Chinese Medicine Net

Summer is the hottest season in a year. Every living thing is flourishing and the Yang-Qi in the body is also apt to be expelled. The book Net Jing points out that in summer one should not go to bed too early at night but should get up early in the morning, should enjoy the longer daytime, should be full of energy and avoid getting angry, thus activating the function of Qi.  This is the way for health care in summer.

Without following it one will have his heart impaired and shall be attacked by malaria or other disease in the coming autumn or winter.

As regards diet, the book Qian Jin Yao Fang says that in summer people should have less food with bitter taste and more food with acid taste to nourish the lung-Qi, otherwise flaring heart-Qi may disturb the dispersal of the lung-Qi.

The book Yang Sheng Lun also tells that in summer it is suitable for people to have coarse cereals cold in nature other than wheat and rice hot in nature, and not to have greasy food. It points out, “In late summer or early autumn, many diseases are caused by too much greasy or fried food, which has the same effect as alcohol and fruit.” The book Yang Lm Feng Qin Shu also has a discussion on avoiding eating some cold, raw or greasy food in summer.

With regard to clothing, the book Sun Zhen Ren Wei Sheng Ge says, “Clothes should be thinner and often be changed and washed in summer, because hot weather makes people sweat too much.”

The ancients had strict claim on enjoying the cool. The book Yang Lao Feng Qin Shu holds, “In summer, it is hot and so is the earth. People should avoid enjoying the cool under the eaves, in a passageway or before a broken window for fear that the evil wind should harm the bodies.”

The book She Sheng Xiao Xi Lun has the same discussion as described above. It adds, “In summer it is appropriate for people to enjoy the cool at places such as in an empty room, a pavilion by the water or under a tree. Natural coolness there is more comfortable to the body and the mind. And people will feel as if there were a piece of ice at the heart and heat in the interior will then be cleared up.”

It continues, “People should not sleep in the open air during the night, or with the body fanned by somebody else.”

The book Li Xu Yuan Jian also points out, “People should avoid being attacked by coolness in summer and prevent wet pathogens in the whole course of summer.” 

All that described above is the summary of the experience of our Chinese people in the long history and all are still instructive now.