Animal Metaphor for the Large Intestine: The Rabbit 兔
The rabbit is the animal metaphor for the large intestine. Just as the tiger has a beautiful coat, so does the healthy rabbit, and in this way the large intestine works with the lung to keep the body free from toxicity. If the large intestine cannot do this job, there will be some similarity to an unhealthy rabbit with greasy, smelly and sticky fur.
The teeth of the rabbit are growing constantly and it must eat cellulose-rich vegetables in order to continually grind them down. Cellulose is hard to digest and because of it, the animal is a hindgut digester. Most of the rabbit’s food moves through its system, reaching the large intestine and then being pushed back up into the caecum. Once there, it is broken down by bacterial fermentation and released as nutrient rich pellets (caecotropes). The rabbit then eats the pellets to gain the nutritional component that none of the other organs were able to obtain for it. The rabbit is the only animal in which the caecum and large intestine play such a role. In fact, they make up 40% of the digestive system in this animal. Rabbit feces are used to treat large intestine disorders.
Scent plays a huge role in the communication of the rabbit. Rabbits do not make sound unless they are captured. Instead, they possess glands all over their body and rub these onto stationary objects to convey group identity, gender, age, reproductive status and territory.
The large intestine is also concerned with scent. The point at the end of the large intestine channel is called, “receiver of fragrance.” The large intestine not only produces a smelly substance and excretes it from the body, but the bacteria within the large intestine make aromatic hydrocarbons which smell like pineapple and citrus. The large intestine feeds on this fragrant food and excretes that which does not have a pleasurable smell.
While the lung send out its weiqi and protects the body with the aura of a tiger, the large intestine does so in the manner of the rabbit. When a rabbit is chased, it engages in quick, irregular movements designed more to evade and confuse its pursuer. In the character of the rabbit, the large intestine allows bacteria to create these aromatic rings which break down the phospholipid layer of viral cells, which cannot repair themselves.
The gestational period of the rabbit is about 30 days. This is the cyclical time of the moon. The yangming confirmation is often described as the moon full with light.
Female rabbits’ ovaries release eggs in response to copulation rather than on a regular cycle, just as the large intestine reacts to the stimulus caused by food moving through the digestive system in order to release its contents.
One of the reasons that rabbits differ from the rodent group is that their testicles are in front of their penises. If there is large intestine obstruction, there will be testicular pain.
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