both urine and faeces from fright.
The Intellect
The Intellect resides in the Spleen and is responsible for applied thinking, studying,
memorizing, focusing, concentrating and generating ideas. The Post-natal Qi and Blood are the
physiological basis for the Intellect. Thus if the Spleen is strong, thinking will be clear, memory
good and the capacity for concentrating, studying and generating ideas will also be good. If the
Spleen is weak, the Intellect will be dull and thinking will be slow, memory poor and the
capacity for studying, concentrating and focusing will all be weak.
In the sphere of thinking, remembering and memorizing there is considerable overlap between
the Intellect (Spleen), the Mind (Heart) and the Will-Power (Kidneys). The main differentiating
factor is that the Spleen is specifically responsible for memorizing data in the course of one's
work or study. For example, it is not uncommon for someone to have a brilliant memory in his or
her field of study or research, and yet be quite forgetful in daily life. The Heart and Kidneys also
naturally contribute to this function, but they are also responsible for the memory of past events,
whether recent or longpast. In particular, the overlap between the Intellect and the Mind in
thinking activity is very close, so much so that the "Spiritual Axis" says in chapter 8: "The Heart
function of recollecting is called Intellect".42(208) In turn, the memorizing function of the
Intellect is so closely related to the Will-Power that the same chapter continues: "The storing [of
data] of the Intellect is called Will-Power [Zhi]".43(209) It should be noted here that I translate
the mental aspect of the Kidneys Zhi as Will-Power although it also has the meaning of
"memory" or "mind".
The Will-Power
The word Zhi has at least three meanings:
- it indicates "memory"
- it means will power
- it is sometimes used to indicate the "five Zhi", i.e. the five mental aspects Mind,
Ethereal Soul, Corporeal Soul, Intellect and Will-Power itself.
So as to avoid confusion between "Mind" (of the Heart), "Intellect" (of the Spleen) and
"Memory" (of the Kidneys), I translate "Zhi" as Will-Power, bearing in mind that it also includes
the meaning of "memory" and capacity of memorizing and recollecting.
In this sense, the Kidneys influence our capacity for memorizing and storing data. Some of the
ancient doctors even said that the Intellect (of the Spleen) and the memory (of the Kidneys) are
almost the same thing, except that the Intellect is responsible for memorizing and the memory of
the Kidneys is responsible for the storing of data over the long term. Tang Zong Hai says: