The color red is considered very auspicious to the Chinese. During the Chinese New Year, which will be coming up on the new moon in mid-February this year, many things are red – red dress, red decoration, red cakes, etc. These are viewed as bringers of luck, prosperity and success. Not only do the Chinese dress in the color red during the new year celebrations but also during weddings, both bride and groom; this is to symbolize joy, happiness and a fruitful union. It is also common to place Chinese Red Dates, along with peanuts, longans and lotus seeds on the bridal bed, as a salutation of fruitfulness. These Dates are also often gifted by the Chinese to a person as a symbol of wishing one health and vitality in life.

In the Chinese Materia Medica the herb Fructus Zizyphus Jujubae, Hóng Zǎo  紅 棗 is also known as the Chinese Red Date. Sometimes it is called Big Date,  Dà Zǎo 大 棗. These fruits are not the same as the dates we know from our regular grocery stores in Switzerland, which are palm dates. Hóng Zǎo actually looks red (as the image above) or so dark that they are almost black, mostly dried and are used in soups, teas or alcohols, made into paste for sweet cakes and used in Chinese Herbal Medicine. Its flavor is sweet and its temperature neutral. Most times when an herb is sweet, it is used for tonification. It enters the channels of the Spleen and Stomach. It is a food-grade herb, which means it can be consumed very regularly as food. As such, it makes sense that it enters the Spleen and Stomach channels, as these organs are like the power-generators for our bodies; they digest our food and create vital substance to maintain life. Hóng Zǎo nourishes both Qi and Blood in the body and calms the Spirit. But its true power is in its ability to support, moderate and harmonize the effects of harsh herbs in an herbal formula. For instance, if a formula were to be on a bitter side, which is often the case with expellant ones that would have anti-bacterial or anti-viral capabilities, an herb like Hóng Zǎo would be added to moderate the flavor as well as neutralize the coldness of these herbs. This would make the formula more easily acceptable to the taste and digestibility of the body.

As Mary Poppins sang, “Just a spoon full of sugar, helps the medicine go down…” - Hóng Zǎo does that too. The Chinese view sweet medicine also as medicine, not just bitter ones and they put it into the medicinal formula directly, to create balance. No need for a spoon full of sugar when you have Hóng Zǎo.
 
 
 
 
Image by SW Yang on Pixabay

There is a commonly quoted idiom in English, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” This is something that I have come to take as a kind of life philosophy, in viewing people, places, plants and situations in life. Plants especially are deep reminders of this principle, as they appear to be simple and mundane beings to our human eyes, often unworthy of our attention. They however, are much older beings than we humans are; plant life has existed since 500 million years and Homo sapiens around 300 thousand years. Most plants produce their own food through photosynthesis, thus they are self-sustaining with the help of the Sun. They produce oxygen in the process, and become food for other living beings on Earth, such as humans; they are thereby essential for life on this planet.

One of these mundane-looking beings is Licorice, Glycyrrhiza, which is Greek meaning “sweet root.” The Chinese use the root too but call it Gān Cǎo 甘草 which means “Sweet Grass.” Radix Glycyrrhiza uralensis is the species used in Chinese Medicine. It is the most utilized herb in the Chinese Materia Medica, together with other herbs in classical formulae, which is the Chinese medical way of using herbal medicine. The Chinese use the ‘team effect’ in treating with Herbal Medicine; seldom is an herb used alone, to ensure that the positive effects of the prescription are emphasized and the negative neutralized. Licorice is so often used in formulae due to its ability to harmonize the effects of other herbs. It is a balancer, a neutralizer and an envoy. Its flavor is sweet and its temperature neutral. In some text it is stated that  Gān Cǎo  enters all the 12 channels, particularly to the Heart, Lung, Spleen and Stomach. Licorice on its own tonifies Spleen Qi, moistens the Lung, stops coughing, clears heat and toxicity, moderates spasm and pain. As stated before, it is a moderator and harmonizer, as it is used as an antidote for toxic substances.

