Eight principles

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The eight principles are a core concept of traditional Chinese medicine based on Confucianism. The identification and differentiation of syndromes according to the eight principles is one of the earliest examples of critical and deductive thinking for diagnosis.^[1]

The eight principles are:

• Exterior and interior (simplified Chinese: 里表; traditional Chinese: 裡表; pinyin: lǐ biǎo)
• Cold and hot (simplified Chinese: 寒热; traditional Chinese: 寒熱; pinyin: hán rè)
• Empty and full (simplified Chinese: 虛实; traditional Chinese: 虛實; pinyin: xū shí)
• Yin and yang (simplified Chinese: 阴阳; traditional Chinese: 陰陽; pinyin: yīn yáng)