Hi Zhen,
Xuan Mai is written in Chinese as 弦脉,Ru Mai as 濡脉,while Dai Mai as 代脉。
The Xuan Mai, translated as string-taut or wiry pules, is characterized by straight and long, feels like a string of a bow, or a violin; while the Jin (紧脉), translated as tense pulse, would feel like a stretched but twist rope. The former would have the bouncing force, while the latter would have no such bouncing force. Rather, you would feel the kind of rigidity under your finger, or to use the Chinese word, it's a kind of "dead rigidity".
The indications of the two are also different, I think you may review a bit and see the difference.
Personally I think the radical difference for the indication is that the Xuan Mai is not indicated to cold syndrome while the tense pulse, is not indicated to the disorders of liver.
To learn pulse, it's very important to read very carefully about the description of how the pulses feel like, and I think it could be a part for exam.
Personally, when I started to learn the pulse, I read over and over on the descriptions in regard to how the pulses feel like. One cannot miss even a small detail. E.g., Xuan Mai, it says this type of pulse should be long and straight, so it's not short, and it's not twisted and neither deviated, right?
Then you should try to feel the bouncing force of it.
For sure to learn the pulse diagnosis, one does need some talents, even some TCM physicians in China couldn't manage to learn the pulse diagnosis well in their life long practice. So, it's ashame that you couldn't use this technique to find more information on the patients' conditions and to make a complete diagnosis in terms of traditional Chinese medicine.
Of course you could practice traditional Chinese medicine without pulse diagnosis, but it's not complete anyway. |