Pathological Pulses

Question 1

● Knotted Pulse (jie mai)

Answer 1

○ Comes slow moderation and occasionally stops and comes again
■ Comes rapid and occasionally stops and comes again-> hasty
(cu)
■ Yang is abundant, the pulse will be hasty
■ When yin is abundant the pulse will be knotted for these are
pathological pulses

          ●	Knots in the string at certain intervals and run it through the fingers; every time the heart beats; 
          ●	Can skip in the same interval 
          ●	Irregular intervals= jie mai 
          ●	Really fast= hasty 
          ●	Dryness in the system 
          ●	We don’t want the heart to have any of this; never skip

Question 2

● Stirring pulse (dong mai) 1

Answer 2

○ Yin and yang mutually clash; two forces opposing each other; between middle and upper jiao or middle and lower jiao
○ Yang stirs, sweat leaves the body; when yin stirs heat is effused; when body is cold and aversion to cold, damage in triple burner
■ Triple burner= interstitial spaces and external relief of solid organs; as deep inward of outside texture of the organs and all
the way out to the pores
■ Hollow realm
■ Liquids percolate-> gas cools off-> develop trapped in cold damp-> when it heats up its hot damp
■ Stagnate- percolating down with liquid
■ Qi stagnation-> heat up
○ When rapid pulse is seen in guan but above and below without head or tail, as size of bean, probing and wavering, this is called dong

Question 3

● Stirring pulse (dong mai) 2

Answer 3

○ Ministerial fire= motorcycle riding youre fine, but once you stop you’ll feel the heat
■ Jue yin produces wind and fanning to help ministerial fire to move and circulates
■ Feels like a rapid pulse and one small position
● Slippery pulse also (bouncing up and down); stuck in 1 position
● Shao yang-> stagnates and it is too weak and light; heavy tai yin doesn’t allow shao yang to get in
○ Wiry pulse= rheum pulse/yin pulse/ decrease of yang
○ If it is stagnates-> will flare upward and below will get
colder and colder
■ Tai yin and shao yang together
■ Not a true heat; just stagnation heat because its stuck

Question 4

● Moderate pulse (huan mai)

Answer 4

○ When yang pulses are floating big and soft aka soggy, and when yi pulses are floating bug and soft rolling, when yin pulses and yang pulses are equivalent, this is called moderate

Question 5

● Wiry (xian mai)

Answer 5

○ A floating and tight pulse; for wiry is like a shape of a bow string, which does not move when pressed upon
■ Wiry is in all pulses
■ Wiry will always pop up above it
■ When arnaud says wiry= like very wiry; strong wiry
■ Normal wiry= thin wiry-> tension on rope; gets thinner like a
rubber band
■ Wiry is reduction of yang; skinner
■ Cuts into your finger
■ Narrow than a normal pulse; sharp edge that runs over it
■ Deep thin wiry weak= strength of the pulsing

Question 6

○ Tight pulse is like a wrung towel

Answer 6

■ Tension by wringing it; shortening it
■ Broadening it
■ Feel more like a slab of stone; wider than average pulse; flat surface; don’t have the edge
■ Finger on the ice cube; long enough warmth of finger will warm and be a relaxed square
■ Wiry and tight together; stone slab with an edge in the middle

Question 7

Hide- Like Pulse (ge mai); scallion stalk-> deficiency taxation pulse

Answer 7

○ When pulse is wiry and big, for wiry indicates decrease, big indicates hollow
○ Decrease indicates cold, hollow indicates deficiency
○ When cold and deficiency clash, this is hide like
○ For women, there can be downward leakage mid-gestation, and for men demise of blood with loss of semen
■ Hollow plus thick; tight feeling but feels like a bubble; bubble tea straw that you cannot collapse
■ Scallion stalk and wiry= drum skin so just bubble tea straw
■ Deficiency yang with a hollowed out vessel-> not a great
pathology
■ Chapter 6 of the jing gu

Question 8

● Slow pulse (Chi mai)

Answer 8

○ Cun position is weak and slow, weak indicates faint protectiveness, and slow indicates cold invasion of the nutritive. For nutritive is blood and protective is qi
■ Cold visera
■ Yin obstructs the blood-> slower pulse; cold of nutritive
■ Wet type= too much yin because decrease in yang; damp body type because hard to steam
● Male type
● Shang han lun type of formulas
● Shao yin, tai yin disease
■ Dry type= blood type; has less blood and dry-> more heat in their picture
● Look like you have more yang
● Women type
● Yang deficiency-> become more hollow and float because it is not suppressed by lack of water
● Jing gui

Question 9

● Weak pulse (ruo mai)

Answer 9

○ Cun position is weak and moderate, weak indicates insufficiency of yang, and moderate indicates surplus of stomach qi
■ Weak is insufficiency of yang
■ Stomach qi= earth is in the center; excess of damp/jaundice in
the jing gui
○ When shao yin pulse is weak and unsmooth, weak indicates mild vexation, while unsmooth indicates fainting (reversal) and adverse flow
■ Yang of shao yin is weak and will float-> vexation, blood is
weak and unable to anchor the yang, yang surge upwards
■ Cannot sleep because harassing the heart