Four stages
Encyclopedia
The Four Stages or Four Levels are from the Traditional Chinese medicine book Discussion of Warm Diseases by Ye Tian Shi, written in the years 1667-1746.
The stages are in order from surface to deep internal and from "light" sickness to death:
The stages are in order from surface to deep internal and from "light" sickness to death:
- Wei level treated by releasing the exterior (diaphoresis)
- Wind-heat
- Summer-heat
- Damp-heat
- Dry-heat
- QiQiIn traditional Chinese culture, qì is an active principle forming part of any living thing. Qi is frequently translated as life energy, lifeforce, or energy flow. Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts...
level treated by dispelling heat and promoting body fluids- Lung heat (heat in chest and diaphragm)
- Stomach heat
- Intestines dry-heat
- Gall-bladder heat (heat in the lesser yang)
- Stomach and Spleen damp heat
- Ying (Nutritive qi) level treated by cooling fire and tonifing the yin
- Heat in Nutritive qi portion
- Heat in Pericardium
- BloodBloodBlood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
level treated by tonifing the yin and qi and stopping bleeding.- Heat Victorious moves blood
- Heat victorious stirs wind
- Empty wind agitates in the interior
- Collapse of yin
- Collapse of yang
- Separation of yin and yang (Death)