pulses

[Guest guest]

I've just cursorily scanned a few postings on the pulse, so this is not

a specific response, but some general thoughts. First, let me be

clear. I don't speak with any authority on this subject. It is hardly

an area of expertise for me. So anything I 've said (or will say) on

this subject should not carry any particular weight, in my opinion.

 

It is my observation, however, that the herbal texts I am familiar with

place little or no emphasis on nan jing style 12 position pulse dx. The

majority of the time, pulse is described in general terms like wiry,

deep or slippery, without regard to position in terms of cun , guan and

chi positions. This is true whether we are talking about classics like

zhu dan xi, basics like Fundamentals of CM or advanced internal

medicine, like Philippe sionneau's Tx of Dz in TCM. In some cases,

reference is made to position, but this is fairly circumscribed. The

vast majority of instances I found were for three qualities:

 

1. slippery in the spleen position

 

2. wiry in the liver position

 

3. weak in the kidney position

 

Clinical use of the nanjing positions for SI, PC, TB, LI, BL in herbal

texts is even rarer and never mainstream, as far as I can tell. While

these very systematized ideas from acupuncture theory were toyed with

during the jin-yuan, according to Unschuld, they ultimately never took

hold among most herbalists. Li shi zhen certainly discussed cun, guan

and chi in every chapter of his pulse classic, but it is worth noting

that this work was a later attempt to systematize all prior knowledge

and perhaps did not necessarily reflect actual practice through much of

Chinese history.

 

As to the 28 general pulses of Li shi zhen, I can only observe that most

of the clinically meaningful information seems to be connected to

combinations of fairly straightforward qualities, such as

floating/sinking, slippery/choppy, xu/shi, fast/slow and wiry/tight.

this would lend support to Flaws contention that the main clinical skill

in pulse dx for an herbalist is memorizing these combinations and

relationships.

 

Pragmatically, I'm not sure what role any additional nuancing in pulse

dx would play in my selection of herbs. However, the relationship

between nanjing style pulsetaking and acumoxatherapy is certainly a

different story altogether, one I can't really comment upon at all.