Etiology of TCM

The etiology of traditional Chinese medicine has its own marked characteristics. Firstly, variations in weather which go beyond the adaptability of individuals such as wind, cold, summer heat, dampness, dryness and heat, are directly related with disease and are considered as the pathogenic factors of many diseases. That is to say, environmental factors are not considered as mere inducing factors but as causative factors that may directly injure the human body and cause disease. Fairly radical or abnormal changes in weather are referred to as pathogenic factors, e.g., pathogenic wind, pathogenic cold, etc. Diseases are even named after these factors. For instance, pathogenic wind may cause shangfeng, a common cold, or injured (shang) by wind (feng); pathogenic summer heat may cause zhongshu, sunstroke, or hit (zhong) by summer heat (shu).

Pathogenic factors generalize the characteristics of the clinical manifestations including symptoms and signs, reflecting the preponderance or discomfiture of the anti-pathogenic and pathogenic factors when they are contesting for the upper hand. Pathogenic factors also imply pathology in traditional Chinese medicine.

Nor are pathogenic factors investigated in isolation, but attention is paid to the recognition of their nature and practical significance in disease by research into their relationship to various dysfunctions in the human body. This method of investigation, i.e., analysis of pathogenic factors on the basis of clinical manifestation, is highly significant in guiding clinical treatment.