Chinese Medicine

What is the four diagnostic methods

The four diagnostic methods in Traditional Chinese medicine include:

1. Inspection;
2. Listening and smelling;
3. Inquiry;
4. Pulse taking and palpation.

The four diagnostic methods are the basic techniques for Traditional Chinese medicine. Since the famous legend of the lord of feudal state of Cai meeting Bian Que, who was a famous doctor in ancient China, we already learn that the name of four diagnostic methods. And recently I have seen another modern western version of this legend.

Bill Clinton’s Doctor “Took Close Look at Kim Jong-il”

I would like to regard this story as the applications of the four diagnostic methods. Though the hero here is from western country, the techniques he used are the typical application of the four diagnostic methods in Traditional Chinese medicine. Nevertheless, the procedure of pulse taking and palpation missed here. But it is understandable that the story was not simply about diagnosis.

Roger Band is a professor of emergency medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, who regularly checks Clinton’s health. In August, Roger Band accompanied the former U.S. president to Pyongyang and got a close look at Kim.

Actually the U.S. administration was looking for concrete information about Kim’s health after rumors that he suffered a stoke in August last year. And this time Roger Band was asked to look closely at Kim’s teeth, facial color, hair, scalp, speech, movements of hands and feet, and weight. Band was by Clinton’s side in a meeting with Kim that lasted over three hours. Based on Band’s observation, the U.S. government has reportedly concluded that Kim’s condition has significantly improved.

In this story, the lord of feudal state of Cai can be seen as Kim Jong-il, and Bian Que as Roger Band.

The-four-diagnostic-methods

Ok, the above story is just an episode, let’s get back to the authentic the four diagnostic methods, which are the procedures how Chinese medicine practitioners diagnose disease.

Inspection refers to look at the patient’s development situation, facial color, tongue and coating, facial expressions, etc.

Listening and smelling refer to listen to voices of patients, coughing, wheezing, and smell the patient’s bad breath, body odor and other odors;

Inquiry refers to ask the patient’s symptoms they feel, and the medical history etc.

Pulse taking and palpation refer to use hand to feel the pulse, or touch the abdomen to diagnose if there are any lumps.

Detailed description of the four diagnostic methods

Inspection

Inspection is to watch purposefully to the patient’s vitality, color, shape, state and tongue etc. to detect visceral disease. Through a large number of medical practices, Chinese medicine come to realize that outside manifestation of the body, especially the face, tongue and coating have a very close relationship with the organs. If the condition of yin and yang, qi and blood, and Zang-fu visceral have changed, it will inevitably be reflected in the body surface.

As the “Lingshu • Ben Zang Pian” says: “Watch the induced symptoms outside, to know the condition of Zang-fu visceral, then know what disease it is.”

Listening and Smelling

Listening and smelling include two aspects of listening to the sound and smelling the smell. It is mainly to listen to the changes of voice and breath, high and low, strong or weak, clear and turbid, light and heavy, and other changes in order to distinguish the condition between cold and heat, excess and deficiency.

Inquiry

Inquiry is asking patients or their accompanying persons in order to understand the disease, including the time, causes, course, past medical history, location, as well as lifestyle, diet and hobbies and other information related to disease, which have to be collected by the procedure of inquiry.So inquiry is one of important step in the four diagnostic methods.

Pulse taking and palpation

Pulse taking and palpation include two aspects of pulse diagnosis and palpation, which refers to the use of finger tip touch to understand the disease by touching, feeling, pressing and pushing.