How to perform the four diagnostic methods of traditional Chinese medicine?

Today, I would like to discuss with you the four diagnostic methods of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The Four Diagnostic Methods are a summary of medical issues drawn up by the famous Chinese doctor Bian Que based on his many years of medical experience. The four diagnostic methods are some methods used to diagnose diseases. Bian Que's four diagnostic methods have had a profound influence on our Chinese medicine. The four methods of diagnosis are "look, smell, ask, and palpate" that people often hear about, so let's learn about them next.

Observation

It is a method of inferring the disease by observing the patient's external spirit, color, shape, posture, and various excretions (such as sputum, feces, pus, blood, urine, menstruation and bloody belts, etc.) with the naked eye.

Auscultation

The doctor uses his hearing and sense of smell to collect materials such as the sound of the patient's voice and the smell of his breathing and coughing as a reference for judging the disease.

inquiry

It is a method in which doctors use conversations with patients or informed persons to understand the patient's subjective symptoms, disease occurrence and evolution, treatment experience, etc. as the basis for diagnosis.

Palpation

It mainly involves taking the pulse, but also includes palpation of certain parts of the patient's body surface. Traditional Chinese medicine pulse diagnosis mostly involves pressing the patient's radial artery (the Cunkou area on the wrist) with the fingers, and understanding the internal changes of the patient's illness based on a comprehensive syndrome composed of factors such as the location, frequency, intensity, rhythm and pulse wave morphology of the patient's superficial arterial pulsation.

The above four methods of diagnosing diseases are not isolated from each other, but are interrelated. Traditional Chinese medicine has always emphasized "combining the four examinations", that is, the information collected from the four examinations must be analyzed comprehensively, the essence must be eliminated, and the true must be retained, so that a comprehensive scientific judgment from the outside to the inside can be made.

Features and principles

The four examinations are intuitive and simple. They directly obtain information within the range of the senses. The doctor immediately analyzes and synthesizes the information and makes timely judgments.

From a philosophical point of view, the four diagnostic methods of traditional Chinese medicine studied by Bian Que are a kind of simple and idealistic subjective consciousness. This is mainly done by observing some changes in people's bodies to determine what kind of disease they have. This is a very useful way to diagnose diseases and is very helpful in treating people's diseases.