In this video, I introduce the foundational principles of Zang Fu Organ Theory in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), highlighting how TCM views health holistically by connecting physical, mental, and emotional aspects. I explain that, unlike Western medicine which often sees symptoms in isolation, TCM looks at how symptoms are interconnected through organ systems and their energetic pathways. I break down the basic functions and disharmonies of major organs such as the heart, liver, spleen, lung, and kidney, often using pop culture characters to make these concepts relatable. I also touch on the emotional associations of each organ and how imbalances can show up in both physical symptoms and personality traits. Further, I outline the role of the yang Fu organs and the unique San Jiao system, giving an overview of how each fits into the overall picture of wellness. My goal is to offer viewers a broad understanding of how TCM interprets internal organ function and to encourage a more comprehensive approach to health.
Topics Covered in this Video
- Introduction to Zang Fu Organ Theory in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
- The physical, emotional, and energetic aspects of the Zang (Yin) and Fu (Yang) organs
- Common patterns of disharmony for each main organ, illustrated with pop culture characters
- The connection between organ imbalances and specific emotional/mental states
- Overview of extraordinary organs and the role of the San Jiao (Triple Burner) in TCM
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Unedited Video Transcript
Have you ever gone to your doctor with a whole list of symptoms, say low energy and digestive issues, maybe some anxiety or insomnia, only to be told that they will only address one issue in that visit? In Western medicine, symptoms are often viewed in isolation, but in TCM or traditional Chinese medicine, we always look at the whole picture. Often what seems like totally unrelated symptoms actually are very connected. When we look through the lens of tcm, Zong Fu organ theory, and once we address the root disharmony in that organ system, it’s incredible to see how quickly all of those symptoms seem to improve. It’s important to note that the concept of organs from a TCM perspective is not the same as organs from a Western medicine perspective. There is a lot of overlap. However, TCM goes much deeper than just the physical functioning of an organization. And in fact, what we’re really looking at is not only the physical functions of the organs in tcm, but we’re also looking at the energetic pathways. So, meaning the meridian flow that’s associated with that organ.
We’re looking at the energetics of the organ. We look at the emotional components of the organ. So it’s a very well rounded approach where we’re looking at not only the physical functioning of the organization from a TCM perspective, but we’re also looking at all of the mental, emotional and spiritual components in addition to. We call this system the Zong Fu Organ Theory, and it’s pivotal to understanding traditional Chinese medicine. Hi everyone, I’m Vanessa, a doctor of acupuncture and owner of Blue Frog Wellness in Calgary, Alberta. If you’re new here, welcome to my channel where I share insights from traditional Chinese medicine, or tcm, in order to help you better understand your own health and wellness. Before we begin, I want to be clear that this channel is for educational purposes only and is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Should you happen to have any health care concerns of your own, please don’t hesitate to reach out to a professional healthcare provider.
So in the big picture of the Zangfu organ theory, you just need to understand that the classification of organs actually falls into two separate categories. We have the zang organs, which are the yin organs, known to store substances such as qi, yin blood, and that’s kind of thought of as like the deep reservoirs of energy and sustenance for our body. And then they classify the fu organs, which are your Yang organs, and the Yang organs. As you know, Yang energy is very active, so they’re the workhorses of your actual internal organs. So the zhong organs include the heart, the liver, the spleen, the kidneys and the lung. And the organs that encapsulate the fu organs are the stomach, the gallbladder, the bladder, the small intestine, the large intestine, and an extra organ in Chinese medicine known as the San Jiao or triple burner. Now how are these organs all connected? Well, as mentioned earlier, every organ has a meridian. Now, the meridian is the energetic pathway.
On that meridian is where the acupuncture points lie. So an acupuncture point is simply where the energy of the meridian and of the organization comes to the surface of the skin. Now, each of these organs, as I mentioned, has the meridian, which is therefore connected to a subsequent organ. And There’s a whole 24 hour flow of our Qi. So every internal organ is most energized for a two hour window within the day. And there’s 12 organs. So we’ve got one full day equals one flow cycle of Qi within your body. So because each of these meridians connects and influences the next organ in line, we can see how if we just work on one independent organ, we might see changes in many different areas of your body affecting your whole health and wellness.
