Qi Deficiency or Yang Deficiency?

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It's common for beginning students of TCM eventually to reach the point

where they start to wonder exactly what is the difference between Qi

Deficiency and Yang Deficiency. I mean the symptoms overlap a lot. We read

things like " Qi is Yang compared to Blood which is Yin. " The 8 Principal

Pattern analysis perspective deals with Yin vs. Yang (Exterior vs Interior,

Excess vs. Deficiency, and Cold vs. Hot.) The Fundamental Processes

analysis perspective deals with things like Qi Deficiency ( also Qi

Stagnation, Qi Rebellion, Qi Sinking) and Blood Deficiency (also Blood

Stasis, Hot Blood) (as well as some things like Jing (Essence), Fluids, and

Shen).

 

Even though Blood is a Yin process, the ambiguity which often seems to

surround the Yang or Qi question doesn't surround Yin or Blood issues. There

are more clearcut differences between the criteria for a diagnosis of Yin

Deficiency and the criteria for a diagnosis of Blood Deficiency. Perhaps

some of this is because Blood is a somewhat familiar concept to Westerners.

While it's true that the TCM concept of Blood is somewhat different from the

Western concept of blood, Westerners at least have a concept of Blood that

they're familiar with - something concrete. And, it's easy for most

Westerners to start to grasp the concept of Yin and Yang when they're told

that Yin calms and cools (and moistens) and Yang activates and heats (and

tends to be drying).

 

The concept of Qi tends to be harder for Westerners to get a firm grasp on

than Yin and Yang are. " Qi " often is translated as " energy " . This is at

best an imcomplete translation of the concept. And unlike Yin and Yang, 3

words cannot be given that sum up a lot of the meaning of Qi and exactly

what it does.

 

The key to starting to understand Qi and understanding the difference

between a diagnosis of Qi Deficiency and Yang Deficiency is to become

familiar with the functions of Qi. (Remember, TCM places the emphasis on

function, not on structure.)

 

Maciocia in Foundations lists 6 functions of Qi. I'll be going into these

in more detail in a separate post. For now they are transforming,

transporting, holding, raising, protecting, and warming. This is something

that formal students or those who plan on becoming formal students would

benefit from memorizing. Being familiar with these is what is going to

enable one to better understand the clinical differences between a diagnosis

of Qi Deficiency and Yang Deficiency.

 

Victoria

 

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