The topic of the Six Conformations is huge. So huge, it’s been a bit intimidating to write about. But, it’s something that we hear a lot about in our Classical Chinese Medicine studies here at NCNM in Portland. So, as most times, see this as the beginning of a long exploration. If you’re here without much knowledge of the Six Conformations I hope that this, and related posts, will help broaden your understanding. If you’re here with lots of knowledge of the Six Conformations, I hope you will share your wisdom with us in the comments.
The Six Conformation system is another on par with the Five Elemental Phases. It is a way to sort the macrocosm and microcosm into manageable chunks that have meaningful relationships with one another. It’s worth mentioning that the Shang Han Lun is based on Six Conformation differentiation. In heaven, they refer to weather patterns – or atmospheric Qi. In the human being, they refer to systems in the body. This is important. When people hear about the Six Conformations, they often think about the channels only – so when I say Taiyin, folks automatically think, “Spleen and Lung channels.” This is erroneous thinking, even though many influential books translate Liu Jing as “Six Channels.” Just as the Five Elemental Phases don’t refer only to organs or layers of the body, but include those; the Six Conformations don’t refer only to channels or even their paired organs, but include those.
Let’s get the nitty gritty details out of the way. What are the Six Conformations?
- Taiyang – 太陽 – Great Yang – associated with the Bladder and Small Intestine organ systems
- Yangming - 陽明 - Yang Brightness – associated with Large Intestine and Stomach organ systems
- Shaoyang – 少陽 - Lesser Yang – associated with the Gallbladder and Triple Burner organ systems
- Taiyin – 太陰 - Great Yin – associated with the Lung and Spleen organ systems
- Shaoyin - 少陰 - Lesser Yin – associated with the Heart and Kidney organ systems
- Jueyin – 厥陰 - Reverting Yin – associated with the Pericardium and Liver organ systems
There’s a lot of layers of information associated with each of these categories. I couldn’t hope to look at all of it in one blog post. Let’s look at the most basic layers.
Climactic factors (for better or for worse)
The Six Conformations are related to Six climactic factors/Qi (Liu Qi). These should be in balance in nature, but when they are out of balance we know them as the Six Evils.
- Taiyang – Cold : associated with water, contracting quality
- Yangming – Dryness : associated with metal, dessicating quality
- Shaoyang – Fire : associated with fire, flaring/ministerial in quality
- Taiyin – Damp : associated with earth, sticky and heavy in quality
- Shaoyin – Heat : associated with fire,
- Jueyin – Wind : associated with wood, wandering in quality
As I said above, people often think Six Conformations = Six Channels. Me, I have the opposite problem — I have it so embedded in my head that the Six Conformations = Six Channels = Six Qi (atmospheric and evil) that sometimes I become a bit confused by it. My understanding so far is simple — when we talk about the Six Conformations out of context (as we are now) the concept includes shades of all these meanings (Qi/climactic factors, Jing/channels, layers of the body, etc) and much more. When we are looking at a Conformation more specifically as in a disease, we can tease out what piece of information is most relevant for us at the time. I hope this is clear. It’s a hard thing to explain.
The order of the conformations and the layers of the body
The specific order I keep using as I list the conformations is not without reason. While there is some discussion about the placement of Yangming, most of my teachers seem to agree on this order.
Taiyang is the most outward of the conformations. It governs the most superficial layers of the body and is associated with the Weiqi or defensive force of the human being. Think of the premiere formulas associated with Taiyang – Gui Zhi Tang and Ma Huang Tang. Both strongly resolve the surface. Yangming is the next layer deep – both in some sense physically and also in terms of how external pathogens must progress in their quest to do harm. It is in the Yangming stage that we get great fevers, this is a storehouse of immense Qi and Blood force in the average person. Think how well this resonates with the Stomach and Large Intestine organ systems, both deep dealers in the most basic, primal functions of life. The last Yang conformation, and thus the last protector against a disease becoming deeply internalized, is Shaoyang. Shaoyang is said to “pivot” (a long discussion) between internal and external, and thus has a kind of oscillating quality.
Now we enter the interior of the body, going ever deeper. Taiyin is the first of the Yin conformations and in some way exemplifies a kind of “doing without doing” — the most active of the passive organ systems. Going a layer deeper we find Shaoyin, the north and south poles of the body – Heart and Kidney, the basic axis of the functioning of the human body. When external pathogens reach this deeply, serious disease is the result. Finally, Jueyin – the deepest, but also the possibility of rebirth into the Taiyang conformations in the classic cyclic manner of Chinese philosophical systems. Jueyin is deeply involved with blood, as can be seen clearly in its encompassing of both Liver and Pericardium.
Pairing of the organ systems : insight into pathology
The more I write about this, the more I find to write. For now, I’ll just mention one quick thing. The conformations can be paired in the following way:
- Taiyang – Shaoyin : BL/SI with KD/HT
- Yangming – Taiyin : ST/LI with SP/LU
- Shaoyang – Jueyin : GB/TB with LR/PC
Anyone can see the wisdom of these pairings – reuniting the five elementally associated organ pairs. We have been taught that these are pairings of mutual support. Taiyang is supported by Shaoyin, and Shaoyin feeds Taiyang. Thus, when you have a disease in one, the other is somehow involved. There are particular ways that we have learned to understand this system of differentiation. But a simple thing to consider is this — take one manifestation of Yangming disease, serious constipation. What happens if one over purges in Yangming disease and why? It’s easy enough to say that overpurging (using cold and bitter materials) will cause damage to the Spleen that can manifest itself in a variety of ways, including as diarrhea. Why is that?
