The word "Tibetan elephant" first appeared in Su Wen's Six Stories of Tibetan Elephants. Zang refers to the internal organs hidden in the body, and Xiang refers to the explicit physiological and pathological phenomenon.
Tibetan elephants include various visceral entities and various signs of their physiological activities and pathological changes. Zangxiang theory is a theory that studies the physiological functions, pathological changes and their relationships of human organs. It is summarized under the guidance of the theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements on the basis of the medical practice of physicians in past dynasties, and it is an important part of the theoretical system of traditional Chinese medicine.
The main feature of the theory of Tibetan image is the holistic view centered on the five internal organs.
Zang-fu organs are divided into yin and yang, one yin and one yang is exterior and interior, and zang-fu organs and fu-fu organs are a whole. For example, heart and small intestine, lung and large intestine, spleen and stomach, liver and gallbladder, kidney and bladder, pericardium and triple energizer are all exterior and interior.
Heart, its brilliance is on the face, it is full of blood, and it is enlightened in the tongue; Lung, its flowers are in the hair, its filling in the skin, enlightenment in the nose; Spleen, lying on the lips, filled with tendons; Liver, its flowers are in the claws, its stuffing is in the tendons, and it opens in the eyes; The kidney is abundant in the bone, and it is enlightened in the ear, and the second yin.
It can be seen that the pathological changes of an organ in the viscera are related to the inside and outside of the viscera. For example, the pathological changes of the heart will inevitably involve the small intestine, and the pathological changes of the kidney are related to the bladder.