20. Water – key resonances
Chapter contents
Water as a symbol152
The Water Element in nature152
The Water Element in relation to the other Elements153
The key Water resonances153
The supporting Water resonances158
Water as a symbol
The character for Water – shui
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The character shows a central current of water with side streams or whirls beside it. It suggests the flow of water in a river where the main current is bordered by small whirlpools. The whirlpools arise from the difference in flow between the central stream and the edges where the current may be slower or even running in the opposite direction (see Weiger, 1965, lesson 125). Acupuncture points are often thought to arise in a similar situation, where the flow of qi is bent or redirected and as a result a vortex develops.
The Water Element in nature
Water is the most yin of all the Elements. It is everywhere, but has no shape, taking only the form given by containers, river banks and the beds of the oceans. Although it is the softest of substances, it can wear away the hardest rock and move around any obstacle to penetrate beyond. It appears both as a solid and as a gas. Water filters through the earth, enters roots of trees and flows upwards. In response to warmth it turns into a gas and appears in the sky as clouds, ultimately to fall as rain moistening wherever it falls and reappearing in streams, rivers, lakes and oceans.
Floods and drought
Water has the capacity to cause havoc. People who have experienced flooding or powerful waves understand how water can penetrate and sweep away all that lies in its path. After the initial surge, flood water will often become stagnant. Disease and pollution follow, resulting in illness.
At the other extreme a drought can be just as devastating. Climatic changes can leave a degree of dryness that inhibits crops, resulting in famine. Adults and children shrivel up and die of thirst and starvation.
Water within a person
Water makes up 55–60% of an adult’s body weight (Thibodeau and Patton, 1992, pp. 474–476). Most of this water is enclosed in or surrounds individual cells and the remainder is plasma, that is part of our blood. These fluids have many functions, but most involve movement and flexibility.
A newborn baby, who has emerged from living within water, is roughly 80% water. This percentage declines rapidly in the first year of life and gradually as we age our water content diminishes.
The skin and hair of children and young adults is naturally moist and the joints and bones are resilient and pliant. Injuries heal rapidly. Young people’s minds are also flexible and have the capacity to take in enormous amounts of information. Languages can be learned very rapidly. They can flow and change in whichever way life takes them.
As people age their bodies become dryer, their hair more brittle, their skin withered and their movements less smooth. Their minds lose flexibility. They have difficulty with new information and accepting changes in the world around them. Ageing is partly a drying up process, a sign that the Water Element is weakening and that we are losing our water reserves. In spite of Water’s flexibility, when it is constrained and not moving, toxins develop and function is diminished. The newborn with the maximum amount of clean water has the maximum flexibility and softness; the octogenarian will be fluid deficient, harder and less flexible.
The Water Element in relation to the other Elements
The Water Element interacts with the other Elements through the sheng and ke cycles (see Chapter 2, this volume).
Metal is the mother of Water
On the sheng cycle Metal creates Water by containing it. Water has no shape unless contained by the impermeable rocks in the earth. This means that when treating patients who have obvious Water Element symptoms, such as urinary symptoms, these may have originated in the mother Element, Metal. A practitioner may treat the mother to assist the child.
Water is the mother of Wood
The close relationship between Water and Wood is often stressed in Chinese medicine. Hence practitioners will sometimes have difficulty in deciding whether to focus treatment on the Wood or the Water. Five Element practitioners mainly use colour, sound, odour and emotion to decide. The mother–child law, based on the sheng cycle, stresses that symptoms arising from the Wood Element often indicate a weakness of the mother and that treatment of Water is required.
Water controls Fire
On the ke cycle Water controls Fire. A fire hose illustrates how water can be used to control fire. In general, there are many body–mind functions which involve heat and which can be spoiled by too much fire. The control of inflammation, the drying out of joints and the dampening down of excess emotions are all examples. In these cases, Water will contain, control and regulate the excesses of Fire.
Water is controlled by Earth
In nature it is clear how water is controlled by earth. River banks and dams are obvious ways in which Earth contains or directs the flow of water. Earth controlling Water means that a balanced Earth helps Water to also be balanced. For example, if the Spleen is failing to move fluids these may accumulate and in so doing create a disturbance within the Water Element.
