I had a bowl of Lanzhou ramen at noon today — fragrant with spice, the broth clear and bright, the taste utterly authentic. It reminded me of a question.
Lanzhou sits in the northwest of China. Like much of the western region, its staple foods are noodles and beef or mutton, prepared with generous helpings of aromatic spices. Together, these ingredients form a distinctive northwestern culinary tradition.
In fact, this flavor profile traces its origins to the Arab world. The entire Islamic culinary tradition is remarkably fond of spices — a fact that sits rather uncomfortably with mainstream Chinese medicine’s conventional wisdom.
According to mainstream TCM theory, the northwest region has a dry climate with abundant sunshine and frequent sandstorms, falling squarely under the category of dryness (zao 燥). Under such conditions, one would think yin-nourishing herbs can barely keep up — so how on earth can people consume pungent, drying foods every single day?
This brought to mind the work of the renowned Xinjiang TCM physician Zhou Mingxin on what he termed “Northwest Dryness Syndrome.” Professor Zhou’s research concluded:
Northwest Dryness Syndrome is not an independent disease, but rather a cluster of TCM patterns characterized by dryness of the mouth, nose, throat, and skin, along with dry cough, irritability, and various other discomforts. Because it occurs primarily in the northwest and is dominated by dry symptoms, it is called Northwest Dryness Syndrome.
The Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic), meanwhile, had already established this connection long ago:
The West generates dryness, dryness generates Metal, Metal generates pungency, pungency generates the Lung, the Lung generates skin and hair, skin and hair generate the Kidney, and the Lung governs the nose. In heaven it is dryness, on earth it is Metal, in the body it is skin and hair, in the organs it is the Lung, in color it is white, in tone it is Shang, in voice it is weeping, in change it is cough, in orifice it is the nose, in flavor it is pungent, in emotion it is grief. Grief injures the Lung; joy overcomes grief. Heat injures skin and hair; cold overcomes heat. Pungency injures skin and hair; bitterness overcomes pungency.
So my question is: when exactly did pungent and dry become linked? Many textbooks and practitioners today insist that “dryness” symptoms — dry mouth, dry throat, dry skin — cannot be treated with pungent-flavored herbs, arguing they would only make things drier. They even coined the phrase “pungent in nature is drying.”
But if you look back, at least from the Neijing through a long stretch of subsequent history, pungent was simply pungent — it was not drying. Not only was it not drying, it was actually moistening. So the claim that eating pungent foods causes dryness can hardly hold true for the people of the northwest — otherwise they would have dried up and perished long ago.
In the Suwen: Treatise on the Most Truthful and Important (素问·至真要大论), it is stated plainly: “For the dry, moisten them” (燥者润之). But how exactly does one moisten? Could pungency itself be the means of moistening? Did the people of the northwest discover this life-preserving method long ago and carry it forward to this day?
I welcome insight from those who know.
中文原文 / Chinese Original
今天中午吃了碗兰州拉面，味道辛香，汤色澄亮，口感正宗，不禁让我想起了一个问题。
兰州地处西北，如同许多西部地区一样，以面和牛羊肉为主食，食品在制作中都会加入大量的辛香料，构成了独特的西北风味。
其实这种风味源于阿拉伯地区，整个伊斯兰地区都非常喜爱使用各种香料，这与现在的中医主流认知非常不符。
按照主流中医的理论，西北地区气候干燥，日照充足，风沙较大，属于中医”燥”的范畴，在这种气候环境下，用养阴药还来不及，怎么还能天天吃这么多辛燥的发物？
这不禁让我想起了新疆名中医周铭心先生关于西北燥证的相关研究。周老研究认为：
西北燥证不是一种独立的疾病，而是一组以口鼻、咽喉、肌肤干燥和干咳、烦躁等各种不适症状为特征的一组中医证候。因其发生于西北地区，且以干燥症状为主，所以称为西北燥证。
而且，黄帝内经中早就提出：
西方生燥，燥生金，金生辛，辛生肺，肺生皮毛，皮毛生肾，肺主鼻。其在天为燥，在地为金，在体为皮毛，在藏为肺，在色为白，在音为商，在声为哭，在变动为咳，在窍为鼻，在味为辛，在志为忧。忧伤肺，喜胜忧；热伤皮毛，寒胜热；辛伤皮毛，苦胜辛。
我的问题是，辛和燥到底是什么时候联系上的？现在很多教科书和医家，都认为口干、咽干、皮肤干等等这些”燥”证是不能用辛味药的，因为他们认为用了会更燥，还提出了”辛味性燥”的说法。
返回去看一眼，至少在内经和内经之后的相当长一段时间内，辛就是辛，他还不燥，不光不燥，他还是润的，所以说吃辛的食物会燥，至少在西北人身上不太会成立，要不然他们早就干死了。。。。
在素问·至真要大论中，明明白白写的是燥者润之，到底怎么润？是不是用辛来润呢？西北人是不是早就发现了这种养生保命的方法并沿用至今？
望有识之士告知。
金生水，are you明白？金主辛，主燥，但能生水……
对啊，金为什么生水，为什么又主燥