What Does “San” Mean?
San is the Chinese word for three. It is written as three horizontal lines stack one on top of the other. In the old books of East Asian medicine, numbers had a special importance. They organized information, and in so doing, shaped a way of thinking.
The number 1 is Dao 道 “Way”. This is the unifying principle of reality, the way that all things are in nature. Dao is that water always runs downhill. Dao is that hot air hitting cold air generates wind. Dao is that the Earth cycles around the Sun and the stars rotate precisely through the night sky, year after year without wavering in their paths. Dao is that every living thing proceeds from birth to growth, to death, and then to birth again, a part of something new.
The number 2 is to see, in any phenomena, the balance of complementary opposites. In Chinese, these are called yin 陰 and yang 陽. In physics, they are the forces of expansion and contraction, hot and cold, movement and stillness. In the sky, they are the sun and moon. In our bodies, they are movement and form. All of reality can be organized as complementary opposites. Specific principles or laws govern how yin and yang interact. By understanding these principles, we can understand the arising and dissolution of anything in nature, including health and disease. (It is, of course, not the only way to understand, but it is a very useful one.)
The number 3 is Tian 天, Ren 人, Di 地. Tian is everything above: clouds, wind, rain, sun, stars. Di is everything below: rock, soil, gravity. Ren is humanity. In this middle position, alongside humanity, also exists the wanwu 萬物 “ten thousand things”. The ten thousand things are all the living beings with whom we share this planet. They live beside us, yet humans have a special position: we stand upright between Tian and Di. We are aware of the infinite that is above us, and we can reach down into the great density below. We are the intermediaries.
We chose this name for our school and clinic to honour the importance of placing humanity correctly within the universe. We are in the middle, and because of that we are responsible to both the sky above and the earth below. Life can only exist when these two realms interact. When rain falls and seeds have a place bury their to roots, then a plant can grow. When the sun comes closer in spring and the soil softens its grasp, only then can plants grow, and only then can animals eat, and only then will life continue on its way. Human beings stand in the middle of all this. When we are upright in our stance, with two feet on the ground and a head in the sky, we can feel both worlds at the same time. In the feeling of them, we may know then how to contribute to the movements of life on this planet.
Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash
