ABOUT THE CALENDAR 1

GUEST AND HOST QI
This is a simple concept that describes the stable, terrestrial, host energy / climate and the changing, celestial, guest energy / climate. These can be viewed in columns 5 and 6. Think of it like this – summer always comes at the same time each year, but some summers are hot, some are cool, some are wet, some are dry, etc. We expect summer to be hot, and when it is not we say something is off and come up with theories as to why. The 6 qi is a system for describing and charting this..

6 QI
While historically the concepts of yin-yang and 5 phases come first, the model of the 6 qi represents the first fully detailed Chinese medical theory. Zhang Zhongjing details this system in the 3rd century A.C.E. text Shanghan lun, or Treatise on Cold Damage. This is not the first Chinese medical text, but it is the first to fully elaborate a method of diagnosis and treatment based on a theoretical system, in this case the 6 qi. Before there was Traditional Chinese Medicine, before there was Liver stagnation or Spleen deficiency, before there was wind cold invasion, there was the 6 qi. The system lays the foundation for what is sometimes referred to today as classical Chinese medicine.

The system is beautifully complex and can be discussed in many ways. Most obvious is its representation of the 6 pernicious influences or climates – wind, heat, fire, damp, dry and cold. It also represents energetic layers of the body, described from most superficial to most deep. These are taiyang, shaoyang, yangming, taiyin, shaoyin, jueyin. Combining these, the 6 qi system reflects the effect upon the body of the penetration of external climate as it moves into deeper layers of the body. These layers are associated with acupuncture channels. It also represents the body’s response to this penetration. Finally and perhaps most importantly, the system is a model for describing the location and movement of the body’s yang qi, or life force. The 3 outer layers reflect the opening movement of yang qi, broken down into the opening, closing and hinge movements. Likewise the 3 inner layers reflect the closing movement of yang qi, again described as opening, closing and hinge movements. Think of opening a door. There is an opening movement, a counterbalancing closing movement so it does not go too far, and a hinge around which these revolve. Likewise, there is a closing of the door, a counterbalancing opening movement, and the hinge.

The primary concern of Chinese medicine is to observe the movement of yang qi in the body, and to correct any imbalances in the same. This model describes an intricate and intimate relationship between the qi in our bodies and the qi of the climate around us. These are in fact one and the same. Shanghan, or cold damage, does not refer only to cold as in cold weather. It also suggests any damaging influence upon the body. The system is therefore not limited to illness from cold weather, but also from any climate or chronic condition which lingers and produces damage.

SHAOYANG
Shaoyang, or lesser yang, is the hinge for the opening movement of the yang qi. Taiyang opens, yangming closes, and shaoyang is the hinge around which this movement occurs. It reflects a neither fully external nor fully internal state, but rather one which is both external and internal, or half-external and half-internal. It resonates with ministerial fire in the body, the climate of fire or summer heat, the channels of the Gall Bladder and Triple Heater, and the lateral (side) aspect of the body.

Fire in the body when stored in the Kidneys is referred to as imperial fire, and belongs to shaoyin. When it circulates through the body, via the Triple Heater, it is called ministerial fire and belongs to shaoyang. Shaoyang symptoms reflect alternation, movement between an external and an internal state. Alternating hot and cold, and changing symptoms characterize shaoyang disease. The basic prescription is xiao chai hu tang, or minor bupleurum decoction. Most of you have taken it in some form at some point, and it is arguably the single most commonly prescribed herbal formula in the world. It is in Cold Quell, Forsythia 18, Ease Pearls, and the plain patent remedy of the same name.

Ministerial fire out of balance reflects yang qi that is not rooted in the kidneys. The opening and closing function of the body is damaged, as the hinge is not performing properly. Combined with a yangming guest qi that is dry, the propensity for scorching fire and dryness which deplete the yang qi exists for the upcoming 2 months. Want to make it worse? Be sure to go out and exercise beyond your capability because you want to get in shape for the summer, sweat a lot, and cool yourself off with a cold drink. The yang qi will be depleted, and further damage will come in other climates as the opening and closing function will already be impaired. Acupuncture and herbs can regulate the movement of the yang qi in response to changing climate, helping to prevent this.

Briefly, look at the Shaoyang block in column 5 of the calendar. Now look horizontally across the notice the red, or fire, in columns 3, 7, 8, and 10. June, which is the 5th Chinese month, is a pure fire month to begin with. It reflects a fire organ (heart) sitting on a fire branch (wu, horse) during the fire season (summer). It represents the hinge of the opening of fire, which peaks at the summer solstice in the middle of the (lunar) month, and opens fully and manifests as major heat (column 11) in July. Notice how the block for June, lunar month 5 (column 7), sits vertically centered in the middle of the blocks for the host 6 qi (column 5) and for the seasons (column 10).

OPENING AND CLOSING
What does it mean to open and to close? Life is characterized by movement, that movement is always cyclical, and it is the yang qi itself which is moving. Everything opens and closes. The sun rises and sets, the moon waxes and wanes, the eyes open and close. These are all the expression of the yang qi opening and rising, and then closing and sinking.

IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER
The 6 qi system represents the 6 climates, the 6 energetic layers of the body, the effect of climate on the body, the body’s response to climate, the acupuncture channels of the body, and the movement of yang qi as described by opening and closing.

Shaoyang is the hinge of the opening movement of yang qi, representing a half-external, half-internal state.