Sasang constitutional medicine

Four bodies, four tables.

Korean medicine has spent four centuries arguing that people do not share one ideal diet. It sorts us into four constitutions — and what settles one stomach can unsettle another. This is that system, written down by someone who uses it in clinic.

Written and reviewed by Jason Lee, K.M.D. — Licensed Doctor of Korean Medicine (Republic of Korea)

The four constitutions

Taeyangin

태양인

Lung-dominant · Wood

Soyangin

소양인

Spleen-dominant · Fire

Taeeumin

태음인

Liver-dominant · Metal

Soeumin

소음인

Kidney-dominant · Water

If you know Chinese medicine, two of those look wrong. The lung is metal and the liver is wood — everybody learns it that way. Sasang assigns them the other way round, and the reason is worth a minute.

The classical assignment describes organs as substance: what a thing is. Lee Je-ma was classifying something else — how energy moves in a person. Rising or falling, dispersing outward or gathering inward. On that reading the Taeyangin, despite the dominant lung, is the type whose energy pushes out and climbs, which is wood in spring forcing through the ground. The Taeeumin, despite the dominant liver, is the type whose energy settles and draws inward, which is metal in autumn pulling the harvest in.

Earth drops out entirely. Four phases for four directions of movement, and the clinical consequence is direct: the type that only disperses is brought back with gathering remedies, and the type that only gathers is opened with dispersing ones.

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