Foreword of new book titled New physics on Yin-Yang & Five Elements

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Hello, This is my new book I am writing in English. I'd like to hear

your advice and idea if possible. Thanks a lot in advance.

 

New Physical Interpretation of Yin-Yang and Five Elements Theory and

its Practical Application to Oriental Medicine

(for Diet Therapy, Constitution and Psychology, and Palpation Method)

 

 

Foreword

 

This book is the first volume of the series dealing with the new

physical interpretation of Yin-Yang and Five Elements theory. The

main topic of this book is concerned about the Oriental medicine

especially for the application of diet therapy, constitutional

analysis and personal character, the type of well-matched couple

between and woman, palpation method and other diagnostic methods for

the prevention of various diseases. The second volume will cover the

short and long-range forecasting of weather and climate. These series

of books will be different from other books of Oriental medicine and

philosophy in the aspect that these books try consistently to follow

the basic concept of scientific approach.

 

Modern physics is the most pretentious of the sciences, for it

purports to address all the physical reality. The physicists may

confess ignorance about many practical systems such as a living

organism and a weather and climate pattern but he will never concede

that it lies outside the domain of physics in principle. The

physicist believes that the laws of physics, plus a knowledge of the

relevant boundary conditions, initial conditions and constraints, are

sufficient to explain, in principle, every phenomenon in the universe.

 

But I would like to emphasize that there is also another beautiful

paradigm prevailing in old and present Oriental society, which can

explain many practical areas beyond the scope western science. At

this stage it is not quite certain to say whether the Oriental theory

can be explained or predicted by the laws of Western physics or vice

versa in near future.

 

As might be expected, doctors of TCM or TOM(Traditional Chinese

medicine or Traditional Oriental medicine) use quite different

paradigm or diagnostic methods than do their Western counterparts.

They consider the human body in a holistic manner, that is, they

believe that all parts of human body are not only connected by Qi

channel but also they influence each other through the mutual

generation and destruction laws under a certain hierarchy.

 

For easy example, if somebody has a very strong heart, then he will

have a very good chance of weak lung and kidney. Further the strong

heart guarantees the body parts under its control healthy such as

elbow joint and tongue. This implies in Oriental medicine that all

body parts are basically under control by major organs. Further no

single organ or body part is independent of others. The inter-

correlation between major organs works via Qi various channels,

through which various Qi energy circulates and further along which

the acupuncture points are distributed.

 

Without advanced instruments such as X-ray and NMR or elaborate test

under controlled experimental condition, Oriental medicine doctors

discern information using their own senses by hand, eye, or ear. I do

not want say that the diagnosis of palpation by hand to measure

temperature and resolution of the pulse shape and intensity is

inferior than those of thermocouple, oscilloscope and pressure

transducer due to the less quantitative feature of the Oriental

method.

 

They then analyze this information and make a diagnosis. Through

years of long-experienced practice, Oriental doctors have summarized

four effective diagnostic techniques based on the old oriental

theory, that is, Yin-Yang and Five Elements. These diagnostic methods

are known as looking, listening, questioning and feeling the pulse of

blood vessels as mentioned already.

 

For example of looking, if a patient has different color on the face,

then he is believed to have different disease corresponding to the

color. The red color implies false or true heat in his heart, while a

pale face means an infection in his lung or the large intestine. If

his face is yellow and withered or many wrinkles, then he probably

have weak function of stomach or spleen.

 

For palpation, Oriental doctors differentiate between various pulse

conditions, based on the theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, each

reflecting a different disease. For instance, the pulse of a patient

suffering from kidney disease feels like hitting by sweet potato made

of stone, while that suffering from liver disease feels like the

string of a musical instrument or elongated rubber. But it is

important to note that this kind of empirical diagnostic method by

palpation is not arbitrarily made but it follows exactly the physical

nature of Five Elements.

 

For example of listening and questioning, we can judge easily

somebody¡¯s health state by the contents of conversation itself as

well as his breathing, coughing or groaning. If somebody says that he

is afraid that when he looks down from a high place, then he probably

have clinical symptoms of weak stomach.

 

As another example, further, there is a remarkably simple method to

determine which organ is working good or bad by the checking the

preference of food taste for him to eat. If somebody prefers or

dislikes particular taste of food, then it is also very important

clue to determine the disease of the patient. For example, if

somebody like sour taste food or beverage, then he has some problem

of liver, while if he hate to eat sour taste food, he has a strong

function of liver or weak stomach. This is because in Yin-Yang and

Five Elements theory everything in the universe is classified with

Five Elements. Therefore we can nourish any specific organ by

anything corresponding to the energy of the same Five Element such as

taste, color, sound and mental attitude, etc.

 

You can also judge the health state of anyone by the shape of face.

We can say that there are five different face shape at the first

stage, for example, long rectangular, inverse triangle, circle,

square, and finally triangular shape. The information or judgment of

one¡¯s health state by face shape is called constitutional method.

The constitution is one of the important topic of Oriental diagnosis,

which is way to determine the relative strength of major organs and

thereby we can judge not only the strong and weak organs but also the

overall personal character.

