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Understaninf Understanding what traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is all about was made somewhat easier courtesy of Dr. Guta Kulczycka, who explained some of the concepts to me and recommended the relevant literature.

The oldest known Chinese medical texts are the ''Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor'' and the ''Treatise on Cold-Damage Diseases'', usually dated to the period of the Han dynasty, that is, the 3rd century BCE. This would make TCM a little younger that the humoral and ayurvedic Ayurvedic theories, but it's also possible it was based on much earlier, but now lost, works. You can tell by the titles alone that TCM loses much in translation – if it's translatable at all.

Te key concept of TCM is ''qi'' (pronounced ''chee''; literally: "air"), a vital substance permeating the entire universe. It comes in various densities or phases (depending on how you want to picture it), from matter to eneregy energy to spirit. All processes in the universe may be understood as thickening or rarifying rarefying of ''qi''. Chinese philosophy talks of ''yin'' whenever ''qi'' thickens and ''yang'' whenever it becomes rarifiedrarefied. ''Yin'' and ''yang'' are a pair of cosmic opposites – with ''yin'' is colder, moister and slower, while ''yang'' is hotter, drier and quicker – the dark and light sides of the force. Except that, in ''Star Wars'' the two sides of the force are locked in a constant struggle, while ''yin'' and ''yang'' complement each other in a creative way.

From the medical point of view, ''yin'' and ''yang'' influence the gathering and flow of ''qi'' in the organism. ''Qi'' is transported around the organism along special energy channels, or "meridians", which I won't be talking about here (let me just note that it's along these channels that needles are inserted in acupuncture). Disease, abviouslyobviously, comes from the lack of balance between ''yin'' and ''yang'' in your body, and the goal of medicine is to keep or restore that balance. The imbalance may result from too much ''yin'', too little ''yang'', too much ''yang'' or (guess what?) too little ''yin''.

Sounds familiar? Okay, but what about elements? Are there any elements in this system or just ''qi, yin'' and ''yang''? Don't worry, of course there are. There's five of them (naturally), but they're a little different from those we already know. They are, namely: tree, fire, earth, metal and water. No air? Well, no, after all ''qi'' already means "air", right? But the chief difference between Chinese and Western elements is that the latter are undestood understood as static substances or states of matter, while the former are more like successive phases of the continuous process of the transformation of ''qi''. This is why the Chinese term ''wǔxíng'' (pronounced: ''woo-sheeng'') is better translated as "five movements" than "five elements".

Every person has their own constitution, in which one or two movements dominate, which, of course, determines what they look like, how they behave and what kinds of disease they are prone to. A fire-type person is tall and broad-shouldered with long limbs and neck, a triangular face, wide forehead, ruddy skin and loud voice, and is bossy and smart. A tree-type person is well-built, muscular, supple, with olive skingskin, a trapezoidal face with a pointed chin and thick eyebrows, is friendly, seductive and impatient. A person in whom the earth movement dominates is stocky, strong and slow, has a square face with thick lips and nose, as well as a sense of humour and a friendly temperament. You can tell a metal-type person by their tall and rigid body, narrow shoulders, a long face with a prominent teeth and nose, and being slow, meticulous and cautious. And finally, the water type with their short, round body, an oval face with puffy eyes, hesitation in their voice, shyness and apparent helplessness.