In the marvelous world of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), inquiry is akin to a thrilling battle, and the “Ten Questions Song” serves as our strategic map guiding us forward. After numerous challenges, the mouth is about to face its final “battle,” conquering the remaining four fortresses: inquiring about diet, the chest, the ears, and thirst.Inquiring About Diet: The Secret of Digestive ‘Fire’Viewing digestion as akin to cooking rice is quite illustrative. The stomach is like the crucial pot, while the body’s yang qi (阳气) is akin to the stove fire. The intensity of the stove fire directly determines the quality of the rice, corresponding to our digestive state. If the stomach fire is too strong, it is like the stove fire being too fierce, leading to symptoms of easy hunger and poor digestion, accompanied by irritability, a preference for cool drinks, and excessive sweating, as if a raging fire is burning within the body. Conversely, if the yang qi is insufficient, it is like a weak stove fire, making it difficult for food to digest after meals, resulting in a feeling of fullness and discomfort in the stomach, and stools that are poorly digested, significantly impairing digestive function.Inquiring About the Chest: The ‘Window’ to Heart and Lung HealthThe chest is the “warm home” of the heart and lungs, and inquiring about the chest is the key to understanding heart and lung health. When yang qi is insufficient, one may feel chest tightness, accompanied by fatigue, dizziness, shortness of breath, and a weak voice, as if the body is shrouded in a layer of gloom. When emotions are depressed or liver qi (肝气) is stagnant, there may be a feeling of fullness and discomfort in the chest, often leading to involuntary sighing, which only alleviates the discomfort temporarily. The most severe case is chest pain and tightness, possibly accompanied by cold sweats, cold limbs, and cyanosis of the lips, indicating “chest bi” (胸痹) due to obstruction of the heart vessels, comparable to angina or myocardial infarction in Western medicine, which should never be taken lightly. Additionally, a cough accompanied by chest pain may indicate pleural effusion, known in TCM as “suspended fluid” (悬饮).Inquiring About the Ears: Listening to the ‘Hidden Signals’ of the BodyThe ears, though small, conceal many secrets of the body, with primary symptoms such as tinnitus and hearing loss being significant health signals. Tinnitus is characterized by a perception of sound in the ears, resembling cicadas, thunder, or the rumble of a train. If accompanied by a bitter taste in the mouth, pain in the hypochondrium, and irritability, it often indicates excessive liver yang (肝阳) or liver fire (肝火) rising, as if the “river” of the liver is too turbulent. If tinnitus is also accompanied by dizziness, fatigue, weakness in the lower back and knees, frequent urination, and a preference for warmth, it suggests insufficient liver and kidney yang qi. Hearing loss can be sudden or progressive; sudden hearing loss is often caused by liver qi stagnation or invasion of cold pathogens, such as after an outburst of anger or depression; progressive hearing loss is often due to aging and depletion of kidney essence. Professor Gan Zuwang also has a unique method for differentiating tinnitus: if tinnitus worsens or causes agitation in the presence of external noise, it is a case of excess tinnitus; if the sound diminishes or disappears, it is a case of deficiency tinnitus.Inquiring About Thirst: The Complex Truth Behind ThirstMany people simplistically believe that thirst indicates a lack of water in the body, but this is not the case. A preference for cold drinks that alleviate thirst, accompanied by profuse sweating, irritability, or high fever, indicates internal heat, and the body urgently needs to “cool down.” A preference for hot drinks that do not quench thirst, or even exacerbate it, especially at night, suggests excessive internal cold, leading to stagnation of fluids. Another special case is the sensation of fullness in the mouth, preferring to hold water without swallowing, which symbolizes the presence of blood stasis in the body, akin to a blocked river causing drought downstream not due to a lack of water.In this inquiry battle, the mouth has successfully conquered eight major fortresses with resilience, meticulousness, and formidable combat power. It shows us that the strength of TCM lies in its dedication to detail and deep insight into symptoms. From preferences in thirst to varying sensations of pain, every seemingly ordinary issue is a key clue in TCM diagnosis, making it difficult for even the most cunning diseases to escape detection.Now, the mouth has successfully completed its mission, and the most mysterious of the four great skills of TCM, pulse diagnosis, is about to be unveiled. Let us look forward to uncovering the mysteries behind pulse diagnosis and continue exploring the profound world of TCM.
