Metaphorical Cognition Of The Five Elements "Wood Family" And The Case

ObjectiveTo understand the theory and language of TCM (traditional Chinese medicine), it is necessary to learn the cognitive mechanisms in this theoretical system. The "wood family" and the Lijie disease are studied through family resemblance theory and conceptual integration theory in order to illustrate the significance of the research on the concept of metaphor thinking in TCM theories.MethodsRich theories and research findings of cognitive science provide the study of the TCM theory with many valuable and advanced research methods. It has the good interpretation for TCM theories which are on the basis of body experience of environmental perception. It is able to well interpret TCM theory, which is based on the perception of body experience. In the literature review, the research progresses of the "wood family" of the five elements and the Lijie disease of TCM are reviewed. It intends to learn the perspectives, methods and results of the literatures and prove the feasibility of the methods in this study. Consequently, this study delved into the metaphorical characteristics of TCM theory with the perspective of metaphorical cognition and the theories of family resemblance and conceptual integration. In the first part, how the category of the "wood" in the five elements theory of TCM formed is discussed, which contains wood, east, spring, wind, green, acid, liver, gallbladder and tendons, and so named as a "wood family". The analysis is based on perceptual experience of the human body and the theory of Wittgenstein’s family similarity. In the second part, the Lijie disease is discussed according to the theory of conceptual integration. The retrospect about the original concept and cognitive mechanism of Lijie is to understand the metaphorical thinking of the nomenclature in TCM diseases. The study also analyzes the relationship between the Lijie disease with other related diseases of joint pain.ResultsThe category of the "wood family" is formed by the analogy between the members. The characteristics of the "wood family" are collected from that of each member in the family and then the characteristics in the family are granted to its members. Liver belongs to the "wood family" and then some characteristics in the family are selectively endowed to the liver.Due to the similarities between migratory arthralgia of the Lijie disease and the wind, the joint deformity of the Lijie disease and the bamboo joints, TCM physicians made a mapping from the nature to the disease. Then a blending space was accomplished about the concept of the Lijie disease. Besides, there are contacts between the Lijie disease, arthromyodynia and gout in TCM, and gout, rheumatoid arthritis diseases in the western medicine.ConclusionsThere are unique cultural background and natural science rationale behind the thinking patterns and theoretical construction of TCM. Under the guidance of the holistic concept, the TCM physicians knew the world through observation, practice and reasoning. Accordingly they made an analogy between physical and pathological phenomena of the human body and natural phenomena. Based on the subjective experience and deep understanding of the objective world, the TCM physicians constructed the concepts and categories of TCM to make it more systematic and organized. Besides, the TCM theory was full of metaphor cognition, which is depicted by a metaphorical language and can be checked through human experience. The category of the "wood family" is formed by the analogy between the members. Hence five elements theory is a theory constructed by a metaphor system, which provides a cognitive framework for TCM. TCM theory is based on physical experience through a blending process orderly, mapping the nature to the human body and naming the diseases according to its clinical manifestations. Besides, there are contacts between the Lijie disease, arthromyodynia and gout in TCM, and gout, rheumatoid arthritis diseases in the western medicine, so the research results of the Lijie disease can provide guidance for treating this kind of modern diseases.