re: Herbal Temperatures

[Guest guest]

Dear Group (especially Dan Bensky if he is listening):

 

I have just started teaching an herbology class, and I am stumped by an issue

regarding temperatures. Bensky states (on page 6 of the Revised Materia

Medica) that slightly cold (wei han) is equivalent to cool, or even slightly

less cold than cool (and the same with slightly warm/wei wen). But when I

asked my Chinese teachers here at Yo San, they told me that slightly cold is

in between cold and cool. They told me that slightly cold is just a little

less cold than cold.

 

I am mystified as to what to tell my students. I realize of course that an

herb's total properties must be taken into consideration and the

cold-cool-neutral-warm-hot spectrum is a continuum...but I still want to know

which theory is correct. Any ideas out there?

 

Karen Vaughn, I would be most pleased if you would respond.

 

Julie Chambers, L.Ac.

Academic Dean, Yo San University