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Li Gao stated: Medicinals possess the properties of ascending (Sheng), descending (Jiang), floating (Fu), sinking (Chen), and transforming (Hua), as well as the changes of generating (Sheng), growing (Zhang), harvesting (Shou), storing (Cang), and completing (Cheng), which correspond to the Four Seasons. Spring corresponds to ascending, Summer to floating, Autumn to harvesting, Winter to storing, and Earth (the central season) to transforming. Therefore, medicinals with thin flavors tend to ascend and generate; medicinals with thin qi tend to descend and harvest; medicinals with dense qi tend to float and grow; medicinals with dense flavors tend to sink and store; medicinals with balanced flavor and qi tend to transform and complete. If one states that tonification is achieved using acrid, sweet, warm, hot, and thin-flavored/qi medicinals, this assists the ascending and floating energies of Spring and Summer, thereby acting as a draining method for the storing energy of Autumn and Winter. In the human body, these correspond to the Liver and Heart. If one states that tonification is achieved using sour, bitter, salty, cold, and dense-flavored/qi medicinals, this assists the descending and sinking energies of Autumn and Winter, thereby acting as a draining method for the growing energy of Spring and Summer. In the human body, these correspond to the Lungs and Kidneys. Medicinals with a bland taste exhibit ascending properties through leaching/diuresis and descending properties through purgation/excretion, serving as assistants and guides to other medicinals. Those who apply medicinals following these principles will thrive; those who oppose them will perish; even if they do not perish, they will be in a precarious and distressed state.

Wang Haogu stated: To make an ascending medicinal descend, one must know how to suppress it; to make a sinking medicinal float, one must know how to carry it. Acrid flavors disperse, and their movement is horizontal; Sweet flavors disperse, and their movement is upward; Bitter flavors drain, and their movement is downward; Sour flavors astringe, and their nature is contracting; Salty flavors soften, and their nature is relaxing. Their differences are thus significant. Clapping hands produces sound; pouring water on fire causes boiling. When these two elements combine, the symbolic principles are inherent within. The Five Flavors mutually restrain each other, and the Four Qi mutually harmonize; how can their variations be used lightly? The Bencao (Materia Medica) omits the mention of bland taste and cool qi, which is also a textual deficiency.

Medicinals with thin flavors ascend: These include medicinals that are sweet-ping, acrid-ping, acrid-slightly-warm, and slightly-bitter-ping.
Medicinals with thin qi descend: These include medicinals that are sweet-cold, sweet-cool, sweet-bland-cold-cool, sour-warm, sour-ping, and salty-ping.
Medicinals with dense qi float: These include medicinals that are sweet-hot and acrid-hot.
Medicinals with dense flavors sink: These include medicinals that are bitter-cold and salty-cold.
Medicinals with balanced flavor and qi, encompassing the Four Qi and Four Flavors: These include medicinals that are sweet-ping, sweet-warm, sweet-cool, sweet-acrid-ping, and sweet-slightly-bitter-ping.

Li Shizhen stated: Sour and salty flavors do not ascend; sweet and acrid flavors do not descend; cold nature does not float; hot nature does not sink. This is their inherent nature. However, if an ascending medicinal is guided by salty-cold substances, it will sink and reach directly to the Lower Jiao (Lower Burner); if a sinking medicinal is guided by wine, it will float and reach the vertex of the head. Only those who have penetrated the mysteries of Heaven and Earth and understood the powers of Creation can achieve this.

Within a single medicinal substance, there are parts that ascend (roots) and parts that descend (tips); raw forms ascend, while cooked forms descend. Thus, ascending and descending depend both on the object itself and on human application.