Yin Fire

- Krishna Ravi –
- 0-
"Dietary irregularity and excessive consumption of cold or
warm foods damage the Spleen and Stomach. Joy, anger,
worry and fright weaken the Yuan Qi.

If the Spleen and Stomach are depleted and the Yuan Qi

weakened, Fire of the Heart becomes excessive on its own.

This Fire of the Heart is a Yin Fire. It starts from the Lower
Burner and links with the Heart above. The Heart does not
rule personally, rather the Minister Fire is its deputy.

The Minister Fire is the Fire of the Pericardium (Bao Luo)

developing from the Lower Burner. It is a “thief” of the Yuan
Qi.

This Yin Fire and the Yuan Qi are mutually opposed [cannot
occupy the same place]: when one is victorious, the other is
the loser.

When the Spleen and Stomach Qi becomes empty, their Qi

flows down to the Kidneys and Yin Fire has a chance to
overwhelm the Earth.

Because of this, with a Spleen pathology, there is raised Qi

with breathlessness, fever, an Overflowing [Hong, Da] pulse,
headache, thirst. There is a feeling of cold and of heat. As Yin
Fire surges upwards [Shang Chong], there is raised Qi with
breathlessness, fever, headache, thirst and an Overflowing
pulse.
As Qi of the Stomach and Spleen sinks, Gu Qi cannot rise
and float. Therefore, there is no Yang to sustain Ying and Wei
Qi.

As these are unable to withstand Wind and Cold, there is a

feeling of heat and of cold. All this is due to a deficiency of
the Stomach and Spleen.
The treatment of this condition is to use pungent, sweet
and warm herbs to strengthen the Centre and lift Yang,
together with sweet and cold herbs to drain Fire. The use of
bitter and cold herbs is absolutely counterproductive.

Yin Fire is neither Full Heat nor Empty Heat but simply a
different kind of Heat that derives from a deficiency of the
Yuan Qi.

It follows that Yin Fire is not treated by clearing Heat with

pungent-cold formulae or draining Fire with bitter-cold
formulae, but by tonifying the Yuan Qi with sweet formulae and
gently clearing Heat upwards.

Remember, the essential characteristics of Yin Fire are that

there is some Heat above (which is neither Full nor Empty
Heat) from the rising of Minister Fire and a deficiency of the
Yuan Qi deriving from dietary irregularity and overwork.

The rising of the Minister Fire is particularly caused by

emotional stress.

Therefore, suspect Yin Fire whenever there is:

a) a deficiency of the Yuan Qi manifesting with great tiredness
b) some Heat above (red face, thirst, mouth ulcers)
c) some Cold symptoms (feeling cold in general, Pale tongue).

In particular, I would always check for Yin Fire when there are
symptoms of Heat and a Pale tongue. Yin Fire may be a factor
in some auto-immune diseases.

Dampness in Yin Fire

The pathology of Yin Fire is also related to Dampness and to

the Middle Burner. When there is Spleen deficiency, Dampness
if formed and this infuses down to the Lower Burner.

Here it “swamps” the Yuan Qi and the Minister Fire, displacing

the latter from the place (the Lower Burner) where it should be
“concealed”.

The Middle Burner has Dampness too, Spleen-Qi (and even

Spleen-Yang) is deficient and fails to rise.

For this reason, Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang is used to raise Spleen-Qi

and warm Spleen-Yang so that Dampness no longer infuses
downwards to the Lower Burner.

It may seem contradictory to lift Qi when there are symptoms

of Heat above.

When the Lower Burner is opened and unblocked from

Dampness, the Minister Fire will return to its place of
concealment in the Lower Burner, thus eliminating the
symptoms of Yin Fire.

Emotions
Emotional stress is an important aetiological factor of Yin Fire
and specifically of a deficiency of the Yuan Qi, as Li Dong Yuan
himself says.

Any emotion can lead to Yin Fire as all emotions may stir the
Minister Fire out of its residing place in the Lower Dan Tian.
Zhu Dan Xi said “Not a day goes by in people’s lives that the
Minister Fire is not stirred”.
All emotions lead to Qi stagnation which, in turn, eventually
leads to some Heat. The situation can be aggravated by the
presence of Dampness in the Lower Burner (as it happens in
shame).

Yin Fire accounts for symptoms of Heat in mental-emotional

problems that may defy a classification into Full- or Empty-
Heat when there are contradicting symptoms of Heat and Cold
(especially Pale tongue).

Emotional stress is more likely to lead to Yin Fire when it is

combined with overwork and dietary irregularity.

Acupuncture treatment of Yin Fire

- Tonify Yuan Qi: Ren-4 Guanyuan.
- Tonify Stomach and Spleen: Ren-12 Zhongwan, BL-20 Pishu,
ST-36 Zusanli.
- Lift Qi: Du-20 Baihui and Ren-6 Qihai.
- Resolve Dampness: Ren-9 Shuifen, Ren-5 Shimen, BL-22
Sanjiaoshu, SP-9 Yinlingquan.

Please note that it may seem a contradiction to raise Qi

when the pathology of Yin Fire consists in the rising of the
Minister Fire.

However, we raise Qi to lift Spleen-Qi so that the Dampness is

resolved from the Middle and Lower Burner.

Resolving Dampness from the Lower Burner unblocks it and

allows the Yuan Qi to take its proper place there, and the
Minister Fire to return to its place of "concealment".

Acupuncture treatment of Yin Fire emotional disturbance

- Tonify the Yuan Qi: Ren-4 Guanyuan.
- Tonify and raise Spleen-Qi: Ren-12 Zhongwan, Ren-6 Qihai,
ST-36 Zusanli.
- Calm the Shen and make Heat descend: Du-24 Shenting, Du-
19 Houding, Ren-15 Jiuwei, HE-5
Tongli.
- Clear Heat upwards: P-8 Laogong, P-7 Dalig.
- Regulate the Triple Burner: TB-5 Waiguan.