One way to explain it is to consider that Taiyin is the support of Yangming, so that when you overtax Yangming it will draw energy from Taiyin, ultimately depleting it. Of course, there are people who would explain this in a much more nuanced way but when I’ve mentioned it to others they seem to understand. Hopefully it will be helpful to you.
I’ll talk more about how I’m learning about the six conformations in the future. I’ll be interested to read any comments – add your thoughts to the discussion!
Eric
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Thanks Eric. Another great post. This also provides the key to understanding Dr. Shen’s Systems as discussed in Ch. 14 of Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies. The failure to understand the true nature of six conformation has yielded some hilariously erroneous misunderstandings of Dr. Shen’s work. It usually involves the magical belief that TCM is the standard, professional benchmark for practicing Chinese medicine. The more we examine Chinese medicine models as descriptions of the microcosm and the macrososm, and of our palce therein, the close we get to exploring the reality in which we are immersed.
Oh and please,please write a post about the word: “pivot.”
Thanks for the nice post. All types of alternative medicine are so effective. I don’t know why people prefer to be blind and prefer to use synthetic drugs for nearly every condition.
Hello Eric,
I’m a graduate of Jung Tao School of Classical Chinese Medicine.
I learned the Liu Qi (what you refer to as the “Six Conformations”) as follows:
Taiyang: Small Intestine (fire, heat, thermogenesis, etc.) and Bladder (water, cold, hydrogenesis, etc.)
Shaoyang: Yang hinge (pivot); Sanjiao (fire, heat, metabolism, etc.) and Gall Bladder (wood, wind, fuel, etc.)
Yangming: Large Intestine (metal, dryness, etc.) and Stomach (earth, humidity, etc.)
Taiyin-Yangming Yolk (pivot)
Taiyin: Lung (metal, dryness, etc.) and Spleen (earth, humidity, etc.)
Jueyin: Yin hinge (pivot); Xinbaoluo (fire, heat, metabolism, etc.) and Liver (wood, wind, fuel, etc.)
Shaoyin: Heart (fire, heat, thermogenesis, etc.) and Kidney (water, cold, hydrogenesis, etc.)
Sorry, but, I don’t have time to go into the intricate relationships.
In regards to “climatic factors,” Taiyang, for example, is associated with both heat and cold. Do you think that it is only associated with cold? If so, then that is erroneous thinking. Why? Because Taiyang is both Small Intestine/heat and Bladder/cold. In other words, both Small Intestine/heat and Bladder/cold represent the poles of Taiyang. Taiyang’s endogenous cold and heat are auto-regulatory functions of the antithetical relationships of the five movements. I hope that this is clear.
To think that “external pathogens must progress” from Taiyang to Yangming, etc., is also erroneous thinking. It’s not that simple. For example, cold could “enter” the Zu Taiyang Jing and then progress to the Zu Shaoyang Jing and then “jump” via this jing’s Luo point directly to the Zu Jueyin Jing. This is why knowing where the jings meet, and having an understanding of the “pivots” is so important for both diagnosis and treatment.
In regards to the “order of the conformations,” it depends on whether you’re diagnosing and treating from a classical Chinese herbal or acupuncture perspective. Have you been taught about this at your school?
Hey anonymous,
I think we are on similar pages. Please do understand that this post was only a simple introduction and that there is much more to come. Please don’t assume that what I wrote is all that I have to offer. :) To address your points:
1. I do not think Taiyang is associated only with cold, but I think for a different reason than you do. The pairings show us the deeper way to understand the conformations. Taiyang is paired with Shaoyin. Shaoyin is said to be the Zhong Qi of Taiyang – simply, it helps to keep a balance within the body. I am going to post in more detail about how, then, the disease manifests (as hot, as cold, etc…) but I wanted to simply explore the basics for now.
2. Anyone who reads the Shang Han Lun can see that progression directly through the conformations one by one is not the only way for disease to progress. I certainly did not intend to imply that.
BTW: I often try to use simple English translations on my blog, introducing Chinese terms gradually, as I find average readers receive this a little better. Thus, I didn’t use Liu Qi.
3. Regarding the order of conformations. We have talked extensively about this at school, especially about all the arguments about why there are two systems of understanding and how they developed.
Thanks for your comment,
Eric
Yes, Taiyang is the functional aspect of Shaoyin. Just as Shaoyang is the functional aspect of Jueyin, and Yangming is the functional aspect of Taiyin. Yin creates Yang, and Yang stimulates Yin.
I’m glad to see that your school is helping you to learn how to think about Chinese medicine.
I have been told by a recent graduate of your school’s CCM program that your school’s focus is significantly more on herbs than on acupuncture. Is that true?
Anonymous,
I’m similarly glad. I am not sure that I would say that the focus is SIGNIFICANTLY more focused on herbs. We have several doctors who are scholars and specialize in acupuncture – Drs. Neal and Qin among them. I would say that many of the powerhouses of our department have traditionally been more herbally focused than acupuncture focused, but that this balance is shifting.
In terms of student interest, however, I’d say we’re evenly balanced. That might be why the balance is shifting.
Eric
I like this post. You make an important point about the Liu Qi; I think the same point can be made (and you allude to it) about Yin-Yang, the five phases, the six levels, the 10 stems and 12 branches, and on and on. These are all meant to be representations. The map is not the territory…no matter how long we stand and look at a map, we aren’t in the place. I think it is difficult for most of us to step out of the materialistic thinking we were raised with to see that there is more to all of this than the surface. We want the channels to all be in an exact spot, but they aren’t. Chinese medicine offers a unique world view, and if we can step into that, suddenly the medicine starts to make sense…according to that view, not the one we were raised with and are surrounded by.