1. Normal Tongue Appearance The tongue appearance and quality, along with the tongue coating, exhibit various signs. In brief, a normal tongue is light red with a thin white coating, characterized by a tongue body that is light red, moist, neither too pale nor too deep, vibrant and lustrous, of moderate thickness, soft, and flexible; … Read more
The observation of the tongue is an important aspect of diagnosis in TCM, distinct from pulse diagnosis, and can be assessed at a glance. The tongue observation can be divided into tongue quality, tongue shape, and tongue coating. Textbooks and clinical literature detail the observation of the tongue extensively; here, we will focus on several … Read more
Tongue Quality: It includes two aspects: Spirit (“vitality”) and color. Spirit It is mainly divided into four types: Rong (vitality and energy are abundant), Ku (dull and lifeless, indicating deficiency of essence and blood), Run (moist), and Zao (dry). 1: Rong The tongue is the external manifestation of muscle. When healthy, it must appear vibrant … Read more
1 Tongue Spirit The tongue spirit, or the vitality of the tongue, is part of the overall vitality of the body. The tongue spirit is a comprehensive judgment of the characteristics of the tongue image, with “red and vibrant” as the key point for differentiation, mainly reflected in the richness or dryness of the tongue … Read more
Let’s talk about what tongue quality is, which refers to the thin layer of coating on our tongue, known as shè tái (tongue coating). This coating is produced by qì (qi) and its thickness determines the strength or weakness of pathogenic factors in our body. The shè zhì (tongue quality) represents the adequacy of our … Read more
Click above“Family Medicine Magazine”Follow usAuthor: Zhu Kangmei Position: Chief Physician of Internal Medicine, Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese MedicineIntroduction: This article is the fourth in the series on “Fundamentals of Tongue Diagnosis in Traditional Chinese Medicine“. Through previous introductions, we have learned about the causes of abnormal tongue sensations (1), how … Read more
Today, let’s talk about tongue quality. The part of the tongue we observe, the tongue quality, is the area of the tongue body that is not covered by the tongue coating, and there are generally three areas we can observe. First, when the tongue coating falls off or there are gaps in the coating, we … Read more