Posts on Sowonjae — Studies in Sasang Constitutional Medicine

The Hydration of Adipose Tissue — The Circuit Linking Water and Fat, and the Instrument That Cannot Measure It

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0900

1. Abstract

Body composition analyzers routinely report that total body water changes little during weight loss. This finding is more likely an artifact of the measurement model than a physiological fact, because standard bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is built on the assumption that adipose tissue contains neither intracellular nor extracellular fluid. Recent physiology has described a circuit that contradicts that assumption. The adipocyte membrane carries a channel that conducts both water and glycerol (aquaporin-7, AQP7), and the more obstructed this water pathway becomes, the more lipid accumulates. As adipocytes enlarge, hypoxia and inflammation follow, interstitial fluid increases, and within that interstitium sodium is stored without accompanying water. Tonicity-responsive enhancer binding protein (TonEBP), which senses this local hypertonicity, epigenetically represses the β3-adrenergic receptor, the central switch for lipid oxidation. Water and fat therefore do not stand in a one-directional causal relationship but form a mutually reinforcing loop. This paper organizes that circuit into four layers and identifies the points at which clinical instruments fail to observe it.

Where Does Bibaktamna Come to Rest? — Poksang and the Clarity and Turbidity of the Mind-Will

Mon, 29 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0900

After the Guk·Myeon·Gukhoe trilogy (獨行篇 × 壽世保元) · Part Four 〔暴傷 — what a single revolution inscribes upon the body〕

Opening

The three parts of Guk·Myeon·Gukhoe traced one revolution and closed it. The first part looked at the hardened guk (局, the standpoint a person occupies) from within, and found that 鄙薄貪懦 (bibaktamna—the four modes of moral degeneration: meanness, shallowness, greed, cowardice) name not those whose desires are large but those so sealed off that they cannot even see the clarity of their own mind-will. The second part watched that guk collide with another at the myeon (面, the surface where two standpoints meet), striking others through 凌·傾·賊·掩 (encroachment, toppling, plunder, concealment), yet blocked by a loosened guk cultivating itself on the opposite side, so that the encroachment never closed onto one side alone. The third part watched that collision turn one full revolution along chiran (治亂, order and disorder)—the gukhoe (局回, the one revolution)—and saw that the circle, unable to complete itself, opens instead onto the place where it turns back upon the self: 反誠 (banseong, self-rectification).

Where Does 鄙薄貪懦 Return? 局回 and the 局 That Does Not Close

Sun, 28 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0900

獨行篇 (Dokhaeng-pyeon) × 反誠箴 (Banseong-jam) · the 局·面·局回 cycle · Part Three 〔局回 — The Single Revolution〕

Introduction

Part One looked at the hardened 局 (guk—the configuration each person already stands in as a force) from within; Part Two looked at the 面 (myeon—the contact membrane where two 局 meet) that it forms upon touching another. In Part One, 鄙薄貪懦 (bibaktamna—the four names of moral self-abandonment: the mean [鄙], the shallow [薄], the greedy [貪], the cowardly [懦]) proved to be not one of great desire but one sealed off from seeing his own mind-will (闇辨, eumbyeon—the darkening of discernment). In Part Two that sealing leaked out at the membrane as the encroachments of domination, toppling, predation, and eclipsing (凌·傾·賊·掩). Yet Part Two closed on this: the encroachment does not pile up in one direction only. A flowing 局 that ceaselessly cultivates (益修, iksu) stands opposite, and their mutual constitution (互爲, howi) never permits either side to reach completion.

Whom Does 鄙薄貪懦 Strike? The Contact Membrane of the Hardened 局 and Mutual Constitution

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0900

獨行篇 (Dokhaeng-pyeon) × 壽世保元 (Suse Bowon) · the 局·面·局回 cycle · Part Two 〔面 — Where They Touch〕

Introduction

Part One looked at the hardened 局 from within. 鄙薄貪懦 (bibaktamna—the four names of moral self-abandonment: the mean [鄙], the shallow [薄], the greedy [貪], the cowardly [懦]) proved to be not a separate species of wrongdoer but one who has himself discarded (棄, gi) even the virtue he was born least endowed with; its essence lay not in the magnitude of desire but in an epistemic sealing-off (闇辨, eumbyeon—the darkening of discernment), the inability to see one’s own mind-will clearly. And Part One closed leaving a single sentence open: the hardened 局 does not live alone. So long as the very definition of 鄙薄貪懦 is a relational term (關係語)—棄禮·棄義·棄智·棄仁, the discarding of propriety, rightness, wisdom, benevolence—the moment a 局 stands, it necessarily touches another.

Whose Failing Is 鄙薄貪懦? The Hardened 局 and the Sealing of the Mind-Will

Thu, 25 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0900

獨行篇 (Dokhaeng-pyeon) × 壽世保元 (Suse Bowon) · the 局·面·局回 cycle · Part One 〔局 — Where One Stands〕

Introduction

In Yi Je-ma’s (李濟馬) account of the human person, 鄙薄貪懦 (bibaktamna—the four names of moral self-abandonment: the mean [鄙], the cowardly [懦], the shallow [薄], and the greedy [貪]) is commonly read as four kinds of inferior person, a separate species (別種) of other set against the self. Yet this reading misses the place the Gyeokchigo (格致藁, Yi Je-ma’s foundational philosophical work) assigns to them. 鄙薄貪懦 is not a separate species of wrongdoer but the name of one who has himself discarded (棄, gi—to throw away) even the very virtue he was born least endowed with; it is one possibility latent in every person—the case in which the 心地淸濁 (simji cheongtak—the clarity and turbidity of the mind-will) has tilted toward turbidity. Its essence lies not in the magnitude of desire but in an epistemic sealing-off: the inability to see one’s own mind-will clearly. This is what the present essay sets out to show from the standpoint of 〔局〕.

Adaptive Connective-Tissue Responses by Stimulus Dose and an Integrative External–Internal Model in Korean Medicine — A Literature Review on the Action Coordinates of Acupuncture, the Blade-Needle, Heated Fire-Needling, Bee-Venom Pharmacopuncture, and Herbal Medicine

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:30:00 +0900

1. Abstract

When chronic pain returns after treatment, the failure is usually attributed to the treatment itself. Connective-tissue mechanobiology points elsewhere. The pain returns because the mechanical and biochemical environment that produced it has not changed. Fibroblasts respond to mechanical load along a curve rather than a straight line. Excessive load drives inflammation, fibrosis, and neural sensitization. Insufficient load leaves the tissue sclerotic, atrophic, and cross-linked. Only an intermediate range rebuilds and strengthens collagen. The aim of treatment, then, is not to remove the stimulus but to move trapped tissue back into that intermediate range. Korean medicine addresses this curve from two sides. External treatment (外治, oechi—therapies applied from outside the body) acts locally along three axes: a mechanical axis that works the tissue directly (acupuncture, the blade-needle dochim, thread-embedding), a thermal axis that delivers heat to the deep layers (heated fire-needling), and a pharmacological axis that governs inflammation, lavage, and regeneration (bee-venom and herbal pharmacopuncture). On the mechanical axis, two variables must be kept distinct: the intensity of the stimulus (rotation, depth, gauge) and the mode of action of the tip (pressing versus cutting). This distinction separates the ordinary filiform needle from the dochim. External treatment handles local input; internal treatment (內治, naechi—therapies taken into the body), comprising herbal medicine and constitutional detoxification, addresses the systemic biochemical milieu beneath it. The six-stage roadmap arranges these along the dose-response curve. Direct evidence for the later stages and for thread-embedding is limited, and they are presented here as a hypothetical model.