Another form of Licorice is used in Chinese Medicine, Zhì Gān Cǎo 炙甘草.This is a prepared form of Licorice, where it is fried with Honey. Honey Fēng Mì 蜂蜜 on its own tonifies the Spleen and Stomach, moisten the Lung and Large Intestines, as well as eliminate toxicity from the body especially from the skin. This is already what Gān Cǎo does, but when honey-fried, it further strengthens Licorice’s capacity to tonify, moisten and detoxify the individual organs.

It is probably the trait of Licorice to communicate with all the 12 channels of the body that makes it so adaptable; it is able to ‘speak the language’ of each channel and thus become a kind of ambassador. I have an image of this herb as a being that is able to connect with its gentle voice to other powerful herbs, urging them to aid a human being with her/his ailment. On the other end, Gān Cǎo whispers to our different channels in its proper language in a mild, sweet tone, bringing the healing effects of the other herbs to the right places, assessing the situation of what is needed, how much gets distributed and where in a proper manner.

When we view this herbaceous plant, with its little leaves and light purple flowers, we underestimate its real power in its root to connect and harmonize in our bodies. Just as we look at those brown, unimpressive roots, we would not imagine that Licorice could perform such profound tasks in our bodies. Like old books, which may look dull or unimpressive, Licorice’s external appearance disguises its true power to neutralize toxicity, strengthen the Qi and harmonize in our bodies.
 
 
 

Image Licorice root by gate74 on Pixabay
Image Licorice plant from wikicommons

As we head toward the darkest day of the year, the Winter Solstice, I feel the need to find my roots, like the trees do. This can be in the practices that I do in Qi Gong and Meditation or even in the food and herbs that I ingest. A few years back, I wrote about the famous herb, Ginger. We find it in stores here like any other produce; recently I even came across Ginger grown in Switzerland. It has become one of those common household herb all over the world. It can be used as food, as a beverage and as medicine, when one knows how. This is the power of this plant.

Ginger originates from Maritime South-East Asia, which includes Malaysia, the place where I was born and raised. From this area, this plant began to spread to places like India, China and Arabia, which then came to Europe via the Roman empire. The Chinese described in text written in the Warring States period (475–221 BCE) how Confucius ate Ginger with every meal.

In the Chinese Materia Medica, Ginger is listed in a few different forms. They are fresh Ginger (Rhizoma Zingiberis Recens, 生姜 Shēng Jīang), Ginger peel (Cortex Rhizoma Zingiberis Recens, 生姜皮 Shēng Jīang Pí), dried Ginger (Rhizoma Zingiberis Officinalis, 干姜 Gān Jīang) and quick-fried Ginger (Zingiberis Rhizoma Praeparata, 炮姜Páo Jīang). This is because Ginger is a very versatile being. Each form can have one or more of the the abilities to warm, heat up, disperse edema, dispel the effects of toxic substances or harmonize the effects of other herbs.

In its fresh form, just like we get them here in the normal grocery store, Rhizoma Zingiberis Recens, 生姜 Shēng Jīang, is a food-grade herb. As such, one can cook it with other ingredients to enhance the taste of that particular food, like fish, meat or vegetables. In some Asian supermarkets, you may find young ginger, that which is yellowish in color with a green stem protruding out of the rhizome. This form is a little less warming than the older brown version. Herbal decoctions regularly containing multiple Herbs, prescribed by a Chinese medical practitioner, often includes Ginger to harmonize the Herbal Formula combinations; aiding better absorption of the Herbs into the body and to prevent possible toxic side-effects from other potent Herbs. In fact, I have read that Ginger can be used as a remedy for food poisoning, and is cooked with fish in order to neutralize toxins in many traditions. 
 
In the everyday, we can grate it, make an Herbal infusion out of it just by adding hot water and letting it steep for 10 minutes just as a beverage. This can be very helpful too if you had symptoms like chills and/or fever caused by the common cold virus. In fact, making a foot-bath or a whole-body-bath with this infusion till one gets warm and sweaty would also help expel what we call "Wind-Cold Invasion" in Chinese Medicine. If you wanted to enhance the digestive effect of Ginger, then you can throw in a couple of slices of Ginger into a pot with water and cook it for at least 15 minutes. This infusion would be less spicy but more warming for the Stomach, good for stopping nausea and vomiting in pregnancy or otherwise, help relieve bloating and digestive distress. Shēng Jīang enters the Lung, Spleen and Stomach, is spicy and warm. In contrast, Shēng Jīang Pí, Ginger Peel is spicy-cool and is good for edema and promoting urination. 
 
