22 - 32 The Metal element's two officials: The Lung and the Large Intestine

The Metal element's two officials span the widest physical distance from each other compared with any other yin/yang pairings, which means that Metal often has to take on the difficult role of being responsible for two correspondingly quite contrasting tasks.  In the upper chest lies the Lung, Metal’s yin official, whilst the lower abdomen shelters its yang companion, the Large Intestine.  The Lung is our organ of intake, our point of first contact between the world outside and what goes on inside our body, acting as a bridge between these two worlds and the place where we receive the breath of life.  The Lung filters the air we inhale and passes it on in the blood to nourish every cell in our body.  Its yang companion, the Large Intestine, has the opposing task, being an organ of elimination, responsible for disposing of waste products. 

Those with the Lung as their guardian official tend to be more open to what they allow in, whilst those with the Large Intestine will tend to feel it is important to hold on longer to whatever they are doing or thinking so as to ensure that they only dispose of what the Metal element judges to be appropriate waste.  This gives these two guardian officials somewhat different characteristics.  The one, the Lung, more openly welcomes the world, feeling inspired by new ideas.  The other, its yang companion, is more concerned with shutting itself down until it is sure that what it will eventually judge to be waste to be eliminated really is so.  God forbid, it may say to itself, that I allow what is valuable to escape by mistake.  You can therefore say that the Lung is a slightly more adventurous side of the Metal element, whilst the Large Intestine is more cautious in all that it does.