- Anh này tính nóng như lửa, cô bé kia tính tình dịu ngọt như nước suối mùa thu, đó là mô tả về Tính.
- Gần 99% khối lượng cơ thể người có chứa 65% Oxygen, 18.5% Carbon, 9.5% Hydrogen, 3.2% Nitrogen, 1.5% Calcium, còn lại là các chất khác (Phosphorus, Potassium, Sulfur, Sodium, Chlorine, Magnesium, Cu, Fe, Iodine, Zn,…), đó là phân tích về Chất.
“Characteristic” and “Matter”
Bui Minh Tam
Many students and patients have asked me why we should avoid eating oranges or why coconut water is not allowed; while Western medicine says that oranges are good which is high in Vitamin C, fiber, etc.
So which advices are correct? Is the thousands of experienced years of Traditional Medicine or Modern Medicine?
The answer is neither wrong nor right completely. So you can understand this issue as follows:
In fact, the problem will become simpler and easier when we understand that traditional medicine is talking about “Characteristic”, and modern medicine is talking about “Matter”.
Vietnamese language is very interesting. It is common to describe something, we often use words “Tính Chất” – “Characteristic matter” which means Characteristic and Matter standing at the same phrase to indicate the Nature of the object. Sometimes it’s about the “Characteristic”, sometimes about the “Matter”, sometimes about Characteristic as well as Matter but both refer to a single object.
For example:
He is as hot as fire or she is as sweet as spring water. All of a description of the “Characteristic”.
Nearly 99% of the human body mass contains 65% Oxygen, 18.5% Carbon, 9.5% Hydrogen, 3.2% Nitrogen, 1.5% Calcium and the rest are other substances (Phosphorus, Potassium, Sulfur, Sodium, Chlorine, Magnesium, Cu, Fe, Iodine, Zn, …). That is the analysis of “Characteristic”.
So “Characteristic” and “Matter” are two descriptive aspects of the same object, they are inseparable. Depending on the perspective and purpose of use, we have a way of looking and interacting accordingly. If we want to adjust the “Characteristic”, we use the “Characteristic”; if we want to adjust the “Matter”, we use “Matter”.
And the same goes for our Orange.
For people who are sick or afraid of cold, that is, their body is “cold”, so to adjust to the balance of Yin and Yang, we must not use (or restrict) to eat oranges because the oranges will increase “cold” characteristic (causing serious illness, difficult to resolve); on the contrary, we should eat food with heat (hot) to balance Yin and Yang so that the disease will go away soon. That’s the “Characteristic” perspective so we use “Characteristic” to adjust.
About “Matter”: For people with vitamin C deficiency, we use oranges (and other foods containing Vitamin C) to supplement. That’s the way we adjust to “Matter”.
That is the case when we want to adjust for the “Characteristic” or “Matter” individually.
But there are cases when we have to adjust both “Characteristic” and “Matter”, we use both information about “Characteristic” and “Matter” to adjust.
For patients who have both vitamin C deficiency and “cold”, we will choose foods containing Vitamin C without “cold” characteristic. For example: apples, grapes, mango, Sauropus androgynus, etc., thus both ensure a “Characteristic” balance and supplement “Matter”.
“Characteristic” and “Matter”, though 2 but 1, though 1 but 2. Flexible transformation, optional use