As with anything, too much of a good thing transforms it into a hindrance. If you tend to heat in your system, then too much Ginger will overheat you. A spicy flavor will circulate Qi and too much circulation will dry out the body. Use moderately or speak with your practitioner, if Ginger is appropriate for you. I find that this is one of the many simple herbal foods that I almost always have at home or with me when I travel. One of our favorite meals is rice with chicken, cooked with Ginger, soya sauce and Sesame oil; a simple but scrumptious recipe passed down to me from my mother, which is also a postpartum remedy. Like so much around the world, people have used food as medicine since time in memorial. It is only us modern urban-dwelling, city-folk, who are often times disconnected from nature, who question the validity of food being able to affect our health or never really realize that what we put into our bodies might affect who we become.

Ginger’s power lies in its versatility to transform from home remedy, to medicine, to regular beverage for the everyday. It doesn’t have to have fancy packaging or come out of a gilded bottle to be potent. It is this simplicity that makes Ginger mighty.
 


Image Ginger Root by Engin Akyurt on pexels.com

In the year 1988, the song “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)” was released by the American rock band Cinderella. I heard it a few years later, in my teen phase where rock music was totally cool. The song itself is not unique; boy has girl, boy doesn’t appreciate girl, girl leaves boy, boy laments his loss and wishes girl was still with him. I personally think that this isn’t such a great song, but the title is so appropriate to the human life story.

One of the things that we humans in the modern world do not like to openly talk about is our feces; the waste that we produce out of our bodies, from eating, digesting and creating energy as well as life-giving substances such as blood, to maintain life in our bodies. In English, we name it all sorts of names: poo, poop or kaka for kids, excrement, stools or feces for adults and of course those curse-words we use when we get mad, like shit or turd. One of the best ones that I find when someone wants to say that they have to go expel some feces but is embarrassed to describe the action, so they get a little vague by saying, “I have to go do a number 2.” We tend to get embarrassed as well as scared about our own waste, and for that matter any kind of fluid or substance we produce from our bodies like urine or sweat or menstrual blood, to the point of having to hide or mask it with perfume or deodorant. But the fact is, if we didn’t have them, we would not be able to live or function well.

In Chinese Medicine as with Western physiology, the Large Intestine is in charge of receiving the digested and sorted material, that has already passed through the Stomach and the Small Intestine. The job of the Large Intestine is to further absorb the fluids as well as electrolytes, and most importantly create the stool to expel the waste out of the body. If the Large Intestine did not do its work, our bodies would be poisoned by the bacteria and toxins that need to be released out in the form of the feces. The walls of the Colon are so intricately “designed,” like the rest of Gastrointestinal (GI) tract, it is made up of 4 layers. From inward to outward, the layers of the lumen (tube) are: mucosa, submucosa, muscular layer and, adventitia and serosa. These layers prevent the bacteria, that are transiting out of our bodies, from entering the rest of the body, and help the movement of stool with peristalsis. The layers are nourished by blood vessels, have multiple plexuses of blood, nerve and lymphatic innervations; thus, maintaining a strong connection to the immune, circulatory and nervous systems. It is only in recent years, Western science has acknowledged the gut as an organ for more than just dealing with feces; it has been dubbed the Second Brain. They are starting to realize that even emotional states, such as depression, or dis-eases such as autism or multiple sclerosis, could be linked to the GI tract.

