9-Type Constitution Classification

This refers to a constitution where an individual's yin and yang, qi and blood, physical features, and mental characteristics are all in a balanced state.

Physical features:
The complexion is subtly reddish-yellow, clear, and moist. Neither fat nor thin, but just right.

Common manifestations:
Always full of energy, willing to try new things and accept challenges.

Psychological characteristics:
Optimistic and easy-going, rarely gets angry, with stable mental resilience.

Tendency to develop illness:
Rarely gets sick, hardly visits hospitals or clinics throughout the year. Occasionally gets minor illnesses like colds, but recovers quickly without affecting learning, work, or daily life.

Adaptability to the external environment:
Strong adaptability.

This mainly refers to a constitution characterized by long-term emotional stagnation and qi stagnation due to congenital inheritance, or mental stimulation and extreme fear, resulting in introverted instability, depression, fragility, and sensitivity.

Physical features:
More commonly seen in thin-bodied individuals.

Common manifestations:
Introverted instability, depression, fragility, and sensitivity, with poor adaptation to mental stimuli and frequent feelings of melancholy.

Other symptoms:
Fullness or wandering pain in the chest and rib area, frequent sighing or belching, sensation of foreign body in the throat, breast tenderness, poor sleep, decreased appetite, easy startle response, forgetfulness, excessive phlegm, dry stools, normal urination, pale red tongue with thin white coating, and thin and wiry pulse.

Psychological characteristics:
Introverted instability, depression, fragility, and sensitivity.

Tendency to develop illness:
Prone to conditions like depression, visceral restlessness, hysteria, insomnia, plum pit qi, and panic disorders.

Adaptability to the external environment:
Poor adaptation to mental stimuli, sensitive to rainy weather.

This mainly refers to a constitution characterized by congenital weakness, postnatal neglect, or qi deficiency after illness. Factors such as weak family members, parental weakness during pregnancy, premature birth, improper artificial feeding, picky eating, or age-related decline can lead to features such as insufficient vitality, weak energy, or low organ function.

Physical features:
Muscles are not well-developed.

Common manifestations:
Usually speaks softly, shortness of breath, easily fatigued limbs, low spirits, prone to sweating, pale red tongue with swollen body and tooth marks on the edges, weak and slow pulse.

Other symptoms:
Yellow or pale complexion, dull eyesight, pale lips, dull hair, dizziness, forgetfulness; normal bowel movements or occasional constipation without hard stools, or loose stools with incomplete evacuation; normal or slightly frequent urination.

Psychological characteristics:
Introverted, emotionally unstable, timid, risk-averse.

Tendency to develop illness:
Prone to colds due to weak constitution, slow recovery after illness, susceptibility to conditions like prolapse of internal organs and asthenia.

Adaptability to the external environment:
Intolerance to cold, wind, and heat pathogens.

This primarily refers to a constitution characterized by congenital deficiency or post-illness yang deficiency. Factors such as a family history of cold symptoms, weak parents during pregnancy, advanced maternal age, premature birth, habitual exposure to cold, prolonged illness with yang deficiency, or age-related decline can lead to insufficient yang qi, with predominant features of cold deficiency.

Physical features:
Often overweight with a pale complexion, muscles not well-developed.

Common manifestations:
Tends to feel cold, cold hands and feet, prefers hot food and drinks, low spirits, excessive sleep, pale and tender tongue with tooth marks on the edges, moist tongue, slow and weak pulse.

Other symptoms:
Soft and pale complexion, dull eyes, pale lips, hair loss, prone to sweating, frequent clear urination, loose stools.

Psychological characteristics:
Often calm and introverted.

Tendency to develop illness:
Prone to cold-related conditions, susceptible to phlegm and fluid retention.

Adaptability to the external environment:
Typically intolerant to cold, withstands summer but not winter, prone to dampness.

This primarily refers to a constitution characterized by congenital endowment or prolonged residence in damp areas, a fondness for fatty and sweet foods, or long-term alcohol consumption, resulting in a constitution with predominant features of damp-heat accumulation.

Physical features:
May have a tendency towards overweight or leanness.

Common manifestations:
Often oily skin, frequent bitterness and dryness in the mouth, feeling heavy and lethargic, prone to acne and blackheads, tongue tends to be reddish with a greasy yellow coating.

Other symptoms:
Varied body weight, restlessness and fatigue, red eyes, short and red stools, men may experience dampness in the scrotum, women may have increased vaginal discharge, pulse often slippery and rapid.

