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Orifice of the heart
心窍 〔心竅〕 xīn qiào
1. The tongue. The heart governs the tongue... its orifice is the tongue.
See heart governs the tongue. Note that the use of the term orifice to describe the tongue in English is no stranger than the use of 窍 qiào in Chinese. In Chinese, the tongue is also described as the sprout of the heart.
2. (Plural in English) The speculative windows
through which the heart spirit perceives the world. Chinese medicine traditionally holds that when the orifices of the heart
are free and uninhibited, the spirit-mind is clear and that when the orifices of the heart are blocked, there is clouded spirit, mania, or withdrawal. Although the literal meaning orifices of the heart
implies that the term denotes a physical entity, the location and nature of the entity is not explained. Thus the term either denotes a speculative entity or is merely a metaphor describing consciousness as a window
on the outside world. See phlegm clouding the heart spirit; opening the orifices.