When the pulses are rapid, moving, and faint, one should not induce sweating. Inducing sweating will lead to difficulty in defecation, dryness in the abdomen, stomach dryness, and irritability. Although the symptoms may appear similar, their root causes are fundamentally different.

bubble_chart Note

• In general, when diseases present with rapid and moving pulses, it indicates an excess condition, and sweating can be induced.
• However, if the pulse feels faint upon palpation, it signifies a false exterior excess with true interior deficiency. Sweating should not be induced.
• If sweating is mistakenly induced, it will damage the body fluids, leading to dryness in the abdomen, difficulty in defecation, stomach dryness, and irritability. Although the symptoms resemble those of stomach excess heat accumulation in the Yangming channel, the root cause is actually due to inducing sweating in a deficient condition, resulting in fluid depletion and deficiency dryness in the Yangming channel.
• Hence, it is said: the symptoms may appear similar, but their root causes are fundamentally different.

bubble_chart Collected Annotations

• Cheng Zhi said: "Rapid and moving pulses indicate heat, while faint pulses indicate deficiency. Inducing sweating depletes body fluids, leading to difficulty in defecation, abdominal dryness, stomach dryness, and irritability. Although these symptoms resemble those of interior heat in the Yangming channel, their root causes differ in terms of deficiency and excess."
• Zhang Zhi-cong said: "Rapid and moving pulses belong to the yang category, while faint pulses belong to the yin category. When the pulses are rapid, moving, and faint, it means that in the three regions of the pulse, either rapid and moving pulses are present, but upon palpation, they feel faint. In such cases, sweating should not be induced. Inducing sweating will deplete body fluids internally, leading to difficulty in defecation; the outward expulsion of water qi will cause abdominal dryness; and the upward steaming of fire heat will result in stomach dryness and irritability. The similarity in symptoms refers to the dryness pattern that appear after sweating. The difference in root causes lies in the fact that rapid and moving pulses belong to yang, while faint pulses belong to yin, indicating the presence of yin, yang, deficiency, and excess."