Zangfu

The zangfu () organs are functional entities stipulated by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). These classifications are not based in physiology or science. They constitute the centrepiece of TCM's general concept of how the human body works. The term zang refers to the organs considered to be "solid" yin in nature – Heart, Liver, Spleen, Lung, Kidney – while fu refers to the "hollow" yang organs – Small Intestine, Large Intestine, Gall Bladder, Urinary Bladder, Stomach and San Jiao. Each zang is paired with a fu, and each pair is assigned to one of the wuxing. The zangfu are also connected to the twelve standard meridians – each yang meridian is attached to a fu organ and each yin meridian is attached to a zang. They are five systems of Heart, Liver, Spleen, Lung, Kidney. To highlight the fact that the zangfu are not equivalent to the anatomical organs, their names are often capitalized. To understand the zangfu it is important to realize that their concept did not primarily develop out of anatomical considerations. The need to describe and systematize the bodily functions was more significant to ancient Chinese physicians than opening up a dead body and seeing what morphological structures there actually were. Thus, the zangfu are functional entities first and foremost, and only loosely tied to (rudimentary) anatomical assumptions. Each zangfu organ has a yin and a yang aspect, but overall, the zang organs are considered to be yin, and the fu organs yang. Since the concept of the zangfu was developed on the basis of wuxing philosophy, they are incorporated into a system of allocation to one of five elemental qualities (i.e., the Five Elements or Five Phases). The zangfu share their respective element's allocations (e.g., regarding colour, taste, season, emotion etc.) and interact with each other cyclically in the same way the Five Elements do: each zang organ has one corresponding zang organ that it enfeebles, and one that it reinforces.