Chinese Medicine is an energetic medicine with origins well before the inception of modern medical science. In the absence of technical medical terminology, the theory of Chinese Medicine was often explained using metaphors and symbology. This approach was taken to account for fertility.
The relationship between age and fertility is explained by a concept called “jing”. In English, jing roughly translates to mean essence. In effect, jing serves as the body’s reserve battery. During our lives we eat, drink and breathe to nourish our bodies. If this is not enough to sustain us, it is said we then dip in to the reserves of jing to supplement our needs. Once jing has been lost, it is very difficult to replace. As someone’s jing declines so too does their fertility. Regardless of who well one may look after them self, it is inevitable that jing will naturally decline over time.
For females, jing flows in cycle of seven years. At age seven, the baby teeth give way to adult teeth. Then more pertinent to fertility, at age 14, puberty begins and so too does menstruation (which is poetically called the “dew of heaven”). At the age of 21, jing and fertility is at its peak. Then two cycles latter, at age 35, it is the beginning of the weakening of the reproductive system. Two cycles further, at the age or 49, the “vessel” is empty and the “dew of heaven” has dried up and infertility is experienced.
