TCM Diagnosis
The four diagnostic methods: inspection, auscultation, inquiry, and palpation.
53 articles · Page 1 of 6
Nose Diagnosis in TCM: Reading the 'Emperor of the Face' for Lung, Spleen, and Stomach Clues
In TCM face reading, the nose governs the Spleen and reflects Lung and Stomach states. Learn what nose color, shape, discharge, and bleeding patterns reveal about your internal health.
Pediatric Finger Vein Diagnosis: The Three Gates (三关) of Infant Examination in TCM
Before children can describe symptoms, TCM physicians read the visible vein at the base of the index finger. Learn how the three gates — Wind, Qi, and Life — turn a tiny vein into a diagnostic map.
Taste Diagnosis in TCM: What a Bitter, Sweet, or Sour Mouth Reveals
An odd taste in the mouth — bitter, sweet, sour, or bland — is a quiet but telling symptom in TCM. Learn how taste diagnosis maps each flavor to specific organs and patterns, and what your mouth may be signaling about your internal balance.
Cough Diagnosis in TCM: Reading the Sound, Timing, and Phlegm to Find the Pattern
A practical guide to TCM cough diagnosis — how the sound of the cough, the time it peaks, the color and texture of the phlegm, and accompanying symptoms reveal whether the cause is wind-cold, wind-heat, phlegm-heat, or Lung deficiency.
Thirst in TCM Diagnosis (口渴): The Most Overlooked Question a Clinician Asks
Thirst (口渴) is one of TCM's richest diagnostic clues — but the key is not 'are you thirsty,' it's 'do you actually want to drink, and how much?' Learn how the desire, reluctance, temperature preference, and timing of thirst reveal heat, damp-heat, Yin deficiency, blood stasis, and Yang deficiency.
Complexion Diagnosis in TCM (望面色): Reading Health and Disease in the Color of the Face
Complexion diagnosis (望面色) is the heart of TCM inspection. Learn how the five colors — green, red, yellow, white, and black — map to organs and disease patterns, how to tell normal color from sick color, and what a changed complexion reveals.
The Ten Questions (十问歌): TCM's Time-Tested Guide to Taking a Case History
The Ten Questions (十问歌), first set down by Zhang Jingyue and refined by Chen Xiuyuan, is the classic TCM inquiry framework. Learn each verse, what it reveals about cold, heat, deficiency and excess, and how modern practitioners still use it.
Fever Diagnosis in TCM: Reading the Pattern of Heat
In TCM, the way a fever behaves matters more than the number on the thermometer. Fever with chills, fever without chills, afternoon tidal fever, alternating fever-and-chills, and low-grade deficiency heat each signal a different pattern — exterior vs. interior, excess vs. deficiency — and a different treatment.
Headache Diagnosis in TCM: Where It Hurts Tells You Which Meridian Is Involved
In TCM, a headache is not one condition — it is many, distinguished first by WHERE it hurts. Pain at the back of the head, forehead, temples, or crown points to a different meridian and a different treatment. This is the classical 'headache by location' system, combined with the nature of the pain.
The Ten Questions of TCM Inquiry Diagnosis (十问歌): A 300-Year-Old Checklist That Still Works
The 'Ten Questions Song' (十问歌) is a memorized verse that TCM doctors have used since 1746 to ensure no diagnostic information is missed during patient interviews. This article explains each question, why it matters, and how a poem written in the Qing dynasty remains clinically relevant today.