Five Flavors

The Yellow Emperor said: I wish to hear about the qi of the five grains having five flavors, and how they enter the five viscera, each in its own manner. Bo Gao said: The stomach is the sea that gathers the nutrients needed by the five viscera and six bowels; water and grain all enter the stomach, and the five viscera and six bowels all receive essence and qi from the stomach. The five flavors each return to the viscus they favor: grain with sour flavor first returns to the liver, grain with bitter flavor first returns to the heart, grain with sweet flavor first returns to the spleen, grain with acrid flavor first returns to the lung, and grain with salty flavor first returns to the kidney. Once the essence and fluids of the five grains have moved, the nutritive qi and defensive qi flow freely, and then waste is produced, descending in sequence.

The Yellow Emperor said: How do the nutritive qi and defensive qi move? Bo Gao said: When grain first enters the stomach, its subtle part is first discharged from the stomach to the upper burner and lower burner, used to irrigate and moisten the five viscera. Additionally, it divides into two pathways, which are the channels of the nutritive qi and defensive qi. That ancestral qi, which accumulates but does not move, gathers in the chest and is called the sea of qi. It emerges from the lung and follows the throat, so that it exits when exhaling and enters when inhaling. The essence qi of heaven and earth normally outputs three parts and inputs one part; thus if grain does not enter the body, after half a day the qi declines, and after one day the qi diminishes.

The Yellow Emperor said: May I hear about the five flavors of grain? Bo Gao said: Allow me to explain in detail. The five grains: polished round-grained rice is sweet, sesame is sour, soybean is salty, wheat is bitter, and glutinous millet is acrid. The five fruits: jujube is sweet, plum is sour, chestnut is salty, apricot is bitter, and peach is acrid. The five domestic animals: beef is sweet, dog meat is sour, pork is salty, mutton is bitter, and chicken is acrid. The five vegetables: mallow is sweet, Chinese chive is sour, bean leaf is salty, Chinese onion is bitter, and scallion is acrid.

The five colors: yellow corresponds to sweet flavor, green corresponds to sour flavor, black corresponds to salty flavor, red corresponds to bitter flavor, and white corresponds to acrid flavor. In all these five cases, each has its suitable flavor. The five appropriate [colors] refer to: for a person with spleen disease, it is suitable to eat polished round-grained rice, beef, jujube, and mallow; for a person with heart disease, it is suitable to eat wheat, mutton, apricot, and Chinese onion; for a person with kidney disease, it is suitable to eat soybean sprouts, pork, chestnut, and bean leaf; for a person with liver disease, it is suitable to eat sesame, dog meat, plum, and Chinese chive; for a person with lung disease, it is suitable to eat glutinous millet, chicken, peach, and scallion.

The five prohibitions: liver disease prohibits eating acrid flavor, heart disease prohibits eating salty flavor, spleen disease prohibits eating sour flavor, kidney disease prohibits eating sweet flavor, and lung disease prohibits eating bitter flavor.

The liver corresponds to green, and it is suitable to eat sweet flavor; polished round-grained rice, beef, jujube, and mallow are all sweet. The heart corresponds to red, and it is suitable to eat sour flavor; dog meat, sesame, plum, and Chinese chive are all sour. The spleen corresponds to yellow, and it is suitable to eat salty flavor; soybean, pork, chestnut, and bean leaf are all salty. The lung corresponds to white, and it is suitable to eat bitter flavor; wheat, mutton, apricot, and Chinese onion are all bitter. The kidney corresponds to black, and it is suitable to eat acrid flavor; glutinous millet, chicken, peach, and scallion are all acrid.