Sun rising and setting and Yin Yang
The Chinese word for sun is Tai Yang太陽.
Tai Yang, the sun, pertains to the south. Does this mean that it is always positioned in the south? Of course not.
The picture below shows it clearly.
Different degrees of 'sun' hit the earth as this move through its 12 months in the span of a year. This phenomenon gives different increasing and, then, decreasing degrees of light and temperature. Does this affect our bodies, mental and emotional states. We know it does!
According to the Chinese way of thinking, going from Winter to Summer, as the Yang (sun) increases, it does the same also in our bodies. When we go from Summer to Winter, as he Yang (sun) sets, it does the same also in our bodies. This is to say that: from Winter to Summer the Yang (warmth, vitality, desire for activity) increases, but from Summer to Winter it decreases.
The same, but in a smaller cycle, happens in the 24 hours.
Going from Midnight to Midday the Yang (warmth,vitality etc.) increases, and vice versa, going from Midday to Midnight the Yang (warmth, vitality etc.) decreases. We experience it all the time.
What is Yin, then? The gradual absence of Yang! The gradual cooling of the season or the day, the gradual increase of cold and darkness, the gradual decrease of activity, vitality due to the power of the Yang (sun) becoming weaker naturally. Cold and darkness appear because the Yang (sun) sets.
Yin 'increases' because Yang diminishes, not because it 'fights' it.
There is a beautiful poem in a book of inner alchemy called the `'Cantong Qi" that talks precisely about this. (1)
It is so simple, and yet we make such a soup of Yin Yang, by talking about them as if they were 'things', rather than headlines grouping a certain set of phenomena.
The sun (yang) cycle and health
When we have a disease, it is because something that we do, think or feel damages this cycle. It makes it sluggish or accelerates it pathologically. Treatment means making it work again at its natural pace, in resonance with nature.
For instance, talking about flavours, they do just that: they encourage the cycle to work as it should. And yes, there are two flavours for each stage. Why? Because we may need to encourage the cycle to move forwards faster if some pathogen makes it sluggish or blocked or else somewhat slow it down if some pathogens makes it speed up too much.
Giving an example, the "Huangdi Neijing - Sowen - 皇帝內經 - 素文“ ch. 22 states clearly that if we want to support the movement of rising and expanding natural to Liver (when this is sluggish), we should use the acrid taste, as this also rises and expands to the surface. The same chapter, however, also suggests that if Liver pathologically expands and rises ahead of its natural time, then we use a flavour that inhibits its movement. This taste is sour (sweet can do the same).
Chinese Medicine is all based on the concept of the cycle that resonates with the rhythms of nature, with the position of the sun (and the moon) in relation to earth. Its classical texts, its scholars, its ancient doctors talk about this.
Chinese medicine talks about this cycle when it explains the 5 Phases (Elements), talks about this cycle when it explains the Six Confirmation (called wrongly Six levels), talks about this cycle when it explains the stems and branches theory, and when introduces the so-called Chinese clock .........(Reflect, does the Chinese clock follow the logic of the 5 Phases? No! What does it talk about, then?)
Nowadays this cycle is not explained any longer. Modern Chinese Medicine has departed from its original thinking to come closer to its western sister. And this discourse prevails these days. We chase symptoms and we may be very successful in suppressing them. The cycle, however, remains pathological. By doing this, we also, end up focusing on symptoms, rather than on the whole person.
Notes:
(1) Wuzhen Pian, Poem 12
"In plants and trees, Yin and Yang
are equal to one another;
let either be lacking,
and they do not bloom.
First the green leaves open,
for Yang is the first to sing,
then a red flower blossoms,
as Yin follows later.
This is the constant Dao
that everyone uses daily;
but returning to the True Origin —
does anyone know about this?
I announce to all of you
who study the Dao:
if you do not comprehend Yin and Yang,
do not fiddle around."
Quoted from: Awakening to Reality: The "Regulated Verses" of the Wuzhen Pian, a Taoist Classic of Internal Alchemy translated by Fabrizio Pregadio, page 57. https://www.goldenelixir.com/quotes/quote_29_wzp.html
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