True repletion and false vacuity

Any disease pattern characterized by signs of both vacuity and repletion, in which the repletion signs represent its true nature, whereas the vacuity signs are deceptive. When damp-heat obstruction in the initial stage of nonicteric hepatitis presents such signs as fatigue and lack of strength, limpness and pain in the limbs, little thought of food and drink, and a soft soggy pulse, the condition may be wrongly identified as one of vacuity. Although there may be a spleen-stomach vacuity complication, the pattern of damp-heat obstruction is one of repletion.

Careful examination will point to right diagnosis. Fatigue, lack of strength and weak limbs, together with oppression in the chest, abdominal distension, and a slimy tongue fur indicate encumbering damp rather than vacuity of original qì. If the tongue fur is yellow and slimy, and short voidings of reddish urine, the condition may be identified as one of damp-heat. Treatment should therefore aim to drain the repletion rather than to supplement the vacuity.