easily invades. Since the lung governs respiration and connects with the skin and hair, and the lung and large intestine are interior-exterior partners, when atmospheric humidity drops, the lung, large intestine, and skin are first affected—this is the pathological feature of dryness pathogen.
Dryness pathogen injures body fluids, as expressed by "dryness overcomes moisture." Once body fluids are depleted, typical "dryness symptoms" appear: dry mouth, dry lips, dry nose, dry throat, dry tongue with little saliva, hard stools, dry skin possibly cracking. The lung is a delicate organ, favoring moisture and disliking dryness. Dryness invading the lung easily damages its yin fluid. Loss of lung moisture impairs its function, leading to impaired dispersion and descent—mild cases present dry cough with little phlegm, sticky and hard to expel; severe cases may damage lung network vessels, causing hemoptysis. After lung fluid deficiency, lacking downward moisture to moisten the large intestine, constipation becomes severe.
Autumn dryness has both warm and cool types. Early autumn, with higher temperatures, is typically warm dryness; late autumn, with falling temperatures, is cool dryness. Both share skin dryness and fluid deficiency as characteristics. However, they differ clinically: warm dryness presents with no or mild aversion to cold, obvious fever, and fine, rapid pulse; cool dryness shows no or mild fever, prominent aversion to cold, and usually non-rapid pulse.
From above, autumn health preservation mainly focuses on preventing dryness pathogen harm to maintain internal yin energy. This is the general principle. Specifically, how to preserve health in daily life—spiritual, living habits, diet, exercise, medication, etc.—must be addressed?