Western medical methods tend to reflect a certain philosophical bias. They focus on the physically obvious — symptoms, or what have been called by the Chinese, the footprints of a disease. This can be expressed as the “if you can’t see, feel, or taste it, it cannot be dealt with effectively” school of thought. Chinese medicine, on the other hand, tends to come from the “if you can see, feel, or taste it, then it is too obvious to warrant any further study” point of view. To those who follow the Eastern approach, the functional aspect of medicine is seen as the most important map. The manifestations or symptoms are only red lights on the dashboard and will disappear only if proper action is taken on the functional level. Clipping the wire won't address this level.

Because of this bias, the diagnostic methodology of Oriental medicine naturally focuses on the non-obvious. These techniques are less categorized and rigid. They are defined in a poetic way and are often viewed as subjective or imprecise if analyzed by the Western medical model.

Traditionally, the pulse diagnostic process is considered both extremely accurate and very difficult to learn and use effectively in healing work. The practitioner determines qualities of the radial and other pulses to tune in to the functional or energetic levels of the patient’s being. These pulse qualities are usually described in the ancient medical texts by images. Three that are basic to Oriental diagnosis that were covered in the previous blog post are root, spirit, and stomach chi.