By Kim Hong-hjyoung

The cycle of the years, as laid out in the I Ching, allows you to see a pattern that regulates the web that connects man to the rest of nature. Let’s take a look at the meridians:

Chien: Heaven is related to the Du (Governing) Meridian.
Tui: Lake is related to the Greater Yin Meridians
Li: Fire is related to the Lesser Yin Meridians.
Kan: Water is related to the Greater Yang Meridians.
Ken: Mountain is related to the Bright Yang Meridians.
Kun: Earth is related to the Ren (Conception) Meridian.

What can you say about Korea, when you view it from the sky? It has a lot of mountains. So what might that say about the Koreans? They might have a lot of pent up anguish. And they might tend to prefer white-colored clothes. And what about the food? Would a race like the Koreans, living in a land like Korea, tend to prefer sweet and sour food, or hot and spicy food? They just might be partial to more hot foods. A land with a lot of mountains...That bit of information is enough to give you some inkling of what the people might-just might-go for sad songs or songs that speak of the woes of the heart. Come to think of it, all Korean songs are like that, aren’t they? The most famous folk song "Arirang" is just such a song, isn’t it? Full of longing and anguish.

If you study the life-pattern of our people, you’ll be able to discern a pattern of illnesses that arise within it, which means you’ll be able to get a general idea of what sort of methods are called for in the cure. I’m only saying that things are only generally like this.

I’ve taken a long detour in talking about the trigrams, and that’s because what I’m about to say from here on out about the trigrams is really difficult. But first, we’ll need to recognize something basic. And that is that the three types of rhythm-physical, emotional, and intellectual-make up the basic rhythm structure by which we exist as organic beings. And there exists a certain energy that determines the state in which we feel either satisfied or unsatisfied, as a function of that basic rhythm. This might be a little confusing, so let me put it this way: think about when you are comfortably stuffed after a good meal versus when you’re so hungry that you could just keel over. The energy involved in your sensation of each of these states is completely different, right?

Take someone who is severely hunched over. Now, maybe that person has a bad back. But if it’s not a case of a bad back, we might surmise that that person may have known hunger for the greater portion of his life. In any case, if we were to try to cure this problem with acupuncture...of course, we don’t have to use needles necessarily; one could even use the fingernails to press on the points. But where shall we press the Ren (Conception) Meridian or the Du (Governing) Meridian?

What about a person who is bent backwards from having eaten too much all his life?
Answer: "Governing Meridian."
"Governing Meridian?"
Answer: "Conception Meridian."
"Conception Meridian?" In this case we can press both meridians. The problem is how. One who is hunched over is likely to have experienced a good deal of dissatisfaction in acquiring the basic neccessities of life. Moreover, if he is thin, and most likely he will be, we could reasonably surmise that his Governing Meridian will be more developed than his Conception Meridian. In this case, even if we should go about it in such a way as to increase the flow of Conception Meridian, and lessen that of Governing Meridian. Therefore, in pressing Governing Meridian, we’d want to do so against the flow of its meridian, and in pressing Conception Meridian, we’d do so with the flow of the meridian.

If a person has a thicker lower lip, proportionally speaking, is that person more likely going to be thin or fat?
Answer: "Fat."

That’s right. And in general, people with a stronger Conception Meridian usually tend to be kind and giving. Look at the way people speak. The words we use, depending on the circumstance, show the meridians in action. For example, when one is really angry, and say the "F" word the stress is in the upper lip. In fact, the lower lip is practically swallowed by the upper teeth. But when one is feeling romantic, and says "I love you," notice how the stress is in the lower lip. So, If one is Yang, then the other is Yin.

If a meridian is flowing in a particular direction, and you press it in the direction of its flow, it’s called tonification, meaning "supplementing" or "helping." When you tonify something, it means you’re boosting the energy contained within it, so that the energy can flow. When you press against the flow, it’s called sedation, meaning "draining" or "reducing."

Take a person with a more developed Governing Meridian, with a more pronounced upper lip. If we press the meridian of his Conception Meridian in the direction of the flow, would that make him gain or lose weight?

Basically, it would make him gain weight. Why do you suppose that would happen?

Sometime ago, some man who was not a doctor of Eastern Medicine was on TV outlining the meridian theory behind massage techniques. I myself could not tell whether what the man was doing was a massage or a cop-a-feel. Well, to those of us who understand the principle of the meridian flow, the man’s theory was just child’s play. When we apply acupuncture, we are always careful about calibrating the tonification and sedation of the meridian flow.

So, anyway, what about a fat person? Which meridian would we want to block, and which to let flow? In other words, should we block the Yin Meridian? Or would we want to increase its flow?

We’d want to block the Yin Meridian by sedating its flow, whereas we’d want to tonify the Yang Meridian to flow better.

Once I saw a child who had a congenitally dominant upper lip. So I asked the mother, "Does he tend to cry a lot, throwing temper fits, and asking a lot of questions? Is he stubborn and possessive?"

The mother was surprised and asked me how I knew.

"By the lips!" I said. Kids like that are always on guard. They won’t go to bed at bedtime either! They don’t let their parents have even a moment of time for themselves. So, then, how shall we treat such a child? Do we want to tonify his Conception Meridian or his Governing Meridian? Naturally, we’d want to boost his Conception Meridian.

With the exception of very special cases, one treats Yang with Yin, and vice versa. Cold with hot, and hot with cold. That’s the bottom line when it comes to Yin and Yang application. Eastern Medicine is basically an enlargement of this fundamental principle. The Conception and Governing Meridians are two important applications of this principle, meeting at the lips. This meetiing at the lips is called the Crossing of Qi.

The writer of this column is a veteran practitioner of Eastern medicine and runs the non-profit Saam Acupuncture Research Center in downtown Seoul.-ED.