The word "Tibetan elephant" first appeared in Su Wen's Six Stories of Tibetan Elephants. Zang refers to the internal organs hidden in the body, and Xiang refers to the explicit physiological and pathological phenomenon. Tibetan elephants include various visceral entities and various signs of their physiological activities and pathological changes. Zangxiang theory is a theory that studies the physiological functions, pathological changes and their relationships of various organs of the human body.

The theory of Tibetan elephant has three main contents:

1. visceral physiology and pathology.

The so-called zang-fu organs include heart, lung, spleen, liver and kidney, six fu-organs such as stomach, gallbladder, small intestine, large intestine, bladder and triple energizer, and strange fu-organs such as brain, marrow, bone, pulse, gallbladder and fetus. These zang-fu organs have different physiological and pathological features from those of qi transverse fu-organs, which is the focus of Zangxiang theory.

2. The relationship among viscera, tissues, five senses and nine orifices.

Because the human body is an organic whole, not only the five zang-fu organs are closely related in physiology and pathology, but also the five zang-fu organs are closely related to body tissues such as fur, muscles, pulse and bones, as well as the five senses and nine orifices such as eyes, ears, nose, mouth, tongue and front and back yin.

3. Physiology and pathology of body fluid, qi and blood, essence and their relationship with viscera.

Body fluid, qi and blood, and essence are all basic substances that constitute the human body. Their generation, operation and distribution can only be accomplished through different functional activities of zang-fu organs, and all functional activities of zang-fu organs depend on body fluid, qi and blood and essence as material basis.