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Any disease characterized by the presence of both vacuity and repletion signs. If a patient suffering from a cough expectorates thick, sticky phlegm and has a yellow tongue fur, the condition is one of phlegm-heat congesting the lung, which is a repletion pattern. If, at the same time, breathing is short and shallow, and becomes rapid at the slightest exertion, the patient is said to be suffering from insufficiency of lung qì, which is a vacuity pattern. The simultaneous existence of the repletion pattern and the vacuity pattern constitutes a vacuity-repletion complex. A further example is internal static blood obstruction, manifesting as abdominal glomus lump. If this repletion pattern occurs with signs of dual vacuity of yīn and blood, characterized by emaciation, encrusted skin, and dark rings around the eyes, the patient is said to be suffering from a vacuity-repletion complex. Such patterns may be due to contraction of an external evil by patients ordinarily suffering from vacuity of right, or may be caused by an invading evil that both causes repletion and damages right.

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