Inspection is the first diagnostic procedure by which the physician may observe the patient's vitality, complexion, physical build, head, neck, five sense organs, skin, tongue, external genitalia and anus on purpose so as to understand the condition of a disease. TCM holds that the human body is an organic whole. The exterior of the body is closely related to the internal organs. Take observation the vitality and complexion for examples, the vitality refers to the general external manifestations of life activity of the human body, including spirit, consciousness and thinking. And it is the outward sign of the conditions of qi and blood, yin and yang, or the zang-fu organs. The vitality is manifested in manifold aspects, such as eycsight, complexion, facial expressions, physical build, behavior and so on, among which the expression of the eyes is the most important. This is because "all the vital essence from the five zang and six fu organs converges into the eyes." From the observation of vitality the physician may infer the abundance or inadequacy of the vital essence, analyze mildness or the severeness of the disease and predict the prognosis of discase. It is quite evident that the observation of vitality is of an important significance in diagnosing a disease. The manifestations of vitality are as follows; being of vitality, pseudo- vitality, and loss of vitality.

The observation of complexion is a diagnostic method for inspecting the colour and lustre of the face. TCM divides the facial colours into biue, yellow, red, pale and black, also known as the "five colours", whose changes may indicates the nature and the location of a disease. Generally speaking, red complexion indicates heat syndromes; white complexion indicates cold and deficiency syndrome: yellow complexion deficiency and dampness syndromes; blue complexion suggests pain and cold syndrome, blood stasis and convulsion; and black complexion hints deficiency of the kidney, blood stasis and fluid retention. Inspection also includes observation of the physical build. By the observation of sturdiness, weakness, obesity or etnaciation as well as the posture of the movement and stillness, different kinds of diseases may be found out. And, in particular, the observation of the tongue is a unique procedure in TCM diagnosis. It is used to observe the changes of the tongue proper and the tongue coating so as to determine the abundance or decline of vital qi, tell the location of a disease, distinguish the nature of pathogenic factors and infer the degree of seriousness of a disease.

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