The key Water resonances (Table 20.1)
The colour for Water is blue/black
Colour in nature
Ask ordinary people, ‘What is the colour of water?’ and they would probably say ‘blue’. In a drinking glass water is transparent and colourless. At the lake or seaside, water can appear different colours because of its ability to reflect light from the sky. Divers describe the colour deep under water as black, more from the lack of light than any inherent colour of water itself.
| Colour | Blue/black |
| Sound | Groan |
| Emotion | Fear |
| Odour | Putrid |
The character for blue, blue-black or black
The character for blue or blue-black is kan (see Weiger, 1965, lessons 92A and 73B).
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Alternatively the character is black, hei (see Weiger 1965, lesson 40D).
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This character refers to the colour of soot. The character shows it deposited around a window through which smoke escaped in Chinese huts.
Su WenChapter 10 states that: ‘Black (or blue-black) corresponds to the Kidneys (or Water)’ (Anonymous, 1979a, p. 27).
Facial colour
When the Water Element is out of balance a black, dark blue or occasionally a lighter sky or powder blue will manifest on the face. This colour can appear at the side of the eyes, under the eyes or around the mouth. The lighter blue is more confined to under or beside the eyes.
Blue/black can appear for reasons other than Water being the CF. Kidney disease is one. Many of the patients in a kidney dialysis ward have a blackish facial colour, but not all will be Water CFs. Their illness, manifesting in poor kidney function, may well have originated in another Element. In a similar way, anyone who fails to sleep well, or who becomes very tired through excess activity, may appear dark under the eyes. The lack of sleep or overwork is depleting reserves that are normally said to be stored in the Kidneys. So it is important when observing a dark colour to enquire about a patient’s sleep patterns and lifestyle and whether there is any history of kidney disease.
The sound for Water is groaning
The character for groaning
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The character for groaning is shen yin (see Weiger, 1965, lessons 72A (kou), 50C (shen) and 14K (chin)).
The context
The voice tone resonating with Water is groaning. The context in which it would normally occur is when a threat has appeared and the person speaking is anxious or afraid. There are, of course, other appropriate tones when fear is present. For example, with a shock or a situation of intense fear the person may be screaming or crying out. In most situations of fear or anxiety, however, it would be said to be normal for a person’s voice to modify and begin to flatten into a groan. There is little movement or modulation in the quality of the sound.
People often have a groaning voice when they are afraid, but Water CFs groan at other times when the context is not threatening or dangerous. For example, if someone groans when discussing the pleasure of a recent party or the recent loss of a relative, this might be said to be expressing inappropriate groaning. A pattern of groaning in these contexts would indicate evidence of a Water CF.
The sound of groaning
The sound of groaning is one of flatness as if the more normal ups and downs of the voice have been squeezed or flattened out. In some people this is more marked at the end of sentences. It can sound a bit like an old reel-to-reel tape that has become stretched so that the speech or music plays slightly slowly. It sounds as though it is dragging and lacks animation.
Groaning can also be visualised. To visualise a groaning voice, imagine a line on a graph which moves up and down according to the changes of pitch in a person’s voice. Then imagine that a boundary line comes down from above and up from below cutting out the higher and lower reaches of the voice. This makes the voice flatter.
To experience the effects of fear that lead to a groaning voice, imagine being in a room with a group of people. The group leader tells you that a deadly snake has escaped and is somewhere on the floor. The snake will respond to any abrupt movement or loud noise. You need to ask the leader for the next best move in order to make your escape. You flatten your voice in order not to create more disturbance. You are groaning.
Groaning indicates an imbalanced Water Element but it can easily be confused with the flat voice that is known as ‘lack of laugh’ which indicates a Fire CF. Careful attention to the context in which it is used will help to differentiate.
The odour for Water is putrid
The character for putrid
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The character for putrid is fu (see Weiger, 1965, lessons 59I (yen), 45C (fu) and 65A (ju)). The first parts of this character represent a shed (yen) and building (fu). The second part means pieces of dry meat in a bundle (ju). The character gives the sense of the putrid odour arising from keeping dried meat in a building.
Putrid
The smell of processed or rotting meat is one of the descriptions for putrid in English. But putrid also describes the smell of water in a stagnant pond or the smell of stale urine. Bleach and ammonia smell putrid. It can be a sharp, aggressive odour. Some practitioners say it makes the inside of their noses clench or seize up.
The emotion for Water is fear
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