Nov 20 2008
Slippery translation issues
滑 hua
It means slippery.
Like ice is slippery.
Or like summer oil coated roads in Seattle, when they get their first misting of a fall rain.
In Chinese medicine we use 滑 to describe a kind of pulse that has a certain feeling of phlegmy force. But, it is also used to describe a coating on the tongue.
Describing the slippery coating on the tongue (tongue not in cheek) is a rather slippery issue.
As with most everything in Chinese medicine (and language for that matter) it depends on context. The slippery tongue coat can be a slightly greasy, slightly glossy, almost shellacked like coating. Like the one often seen in the presentation for ban xia formulas. But, the tongue coating in dried ginger formulas is also often described as slippery, but here it is actually a bit more of a slimy coat.
Consulting the Chinese dictionary tells us that slippery also can mean glossy, as in shiny.
It would be convienant if there was always a one to one corraspondence between words, between languages, a gold standard firm and unchanging rule. But, language is, well, more slippery than that.
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