↑ reinforcing ↓ reducing ⊥ even method.
1. Cold Invading the Channels, Joints and Muscles
Clinical manifestations: Pale or purplish-blue skin, swelling without redness or heat; areas feel ice-cold to the touch with numbness and tingling; pain worsens with cold and eases with warmth; no ulceration or pus.
Tongue: Pale body with a thin white coat, surface may be moist. Pulse: Tight and wiry, possibly floating or slow.
Treatment principle: Warm the Channels and disperse Cold, nourish Blood and unblock the vessels.
Note: moxa applicable (indirect/gentle, not on frostbitten skin itself — apply to nearby unaffected points). No deck on this site combines Cold invading channels/joints/muscles into one slide in this framing, so no pattern link is given here.
2. Toxic-Heat Stagnation
Clinical manifestations: Red, hot, swollen frostbite lesion; pus or purulent discharge from the site; throbbing, burning pain; fever and intense thirst; dark scanty urine; restlessness and irritability.
Tongue: Deep red or crimson body with prickly papillae and a thick, dry yellow coating. Pulse: Rapid and forceful, may be overflowing.
Treatment principle: Clear Heat and resolve toxicity, invigorate Blood and dispel stasis.
Note: no moxa — an active infection stage, medical evaluation takes priority. No standalone Toxic-Heat slide exists on this site, so no pattern link is given here.
Clinical manifestations: Non-healing frostbite sores that stay open for weeks; dull, fixed pain worse with pressure; persistent fatigue and weakness; pale or dusky, greyish complexion; numbness or tingling in the limbs persists.
Tongue: Pale body with a dark or purplish tinge, possible purple spots, teeth marks, thin white coat. Pulse: Deep, fine, and choppy.
Treatment principle: Tonify Qi and nourish Blood while strengthening the Spleen to rebuild circulation capacity.
Note: moxa applicable. Matches this site's Liver-Blood stasis slide — the pale-with-purplish-tinge/purple-spot discoloration is the same core marker named there, even though a deficiency component is layered underneath.
Clinical manifestations: Ice-cold limbs extending past elbows and knees; profuse cold sweating; loss of consciousness or extreme mental apathy; ashen-white or greyish complexion; blue or purple lips and fingernails.
Tongue: Pale, moist, flaccid body with a thin white slippery coating. Pulse: Minute, on the verge of disappearing.
Treatment principle: Rescue devastated Yang from collapse, tonify Qi, warm the interior. This is a medical emergency — call emergency services immediately.
Note: moxa strongly indicated throughout (all points). Direct match — this site's Heart-Yang-Collapse slide is explicitly badged an Emergency pattern and names cold limbs, cyanosis of lips, greyish complexion and coma exactly as here.