And when Qi flow becomes harmonious through this network, we feel calm and rested and relaxed and clear minded, and we feel generally well, this is well being. But whenever we do have any kind of blockage in our Qi flow deficiency in our Qi flow deficiency in a substance like blood or body fluids, we’re going to feel some sort of discomfort because there’s a disharmony affecting that organ. Now stay tuned because we’ll go over every single organ and find out what their functions are so that you can identify what where there might be some sort of disharmony in the internal organs in your health and wellness. Now, you’ll find in subsequent videos we’re going to talk specifically about each organ and the patterns of disharmony that do arise so that you can know a little more information about the exact symptoms you may be feeling. How do we differentially diagnose one pattern from another within that organ? And what you can do to help balance that pattern of disharmony on your own. So now that you understand the big picture of TCM Zongfu organ theory, let’s dive into each internal organ one by one so that you can better understand exactly how that organ is supposed to function and where there might be patterns of disharmony starting to show based on symptoms you might have. So the heart in TCM includes The following functions. Heart governs blood.
Heart controls the blood vessels. It manifests in complexion. It houses our mind, or what’s known as shen. It’s connected to the emotion of joy. It opens into the tongue and controls our sweat. So let’s take a little closer look. So when we say the heart in TCM manifests in complexion, it means that we can see by the color of the skin on your face what potentially could be going on. Reflective of the blood moving in your body.
So if you’ve got a blood deficiency, this is similar to anemia in western medicine. So perhaps you have dizziness, especially upon standing, you’ve got low energy, you may have some restlessness or just feeling like you cannot relax. And potentially you’ll have some sleep issues because of this blood deficiency. Looks like a pale, dull face. So just as we know with anemic people, they will have a pale face, especially if they stand up too quickly, you’ll almost see the color go out of their face and it’s just reflective of there’s not enough good quality blood to nourish their whole entire body. Now when we look at the spleen, we’ll delve into why that might be. Because it largely comes from a pattern of having improper digestion. Now, if you’ve got heart yang deficiency, meaning your active energy or your warming energy is lacking, you’re going to have a bright white complexion.
If you’ve got heart blood stasis, meaning your blood is actually starting and stopping, it’s not moving very quickly, it’s definitely not flowing smoothly throughout your body. You’ll notice a purplish or a dark or dull complexion happening there. And if you’ve got heat in your heart, which is very common as well, we will notice a complexion that could be too red. So having a flushed face, and especially if you look at the tongue, the very tip of the tongue reflects the heart area. If that is bright red, we know that there’s too much heat in the heart. Now when we say in Chinese medicine that the heart houses the mind, this is of critical importance because it really reflects the state of your mental emotional well being. So when we say you have a well nourished heart, that means that you’ll have an anchored shape. Shen that means your mental faculties are nice and clear and you have resolution and you have strength and you have this ability to be clear minded and speaking clearly and have everything that you can think of in your mental capacity functioning very well.
However, there are many times that we see deficiencies in the heart, such as heart Blood deficiency or heart yin deficiency that will therefore affect, affect the state of our Shen because it’s not anchored if there’s not enough nourishment to nourish the Shen. Therefore we’ll see anxiety, perhaps depression, restlessness, we’ll see oftentimes patterns of insomnia because we’re just not really that grounded or rooted, because the blood is not as nourished as it should be for your body and your mind and spirit. Now, we also say that the heart opens into the tongue. So as mentioned in the Four Pillars video, which talks all about diagnosis and especially tongue diagnosis, this is where we can really see what’s happening with your heart and your blood. Because a normal tongue will be a normal pale red color, sort of a strawberry color. And if you’ve got heat in your heart, as mentioned earlier, you’re going to have a dark red, you’re going to have maybe a red tip or some red on the tongue that’s more red than the rest of the tongue body. If you’ve got severe heat, you might have actual tongue ulcers. So you might have cold sores on the tongue, a patchy or peeled looking tongue, almost like there’s just not enough moisture to nourish that tongue.
And if you’ve got heart deficiency or heart blood deficiency, of course your tongue is going to be very pale, it’s often very flat, just looks like it’s lacking something, it’s lacking sustenance. And lastly, if you have heart excess or deficiency, this might reflect in you talking excessively or having difficulty with your speech, stuttering, or maybe not even talking at all. So because the heart opens into the tongue, clear, concise, well enunciated speech will be reflective of a good heart state state. If we have anything different from that, we always want to inquire if perhaps there is a heart imbalance within your body. So lastly, the heart controls the sweat of your body. So if you’ve got a heart deficiency or QI deficiency, or even a Yang deficiency, we see this as spontaneous sweating. So sweating for no reason, you didn’t do any workout or you didn’t go up a flight of stairs, but all of a sudden you’re hot and flushed and the pores are open and sweat is pouring out. Now, alternatively, many people have a heart yin deficiency which relates to night sweats.
