From Plain Questions (素问 sù wèn, zhì zhēn yào dà lùn). A method of paradoxical treatment using supplementing medicines to treat conditions marked by false obstruction and stoppage signs. An example is when a patient presents glomus and fullness in the chest and stomach duct that comes and goes and that likes pressure and warmth, as well as poor appetite, period vomiting, and pale tongue, and large vacuous pulse. The vacuity signs show that the glomus and oppression do not constitute a repletion pattern, but is caused spleen-stomach vacuity. Hence it is treated with Six Gentlemen Decoction (六君子汤liù jūn zǐ tāng).
Etymology
Chin The first 塞 sāi refers to using stopping (astringent) medicinals; 因塞 yīn sāi, means because of or in response to a pattern of stoppage; 用 yòng, use. The phrase literally means using stopping in response to stoppage.