Elisabeth Rochat de la Vallée is speaking at this year’s British Acupuncture Council Conference on the subject of her most recent Monkey Press publication, Aspects of Spirit. The conference this year is focused on the subject of ‘shen’ – which, as Elisabeth explains, could be variously translated as spirits, soul, gods, deities, mind, appearance, expression, supernatural, mystical, smart…
The following is from a presentation on the ‘shen’ given by Elisabeth to the Charles Strong Trust in 2012. This excerpt presents the particular associations made within the medical texts between the five zang organs and the ‘aspects of spirit’.
THE FIVE SPIRITS (wu shen 五 神)
The five spirits represent the application of the theory of the five elements (phases, agents, wu xing 五 行) in the analysis of the working of the heart/mind.
The heart is not simply one of the five zang organs, but also their unity and oneness. As the One, it is the self, the mind, the spirit. When analysed, it is the five movements of qi, the five qualities of qi that make up the function of the mind. In medicine, five spirits are related to the five organs as follows :
The heart treasures the spirits (shen 神)
The lung treasures the po (魄)
The liver treasures the hun (魂)
The spleen treasures the intent (yi 意)
The kidneys treasure the will (zhi 志)
(Suwen chapter 23)
The spirit (shen) is the unity of life, its heavenly inspiration, its connection with the natural process of life. Hun and po are the qi of heaven and earth, the hun being the soul, the animation, of all that is incorporeal in a human being and the po of all that is corporeal. Will and intent decide on what penetrates the heart/mind; consequently, the will and intent are the very working of the heart/mind and determine the quality of the vital spirit. There is always a negative or positive feedback between the quality of the working of the heart and of the vital spirit, as there is also feedback between the quality of the body substances and the quality of the heart and spirit.
Human beings receive life from blood-and-qi (xue qi 血 氣) and from the vital spirits (jing shen 精 神) in order to fulfill their natural destiny (xing ming 性 命).
…Will and intent (zhi yi 志 意), direct the vital spirits (jing shen 精 神), gather hun and po (souls), regulate hot and cold, and harmoniously blend (he 和) elation and anger.
…When will and intent are in harmony, then the vital spirits (jing shen 精 神) are concentrated and correct, hun and po are not dissipated, regret and anger (hui nu 悔 怒) do not arise, the five zang organs do not receive perverse (influences, xie 邪).
(Lingshu chapter 47)
The end of Lingshu chapter 8 insists upon the symbiosis between the five spirits and the substances of the body :
The liver treasures (cang 藏) the blood, the blood is the dwelling place of the hun (魂)…
The spleen treasures the recontruction (nutrition, ying 營), the reconstruction is the dwelling place of intent (yi 意)…
The heart treasures the vital circulation (mai 脈), the vital circulation is the dwelling place of the spirit (shen 神)…
The lung treasures the qi (氣), the qi are the dwelling place of the po (魄)…
The kidneys treasure the essences, the essences are the dwelling place of the will (zhi 志).
The five spirits pervade the whole body, but if the spirit of the heart/mind is everywhere, and since they are the unity of the person, the spirits which are specific to an organ are expressed through what is relevant to this organ in the functioning of life. It is therefore possible to speak of the functioning of an organ in terms of its spirit; for instance to say ‘hun’ when speaking of the functioning of the liver, and as the representative of the wood element and the working of the wood qi. It can also be said that the spirit, for instance the hun, is the foundation for the regular and correct activity of an organ, in this case the liver: when the hun function as they should, the liver operates perfectly, on the physiological, psychological, and mental levels.
From this perspective, the pathology associated with one of the five spirits is not necessarily a pathology of the mind or the heart, but a pathology expressing the dysfunction of a specific organ. Let us briefly mention two symptoms that have a specific aspect of spirit in their names. The first, the ‘po sweat’ (po han 魄 汗), is in fact a profuse sweating due to a deficiency in the lung qi. The second, the ‘hun not retained in their dwelling place’, is in fact an agitated sleep full of dreams, due to a deficiency of liver blood.
But we have to remember that in the theory of medicine, the five zang organs together make the core of life, physically as well as mentally and spiritually. So when an organ is affected, the whole balance of the being is injured and it may affect the mind, the reason, the spirit – since there is a difference, but no division, between body and spirit.
Another example, found in Suwen chapter 62, is the use of the spirit (shen 神) and of the will (zhi 志) to speak of the functioning and the pathology of – respectively – the heart and the kidneys. Thus the text speaks of the deficiency or of the excess of the spirit or of the will. The symptoms given for the excess of the spirit, for instance, are of a congestion in the blood circulation, especially the capillaries; a superficial bleeding restores the balance in the circulation but also in the heart/mind, since the heart/mind was unable to control the blood and its flow correctly. Therefore, the phrase ‘an excess of spirit’ means a pathological excess of heart fire and not an overabundance of enlightment! What is seminal to life can never be in excess.