So if you’re sweating in the nighttime, we are going to classify that as a Yin deficiency and we want to look at the state of the heart to correct that imbalance. So excessive sweating in hot weather or hot yoga may damage your heart yang. So we always want to be mindful to not overdo it. If you know you’re going to be playing a long soccer game or you’re going to be out in the heat, make sure you always find ways to get some shade, get some hydration, and take a break from that hot sun so that we don’t overdo it and overextend our yang. So in order to better illustrate this, I’ve created a character from pop culture to illustrate every one of the internal organs and what might happen in terms of a disharmony here. So for the heart, I’ve created the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. And why is that? Well, it’s simply because the Mad Hatter is very erratic. He’s very quickly to move from one topic to another topic.
Often the thoughts are incongruent or disjointed. He’s excessively talking, he’s excessively happy, he’s, you know, borderline on manic behavior and he’s really quite unstable mentally. So really, this Mad Hatter does describe exactly what we see when we’ve got disheartening, especially excess type disharmonies in the heart. So moving on to the liver, the functions of the liver and TCM include storing blood. So while the heart moves your blood, the liver actually stores it for when you need. Also ensures the smooth flow of qi. And this is pivotal in Chinese medicine because if we have Qi stagnation anywhere in the body, that means we have irritability, usually pain, usually some sort of restlessness or agitation, and we always want to restore the flow of qi. So it’s smooth and harmonious throughout the whole body.
That will just give us a calm, relaxed nature and give us a little bit more upliftment rather than being irritable or frustrated. So the liver also controls the sinews. In Chinese medicine, this means tendons, ligaments, and the actual joint itself. So anytime you’ve got tension in your ligaments, AKA really tight IT bands or really tight hamstrings, or perhaps in the neck and shoulders, you’ve got tight traps and, you know, you’re getting occipital headaches from tension, that means that we have an issue going on with the actual sinews of the liver and we need to look there to correct that imbalance. It also, in terms of Chinese medicine, the liver will manifest in the eyes, opens into the eye. So we will be able to tell, you know, by someone what might be happening with their liver in terms of what Their eyes look like if they’re open all the way, if they’re half closed, if they’re kind of droopy, if they’re, you know, tearing or moving fluid that way. Because, again, the liver in Chinese medicine controls tears. That’s the body fluid associated there.
Now, the liver is also controlling or housing our ethereal soul. And in Chinese medicine, there’s a few different elements to our soul, aspects of our soul, but the liver deals with the ethereal soul. So in speaking of the ethereal soul, this is known as the Hun. And the Hun is especially responsible for sleep planning, projects, life aims, and coming and going of Shen. So you can see how there’s an interaction between the movement or the nourishment of the ethereal soul and that of the Shen. And it is obviously affected by the emotion, anger. So I mentioned when we get tight and feel tension and we feel restless, frustrated, irritable, angry, that is all a sheer sign that we’ve got a liver imbalance somewhere, and we definitely need to do something about it to address that. All right.
And so for the liver disharmony, we have selected none other than the Incredible Hulk to exemplify exactly what this could could look like. Number one reason we selected the Incredible Hulk is because green is the color associated with the liver. So, of course, Bruce Banner turns into the green monster. And that’s always activated by some form of stress, which builds up. Lack of, you know, self regulation, emotional regulation, turns into a really big burst of rage. And that is what transforms him from the human into the monster, really. That is reflective of what happens when our liver Qi gets stuck, or we call that stagnation. It’s not free flowing, it’s not smoothly flowing.
So therefore, the stopping and starting of Qi flow is going to cause irritability, frustration, anger, and that can really lead to an outburst at some point in time. So it’s a really good depiction of what liver Qi stagnation looks like, especially when it turns into Liverpool Fire or Liver Yang rising, meaning, you know, this doesn’t quell and cool down. It in fact, bottles up, amplifies and gets bigger until some transformation happens, turning Bruce Banner into the Hulk. So hopefully that gives you a clear indication of what liver Qi stagnation really looks like in terms of, you know, just having a liver disharmony. Now, the spleen function in TCM is another pivotal organ because it really relates to the digestive function. And if that’s really running well, we have no other issues essentially going on in our system, because this Drives the bus. Right. So the key function of the spleen is to govern the transformation and transportation of our nutrients.