Psychological characteristics:
Tendency towards irritability and anger.

Tendency to develop illness:
Prone to conditions such as acne and jaundice.

Adaptability to the external environment:
Struggles with damp environments or high temperatures, especially during the late summer and early autumn when the climate is damp and hot.

This mainly refers to a constitutional state characterized by a potential tendency for impaired blood circulation or blood stasis due to congenital endowment, postnatal damage, stagnation of depressive qi, or prolonged illness, manifesting a series of external signs.

Physical features:
Mostly lean individuals.

Common manifestations:
Often dull complexion, dark skin or pigmentation, prone to bruising, easy pain, lips appear dark or purple, tongue may have dark spots or patches of bruising, varicose veins under the tongue, pulse may be fine and rough or knotted.

Other symptoms:
Dark circles around the eyes, dullness in the nose area, hair easily falls out, dry skin, tendency to bleed or vomit blood; in women, often experience painful menstruation, irregular menstruation, or clotting in menstrual blood with dark purple color or excessive bleeding.

Psychological characteristics:
Quick-tempered, easily irritable, forgetful.

Tendency to develop illness:
Prone to conditions such as bleeding, stroke, and angina.

Adaptability to the external environment:
Intolerant to cold and wind.

This mainly refers to a specific constitution characterized by physiological dysfunction and reduced self-regulation ability due to environmental, dietary, or drug factors on the basis of genetic inheritance, leading to increased reactivity to allergens and other symptoms. Typically, it manifests as allergic reactions, genetic defects, or primary immune deficiencies.

Physical features:
No specific features, may include deformities or congenital physiological defects.

Common manifestations:
Genetic diseases exhibit vertical inheritance, congenital or familial traits; fetal transmission diseases involve maternal influence on fetal individual growth, development, and related disease characteristics.

Psychological characteristics:
Varies according to individual constitution.

Tendency to develop illness:
Individuals with allergic constitution are prone to drug allergies and hay fever; genetic diseases include hemophilia, congenital idiocy, and conditions described in traditional Chinese medicine as "wuchi" (five delays), "wiruan" (five softness), and "jielou" (skull closure); fetal transmission diseases include fetal coldness, fetal heat, fetal fright, fetal obesity, fetal eclampsia, and fetal weakness.

Adaptability to the external environment:
Poor adaptability, as individuals with allergic constitution cannot adapt to climate and foreign substances well, leading to chronic illnesses.

This mainly refers to a constitution characterized by insufficient congenital essence, prolonged illness leading to blood loss, excessive indulgence depleting essence, and excessive labor damaging yin. It may also occur due to parental weakness during conception, advanced maternal age during pregnancy, premature birth, or a history of bleeding disorders, resulting in deficiencies of bodily fluids, essence, and blood, with symptoms primarily related to organ malnourishment and internal heat.

Physical features:
Thin and tall physique.

Common manifestations:
Feeling of heat in the hands and feet, frequent dryness of the mouth and throat, slight nasal dryness, craving for cold drinks, dry stools, red tongue with little saliva and thin coating, and thin and stringy pulse.

Other manifestations:
Flushed complexion with heat sensation, dryness of the eyes leading to blurry vision, slightly dry and red lips, relatively dry skin prone to wrinkles, dizziness, tinnitus, poor sleep quality, and short and difficult urination.

Psychological characteristics:
Impatience, extroversion, hyperactivity, and talkativeness.

Tendency to develop illness:
Prone to conditions related to yin deficiency and heat, especially after illness.

Adaptability to the external environment:
Generally intolerant to heat, withstands winter better than summer, and intolerant to dryness.

This primarily refers to a constitution characterized by congenital deficiency or excessive consumption of fatty and sweet foods, resulting in the accumulation of water and fluids, phlegm dampness, and heavy stagnation as its main features.

Physical characteristics:
Obesity with a soft and bloated abdomen.

Common manifestations:
Excessive facial oiliness, sticky and profuse sweating, chest tightness, and excess phlegm.

Other manifestations:
Dull yellow complexion, slightly swollen eyelids, easy fatigue, sticky or sweet sensation in the mouth, discomfort from heaviness in the body, preference for fatty and sweet foods, normal bowel movements, scanty or slightly turbid urine, enlarged tongue with a thick white coating, and slippery pulse.

Psychological characteristics:
Mild temperament, stability, humility, tolerance, and patience.

Tendency to develop illness:
Prone to conditions such as diabetes, stroke, and angina.

Adaptability to the external environment:
Poor adaptation to the rainy season and damp environments.