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The Relationship Between the Five Organs and the Five FlavorsBy Mo Liu Lang ZhongIn the “Su Wen: On the Correspondence of Yin and Yang” it states:In the East, wind is generated, wind produces wood, wood produces sour, sour produces liver;In the South, heat is generated, heat produces fire, fire produces bitter, bitter produces heart;In the Center, dampness is generated, dampness produces earth, earth produces sweet, sweet produces spleen;In the West, dryness is generated, dryness produces metal, metal produces pungent, pungent produces lung;In the North, cold is generated, cold produces water, water produces salty, salty produces kidney.This corresponds to the five flavors associated with the five organs. How do we implement this specifically?Pungent overcomes sour, salty overcomes bitter, sour overcomes sweet, bitter overcomes pungent, sweet overcomes salty.According to the correspondence of the five organs and the five elements, pungent overcomes sour, metal controls wood; salty overcomes bitter, water controls fire; sour overcomes sweet, wood controls earth; bitter overcomes pungent, fire controls metal; sweet overcomes salty, earth controls water. The term “overcome” refers to suppressing excess to achieve balance. As for sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, and salty, these are the inherent flavors of the liver, heart, spleen, lung, and kidney, respectively, known as the body flavors.In the “Su Wen: On the Generation of the Five Organs,” regarding the relationship between the five flavors and the five organs, it states that pungent enters the lung, bitter enters the heart, sour enters the liver, sweet enters the spleen, and salty enters the kidney.Both of the above passages point to the same conclusion: kidney is salty, liver is sour, heart is bitter, spleen is sweet, lung is pungent.In the “Su Wen: On the Treatment of Organ Diseases,” the treatment principles for the five organ diseases are summarized as follows:If the liver desires to disperse, urgently consume pungent to disperse it, use pungent to tonify, and sour to drain;If the heart desires to soften, urgently consume salty to soften it, use salty to tonify, and sweet to drain;If the spleen desires to relax, urgently consume sweet to relax it, use bitter to drain, and sweet to tonify;If the lung desires to gather, urgently consume sour to gather it, use sour to tonify, and pungent to drain;If the kidney desires to strengthen, urgently consume bitter to strengthen it, use bitter to tonify, and salty to drain.We can simplify this.Liver: pungent tonifies, sour drains, pungent disperses; heart: salty tonifies, sweet drains, salty softens; spleen: sweet tonifies, bitter drains, sweet relaxes; lung: sour tonifies, pungent drains, sour gathers; kidney: bitter tonifies, salty drains, bitter strengthens.Earlier in the same text, it mentions that if the liver is bitter and urgent, urgently consume sweet to relax it; if the heart is bitter and relaxed, urgently consume sour to gather it; if the spleen is bitter and damp, urgently consume bitter to dry it; if the lung is bitter and qi is rebellious, urgently consume bitter to drain it; if the kidney is bitter and dry, urgently consume pungent to moisten it, open the pores, and promote fluids and qi.Li Gao in his writings derived the desires and sufferings of the five organs from this.The same text cannot have differing viewpoints, so we can summarize as follows:Liver: pungent tonifies, sour drains, sweet relaxes, using pungent, sour, and sweet;Heart: salty tonifies, sweet drains, sour gathers, using salty, sweet, and sour;Spleen: sweet tonifies, bitter drains, bitter dries, using bitter and sweet;Lung: sour tonifies, bitter and pungent drain, sour gathers, using sour, bitter, and pungent;Kidney: bitter tonifies, salty drains, bitter strengthens, pungent moistens, using bitter, salty, and pungent.This is the principle of regulating the five organs.As you can see, sour is the body flavor of the liver, and pungent is the functional flavor of the liver, so both pungent and sour are used to regulate the liver’s body and function. If the liver is bitter and urgent, consume sweet to relax it. Sweet is the body flavor of the spleen, which means solid earth controls wood. In other words, first solidify the earth to control the wood, and then adjust the wood to balance its body and function. This way, the liver will be in a normal physiological state.The classical formula Gui Zhi Tang and the contemporary formula Xiao Yao San exemplify this principle, right? Although the “Ben Jing” states that Chai Hu is bitter and neutral, it actually has a pungent flavor; those who have tasted the whole seed of Chai Hu naturally understand this.Sour flavor is astringent; the so-called sour drains is related to blood astringing the liver, achieving the liver’s function of storing blood, while pungent has a