So that means when we eat our food, it gets broken down really nicely into good quality nutrients, good quality blood, which reflects in a high amount of energy for our internal organs, for our body, and then it will reflect in really good, healthy digestion. Anything outside of that means that there’s a problem with our transformation and transportation of the nutrients we’re eating. There’s a whole host on why that might happen, and we’ll definitely dive into it in this specific video on spleen and spleen deficiency. The other functions include controlling the ascending of Qi. So Qi can do different things and move in different ways. So the ascension of Qi is largely the function of the spleen. It also controls the blood. So this means keeping the blood in blood vessels, meaning if you bruise easily, you’ve probably got a weak spleen.
It controls the muscles and the four limbs. So again, any sort of issue with your arms or your legs, if there’s any weakness or lacking musculature there, there’s probably an issue with your spleen. And it opens into the mouth, manifesting in the lips. Now, of course, that’s also going to mean that it’s going to control the fluid known as saliva. So we’re looking at the mouth here, and it will control the raising of Qi. It will house our intellect. Our intellect is known as our Yi, and it’s really affected by pensiveness or worry. That’s the emotion that’s associated.
So whenever we are think, think, think, you know, just planning all the time, obsessively worrying about stuff, especially things we can’t control, we’re definitely going to be damaging our spleen. And conversely, we will know if there’s a spleen issue. If we’re worrying all the time, and if we’re worrying all the time, we are probably damaging the spleen, the energy and the organ itself. So, as mentioned in later videos, we will talk specifically about what you can do to restore that balance, if that is the case for you. So when we say the spleen is responsible for our intellect or our ye, it means that the spleen is going to be responsible for thinking, for memory and for concentration. So, like our ability to focus. And many times I see people in my clinic that will come in and they complain of brain fog. Well, brain fog will definitely be somewhat related to the spleen or the lack of spleen function.
Typically, there’s a damp obstruction in the spleen that is not allowing the Energy to come all the way up through your digestive organs from, you know, your lower dan tien, so your, your root, your kidney energy all the way up through your internal organs in the digestive center and then through to your mind so that you can have clear thought and you can be, you know, quickly communicating and able to really, you know, think and plan and focus. But if there’s a damp obstruction, you’re going to be having that cloudy mindedness, right? So the brain fog and perhaps even a little bit of lethargy because it feels like there’s a heaviness or a cloud over you. So anytime people come in and they have brain fog, we definitely want to look at the spleen and spleen function to be able to resolve that. And the character that we’ve come up with for the spleen disharmony is reflective in Homer Simpson. And why is this? Well, he’s got some digestive issues, right? He’s not the most healthiest of characters. He’s quite overweight, especially around the belly. And you know, he lives on a diet of beer and donuts. So those two things, the beer is very damp forming, that’s going to hinder the spleen function.
And the donuts are laced with sugar and carbohydrates and they’re not very nourishing at all. So that’s going to cause a whole host of digestive problems with sugar. Then in turn comes to, you know, being clear minded and all that. So having brain fog and not really clear thinking clearly, um, and behavioral, he’s probably going to be a little bit more lethargic because of this. And he’s got a lot of bloating. So it’s the overindulgence in the donuts and the beer that is really causing a lot of the problem. Uh, the spleen colour that is associated with the spleen is yellow. So that’s another reason why we chose Homer Simpson.
He’s a good depiction of someone who’s got, you know, poor digestion. Maybe not thinking clearly is yellow in color and definitely gives you the picture of everything that is going wrong with the spleen. So now with the lung, we’ve got a whole host of functions that will revolve around respiration, as you might anticipate. And the functions here include governing QI and respiration, controlling the skin, skin and the pores, and dispersing and descending qi. So really the lung is all about how we breathe in and how we breathe out, but also not only the inward and outward flow of breath, but also the opening and closing of our pores on our skin. So how that relates is that means that you might have some more of that spontaneous sweating that just happens out of the blue. And that means that your pores are so stuck in the open position, they’re not closing like they should be. So there’s probably a lung deficiency if you’re spontaneously sweating.
