Jing, Shen and Qi, these are the three Fundamental Substances from which two others derive:

Xue (blood) and Jing-ye (body fluids).

It is called Jing of the Earlier Heaven because it is anterior to the individual birth and two aspects are distinguished; one of them is the essence of the sexual energies of the parents at the moment of conception: the sexual attraction and the push of love that make a new existence possible, powerfully activate the vital energies of man and woman that are transmitted in the coupling.

It is the powerful and potential energy that from conception onwards begins to become actual, allowing the development of an individual life from birth to death.

On a more material level, the Jing is the chromocosmic inheritance for Western medicine.

But it's not just this; the parents do not transmit with their sperm and ovum only their material components but also their energetic (psychic and spiritual) components, both structural and specific to the moment in which the union took place, for example, the fact that this union took place in a moment of peace, of strong physical activity and of love will condition the development of the new being no less than the quality of their own chromosomes. No less important is the time and place where this takes place, the cosmic conjunction of that unique and unrepeatable moment, have a determining weight in the formation of the Jing of the Earlier Heaven.

It determines the physical and energetic constitution, as well as the innate personality, which in the Eastern tradition is called Karmic inheritance, which we could call an individual imprint. Thus the strength and vitality of the individual the predisposition to certain diseases, the physical structure and the level of functioning of the organs and systems,

as well as the psychic structure and character, they originate and are rooted in the Jing of the Earlier Heaven.

On the other hand, individual life draws nourishment from this Jing, it is like a kind of battery that we gradually consume, until its exhaustion, which coincides with physical death.

However, if this process is inevitable, the pace and speed with which it occurs can vary greatly,

since there is also a Jing of the Rear Heaven.

The Jing of the Rear Heaven develops after the birth of the individual and is constituted by the essence ( Jing ) that we take from outside through food, water and air.

Each of these substances is essential to the maintenance of individual life, from them, through a process of individualization of substances, we derive the energy we need to maintain vital functions. Unlike the Jing of the Anterior Heaven, that of the Rear Heaven is consumed quickly, so much so that we need to eat, drink and breathe every day, at the same time even its reconstruction after consumption is quick and easy. If there is a good assimilation of this Jing of the Rear Heaven, a minimum consumption will be required of that of the Earlier Heaven which can therefore be preserved for a long time, allowing us to reach the end of our days.

Also this assimilation will be partly influenced by the Jing of the Earlier Heaven; if, for example, I am born with a delicate and malfunctioning digestive system, my ability to assimilate the Jing of food will be unsatisfactory even in the case of a good relationship

quantity-quality of the ingested food. It will be important to avoid any waste of our vital Jing, this means not to abuse food,

sexual excesses, excesses of physical and mental work or of too much rest. The Jing of the Rear Heaven is all the nourishment we take from the external environment, therefore also the psycho-affective one. Being surrounded by people who love us and value the positive environment. They are essential elements for our psychic nourishment. The same is true for thoughts: nourishing thoughts of benevolence, love and peace will make us receptive to feelings of the same nature from others, and the Jing that is produced in this way will be extremely powerful and positive.

The Jing of the Anterior Heaven resides in the Kidneys, which are therefore the repositories of the basic physical-energetic vitality of the individual in TCM.

It is therefore not surprising that they represent a cornerstone in the diagnosis and treatment of disorders

Especially structural and chronic ones. Therefore the Jing of the Earlier Heaven rules: Growth, development and reproduction

The Jing of the Rear Heaven, on the other hand, has a lot to do with the Spleen and Stomach Organs

which in TCM, is digestion. The fact that an individual life is created denotes the Essences ( Jing ). The fact that two Essences join together denotes SHEN

MIND - SPIRITS

The sky penetrates and instructs man.

The spirits are heaven in us.

They lead us and keep us

and we must guard them.

The Shen are not of man, but dwell in him and in particular in the Heart Organ,

all life is nothing but a path under their guidance.

They are received and guarded by the newly conceived human being and then all individual life can develop.

Shens are an extremely pure and subtle level of energy vibration,

they are not part of a single man but represent a universal patrimony, they are what is common to all living beings, they are then rooted in the single individual, in the Heart,

and guide their orientation throughout their lives, that is, they allow us to follow our nature, to fulfill our destiny.

They are our profound inner spiritual guide.

