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According to the principle of ascending water and descending fire, water has the property of wetting downward, which is the opposite of fire, which has the property of blazing upward. Thus, they work differently according to their innate properties. Nature and the human body maintain harmony through the interaction of ascending water and descending fire. When applied to the human body, the heart and kidney are the center of this principle. In other words, the heart above is the fire and the kidney downward is water. When the heart-fire harmonizes downward, the kidney becomes warm, enabling genuine vital functions to be active. When the kidney yin moves upward, the heart receives the nourishing yin to harmonize nutrients and blood. Thereby, physiological functions become normal throughout the blood meridians. However, in the ascending kidneywater and descending heart-yang of the heart and the kidney, the liver and lung are the major functional organs. In other words, the liver through the dispersing and raising yang functions moves water, which is the vital essence of the kidney, upward. And the lung, through the astriction?clearing of the lung and descending Qi?dispersing functions, moves the heart-fire downward. These functions are deeply related with changing seasons; thus, these functions can be explained with the ascending kidney-water and descending heart-yang of the five viscera.
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