News

TCM Five Elements

what is TCM Five Elements？

Our ancestors believed all things in the world consist of five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. These elements interact through generation and restriction. Wu Xing (the Five Elements), referring to the movement and change of wood, fire, metal, earth, and water, has a long-standing historical origin in China.

In TCM, the Five Elements correspond to the five zang - organs of the human body. TCM connects the Five Elements with qi, zang-organs, flavors, and colors, where they interrelate, support, generate, and restrict each other. Thus, the harmony of the Five Elements is crucial for health.

“Wu (Five)”refers to the five basic substances: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. “Xing (Elements)”has two meanings: one is order/rank; the other is movement/change.

Thus, Wu Xing can be defined as the connections and changes between wood, fire, earth, metal, water, and related things.

How does Wu Xing (the Five Elements) correspond to our body?

1.Wood corresponds to the liver zang-organ. The liver governs the tendons, so it is related to the liver, tendons, eyes, and gallbladder. As the liver and gallbladder are closely connected (we often say they “share the same mind”), they are usually regulated together, and wood - element moxa cakes are used for regulation.

2.Fire, in AiYiSheng's moxa cakes, is a regular health-care moxa cake. In Wu Xing, the fire-element moxa cake corresponds to the heart zang-organ, governing the blood vessels, tongue, and small intestine.

3.The earth-element moxa cake corresponds to the spleen zang-organ. When regulating with the earth-element moxa cake, note that it relates to the muscles, mouth, and stomach. What does “muscles”mean here? It means the spleen governs the muscles. Many people with weak spleen and stomach often have large eye bags, which is related to the spleen and stomach. The spleen and stomach are like brothers, working in coordination.

4.Metal corresponds to the lung zang-organ, which is related to the skin, nostrils, and large intestine.

5.Water corresponds to the kidney zang-organ. The kidney governs the bones, so to regulate the kidney, bones, ears, bladder, and reproductive system, water-element moxa cakes are usually used.

Why are good moxa cakes important?

We all know AiYiSheng devices are stylish and modern. While the devices matter, moxa cakes are even more crucial. Using the right, high-quality ones can double the efficacy of your moxibustion for better health.

Actually, quality consumables are always key for great products. Take rice cookers as an example: Even a top - notch Japanese rice cooker can’t make good rice from old, yellowed, moldy grains. The same logic applies here. So moxa cakes are extremely important—choose AiYiSheng’s! Our moxa cakes undergo careful selection and strict quality checks, ensuring top-notch quality.

How to Choose a Good Moxa Cake?

Look: It should be light yellow in appearance, free of stains and impurities, with visible mugwort fibers.

Touch: Feel smooth and fine. The moxa fluff is soft, moldable by hand, and no dust comes off when flicked with fingers.

Smell: Has a faint, non-irritating mugwort aroma—no musty or odd smells.

Experience: When burned, the smoke is light and not choking; the scent is pleasant and not foul.

What’s the difference between professional and household moxa cakes?

All AiYiSheng moxa cakes are pure moxa fluff compressed. Just as a good horse needs a good saddle, our high - quality devices call for professional - grade moxa cakes. The essence of moxibustion lies in mugwort.

The key difference is the extraction ratio: professional ones use a 45:1 ratio (1kg of moxa fluff requires 45kg of mugwort leaves, repeatedly beaten into fluff—known as “golden moxa fluff” in the industry), while household ones use a 30:1 ratio.

Household moxa cakes have lower specifications than professional ones, so they’re cheaper. That’s their main difference.

What is the principle for configuring moxa cakes?

Choose the corresponding moxa cakes based on the five zang-organs and six fu-organs.

For one disease condition, different lesions require different moxa cakes.

Example: For the same runny nose, when using an eye-nose instrument, different moxa cakes are chosen. Rhinitis is a spleen-stomach problem, so choose the earth-element moxa cake. A wind-cold cold is due to lung cold, mainly regulating the lung, so choose the metal-element moxa cake.

When there are too many conditioning problems, choose the root cause of the disease.

Example: For female breast nodules, lobular hyperplasia, dry eyes, poor sleep, and frequent neck, shoulder, waist and leg pain, the root cause is in the liver zang-organ, so use the wood-element moxa cake.

When acute and chronic diseases occur together, handle the acute disease first.

Colds, fevers, stiff necks, lumbar disc herniation, and diarrhea are acute diseases in our daily lives. When these occur, regulate the acute disease first.

Choose no more than two types of moxa cakes each time.

It is not advisable to frequently change the type of our moxa cakes.

Acupoint moxibustion penetration: Moxibustion each acupoint for 30 minutes, and persevere for a period of time. Don't just scratch the surface.

On which devices can moxa cakes be used? Are they universal?

Large moxa cakes (household and professional types) are for larger devices, including: Dual-head Warming Yang Device, Foot Warmer, Multi-function Foot Warmer, Seat Warmer, Pillow Warmer, Multi-function Seat Warmer, Multi-function Back Warmer.

Mini moxa cakes (only household type) are for smaller devices, including: Mini Portable Device, Multi-function Eye & Nose Device, Knee Joint Warming Yang Device.