(Last Updated on December 23, 2024 by Amiee)
The etiology of Chinese medicine is divided into two categories: six exogenous factors(六淫）and internal injuries. Exogenous feelings include six exogenous factors and epidemics. Internal injuries include seven kinds of excessive emotions, intemperate eating, and overwork.
The six factors, namely: wind, cold, summer heat, dampness, dryness, and fire, are also called the six exogenous factors or evil qi.
1. The relationship between the pathogenic factors of the six exogenous factors and the seasons: such as windy disease in spring, heat disease in summer, wet disease in long summer and early autumn, dry disease in late autumn, and cold disease in winter. Climate change is complicated, and different physiques have different susceptibility to exogenous evils, so exogenous diseases of different natures can occur in the same season.
2. The relationship between the six exogenous factors and the environment:
For example, in a humid environment for a long time, there is dampness evil qi as disease, high-temperature environments often have summer-heat, dryness and fire evil qi, and dry environments often have dry evil qi as diseases.
3. The six exogenous factors can cause disease individually or harm at the same time. It can cause diseases alone, such as diarrhea caused by cold, or it can be caused by two or more factors at the same time, such as wind, cold dampness, etc.
4. After the six exogenous factors cause diseases, they can influence each other and transform each other under certain conditions. For example, the cold exogenous factor can transform heat.
5. Features of entering from the outside: The six exogenous factors cause diseases, and most of them spread from outside to inside. Six exogenous factors usually enter from the surface of the muscles or nose and mouth, and invade the body to cause diseases. In the early stages of the disease, the main clinical features are fever, cold, thin tongue coating, and floating pulse, called superficial symptoms. If these symptoms are not eliminated, the six qi will move from the surface to the inside and from shallow to deep
6. There is a saying in the emperor’s Neijing:” Healthy qi is inside, and evil qi cannot be done.“ All that we will do is to protect and uplift our body’s healthy qi. Chinese medicine believes that the disease is the process of fighting between healthy qi and evil qi.
