Question | Answer |
White or White and Thin | Wind, cold or dampness in the exterior |
White, thin and slippery | Exterior damp-cold attack |
White, Thick and Slippery | Interior damp or cold with retention of food, or external cold attack transforming dampness |
White, thin and dry + Pale | Blood deficiency |
White, Thin and dry + Interior | Yang deficiency, extreme w/ inability to move fluids to the tongue |
White, thin and dry + Exterior (no thirst) | W-C or W-H on exterior, damage to Lung fluids |
White, thin and dry (exterior attack) | Exterior Dry attack |
White, thick and wet + Exterior | Attack by strong evil |
White, thick and wet + Interior | Interior cold damp, esp. middle jiao |
White, thick and greasy | Yang deficiency with retention of food or dampness |
White, thick, greasy and slippery | Spleen yang deficiency with damp-cold or phlegm |
White, thick, greasy and dry | Dampness with exhaustion of body fluids or heat |
White, rough and cracked | Attack of summer heat injuring the qi |
White, sticky and greasy + Interior | Dampness or phlegm from Spleen Qi or Yang Xu |
White, Sticky and Greasy + Exterior | Externally-contracted dampness at the qi-level |
White like powder | seasonal epidemic exterior heat, toxin in the interior, externally contracted heat in the triple burner |
White like snow | Spleen yang exhaustion with damp-cold in the middle |
White and moldy | Kidney and stomach yin xu, damp-toxin in the interior |
Half-white and slippery on the right | evil is half-exterior, half-interior |
Half-white and slippery on the left | Heat in the Liver |
Pale Yellow | Exterior disease penetrating the interior and transforming heat |
Yellow | Heat, Interior, or Stomach/Spleen |
Light yellow and thick | Dampness and heat in the middle burner, stagnation of qi |
Yellow and Slippery | Damp-heat |
Dry yellow | Heat-injured fluids |
Yellow root, white tip | Exterior evil transforming heat and penetrating the interior |
Bilateral yellow strips on white coating | Acute disease: evil penetrating to the interior. Chronic disease: Heat in Stomach and Instestines |
Thick bilateral yellow strips and yellow coating | Heat in Liver and Gallbladder. Strips greasy/slippery? Dampness in addition to heat |
Half-yellow, half-white | Heat in the Liver and Gallbladder |
Gray or gray, wet and slippery | Damp-cold in the Spleen |
Gray and dry | Heat from excess |
Black or black, sliuppery and greasy | Damp-cold in the stomach and intestines |
Bilateral black on white, wet | Cold from deficiency in the middle burner |
Bilateral black on white, dry | Heat from excess in the Stomach and Spleen |
White coating, black points | Exterior pathogenic factor penetrating to the interior and transforming into heat |
White coating, black prickles | True cold, False heat or True cold transforming into heat |
Black in the center, white and slippery on the sides | Spleen yang deficiency with damp-cold in the interior |
Half-white and slippery, half-yellow and black | Heat in Liver or Gallbladder |
Yellow sides, black and greasy center | Damp-heat in the Spleen and Stomach |
Black, dry and cracked | Exhaustion of the Kidney yin with fluids damaged by false heat. Or, true cold in the interior with yang deficiency. |
White in center and yellow around | Exterior evil penetrating the interior and transforming heat |
Yellow center, white around | Interior heat beginning to clear |
White, gray and moist | Damp-cold in the interior |
White, gray and dirty | Damp-cold or phlegm of long-standing |
Half-white, half-gray | cold is half-exterior, half-interior |
White and black | dampness in the Spleen |
Yellow in center, black-slippery-greasy around | Damp-heat in the Spleen |
Yellow on sides, black prickles in center | Yangming stage heat |
Yellow, dry and black in center to tip | Heat in the stomach and intestines |
White in center, gray and black around | Dampness in the Spleen |
Yellow in the center, gray around | Damp-heat with injured fluids |