If regarding the Jing the important thing is to take care not to consume it excessively in order not to shorten its duration, for the Shens the crucial aspect is:

To favor its presence within us and let them lead our lives

in a harmonious way, how to say; cultivating an Empty Heart, that is, not crowded with worries, agitations, but empty, so that everything can welcome and know. The Shen represents the infinite that, rooting itself in the individual, colors it and guides it, expressing all its psychic, emotional and spiritual needs. It is therefore our awareness, understood as the ability to know and accept things for what they are and to maintain in the cases of life, an attitude of serene lucidity and mental calm.

If the Heart is the seat of the Shen, in reality each of the 5 Organs of TCM (Heart, Kidneys, Liver and Lung) is home to its own specific spirit.

INDIVIDUAL ENERGY

When we speak of Qi as the Fundamental Substance of the individual we intend to grasp the aspect of energy that develops through the processes of assimilation of external energies:

Jing of the Posterior Heaven, elaborated thanks to the work of the Anterior Heaven in the energetic structures of the body, (Organs and Viscera or Zang-Fu) which is then spread to the whole organism through the system of Energy Channels.

Jing, Qi, Shen

They are said in Chinese medicine

The three treasures of the human being.

- Jing represents the material base, the energetic layer that allows the start and development of individual life; it is the most Yin aspect.

- Qi represents the activation, transformation and diffusion of everything that originates and derives from the Jing, and returns to it.

It is the intermediate element between Jing and Shen.

- Shen is the most subtle and immaterial aspect of all, constituting the fruit of the mystery of Heaven. It is the most Yang aspect.

The Jing creates the support for the reception of the Shens, who, in their turn turned the breath that makes possible the harmonious development of life along the individual path.

Shen and Jing are fed by the Qi produced by the body which then returns to them.

Finally, the Q i finds in the Jing the material necessary for the activation of all the transformations it performs, and on the other hand it spreads Shen and Jing to the whole organism.

Here is the time that one aspect fades into the other and their intrinsic unity is recomposed.

But when we want to talk specifically about organic Qi we mean the completion of some essential functions that we can list as:

• Move; activates the circulation, the diffusion and the physiological activities of the organism.
• Heat; supervises the thermoregulation of the body.
• To commute; it is the engine of all organic metabolic processes.
• To protect; in its surface appearance it protects the body from the outside.
• To carry; spreads vital substances throughout the body.

This organic Qi, in itself unique, can be defined in various ways depending on the function performed.

We will therefore talk about:

- Qi Defensive (Wei Qi) has the task of defending the organism from perverse energies, both climatic and psychic, and to fight them if they invade the body.

It circulates in the Tendon-Muscle Channels and at the level of the small capillaries of the skin.

It also determines spontaneous attitudes and expectations towards others and events, which are rooted in the unconscious, which are implemented in an unconscious manner;

it concerns emotional conditions (states of mind) that cannot be referred to a precise cause but that condition our attitude towards life without our realizing it.

- Nutritive Qi (Ying Qi) is intimately linked to blood, it also circulates in the Main Channels,

constitutes the basic factor for the nourishment of the body, it implements a condition both physical (food) and psycho-emotional.

It is a deep, stable energy, it does not undergo variations due to external, if not extremely aggressive, factors.

The Ying Qi has a decisive role in the way of interacting with the environment, understood as a way of learning from the experiences lived in relationships with the world.

It refers to the emotions we consciously experience, cognitive intelligence and acquired behaviors.

- Original Qi (Yuan Qi) constitutes the Anterior Sky Qi, congenital, responsible for the hereditary constitution of an individual, allows the passage from the Anterior to the Posterior Heaven, after birth it is responsible for the development of the child together with the Qi of the Posterior Heaven.

It is meant, therefore, that the Original Qi is nothing but the activated and circulating Jing in the body.

XUE

THE BLOOD

The Qi is called Xue (blood)

when he looks at his appearance

more material, solid, nutritious,

in other words the Yin.

The Qi represents the Yang aspect of organic energy and the blood embodies the Yin aspect.

Blood in TCM represents the most material and dense aspect of Qi and is connected to nourishment,

to the maintenance of the individual, to his physical and mental solidity.

For this reason its essential functions are:

• To feed
• humidify
• To give root and psychophysical solidity

when the Blood is in harmony

the Shen finds residence

Blood moves Qi

and the Qi moves the Blood

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