Chinese Medicine views the Large Intestine as a partner organ to the Lung; the Large Intestine being the lower conduit and the Lung the upper, of the Metal element. The season of Metal, which is where we currently are, is Autumn. It is the season of going inward, letting go of the external manifestation, which are not beneficial to us and condensing the pure energy within. Its cardinal direction is the West, where the sun sets, once more the allusion to going inward as the brightness of the sun diminishes. The color of Metal is white, for purity; this is fascinating when one realizes that the Lung and Large Intestine both have the task to maintain purity in the upper and lower ends of the body. The emotion associated with Metal is self-confidence when the organism is in balance, and self-critical as well as grief, when not. The flavor of Metal is acrid, sharp on the tongue, like a metal sword cutting through soft tissue.

I came across a fascinating documentary about toilets, sewage and waste; how our societies have dealt with their waste across the centuries. The toilet, the appliance that we all use multiple times a day but is not really thought about, until of course when it doesn’t work. And what about where our feces go once we flush the toilet? We often do not want to see, or smell, or even pay attention to where the pipes that move our waste pass through or where the sewage plant of our area is.

Next time you go to the toilet to make a bowel movement, look into the toilet bowl and see what your gut produced from the substances you ingested. Take a look at the Bristol Stool Chart, see what type of stool your colon produced. Be grateful for the ability your body has, to remove waste from your system, absorb nutrients that are beneficial to it and protect the rest of the organs from the unbeneficial bacteria that may have tagged along for the ride. Remember that song I mentioned at the start – Don’t Know What You’ve Got Till It’s Gone? Be the person that appreciated what s/he had and didn’t have to lament after losing it.
 
 







Image Bristol Stool Chart from Stanford University
Image Abdomen-Intestine by MD.ABDULLAH AL-AMIR on Pixabay

About a month ago, we were still in the throes of Summer. It got up to 35 degrees Celsius  even in August, which is unusual for us here in Switzerland. But this has become the norm all over the world. We are in the midst of big change, of our Earth overheating but it is not new; the heating and cooling of the Earth has been happening for 4.54 billion years but us humans are sure contributing large amounts to the current overheating in a short amount of time by how we choose to live.

Not so far back in the past, in 1989, the American singer, Billy Joel released a song – “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” In this song, he lists some of the events in world history from his birth year, 1949, till that year when he turned 40; he released the song in September 1989. Little did he know that in November of that year, the Berlin Wall fell, signifying the end of the Cold War; thus helping this song to catapult to the top of the music charts around the world. When I heard this song then as a teen, I didn’t quite understand it. He lists many things that was significant to the Western world, but most especially to an American; I was an Asian teen with little experience and knowledge of world events at that point in time.

Since I began studying Chinese Medicine, I have been fascinated by the Theory of the 5 Phases or Elements, Wǔ Xíng. This theory is not just applied in Chinese Medicine, but also in Chinese philosophy, science, politics, education, music, martial arts and probably anything to do with life. In medicine, we are taught that there are 12 Regular Channel/ Meridians, which are connected to 12 organs. All of these 12 have 1 of the 5-Elements associated with them; each Element has 2 partner organs except for Fire, which has 4. Just with this circumstance, one can assume that Fire is a very important element in Chinese Medicine. These organs are the Heart, Pericardium, Small Intestines and Triple Burner, Sān Jiāo; the Heart being defined as the Emperor of the organs. Just with this detail of having 4 Fire-Element-organs in the body, we can imagine that Chinese Medicine views humans to have a tendency to build up heat in the body.

Fire is important for life but too much of it would create an imbalance. We need a certain amount of warmth in the body in order that our natural body functions work. However, when we have too much heat, it would make the functions go into overdrive and burn out. Is this not the dis-ease of our time? In Qi Gong manuscripts, there are referrals from the Eight Trigrams (Bā Guà) to Kǎn, Water and Lí, Fire. Qi Gong Master, Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming describes in his book, The Root of Chinese Qi Gong:

“Kan is Water and represents Yin in relationship to Li, which represents Fire and Yang. Qigong practitioners believe theoretically that your body is always too Yang unless you are sick and have not eaten for a long time, in which case your body may be more Yin. When your body is always Yang, it is degenerating and burning out. It is believed that this is the cause of aging. If you are able to use Water to cool down your body, you will be able to slow down the degeneration process and thereby lengthen your life […] Fire and Water mean many things in your body. The first concerns your Qi. Qi is classified as Fire or Water […] The Qi which is pure and is able to cool both your physical and spiritual bodies is considered Water Qi.”