dispersing function, achieving the smooth flow of liver qi. This way, the liver is stabilized.Now, what about the heart? Its body flavor is bitter, and its functional flavor is salty. Taking the liver’s treatment as an example, use pungent, sour, and sweet to describe the body flavors, tonifying the lung and draining the liver to strengthen the spleen, this is the meaning. Of course, it may differ from some practitioners in later generations, but the classical intent is as such.So, is the heart’s “salty tonifies, sweet drains, sour gathers” reasonable? Logically, it should be the body and function of the heart being adjusted and the organ it overcomes. Therefore, the body flavor of the heart should be bitter, so salty tonifies and bitter drains, rather than sweet drains. Sweet has a softening quality, which seems contrary to the essence of draining.This sour gathering is the functional flavor of the lung metal; metal governs astringency and descent, and this sour gathering supports the lung metal to resist fire, balancing the heart. Salty tonifying, bitter draining, and sour gathering should be the correct method, while sweet should be replaced with bitter, which should be a transcription error. Understanding it this way is coherent and aligns with the principles.Regarding the spleen, the method is: sweet tonifies, bitter drains, bitter dries, using both bitter and sweet. Sweet flavor is the body flavor of the spleen, but what is the functional flavor? It seems to lack introduction and basis. According to the spleen being damp earth, it prefers dryness and dislikes dampness; fire is dry, and bitter dries dampness. Bitter is the body flavor of the heart, so does the bitter draining method have a function of regulating the spleen and stomach? Certainly, it does.In several of Zhang Zhongjing’s formulas for treating heart distension, do they contain these bitter drying herbs? According to the liver’s regulation, here the spleen uses sweet flavor to tonify, so it is a functional flavor. In the “Su Wen,” there are two statements about sweet flavor: sweet is both a body flavor and a functional flavor, while bitter flavor is both the body flavor of the heart and the body flavor of the spleen.This is also the reason why both heart and spleen use bitter drying herbs. For example, the bitter cold herbs Huang Qin and Huang Lian, along with Ji Zi Huang and E Jiao soup and San Huang Xie Xin Tang, all use bitter cold herbs. Thus, on the basis of balancing the body and function of the spleen, another factor is needed: earth overcomes water, requiring the water factor, which certainly involves the kidney’s flavor, hence the use of bitter herbs from the kidney. In summary, the spleen should be body sweet and functional sweet and bitter.The lung’s body flavor is pungent and its functional flavor is sour. Sour tonifies, bitter and pungent drain, sour gathers. Sour is the function of the lung, tonifying is the correct method, and bitter and pungent draining is also the correct method. Therefore, sour gathering is not problematic.As for the kidney? Bitter tonifies, salty drains, bitter strengthens, pungent moistens. Bitter tonifying and salty draining is easy to understand. Bitter strengthens, water overcomes fire, preventing dryness and depletion. Pungent moistens, what is pungent? It is the functional flavor of the liver, which under the liver’s dispersing action can distribute fluids. Therefore, the kidney is body salty, functional bitter, and functional pungent.In the “Su Wen: On the Four Qi and Spirit Regulation,” it states: “If one goes against the spring qi, then Shao Yang does not arise, and liver qi transforms internally”; while in the “Six Sections on Organ Images,” it states: “The liver is the Shao Yang within Yin”; and in the “On the Correspondence of Yin and Yang,” it states: “Fire is Yang, Yang is Qi… strong fire disperses Qi, weak fire generates Qi.”From this, it can be understood: Shao Yang is weak fire, meaning that the kidney, as the source of the five organs, must ensure that both body and function are complete to maintain a basic state, while also ensuring the characteristics of weak fire generating Qi, thus making the kidney strong and vibrant. Everyone knows the principle of liver stagnation and spleen deficiency, but who knows that the ancients clearly stated that liver stagnation leads to kidney obstruction? Everyone should take a look at Fu Shan’s Ding Jing Tang for insight.All this discussion is merely to illustrate the relationship between the five flavors and the five organs, and to clarify the core treatment principles of the five organs. Due to being overly busy and fatigued, with a restless mind, I hurriedly wrote this, feeling it is not sufficiently rounded or satisfactory. Therefore, I ask for the readers’ understanding and consider this better than nothing.Mo Liu Lang Zhong, June 20, 2019, 2 AM
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