The Spleen

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

I was talking to a patient yesterday about the Zang and Fu organs, and how

the Zang organs are never empty because they store things, and the Fu organs

are always filling and emptying, and that the liver stores blood, and the

kidneys store jing, and the heart stores the shen, and I thought: what does

the spleen store? what do the lungs store? I have asked many people since

then, students and teachers.

 

What does the spleen store? Based on what classic texts?

 

What do the lungs store? Where is it stated?

 

Julie

[Guest guest]

>

>What does the spleen store? Based on what classic texts?

>

>What do the lungs store? Where is it stated?

 

Julie,

 

This Statement comes from <Lingshu> 8 (Ben shen):

 

Gan stores (zang) xue..

Pi stores Ying (qi)..

Xin stores mai (vessels,) mai houses (she) shen..

Fei stores Qi (zhenqi)..

shen stores jing..

 

Philippe

[Guest guest]

Dear Phillipe,

 

Thank you. Some books say " spleen stores fluids. " Can anyone say what that

means?

 

To say spleen stores Yi, or lungs store Po, is a bit of a cop out, because

all the organs store their respective shen.

 

Julie

[Guest guest]

Julie,

 

Interesting questions. There are a few answers, in fact a few ways

of answering that come to mind. I'll have access to our Chinese

library in a couple of weeks and can supply additional references.

But in the meantime...

 

>I was talking to a patient yesterday about the Zang and Fu organs, and how

the Zang organs are never empty because they store things, and the Fu organs

are always filling and emptying, and that the liver stores blood, and the

kidneys store jing, and the heart stores the shen, and I thought: what does

the spleen store? what do the lungs store? I have asked many people since

then, students and teachers.<

 

English term choices for these ideas has proven somewhat misleading I think.

The wu zang store essence or jing, often referred to as jing qi in various

Chinese classics

such Su Wen. I believe that many American students of the subject mistakenly

believe that the jing is stored in the kidneys and that's that. But the idea

common

to most of the Chinese classical texts that I have seen is that the jing qi

of the

whole organism is distributed throughout the wu zang and that the

differentiation

of this jing qi accords with wu xing or five phases theory in order to

develop

a fairly comprehensive scheme of how the jing qi interacts throughout the

whole organism.

 

Another way of saying this is that it is the jing qi (material essence of

the functional force) that corresponds with each of the five phases is

stored

in the respective zang organ. Hence, the heart stores the jing qi of the

shen and provides the essential fire or animating principle to the organism;

the liver stores the jing qi of the blood; the kidneys stores the jing qi of

the jing;

the lungs store the jing qi of the qi; and the spleen stores the jing qi of

the will (yi).

 

Once again, the key to comprehension seems to be in the meanings

of the terms themselves, and in order to grasp the meanings of the

terms we have to dig deeper to understand the ways in which

Chinese words develop, contain, and convey meaning altogether.

 

 

 

>What does the spleen store? Based on what classic texts?

 

>What do the lungs store? Where is it stated?

 

Wang Bing of the Tang dynasty wrote in his commentary on Su Wen

that, " When the jing qi is full this [condition] is called substantial

(shi).

When the body is full of food, this is called filled. The function of the

wu zang is to store jing qi. Thus they can be substantial but not filled. "

 

This is an important commentary in order to get at the idea of what

the Chinese words " substantial " and " store " means in this regard.

The idea is not that the organs are stuffed full of blood, jing, or

anything else. The idea is that each of the wu zang acts as a repository

of the material essence of the functional forces associated with the

corresponding organ and its particular phase of transformation

based upon wu xing theory.

 

The spleen is the place where qi and blood generate as a result of

the transformation of food and water into their essential components.

The clear qi, extracted from food by the spleen, is circulated upwards

and provides the jing qi of thought, hence that aspect of the mind that

we call intent or will, i.e. the content of thoughts (yi) can be understood

to reside in the spleen. As I said, I'll check up on some additional

citations to source materials for you, since your question seems to be

focused on

providing textual references. But this answer is worked up based upon

the foregoing logic.

 

Similarly, the lung, being the agency of the metal phase, is responsible

for the extraction and refinement (as one refines ore from the earth) of the

valuable fraction of the atmospheric qi. Thus the Chinese spoke of the lung

as storing the jing qi of breathing or of qi itself within the body.

 

There is a curious line in Ling Shu that states: " The wu zang are for

storing

jing, shen, xue, qi, and the soul. "

 

Just something to think about.

 

Ken