Chinese Organ Networks: The Bladder

This is the final installment of the first set of four articles on Chinese organ networks.  I have posted these in quick succession, so if you are interested in reading them all and are not caught up, I recommend going back to the article on the Heart and working your way through the Small Intestine and the Kidney before tackling the Bladder.  (If that sounds like an improbable route through the body, you’ll trust have to take my word for it that you’ll arrive eventually.)  

The Bladder is the counterpart to the Kidney, but whereas the Kidney was all about storing essence, the Bladder is about moving it around and transforming it.  First, though, a little bit on nomenclature.  As with all of the organ networks, the Bladder network refers to the anatomical bladder but is not limited to that structure.  The Chinese concept of the Bladder can be said to include the prostate (and perhaps the uterus) and the perineum, that muscular space between anus and genitalia.   

Each organ network is associated with a hexagram, that is a set of six stacked horizontal lines, each of which is either whole or broken.  Hexagrams are the language of the I Ching (Yi Jing in the Pinyin system of romanization), the famous oracle and symbolic alphabet--and one of the oldest books in the world.  Each of its 64 hexagrams is composed of two trigrams.  Each trigram has three lines,each of which can be either whole (yang) or broken (yin); 2 times 2 times 2 gives 8 different trigrams.  8 times 8 gives the 64 hexagrams.  To start understanding a hexagram and begin conversing with this fascinating and boundless cosmological sourcebook, it is only really necessary to have a basic sense of the nature of the 8 trigrams.  The simplest are named Qian and Kun, and are composed of three yang lines and three yin lines, respectively.  Thus Qian is the most yang trigram and represents the sky or heaven, while Kun is the most yin and represents the earth.  In this basic polarity, the sky is light, clear, masculine, while the earth is dark, opaque, feminine.  Sky rises; earth sinks.  This is really all you need to know about the I Ching to understand the hexagram called Pi, the key to the Bladder network.  

Pi is composed of Qian (the sky trigram) on top and Kun (the earth trigram) below.  Since sky wants to ascend and earth descend, this is a picture of separation: different things going different ways.  If sky were below and earth above, the tendency would be for them to unite in joyous union.  But that is not the case here.  A common translation for Pi is, indeed, “separation;” when consulting the I Ching as an oracle, Pi is considered “the biggest ‘no’ you can get” (according to Dr. Fruehauf).  How is this the key to the Bladder?  Well, the bladder is all about saying “no.”  This plays out in two different ways.

The first has to do with the surface of the body.  Our surface--our skin--is what separates us from the outside world, and our first line of defense against invading pathogens.  In the Small Intestine article we talked about the inner boundary; here, we are dealing with the outer one.  Strange as it may seem, this is the realm of the Bladder (if not the bladder).  It is the Bladder’s job to keep the surface sealed tight, telling invading bugs and unwelcome climatic influences a resounding “no” and slamming the door in their face.  

The second way that the Bladder says “no” is in regard to the watery essence discussed below, in the Kidney section.  The Kidney stored that essence, and now the Bladder has to utilize it.  This means, first of all, not squandering it.  The Bladder is the stopper that keeps jing from leaking out; in the somewhat male-centric world of classical Chinese medicine, the Bladder “just says no” to--amongst other things--ejaculation.  In women, the corresponding action would be to limit the menstrual flow and preserve juicy essence that way.  In both sexes, this is accomplished through strengthening and making use of the perineal muscles to tone and control sexual activity.  In Taoist sexual yoga (for lack of a better term; some have called it “sexual kung fu”), this practice of restraint is the foundation.  The second step, and the other major role of the Bladder, is to sent this essence up the spine and to the head.  This sounds exceedingly odd to most Western ears, but the idea of transmuting sexual energy to enhance the quality of consciousness and promote longevity is one common to other Asian cultures.  (Does anyone know if there are other traditions that advocate similar methods of sexual control and transmutation?  Anything native American?) The idea is closely related to the Indian one of Kundalini energy that lives coiled like a snake at the base of the spine and can be awoken and ascended through the various chakras to the cranium.  Indeed, the Bladder is associated with the spine and with straightness (or, yes, with erectness).  

So our picture of the Bladder is quite specific and limited in scope: it is the organ network that seals the surface, preventing invasion from without and essence leakage from within, and pressurizes or pumps a form of that essence up the spine and out to the surface.  Its action is one of cold squeezing.  With the emphasis on the spine and the surface and the obvious association with urine, who but the monkey should be the representative animal here.  Half erect (seemingly halfway between animals and human); known for playing with their pee; absurd in their half dignity or ridiculous in their playfulness.  Monkeys are a virtual symbol of immaturity: not fully evolved into human, but partway there.  And maturity--sexual and spiritual--has much to do with the Bladder.  

In terms of the sacred geography of ancient China, it is the border lands that go with the Bladder network.  During the Warring States period, these areas were ruled by semi-independent vassals who, like “monkey kings,” ran things the way they wanted to in exchange for supporting the central power in times of need.  

This wraps up the first set of four organ networks.  I shouldn’t neglect to mention that these four--Heart, Small Intestine, Bladder, and Kidney--are the four associated with the Heavenly realm, as best understood in the fire organs.  In the coming few months, I will be tackling the organs of the Human realm: Pericardium, Triple Burner, Liver and Gallbladder.  Stay tuned!  As always, questions and comments are most welcome.