Therefore, many of the Qi Gong forms are for developing Water Qi, to cool and balance Fire Qi within our beings. A balance between these two kinds of Qi is what creates health. According to Dr. Yang, this can be achieved by having proper food and fresh air, regulating the Mind and Breath, steadying the Spirit and some special Qi Gong meditative practices.

Dr. Yang also hints that our thoughts and Intention, Yì, is shaped by Kǎn and Lí, Water and Fire; if we are fiery in our beings, we begin to have fiery thoughts and actions. This is often what we observe in Chinese Medicine, if someone has an imbalance of heat in her/his body, s/he will begin to manifest irritation, anger, obsessive and manic behavior, to the point of being violent toward the people around her/him. I believe this imbalance, within many individuals, is one of the causes that drove societies to seek to dominate and conquer others. I came across a very good documentary many years ago about fossil fuel, its origins as well of its effects on our planet and its living beings, called Crude: The Incredible Journey of Oil. It traces how the tiny phytoplankton from 160 million years ago, floating in an ancient ocean that makes up what is now the Arabian peninsula, stored the power of the Sun in the state of carbon and with the pressures of the Earth, became “fossilized Jurassic sunlight” deep within the Earth to conceive what we know as crude oil. It also creates an awareness of how our modern lives have been shaped by crude oil; from petrol in the car that transports us around, to the plastic of our kids’ toys to the skincare products that we put on our faces. We have become so detached and disconnected from life around us, that we may be unaware that the excess Fire within us is devouring us and all around us.

Billy Joel’s song chorus goes:

 “We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No, we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.”

But I disagree, we may not have started the Fire, but we are fueling it. It is time to stop. We can choose to balance it out with the Element of Water, in how we live and what we practice in our everyday.
 
 

Reference
Yang, J.M. (1997) 2nd.Ed. The Root of Chinese Qi Gong. Wolfeboro, NH, USA: YMAA Publication Center.
 
 

Image by ulrikebohr570 on Pixabay

The year is 1988, I am in a pre-competition intensive training camp for rhythmic gymnastics. One of our coaches, Coach Annie is doing mental training with us. This is the first time we have ever done anything non-physical in training. She gets us all to lie down on the training carpet. She leads us through a small relaxation exercise and then she asks us to imagine ourselves performing our routine as perfectly as we can, without any mistakes. She tells us to do this as often as we can, but we never really get to this again as a group; trust a 14-year-old to do extra work outside of regular training. About 8 years later, I am in university taking a psychology-in-sport class. Our professor is telling us that research and studies are showing us that athletes who use visualization and mental training in combination with physical training perform better than those who do not. This fascinates me, as I had already had a taster 8 years before. I ask myself what it is that one is training when one does mental training. Some will say that it is training the Mind, but what is the Mind and where is it?

Interestingly, when many in society speak of the Mind, we point to our head; I was researching the Mind on the internet and Wikipedia’s first image is of a head with symbols in it. In the Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries online, it states that the noun ‘mind,’ when referring to the ability to think, refers to “the part of a person that makes them able to be aware of things, to think and to feel.” This definition does not specify any parts of the body, which is quite wise of Oxford Dictionaries to do so, as there is quite a lot of scientific evidence available these days which show us that what we define as faculties of the Mind are actually not only located in the head, i.e. brain, but everywhere in the body. Often times, what is defined as the Mind is referring to cognitive functions such as perception, reasoning, awareness and memory, psychological capacities of both conscious and unconscious, as well as feeling, motivation and behavior. The definition of Mind in the West encompasses a very broad dimension, as such it can become very vague and often times gets misconstrued as just the brain. What is clear is that the Mind is not just in the brain; hence, the term Bodymind has begun to be in more common usage over the last few decades.

