Pattern

Also disease pattern. A constellation of symptoms conceived in terms of:

• the location of the morbidity (body part, organ, qì-blood or yīn-yáng aspect),
• causative evil (six excesses, phlegm, static blood), and/or
• relative strength of right and evil.

Examples of patterns: heart qì vacuity; damp-heat brewing in the spleen; insecurity of kidney qì; cold stagnating in the liver vessel.

For example, the simultaneous presence of heat effusion, aversion to cold, and floating pulse forms an exterior pattern due to an external contraction; vigorous heat effusion, vexation and thirst, red tongue with yellow fur, and constipation constitutes an interior repletion pattern; wind stroke with clenched jaw, red face, rough breathing, phlegm-drool congestion, clenched hands, and a slippery stringlike or moderate sunken pulse constitutes a block pattern, whereas weak breathing, reversal cold in the limbs, pearly sweat, open mouth and closed eyes, open hands and enuresis, and faint fine pulse on the verge of expiration or sunken hidden pulse constitutes a desertion pattern.

The concept of pattern is distinct from that of disease (as a specific kind of morbid condition). A disease may take the form of different patterns. Measles, for example, may take the form of a favorable or unfavorable pattern. A favorable pattern is characterized by a swift forceful eruption, indicating that body is putting up a strong fight against the measles toxin; an unfavorable pattern is characterized by a poor faltering eruption, indicating that the body is offering poor resistance. Treatment of measles varies according to pattern: favorable patterns are treated according to the principle of dispelling the evil, whereas unfavorable patterns also require right-supporting action to help the body’s fight against the disease.

See also sign and pattern identification.

Etymology

Chin 证 zhèng, sign, evidence, proof, manifestation.