Tongue Diagnosis

[Guest guest]

Group,

I would like to put forth a couple of items regarding tongue diagnosis. My colleague Qun Li from southern China told us she was taught that scallops on the side of the tongue represent liver/spleen disharmony. In other words, a swollen tongue represents simple dampness with spleen qi xu or yang xu. The fact that the sides of the tongue represent liver/GB is why side scallops equal liver/spleen disharmony, with the scallops showing up due to dampness in the spleen.

 

Also, occasionally I see a tongue with a ribbon of phlegm running from back to front on each side of the middle area of the top of the tongue, often with well-defined edges to the phlegm ribbon, and often the phlegm is dirty, dark, or yellow. The only work I have seen that tries to explain this tongue picture is Maciocia's gold book, wherein he has a picture of it and calls it GB phlegm heat. I posit that since it is showing up between the liver/GB area and the ST/SP area that such a tongue picture represents GB/ST disharmony with phlegm heat, a Wen Dan Tang-type picture. Any comments?

Joseph Garner