Practical Chinese Medicine Glossary
Chinese medicine uses some familiar English words in specialized ways. This glossary gives the meaning Tong Living uses across its articles and book, so you can follow an explanation without turning a traditional concept into a biomedical diagnosis.
A useful boundary: these definitions explain a traditional framework. They do not identify the cause of a symptom, replace medical assessment, or make a capitalized organ system identical to the anatomical organ with the same name.
Body pattern
A working picture of how several signs, symptoms, timings, and responses relate to one another right now. In Chinese medicine, a pattern is changeable and interpretive. It is not a biomedical diagnosis, a personality type, or a permanent label.
Qi
A traditional way of describing the functional activity and capacity that animate the body. Tong Living uses Qi to ask how well something is working, moving, transforming, or recovering, not to name a mysterious substance or a laboratory measurement.
Yin
The cooling, moistening, restorative, material, and settling side of a paired relationship. Yin is associated with night, rest, structure, and fluids. It only makes sense in relationship with Yang.
Yang
The warming, activating, transforming, and moving side of a paired relationship. Yang is associated with day, activity, function, and heat. It only makes sense in relationship with Yin.
Blood
In Chinese medicine, Blood includes the nourishing, moistening, and anchoring quality carried by blood, not only the fluid measured in biomedicine. The capitalized term signals that broader traditional meaning.
Body Fluids
The moistening and lubricating fluids described in Chinese medicine apart from Blood, including saliva, sweat, digestive fluids, and fluids around the joints. The term organizes a traditional function rather than naming one biomedical compartment.
Jing (Essence)
The inherited and acquired reserve associated in Chinese medicine with long-term vitality, development, reproduction, and aging. Tong Living uses the image of deep groundwater: a foundational reserve that should not be confused with one hormone, gene, or measurable fuel.
Shen (Spirit)
The clarity, presence, awareness, and settled quality of mind described in Chinese medicine and traditionally associated with the Heart system. Shen is a traditional concept, not a psychiatric diagnosis.
Dampness
A traditional pattern quality of heaviness, sluggishness, cloudiness, or congestion. It may help organize a cluster such as bloating, a heavy body, and a foggy head, but it is not the same as outdoor humidity, fluid retention, inflammation, or any single biomedical condition.
Tong (通, Tōng)
Free, unobstructed flow with enough supply to keep the system working. Tong Living uses Tong as the practical quality to cultivate: notice where movement is blocked or running thin, choose a fitting response, and observe what changes.
No Tong
The opposite of Tong. Flow can fail because something is blocked and cannot move, or because there is too little capacity or supply. The distinction matters because constraint and depletion do not call for the same response.
Meridian
A pathway in the traditional Chinese medicine map through which Qi and Blood are said to move and connect the surface with internal functional systems. Meridians are not identical to nerves, blood vessels, or lymphatic vessels.
Five Elements
A traditional relationship model using Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water to describe recurring qualities, seasons, functions, and transitions. It is a way to organize relationships, not a claim that the body is literally made from five materials.
Chinese medicine organ systems
Capitalized names such as Liver, Spleen, Lung, Heart, and Kidney refer to broader traditional networks of function and relationship. They overlap with, but are not identical to, the biomedical organs that share those English names.
Liver Qi constraint
A traditional pattern in which movement and release are described as constrained. Tong Living may use it to organize a cluster such as tension, frequent sighing, irritability, or symptoms that change with stress. It does not diagnose liver disease.
Spleen functional system
The traditional Chinese medicine system concerned with transforming food and drink into usable nourishment and with the body's handling of heaviness and moisture. It is not the same as the anatomical spleen or a diagnosis of spleen disease.
Lung functional system
The traditional Chinese medicine system associated with respiration, the gathering and distribution of Qi, the skin, and the boundary between the body and its environment. It is broader than the anatomical lungs and cannot diagnose a breathing disorder.
Heart functional system
The traditional Chinese medicine system associated with circulation and with housing the Shen, or conscious presence. It is not interchangeable with the biomedical heart, cardiovascular disease, or a mental-health diagnosis.
Kidney functional system
The traditional Chinese medicine system associated with deep reserves, development, reproduction, aging, water regulation, and the lower back and knees. It is broader than the anatomical kidneys and does not diagnose kidney disease.