Six levels

In Traditional Chinese medicine, the Six Levels, Six Stages or Six divisions is a theory used to understand the pathogenesis of a illness through the critical thinking processes of inductive and deductive logic utilising the model of Yin and Yang. This theory originated from Shang Han Lun by Zhang Zhongjing in 220 CE or about 1800 years ago.

The Six Stages

The six stages are

Tai Yang or Greater Yang
Yang Ming or Bright Yang
Shao Yang or Lesser Yang
Tai Yin or Greater Yin
Shao Yin or Lesser Yin
Jue Yin or Terminal Yin

As can be seen the names of the levels are the same as the names of the head and foot pairs of acupuncture meridians. The order is roughly the order that a disease takes as you go from health to death. In some disease levels are skipped or the order can change.

Tai Yang stage

is started when a person is exposed to an exterior cold pathogen. The symptoms are Fever and maybe small chills, aversion to cold, pain in the back of the neck and head, Tongue has not yet changed, Pulse is floating. This stage has two sub stages.
1. Attack by wind.
2. Attack by cold.
3. Water Amassment
4. Blood amassment
Treatment in this stage to release the exterior

Yang Ming stage

has high fever, profuse sweating, aversion to heat, thirst, red face, restlessness. The tongue has a red body and dry coating. Pulse Rapid, flooding and rapid. This stage is called the 4 greats
Treatment-clearing, draining

Shao Yang stage

channel symptoms- loss of hearing, red eyes, dizziness, visual distortion, headaches and hypochondriac pain, alternating cold and hot. bowel symptoms-bitter taste, nausea or retching, irritability, anxiety Tongue-Thin, thin coat pulse-wiry
Treatment-Harmonize

Tai Yin

chronic watery diarrhea, vomiting, loss of appetite, no thirst, abdominal pain Tongue-white coating Pulse-xu unless severe pain, then xu and wiry
Treatment-warm

Shao Yin

2 subsections—constant fatigue in either situation
Hot- fever, irritability, insomnia, dry mouth and throat, scanty and dark urine. This is a xu heat, meaning the treatment is nourishing yin and not clearing heat
Cold-frequent urination with clear urine, cold extremities, aversion to cold, perhaps the body has aching joints and diarrhea. treatment method is warming and supportive.
Tongue-Red if hot pattern, pale if cold pattern
Pulse-faint and weak -rapid with heat

Jue Yin

Primary symptoms-thirst, qi surging into chest with burning pain, hunger with no desire to eat, cold extremities.
heat patterns-diarrhea with burning sensation, rectal heaviness, abdominal cramps, thirst or cold extremities with interior heat
cold patterns- cold limbs, diarrhea with undigested food, vomiting, headaches on vertex, spasm
Upper heat, lower cold-severe vomiting-case relates to roundworms