 

But unfortunately the presentation or formulation of these various

Oriental techniques are highly inclined on empiricism and not in a

scientific way, which is known as the most informative and rational

way to investigate an observed phenomenon.

 

The purpose of this book is primarily intended to present the

contents of Oriental medicine in a scientific way, that is, from the

definition of the basic definition of Five Elements and thereof the

development of general theory for practical application.

 

The Five Elements, of course, refer to Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and

Water. These philosophical concepts used by ancient Chinese or Korea

to explain relationships between everything in universe. I would like

to strongly recommend not to consider that these Five Elements are

simply and arbitrarily selected from the natural environment by

uncivilized, old oriental society. As you will see in this book, the

physics of Five Elements are more than the concept of energy which

deals with the transformation of various energy state in western

physics, since I believe that the Five Elements are defined

physically as five different, characteristic energy or Qi in a cyclic

process.

 

In OCM, the theory is used chiefly to explain the properties or

function of viscera of the human body, the mutual relations,

physiological symptoms and pathological changes. Not only it also

serves as a guide for diagnosing and treating disease but also it can

be useful to explain human character or psychology, best couple

between man and woman, forecasting of weather and climate, and even

the forest management and flooding control, etc. The principle of

Korean letter, say HanGul, is also based on the theory of Yin-Yang

and Five Elements.

 

In this book, the physical definitions of Five Elements are made and

based on theses definitions the detailed classification of human body

parts and natural things observed in the universe. For example, the

physical properties of Five Elements and their classified

associations are given as:

 

Wood: warm and soft, therefore, reaching upward and forward. The

organ of liver is called a Wood organ. As a consequence, it is the

source of warm state of energy for the human body. The eye, muscle,

spring, and blue color are also regarded to belong as Wood element

since they have the character of moving forward.

 

Fire: hot, burning and dispersive. An equivalent organ is the heart

which pumps and circulates red blood all the time. Similarly, tongue,

blood, red color, summer are easy examples of Fire element, since

these have the character of hot and dispersive nature.

 

Earth: sticky and agglomerating. The viscera corresponding to the

Earth Element is stomach and spleen. This implies that the sticky

power in a human body is generated in Earth organ such as stomach and

spleen. The fat and breast are the corresponding body parts of Earth

Element, which reflect the character of Earth Element, that is,

agglomerating and thereby becoming hard.

 

Metal: tensile, fixing and crystallizing on the surface. The major

organs are lung and the large intestine. The tensile character can be

observed in the lung by strong surface tension. Skin and nose are the

typical body parts of Metal Element.

 

Water: cool and slippery and thereby downward motion. The major

organs of Water Element are kidney and bladder. And the ear and bone

are the typical body parts, which have the character of storing

function by the Water Element.

 

Today, modern society and its underlying beliefs are seriously under

attack from all sides. One thing that is clear is that modern

industrial society developed by the basis of the western science as

we know it can not continue. Many experts agree that if human society

is to endure, we need to a sustainable society that use resources

wisely, handle effectively serious human disease based on the cost-

benefit analysis, and changes agricultural method to increase

agricultural output quantitatively with the significant reduction of

pesticide and fertilizer and controls wisely the serious disaster of

weather and climate. Further, more important thing is to change human

mind radically to live together.

 

A growing number of scientists and world leader have taken an active

role in developing such a world. I believe that a sustainable society

is profoundly different from the way we live. I strongly believe that

one of the new surviving paradigms can come from the old oriental

natural science, which is called typically by the Yin-Yang and Five

Elements. By the adoption of the old oriental theory in everyday life

and industry, I believe we can handle the high cost of medicine,

quantitatively expanded agriculture by pesticide and fertilizer, and

climate disaster in very efficient way, that is, doing more with less.

 

The theory of Yin-Yang and Five is an old hypothesis in oriental

society, but it has been used in every area of oriental society as a

fundamental concept in oriental medicine, culture and fortune-telling

of human destiny, psychology and personnel planning, oriental Feng

shui, weather and climate prediction, agriculture and livestock

raising farming, and even management of forestry conservancy and

flood control, etc.

 

However, the problem is in that the old oriental hypothesis has not

been investigated in a scientific way up to this time. In a certain

aspect, the thorough evaluation of the oriental hypothesis is beyond

the scope the modern science, since the oriental natural science

handles the concept of Qi. The concept of Qi is defined so called

characteristic energy, which is obviously beyond the physics of

western science.

 

However, in this book, effort has been made to evaluate the Yin-Yang

and Five Element theory in a scientific way and application is made

to various area related such as human health. In this investigation,

I have tried to stick to scientific attitude and approach especially

in the definition of physical definition of Five Elements and their

evaluation.

 

In OCM, good doctors knows well how to prevent an illness from ever

occurring using the diet, exercise, birth date, Feng shui, and mental

training, etc. Therefore I will be more than happy if readers get

some useful information to increase their health and to extend their

view about Oriental philosophy through this book.