The philosophy of Chinese herbal medicine is that the patient is viewed as a whole, not a disease in isolation, or as a collection of symptoms. The idea is that illness is due to an imbalance; health is a process, not a destination.

All of nature is composed of two dualities: yin and yang; light and dark; cold and hot, soft and hard and so on. There are five elemental energies or substances within the body that are critical for life: Jing (essence), Shen (spirit), Qi, Blood, and JinYe (light/heavy).

Briefly, four types of Qi imbalances, and three Blood imbalances can cause illness: deficient qu, sinking qi, stagnant qi, and rebellious qi. Likewise deficient blood, stagnant blood, heat in the blood.

Conditions are classified as yin or yang; as imbalances of qi/blood; of the jin ye fluids or with deficient or excess jing or shen. By applying physical diagnosis with history taking, a remedy can be recommended. For example, herbs that tonify (strengthen) Qi are ginseng, citrus peel, astragalus etc.

Recommended Books on Chinese Medicine at the AlternativeDr.com Bookstore:

The Complete Book of Chinese Health and Healing: Guarding the Three Treasures by Daniel P. Reid, Dexter Chou, Jony Huang