So the body areas include, obviously the lungs, the throat, it opens into the nose and is reflective of the skin. So anything we have to deal with, nose, with sinuses, with allergies, is all going to be reflective of lung conditions. So we always want to address the lung whenever we have, you know, any of those things. Even if it’s a skin allergy, you get hives from, you know, something topical or something in your environment. We definitely want to address the lung because there’s a weakness there. The emotion associated with the lung is always grief and sadness. And really, the way that I see this presenting a lot is right after you’ve had a loss in your family, you know, there’s a funeral you go to, Many people who were at that funeral will all realize or identify that they have a cold or a flu or, lo and behold, maybe a bronchitis or pneumonia even following that funeral. And, you know, they might just assume, oh, there must have been, you know, a viral thing going around at the funeral.
And so we all got it. Well, what’s really happening there is everyone who’s experiencing that level of grief of somebody who has just passed, they’re going to be more susceptible because now your lungs have taken a bit of a hit, that grief is actually affecting the integrity of the functioning of your lungs. So therefore, if there happens to be some sort of pathogen in your environment, good chance it’s going to get in, because your defenses are down because of the grief that’s there. So just know that we can always work on the lungs to help to overcome, you know, grief for a long period of time. And that way we can kind of work from a more mental, emotional thing while addressing the actual physical structure of an organ such as the lung. Common disharmonies here include shortness of breath. So any coughing, any wheezing, any plugged sinuses, you know, sinus congestion, getting frequent colds, you know, maybe some fatigue because the energy, the qi flow, is not very strong. You’ll definitely have skin issues.
So eczema, psoriasis, any sort of dryness of the skin can be reflected in the lung. And then nasal congestion, obviously, is always going to be a part of that. And the Emotion that is, you know, tied to grief and sadness includes melancholy. So if you’re just kind of blah in life, there’s a good chance your lung has some impairment going on. So the character that’s associated with the lung in Chinese medicine, from my perspective, is Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. That’s essentially because he’s kind of melancholic. You know, he’s got that low voice, sort of a weak voice, not really wanting or being too enthusiastic to speak. He’s definitely lacking enthusiasm, and he’s probably got a bit of a weak immune system because everything is kind of low.
There’s not a lot of vitality or energy going to his lung. So his attitude, his constant sighing is also a reflection of qi stagnation or deficiency and definitely of the lung and a tendency to reflect. That brings us to our last organ of the zhong organs, which is the kidney. And the kidney is of critical importance in traditional Chinese medicine for many reasons, the first of all being that it is the root of your yin and your yang. So when your kidneys are well nourished, that yin and yang can be dispersed to all of the other organs. So we always want to maintain a really healthy nourishment of our kidney energy. Secondly, the kidneys will store something called our essence or our jing. And jing is something we’re born with.
We constitutionally come into this life with that. It comes from the genetics of our parents. It also has something to do with the time of birth and things like that. But when you’re born with really healthy jing, you have good vitality for your whole life. Now, sadly, we cannot build our jing in life. We can only maintain what we’ve been given. And if you’re born prematurely, you probably have less jing than somebody who was born to full term. So just know that we always want to really be protective of our jing energy, because it really does give us that root of vitality and long life and healthy life, longevity.
And we really don’t want to decline applying it too much over the course of our lifespan. Like I mentioned, we’ll do a separate video on the kidney organ entirely, where we’ll give you really great dietary and lifestyle tips that you can do to keep your kidney energy nourished, especially that of the jing. So the kidneys govern growth. So that is including, you know, from, you know, early age in life all the way through to adulthood, and then the growth of our bones, our teeth, our hair, that will all be a good reflection of how well our kidney energy is doing. So if there’s an impairment there, we might see, you know, brittle bones. We might see, you know, somebody who gets fractures really easily, or you’ve got teeth falling out or teeth issues, dental issues. Perhaps you have hair that is turning gray too quickly or you’re balding. And that can definitely be a sure sign that the kidney energy is not as vital as it should be or not as nourished as it should be.
Now, the kidneys also govern reproduction, so the ability to have fertility and to, you know, reproduce, that is all a function of kidneys. So whenever we have somebody coming into the clinic who’s experiencing infertility, we really want to look on nourishing their kidney energy as much as possible, because probably there’s something lacking there. And once we start nourishing that, their fertility picture changes entirely. And then, of course, it’s going to reflect in our ears. So the kidneys open up into the ears, and any sign of tinnitus, so ringing in the ears or deafness will definitely be a sign that the kidney energy is weak. So when it’s nice and vital, you’ll have, like, really good hearing acuity. No ringing in the ears, no issues at all with the ears at all. And lastly, the kidneys function in terms of water metabolism.
