“Shanghuo” Is Not “You’re on Fire”!“上火”可不是“你著火啦”！

A teacher said to a student， “Wow， you are on fire！” The student was startled and thought he was on fire. It does mean “on fire”， for example： The house is on fire！

老師對學(xué)生說：“Wow， you are on fire！”學(xué)生嚇一跳，以為自己身上著火了。on fire的確有“著火”的意思，比如：房子起火了！

But it not only means “on fire”， it can also mean “full of emotions， high enthusiasm， high-level performance”， such as：

但是on fire可不僅僅有“著火”的意思，它還可以表示“情緒飽滿、熱情高漲、高水平發(fā)揮”。比如：

Man， you are on fire！

哥們兒，你狀態(tài)真不錯！

You guys were on fire in the last quarter.

你們最后一節(jié)真是打得太棒了。

How can we accurately express “Shanghuo”？ There is such a word in English： heatiness.

究竟怎樣才能準(zhǔn)確表達(dá)“上火”呢？英語中有這樣一個詞：heatiness。

A characteristic of certain foods or stimulants said to cause emotional or physical reactions associated with temper， fever， passion， excess， or true heat. （From Chinese traditional culture and medicine.）

一種食物或刺激物的特性，據(jù)說能引起情緒或身體上的反應(yīng)，與脾氣、發(fā)燒、情緒、過量或熱有關(guān)。（源自中國傳統(tǒng)文化和中醫(yī)）

The adjective of heatiness is heaty：

heatiness的形容詞形式是heaty：

Youre heaty.

你火大（上火了）。

This word is actually a term of traditional Chinese medicine. On this basis， we can also explain the concept of traditional Chinese medicine to foreign friends：

這個詞其實算是中醫(yī)術(shù)語，在此基礎(chǔ)上，我們還可以對外國友人解釋一下這個中醫(yī)概念：

“Shanghuo （heatiness）” is a unique concept in traditional Chinese medicine.

“上火”是傳統(tǒng)中醫(yī)中一個特有的概念。

Traditional Chinese Medicine （TCM） categorises food as liang （“cooling”）， re （“warming”） and neutral—and doctors use the nature of the foods to balance the bodys yin and yang.

傳統(tǒng)中醫(yī)把食物分為涼性、熱性和中性——醫(yī)生們用這些食物的特性平衡人體的陰陽。

TCM describes heaty foods as having the ability to warm and improve circulation， dispel cold and stimulate the body. When these foods are taken in excess （when yang is greater than yin， your body will generate too much heat）， heatiness is caused， resulting in symptoms such as fever， sore throat， mouth ulcers， acne， excessive thirst， redness of the skin and irritability.

傳統(tǒng)中醫(yī)認(rèn)為，熱性食物具有保暖、促進血液循環(huán)、驅(qū)寒和激發(fā)身體的功能。當(dāng)這些食物攝入過量（體內(nèi)的陽壓過陰時，你的身體會產(chǎn)生過多的熱氣），會導(dǎo)致“上火”的現(xiàn)象，引發(fā)發(fā)燒、喉嚨痛、口腔潰瘍、痤瘡、極度口渴、皮膚發(fā)紅和易怒等癥狀。

Word Bank

startle /'stɑ?tl/ v. 使驚嚇；使嚇一跳；使大吃一驚

stimulant /'st?mj?l?nt/ n. 興奮劑

Coffee and tea are mild stimulants.

excess /?k'ses/ n. 過多的量；超過的量

dispel /d?'spel/ v. 驅(qū)散，消除（尤指感覺或信仰）