The Ministerial Fire Theory And Exploration And Analysis Of The Ministerial Fire

Development of traditional Chinese medicine theory is like converging streams into the sea. The only way for medical development is to achieve perfection amidst ceaseless enriching and developing. The theory of ministerial fire also enjoys gradual improvement during the long process, from theoretical development to clinical practice, with a profound impact on traditional Chinese medicine. Various schools have enumerated distinct ministerial fire theories and expounded complex concepts."The river water is so clear thanks to water flowing at the source". Therefore, it becomes very necessary to trace to the source. This paper summaries and analyzes different recognitions of ancient physicians to ministerial fire as well as various illustrations and interpretations of links between the ministerial fire theory and human organs and meridians, and tries to explore their similarities among each interpretation of ministerial fire. Despite of so many and complex schools of thought, we can find a theoretical basis and foundation from Huangdi’s Internal Classics in the final analysis, and start from the source, in order to seek common ground, sort out the ministerial fire theory development, and restore the original intention of the ministerial fire theory. Meanwhile, this paper collects290ancient ministerial fire cases, explores and analyses diseases and prescriptions by means of data, and summaries the practical application characteristics of the ministerial fire theory in clinical diagnosis and treatment, to make it better guide clinical practice.According to research, development of the ministerial fire theory has undergone the process of illustrating the doctrine of five elements’ motion and six kinds of natural factors in Huangdi’s Internal Classics, explaining human physiology and pathology since Song and Yuan Dynasties, and exploring its essence further in Ming and Qing Dynasties. In other words, the ministerial fire theory is a series of in-depth exploration and interpretation of the source, location, function and pathological changes of the ministerial fire made by physicians of later generations based on the Internal Canon of Medicine in the field of traditional Chinese medicine. In summary, interpretations of the ministerial fire can be divided into two schools. One is represented by Zhu Zhenheng, who advocates that the ministerial fire within human liver and kidney is the so-called dragon thunderbolt, which can benefit body at ease and do harm to human body with rash actions, and believes that the ministerial fire can be divided into a common state and a rash one. The other one is represented by Zhang Jingyue, who links it with tri-jiao and life-gate and proposes the "life-gate and ministerial fire source theory", which believes that its essence is yang, a healthy atmosphere, rather than pathogenic fire. The latter one interprets the ministerial fire in a more accurate manner. The former one, while, has more extensive and far-reaching influence. It has been used by later generations, with good results in clinical practice.Seen from exploration and analysis of ancient medical cases, the ministerial fire theory is widely used in clinical treatment, involving internal medicine, gynecology, pediatrics, andrology, dermatology, ENT, etc. A wide range of complex diseases are caused by rash actions of the ministerial fire, dominated by chronic wasting diseases (other internal medicine diseases), which has revealed that the ministerial fire is closely related to diseases caused by debilitating human functions in clinical practice. Data analysis of ancient medical cases of the ministerial fire shows that highly used drugs are dominated by the components of pills for treating yin deficiency by reinforcing body fluid (pills of anemarrhena), separately rehmannia, Chinese yam, dogwood, Poria, Alisma, Moutan bark, rhizoma anemarrhenae and golden cypress, etc., reflecting the prescription characteristics of "treating fire from yang by nourishing yin and reinforcing body fluid" of using rhizoma anemarrhenae, golden cypress and other drugs to clear inner heat, for the purpose of treating yin deficiency and lessening fire to reinforce body fluid and restore normal functions of the human body.