In Chinese Medicine, what has been translated as Mind is actually called 神 shén. The Chinese character shén has two parts, the radical on the left means god or deity, on the right it means to explain. Together they mean god, spirit or expressive. Shén in Chinese Medicine refers to the mental ability on one hand, as well as the emotional and spiritual aspects of a human being. Mental activity and consciousness are said to dwell in the Heart. The Chinese medical scholar, Giovanni Maciocia states that “five functions are affected by the state of the Heart: Mental activity (including emotion), Consciousness, Memory, Thinking, Sleep.” The Chinese medical view goes further to describe Will Power Zhì as residing in the Kidneys, Thought Yì  in the Spleen, the Ethereal Soul Hún as related to the Liver and the Corporeal Soul Pò corresponding to the Lung. Therefore, for thousands of years the Chinese have viewed the Mind as being in the body as well as in the head; this corresponds to the Bodymind concept.

When I ponder back to my time as an athlete at 14 years old, using visualization techniques to perform better physically, I realize that the seeds of Bodymind were already being planted in me. I was already being trained to view my being as a whole being, not as the sum of parts, all it needed was regular practice. Now, I still prepare my intellectual Mind for exams or presentations by warming up my body, as I did as a gymnast and dancer, by stretching and moving my physical body. Just as I still do visualizations of my Tai Ji Quan/ Qi Gong form when I am on public transportation and can’t practice it physically. For me, the Mind is the Body and the Body, the Mind.
 
 
Reference
Macioca, G. (1998). The Foundations of Chinese Medicine. London: Churchill Livingstone.
 
 
 
Image by AdinaVoicu on Pixabay

I started writing this monthly blog for ICM at the beginning of 2019. That's over 6 years ago now...how time flies! Since this week, our new website has been turned on and all the blog-posts of old did not transfer. I have chosen to just include this first blog-post from February 2019 on the site as well as the ones that were written in 2025 till now. Here we go...

Right at the beginning of my studies in Chinese Medicine in San Francisco, one of our professors asked us why we were studying the medicine. As I began to ponder on the reasons for it, I realized that part of it had an aspect of tradition and my lineage. My family name Yap (Chinese character on the right of the stamp in the picture), or Yè in Mandarin, means "leaf." I never met my grandparents, as they had passed before I was born, so I only had the stories of the Yap Chinese Medical pharmacy from my mother. My grandfather, from what I understand was a farmer in China, who had left around the turn of the 20th century for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Malaya in that time). He sold imported herbs from China and learned to pick his own from the local jungles surrounding KL, as us locals call the capital city. I imagine my fascination with plants and healing may not just be unique to me but rather a continuation of a lineage of "plant people." 
 
I grew up in Malaysia, spent my twenties studying in the US and for the last 21 years, I have been practicing Chinese Medicine in Basel, Switzerland. I find my experiences of living in 3 different continents very enriching, not just the experience of traditions, language and food, but also the energetics of the environment, plants and people. I have come to realize that I am an embodiment of East-meets-West. I often feel Western on the inside yet Eastern on the outside.
 
Movement is nourishment for me. I started training in ballet at 5. It taught me control of my physical body, spatial awareness and ability to move in rhythm to music. As I began my Chinese Medicine studies, I also began a journey with Qi Gong and Tai Ji Quan. These were, still are, for me the application and manifesting of Qi, the practice of the theories I was learning in Chinese Medicine school and books. They opened an awareness of the energetic world that exists simultaneously to our physical. Over the past few years, I have started a practice of Yoga. I love stretching my body and mind. Yoga provides me with a space to play with my body-mind, to find balance in sometimes uncomfortable positions but still being able to breathe deeply and find contentment.   
 
I like listening to stories, of people, places and plants - of how and where they grow, of things and beings they used to play with, and how they become who they are now. I like practicing Chinese Medicine as it provides me with this possibility. Chinese Medicine has also given me new perspectives to view the world we live in and help me develop skills in sensing as well as observing. 
 
It is this that I want to share with others in this blog; the stories and perspectives I have gained, with the hope that it will inspire others to be excited about life, the earth, people, animals and plants. That life is simple, if we allow it to be. To go back to having that child-like wonder of simple things. Dig your hands into the earth and plant a seed, stand on one leg and fall off balance, to go back to the source of who we really are as living beings on this amazing planet.   



Image by Elaine