Spleen (Chinese medicine)

In the context of the zang-fu concept

• governs "transportation and absorption", i.e. the extraction of jīng weī – and water – from food and drink, and the successive distribution of it to the other zàng organs.
• *the jīng weī constitutes a large part of the body's acquired qì. In this spirit, the Spleen is also called "root of the postnatal" – as opposed to the congenital qì, which is stored by the Kidney zàng. The Spleen absorbs jīng weī from the food after it has been preprocessed by the Stomach and the Small Intestine, and then distributes it to the whole body, especially upwards to the Lung and Heart, where jīng weī is transformed into qì and xuě. Thus, TCM also describes the Spleen as the source of "production and mutual transformation" of qì and xuě.
• *the Spleen distributes the water extracted from the food and distributes it to the whole of the body, especially to the Lung and Kidney zàng, and thus assists the body's water metabolism.
• "contains" the blood inside the vessels
• governs muscles and limbs
• opens into the lips
• houses the yì
• governs pondering