So if we’ve got edema, edema of the ankles or just below the knee, if we got water storing in places that it shouldn’t be, then definitely we want to look to make sure that our kidney energy is functioning nice and strong. So the body areas that are associated with the kidney are the low back. So anytime we have low back pain, we probably have a kidney issue, the knees. So any knee issues or weakness in the. In the knees, we want to, you know, have a look at the kidneys. As mentioned, the ears, the bones, the teeth, and reproductive organs are all a function of kidney energy and related to kidney. And of course, the emotion here is shock and fear. So if you’ve experienced any kind of traumatic event, whether that’s a car accident or otherwise, that will really do some damage to your kidney kidney energy.
And we always want to be able to nourish the kidney energy after something like that, to be able to be resilient and sort of bounce back after some sort of traumatic event. And common disharmonies of the kidney will include low libido because of the reproductive link, infertility. For the same reason, low back pain, any hearing loss, having weak knees, early aging, and even night sweats can be related to the kidney. So, so when we think of kidney energy. When it’s nice and strong, you have longevity and vitality. When there are issues with the kidney organ itself, you are going to have anything that reflects as early aging. So you know, your hair is falling out, you’ve got brittle bones, you’ve got teeth issues, maybe teeth falling out, you’re lacking memory, you’re having some insomnia, you maybe have weak knees or knee problems or low back problems. Definitely we’re going to lose our hearing.
So all of these things aren’t just aging. It’s really reflective of weakened kidney energy and we always want to balance that. So the character that we’ve come up with for a kidney disharmony is actually Gollum from the Lord of the Rings. And it’s really just because when you take one look at him, he does not look like the picture of health. Right? He’s got a really withered appearance. Right. He’s really scrawny and scratchy, scraggly and he’s all hunched over. You know, he just looks in a lot of ways like, like his growth and development just aren’t weren’t there.
Right. Um, he’s a little paranoid, he’s got obsessive behavior. Right. He’s really focused on the ring and getting the ring and power and he needs that control. Right. So those are all kidney sort of related energies. Um, he’s probably got some infertility just looking at, you know, the scrawny nature of, of his image and of course some, some hearing issues as well. So you know, he’s really showing a lot of signs of really, like really, really strong premature aging.
He’s got a lot of fear. He lives in fear and obsession. So that paints a picture of someone who’s got a weakened kidney energy. And definitely it’s showing an interesting behavioral pattern and physical stature. So while not actually classified as a Zong organization, we have a bonus organ called the pericardium in tcm. And really the pericardium is that envelope that surrounds your heart. Its intention is to protect your heart. So much like the heart functions, the pericardium will also contribute to things, of all things blood related and manifesting in complexion and controlling your sweat.
And it’s going to open into the tongue as well. And it’s really there to create that protective barrier of your heart and creates a little bit of emotional space so that you can have a resilient heart really protecting you from heartbreak or in an excess condition to have too much joy in your life. So a mania condition. We really do look at addressing the pericardium anytime we’re looking to treat emotional or trauma related conditions. So just to recap, we’ve covered the zong organs in the zong fu organ theory, reminding you that the zhong organs are yin in nature and therefore their job is to store vital substances like qi, blood and essence. So now that we know what the storage organs do, we’re going to shift gears and have a quick look at the fu organs, which are the yang organs. Now, the Yang organs are going to be obviously yang in nature, meaning they’re more active. They’re actually going to be doing the work of transforming and transporting substances like food and fluid.
So the fu organs, we’ve got six organs here. The stomach, gallbladder, small intestine, large intestine, bladder, and an additional organ known as the San Jiao or the triple burner in Chinese medicine. So the small intestine has the main function of separating pure from impure. And really that means aiding our digestion in separating, you know, what is needed to be absorbed into the body for nutrients and what will be eliminated through the body as waste that constitutes all the food you eat and the beverages that you do consume. Now, in addition to the physical function of separating pure from impure, the small intestine is also responsible to do that in terms of your mental, emotional, separating the pure from impure. So this means getting a hold on mental clarity and precise judgment. So whenever you have any brain fog or cognitive difficulties, the small intestine is largely at play here. And keep in mind the small intestine is associated with the heart.
