A Discussion of the Traditional and Modern Characteristics of
the Spleen Pulse by Peter van Kervel Before going into details
about pulse diagnosis and pi, the translation of pi into spleen
has to be explained. Pi - 脾 – is translated in all of the
Chinese dictionaries as spleen. The functions of pi, as
presented in ‘A Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine’, are
the following: the organ that lies against the lower face of the
stomach. [The spleen, know from western anatomy, lies at the
left side of the stomach. The described organ must therefore be
the pancreas.] The spleen is ascribed the function of
assimilating nutrients from food and drinks in the stomach, to
make qi, blood and fluids. [It has to be noticed that the
Chinese stomach organ – wei – starts at the lips. From the lips
towards the cardia, the sphincter of the entrance of the stomach
is seen as the upper jiao of wei. The middle jiao of wei is the
actual stomach organ, with the fundus, corpus, anterior wall,
greater and lesser curvature and antru