Qi Adequacy in the meridians

There are discussion of excess, but overall, even with deficiency the key is that Qi is a concept of relativity. Something is only deficient in relation to something else, not purely within itself. Accordingly there can be fullness, but only in relation to other factors/channels, etc. In short, what this means is that the theory can generally only be discussed in detail with more isolated/specific examples, not very easily in broad generalizations.

An example of an excess might be something like liver fire. But to continue the point above, while you would be likely to drain the liver system to some degree to treat this condition, you would have to take all factors into consideration. So is there a deficiency below this making this system seem over active? Are there other systems that are active, or other systems that might hindered/damaged by too strongly clearing heat from the liver. Everything has to be tailored to the individual, so broad discussions get difficult.

That’s correct. You can see fairly quickly how limited your overall diagnostic approaches to just the five element theory can get confusing and limit your ability to look systemically at times. While there certainly are practitioners/systems that use the five element theory exclusively or at least heavily, I personally find using the broader TCM diagnoses more systemically valid. On average, however, I don’t limit myself to any one system of diagnostic theory.