So the zong fu pair is the heart and small intestine. The heart being the organ that houses our shen, that mental, emotional side of us. So the body areas here are the lower abdomen and the bowels, of course, and the emotion is going to be confusion or like I said, lack of discernment. So not able to parse through matters that come at you on a daily basis and identify what’s important and what’s not. What’s needed, what’s not needed, what is actually something that is of use and value versus what is just noise. And then the disharmonies that you might experience here include abdominal pain, diarrhea, mental overwhelm, and urinary issues as well. So the character that best depicts the small intestine disharmony is Ron Weasley from Harry Potter. So the reason being, again is because the small intestine’s role is to separate the clear from the turbid and clarity of thought and decision making is critical importance here.
Um, so behavioral signs that he might have some weakness in his small intestine is that he occasionally has poor judgment, right? So he’s got some digestive issues that usually stem from nervousness. So he’s got nausea when he’s nervous. Uh, and he’s known for poor food choices and poor decision making skills in general because he gets a lot of mental confusion when he’s under pressure. So all of these things are reflective of some sort of disharmony or imbalance in your small intestine. Moving on to the gallbladder. In Chinese medicine, the functions here include storing and excreting bile, governing decision making and courage. The body areas are the side of the body, because the gallbladder meridian really runs down the sides of your body from your head to your toe and is in control of your head and also has a reflection of the sinews. So similar to the liver, cause it’s paired with the liver in tcm.
The emotional component here is indecision and being too timid. So whenever you’re lacking that ability to make a decision or, you know, you really drag out, should I do this, Should I, do not do that? Should I, you know, weigh out the pros and cons? You’ve definitely got a gallbladder issue going on if that’s, you know, a common character trait of yours. Right. So disharmonies can include gallstones, Definitely. Headaches are part of the gallbladder picture. And anything, like I said, relating to indecision and anything on the sides of the body so tight it bands can be a gallbladder issue. Lower, lower leg issues. So right underneath the knee, if you got a lot of tension there, that’s a pivotal point called gallbladder 34, which is the pivotal point of tendons and ligaments.
So if you have 10 tension, we want to use that point to unwind it. But basically, the gallbladder is not only going to help the liver do its function of digesting, but it’s also going to contribute to your ability to make decisions and act on them. And the character that I’ve created for a Gallbladder disharmony is C3PO from Star Wars. And this should be fairly obvious. But he definitely lacks decision making. He’s always wishy washy and weighing out the price, pros and the cons, and overthinking a lot of things. So at times he’s kind of lacking courage. Right.
So he has that indecision. He’s quite timid. Um, he’s overthinking, he’s, you know, basing a lot of things on doom and gloom and how, you know, negative things are about to come his way and he’s really living in fear. So that constant anxiety, um, you know, using his ability to ask other people to make decisions for him and his hesitation and his reactions to anything going on in life really showcase a gallbladder deficiency here. Now, the stomach in Chinese medicine, as mentioned earlier, it is one of the digestive organs paired with the spleen. So the two of these work hand in hand and really it’s going to receive and ripen your food and begin the process of digestion. So the body areas associated of course are going to be the stomach, the upper abdomen and the mouth. And the emotion, much like the spleen, is going to be worry and pensiveness.
So for really like, you know, overthinking things and really trying to plan, you know, for our lives, then we’re definitely going to be having a spleen, sorry, a stomach disharmony. Um, other symptoms might include nausea, acid reflux, poor appetite, bad breath and a feeling of fullness. Now additionally, if you floss your teeth and you get bleeding gums, oftentimes that’s a sign that you’ve got too much heat in your stomach. So stomach disharmonies will always present themselves as they do in Western medicine, with actual stomach like symptoms, but also including the emotional component of worry or pensiveness. And the character that I’ve created that was going to reflect this stomach is actually Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And the reason being is because he’s overeating all the time. He’s got really poor digestion, you know, the heaviness is a factor and he’s got, you know, some stagnation in his digestive center. Right.
He’s driven by those food cravings. So like they drive the bus there. Um, he obviously is overindulging all the time and he’s got that inability to self regulate. So these are all classic signs that you’ve got some stomach there. Disharmony. Moving on to the large intestine, similar to Western medicine, the functions here are going to include eliminating waste and influencing our skin and our lungs. Because the large intestine is paired with the lungs. So the areas of the body include the colon, of course, your anus and your skin is actually going to be associated with the large intestine.
In Chinese medicine, the emotion is actually an inability to let go. So it is a component of grief. But it’s also when you hold on to grief for so long, you cannot let go. That is definitely a sign that your large intestine has some involvement here. Disharmonies will include things like constipation and diarrhea, skin conditions, and just feeling emotionally stuck. So whenever, you know, you have that constipated feeling from an emotional or energetic perspective where you just feel like you’re stuck in a rut, probably there’s going to be a large intestine disharmony happening here. And the character that I’ve associated with a large intestine disharmony is Squidward from SpongeBob SquarePants. So why is this? It’s because, you know, he’s really consumed by grief.
