FW: bing, ping, zheng

[Guest guest]

August 16, 2002 11:15 am

Melbourne, Australia

 

Dear Marco ,

 

I think you are right on the dot for raising the question: what is this Chinese word 'bing'. I also agree with you that understanding the " present/lacalidad " context of this term is very important to " improve ones' knowledge and knowing " of Chinese medicine.

 

G.D. Wilder & J.H. Ingram in their book Analysis of Chinese Characters (l974) translates 'bing' as " disease'. However, they also provided a pictographic meaning of this term by looking at how this alphabetically phoneticized word is written in the Chinese character. They said , the,

 

" ...radical is made up of a... straight horizontal line, the position of a sick person,

and bed .. ch'iang2 (which is now pinyined as chuang2) . Thus it means, to be sick.

The scribes added a dot on top. " (p. 148)

 

Actually, in l983 Cheng You Ren, a veteram TCM practitioner in Shanxi province in Northwest China in his book Annotation of the Treatise on Febrile Diseases Shanghan Lun Chan Shi (Shanxi Science and Technology Publishing House, l983) posed the same question you are making now i.e. " What is Bing ? shenmo jiao bing ? Answering his own question, Dr. Chen You Ren stated:

 

" 'Bing ' is a person's suffering. " Bing shi ren de tong ku ( p. 13-14)

 

But to understand 'Bing' in terms of of its " present/lacalidad " , I would introduce you to another Chinese term which is the indispensable opposite of 'Bing' . This word is 'Ping' which G.D. Wilder & JH Ingram translates into English as " free expansion on both sides, plane, even, level and tranquil. They also gave the pictograhic translation of the phoneticized word consisting of a contracted version of the script for Qi overcoming an obstacle represented by the character for number one (which is a short horrizontal line). This conveys the idea of an unhibited and free Qi flow. To G.D Wilder & G.H. Ingram's translation of the word 'ping' I add another meaning i.e. 'balanced'

 

A well balanced and healthy person is therefore referred to (during ancient times as during the time of the Yellow Emperor) as a " ping ren' ; while a sick person is referred to as 'bing ren " .

 

A 'ping ren' is a well balanced person , level-headed, calm and in harmony with himself and the world around him. S/he is a healthy well-centered person with his/her Qi flowing freely, free from any extremes and deviationsl S/he is a product of balance between the overall body resistance (Zheng Qi yang) and all disease causing factors IXie Qi yin) ; the body exterior (yang) and the interior (yin); Qi (yang) and blood (yin); visceral organ systems (zang yin) and hollow organ systems (fu yang) ; body functions (yang) and body constitution (xing , yin)

 

A practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine understand that a person who is healthy manifests signs or phenomena of health, balance and harmony. She has a healthy pulse which is five beats per breathe, with all the corresponding regions of the pulse being of an appropriate rate, rhythm, strength, size, qualitity: a specific pulse pattern. The tongue is pinkish in colour with a thin white coat and slightly rough texture. A healthy person most importantly is free from discomfort and pain, has a vigorous spirit, robust physical built and leads a blanced life which includes a good appetite, regular sleeping and sex patterns and a reasonable amount of exercise.

 

However, when one gets sick, signs and symptoms which are at variance with the above pattern or phenomena of health and balance emerge. These are the patterns of disease, that is clinical patterns which is referred to in the Chinese language as zheng hou. Hence 'pattern identification' or bian zheng refers to the differentiation of the clinical patterns or zheng hou ; while 'disease identfification' or bian bing refers to differentiating one disease , illness or bing from another. Example of disease entities in TCM are Gan mao or wai gan which is often translated as 'common colds' , xiao chuan, which is translated as asthma; beng lou or irregular menstrual bleeding; etc. Each of these disease entities or bing on the otherhand manifest in various patterns of " human suffering or clinical signs and symtoms i.e. clinical patterns . Take the case of 'common colds or wai gan or gan mao , which is referred to in Bensky 's book Chinese Herbal Medicine (Eastland , l986 pp. 31) as " external conditions " i.e. a clinical condition when one is affected by external causes of diseases like wind, cold, damp, heat, dryness. External conditions or wai gan or gan mao are the disease or bing appellation; while the collection of clinical signs and symptoms which characterize the pattern of this human suffering like runny nose, blocked nose, fever, superficial pulse, aversion to cold, consititute the clinical pattern or Zheng hou.

 

Depending upon the contingent patient's Yin and Yang, hot or cold, body resistance (zheng Qi) response to these influences, the clinical pattern may exhibit a 'wind heat', Wind-cold, etc. clnical pattern . Most wind-heat clinical pattern that I see in my practice in Melbourne, Australia especially during the winter season (now it is late winter here) are characterized by the following signs and symptoms:

 

Runny nose with yellowish discharge or blocked nose or both , pronounced feeling of fever,

slight cough, slight constipation or sometimes diarrhoeia, headache, nausea or vomitting

thick phlegm , pulse is rapid and superficial and the tongue is red in colour with thick white

or slight yellow coating.

 

For the above wind heat clinical pattern , the strategy , formula, or Fang that I adopt is to release the contingent patient from the influences of the exterior wind-heat or jie biao feng re fang . I use exterior wind heat releasing formula like the Ying Qiao Wan ; or a formula of acupuncture points (to needle or massage) , and some advise on preventing the 'inward' aggravation of the external influences of exterior heat and wind .

 

Regards,

 

Rey Tiquia

Phd Candidate

History and Philosophy of Science

The University of Melbourne

Parkville

Victoria

Australia

 

 

 

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" Marco " <bergh

" Discussion List " <chimed

bing...

Thu, Aug 15, 2002, 11:10 AM

 

 

Dear list this letter came about due to something intresting I read at an other list...

 

however I thought that maybe some of the intresting minds that are on this list may care to put an input, any answers or coments are always most welcome...

 

 

 

 

 

Ken:

 

 

It's a disease, rather, it's a description

of a diseased condition.

 

Marco:

 

" it's a description of a diseased condition. " is this one way of referring to the pin yin terms Bian Bing what the Chinese characters are I have no idea. Also what are the " comen " combinations of the term Bing (Ji, Yin and so forth, either put before or after).

 

what where or is the historical development and or emphasises of the term (+...) Bing (+...)

 

How is it related to Bian Zheng - pattern identification, i.e. how can one improve once knowledge and knowing Chinese medicine by understanding the (+...) bing (+...).

 

I know there was an article in Clinical Acupuncture and Oriental medicine from Shandong(?) about beginning to understand Theory related to practice and it less I am ill remembering dealt a bit with " bing " and its importance in clinical practice. I know that Steven Clavey mention in the introduction about " bing " and its importance in clinical practice. I am also aware less I am mistaking that Bob Flaws has written on the topic will investigate these sources again but as for the time of writing the concept of " bing " is not very clear, at least not to me, yes more evidence of a deficient course that I attended and or personal deficiencies, still one lives to learn...

 

 

 

Ken:

 

And like so many

descriptions in Chinese medicine it reflects

ideas, values, and logic that is quite

context-dependent. When you take the term

out of context, therefore, its meaning

naturally begins to distort.

Marco:

 

How does this affect the practitioner-student needs to know more both in its original contexed and the information then possibly later being " contexilised " into " present/lacalidad " context?

 

what I am saying is that by the sound of it first one needs to know the original and original transformative contexed i.e. a historical process in order to contexulise the knowledge " here and know " , just do not comprehend how?

 

Marco Bergh