In the Northern hemisphere we have just passed the spring equinox – our official beginning of spring – which was accompanied by an auspicious new moon. But Chinese new year began exactly one month before with the new moon of February 18th. The phase between the new moon and the full moon of March 5th forms one of the four gates of the year, when the earth element aids the transition from water to wood. Now we are in the wood phase of the year of the wood sheep.

Following on from our reflections on winter, this commentary on Suwen chapter 2 from the Monkey Press book The Liver by Claude Larre and Elisabeth Rochat de la Vallée, describes the natural movement of the spring qi and its association with the force of the liver.  As growth in the spring is dependent on the storage in the seed of the winter, so the strength of the liver is dependent on the yin of the kidneys.

SUWEN CHAPTER 2

The three months of spring are called to spring forth and display.

Heaven and earth together produce life, and the 10,000 beings are invigorated.

At night, one goes to bed, at dawn, one gets up. 

One paces in the courtyard with great strides, hair loose, body relaxed, exerting the will for life;

to give life and not to kill, to give and not to take, to reward and not to punish.

This is the way that is appropriate to the qi of spring, which thus corresponds to maintaining the production of life.

To go against this current would injure the liver, causing illnesses in the summer due to cold, through an insufficient contribution to growth. 

Claude Larre: Suwen chapter 2 is called ‘the distribution of life through the four seasons’. It is all about the process of explosion, expansion, exhaustion and contraction, as seen throughout the year. Spring is like a spring, it makes a movement, while summer conserves the same movement and gives it stability. This cycle is so important that there is no way to treat people ignoring the season in which the treatment is given. So what about the liver in relation to this question of the four seasons?

The Chinese often use an expression made of two characters to clearly indicate the beginning of a process, and also to demonstrate the tendency, or development, of the process. So spring is a time when life is sprouting. The character fa (發), to spring forth, is very expressive. The upper part represents the crust of the earth, and more generally, a sense of opposition. Below is a bow and arrow – an archer. The character represents the condition of the universe when life is ready to come forth, to spring up and to sprout. There is a tension in that movement as in a drawn bow. The initiative for life is seen to be related to the power of heaven, but the actual manifestation of life is seen on the earth. There is an earthly effect that springs up everywhere, so it expands outwards as much as it springs up, and this expansion is related to earth…

Elisabeth Rochat:  In Suwen chapter 2 we find all the great principles of the physiology and pathology of the liver. The three months of spring which are described as springing up, spreading out and developing, extend all the effects connected with the function of the liver, which is at the beginning of all movement. This function is described as making things flow or propagating, shu xie (疏 泄). In the liver this is the vital impulse necessary for the manifestation of life. The liver is a manifestation of strength and the great and visible impulse of life. In the natural world this is the power of spring and of the vegetation in spring when flowers and plants just spread out on the earth.

This strength is based in the kidneys. Suwen chapter 2, in the section describing the three months of winter, says that if we go against the current appropriate to the qi of winter, we injure the kidneys causing a weakening in springtime. This is exactly like a kind of impotence, or a lack of the power of life, which is the connection between the kidneys and the liver.

The same thing is seen in the first chapter of the Suwen. Very few organs are mentioned in that chapter, just the kidneys, liver and heart. The heart appears as the centre of human life which must be peaceful and empty like a void, so that all circulation can take place. In the description the seven and eight year cycles of reproductive life, everything is stated with reference to the kidney qi. Then, at the end of the time when a man has the power to reproduce another life with his own, the liver is mentioned. The liver qi declines because its basis lies in the kidneys, and as the power of the kidneys decreases there is no longer the strength to draw back the bow and fire the arrow. This image is found in the first ideogram we mentioned when talking of the three months of spring, fa (發).

This connection between the kidneys as the base, and the liver as a spreading out effect is found in many situations and circumstances; for example in the relationship between muscular forces and bones. The muscular forces make the connection between the bones and the flesh in order to allow movement. The kidneys provide the interior deep strength, but the liver expands this into the movement of the whole body.

During springtime heaven and earth together produce life, and this is seen in the conjunction through the liver of yin and yang, blood and qi. We will see this later, but there are two sides of the liver: the substance which is in the blood and yin, and the effect produced, which is the qi. This is the yang force which is the strength of the liver to spread out and circulate. Each of the organs has this conjunction of yin and yang but in different ways.