He’s got this insatiable inability to let go of things. Behaviorally, you know, he’s quite constipated in a lot of ways. You know, he’s bitter. He’s very resistant to change. You know, he’s emotionally constipated, and he holds a lot of grudges. He’s stuck in the past, so he’s really a good sign of what stagnation looks like when it comes to the large intestine. Now, the bladder in Chinese medicine is paired up with our kidney. So kidneys and bladder go hand in hand.
And the function here is going to be similar in terms of it’s going to store and excrete urine and also regulate those fluids. So the body areas include the bladder, of course, and the low back and the knees. Because of the association with the kidney, the emotion here is always going to be revolving around fear as well. And disharmonies include frequent urination, urgency in urination, back pain, and fearfulness. Now, the character that I’ve created for representing a bladder deficiency is actually Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory. And the reason being is because he’s got overly rigid routines. Right? He really likes his routine. Um, he gets a lot of anxiety when there’s unexpected events.
Uh, perhaps he’s got some frequent urination when he’s under stress. Right. He’s got to run to the bathroom. Um, and, you know, he might be a little neurotic. And he’s really driven by fear in a lot of ways, and that’s what creates the rigidity in his life. So he really wants to maintain control at all times. And that’s clearly a sign of bladder disharmony from a TCM perspective. Now, that brings us to that really interesting organ in TCM known as the San Jiao or the triple burner.
Also known as the triple energizer. Now, as mentioned, it is very unique because there is actually no physical form in the body. You won’t find a San Jiao organ in the body, but what it really reflects is sort of a concept of water metabolism or water regulation within your body. So the reason why it’s called Three Burners is because there’s an upper, a middle and a lower energy center where this organ is actually functioning. And it’s responsible for the movement of qi, water metabolism and temperature regulation. So think of this as a communication system that ensures coordination between all the organs. So the upper jiao or the upper burner is the heart and the lungs. The middle jiao is the spleen and the stomach.
The lower jiao is the liver, the kidneys, the intestines and the bladder. And so this will be responsible for communication within those jiaos and then the joust from one to another. So we have a smooth and regulated water and qi flow in the body. Imbalances here might include things like bloating and urinary problems, problems, hormone regulation, and definitely anything to do with temperature regulation. Like if you’re having, you know, hot and sweaty in your face, but your feet are freezing cold, good chance we have a San Jiao imbalance here or edema in your ankles. But you’re dry, super thirsty, dry skin, dry eyes, dry nose. There’s obviously a water imbalance in the body somewhere. You have water in the lower body causing a deep edema of your ankles or swelling of the ankles, but dryness in the top.
So always want to look at San Jiao whenever we have any sort of weird imbalances within the body that reflect water or qi flow. So the character that I associate most with a San Jiao disharmony is actually Elsa from Frozen. And why is this? Because we got to remember that the San Jiao’s function is to regulate heat and fluid metabolism in the body. And while she’s got a really big challenge of regulating hot and cold, right, she wields her cold inducing power but doesn’t always control it the way that she wants it to be. So there’s an imbalance there emotionally, she might have some emotional suppression going on. So maybe she’s repressing some of the warmth that she could be exemplifying or embracing. And behaviorally she’ll have trouble regulating her temperature. Maybe she has some hormonal shifts happening.
Perhaps she has a habit of shutting other people out because of that suppression of the warmth. So therefore there’s an imbalance with her hot and her cold within her system, which mirrors exactly how a San Jiao disharmony could look like. And lastly, on top of the Zhang and the Fu organs, we do have extraordinary organs which include the brain, the marrow, the bones, the uterus, the vessels, and the gallbladder. Yes, the gallbladder appears in Zong Fu organ system as well as an extraordinary organ, it kind of functions as both. So all of these have a deep ancestral function and are really governed by the Zong organs, especially the kidneys. So as you can see, every organ is part of a complex and beautiful network, and every symptom that we might experience is really a message pointing us toward a pattern of disharmony. And in future videos, I will break down all the different organs in individual videos to help you expand the idea of what actually is going on within each individual organ and how you can find ways with diet and lifestyle and other recommendations to balance your pattern of disharmony on your own. As always, if you found this video helpful, please do hit the like button.
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