QiLifeWhich TCM pattern matches your symptoms?
Twenty-eight questions across eight patterns, ranked by fit rather than a single verdict. Free, no email, results you can act on.
28 questions · about 5 minutes · 8 dimensions · no account needed · updated
This one works differently from a constitution test. Instead of asking who you are, it asks what is happening — and it does not give you a single answer, because a symptom almost never maps to one pattern on its own. You get a ranked list with a fit score for each, which is a more honest reflection of how pattern differentiation actually works.
The eight patterns covered here are the ones that account for most everyday presentations: Qi deficiency, Qi stagnation, Yin deficiency, Yang deficiency, damp-heat, cold-dampness, phlegm-dampness, and blood stasis. Each is scored against your answers and returned as a percentage fit.
How to read a ranked result
A fit score of 80 percent or more means the answers align strongly with that pattern. Between 50 and 80 is a reasonable match. Below 50, treat it as background rather than a result. You will usually see two or three patterns in the same range, and that overlap is the informative part.
Where two patterns sit close together, the decoder tells you what separates them and which to treat first. Damp-heat versus cold-dampness is the classic fork: one runs hot with a bitter taste, the other runs cold with loose stools, and they need opposite responses. Getting that direction wrong is the most common way self-care goes nowhere.
What this is good for
It works best for a pattern that has been sitting there for weeks — a persistent tendency rather than a single bad day. Bring your answers to your practitioner if you have one; the ranked output is a much more useful thing to show a clinician than a single label.
It is deliberately not built for acute symptoms. If something is severe, new, or worrying, do not run a quiz — get it assessed. Nothing here can tell you whether what you are experiencing needs attention, and no self-assessment should ever be used to decide that.
Why patterns overlap
Because they do in practice. The same symptom means different things depending on context: tiredness in someone who sleeps badly and someone who does not points in different directions, and the decoder asks about that surrounding context rather than the symptom alone.
This is also why a single-question approach fails. The pattern sits in combinations — most real presentations are two or three patterns held together, which is exactly what a ranked score is designed to show.
Questions people ask
How is this different from the constitution test?
The constitution test describes your baseline and is meant to be taken periodically. This one describes a current pattern, takes symptoms rather than traits, and returns a ranked list. People usually start with the constitution test and use this one when something specific is going on.
What if several patterns fit equally well?
That is the normal case, not a failure of the quiz. The decoder gives you the separating question for the closest pairs so you can tell which is actually dominant, and lists the ones scoring below 50 percent so you can discount them.
Can I use this instead of seeing a doctor?
No. This is an educational self-assessment. It cannot examine your tongue, take your pulse, order tests, or know your medical history. Use it to understand a traditional framework and to have a better conversation with a clinician — not as a substitute for one.
Is this a diagnosis?
No, and the result says so. Pattern differentiation in Chinese medicine is a traditional framework for describing patterns of experience; it is not a biomedical diagnostic category and it does not establish that you have or do not have any condition.
Patterns this assessment connects to
Each pattern page below explains what the pattern is, the signs that suggest it, and which acupoints, foods and teas the library lists against it.
Damp-Heat
Damp-heat combines sluggish fluid with excess heat — the pattern behind breakouts, burning sensations and a bitter taste.
Cold-Dampness
Cold-dampness is dampness that has been chilled — heaviness plus cold, which is what a weak digestion produces when cold food meets it.
Qi Stagnation
Qi stagnation is Qi that cannot move — emotion, breath and digestion pile up, and the pressure shows up in the chest, throat or mood.
Blood Stasis
Blood stasis describes circulation that has slowed or become obstructed — dark complexion, fixed pain and a purple or dark tongue.
Phlegm and Dampness
Phlegm and dampness describe fluids that transform slowly, leaving the body heavy, coated and prone to congestion.
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