Binding syndrome is a crucial pathogenesis category in traditional Chinese medicine for understanding the occurrence, development, and outcome of complex diseases. Based on discussions in Huangdi Neijing, Shanghan Zabing Lun, and later medical practitioners on chest binding, zhengjia, abdominal mass, goiter and tumors, phlegm nodules, phlegm-stasis binding, and chronic disease invading the collaterals, this study adopts literature induction, conceptual analysis, and theoretical integration to trace the developmental trajectory of "binding" from its lexical meaning to pathogenesis, disease patterns, and therapeutic methods. It clarifies the theoretical connotation and clinical boundaries of binding syndrome as a dynamic and complex pathogenesis model, and reconstructs its occurrence basis, evolutionary links, and principles of syndrome differentiation and treatment. Binding syndrome is summarized as a dynamic pathological process in which pathogenic factors aggregate from a dispersed state and become fixed from a mobile state, thereby obstructing the movement of qi, blood, and body fluids, and gradually forming an interwoven state of qi binding, phlegm binding, stasis binding, and deficiency binding. In terms of zang-fu pathogenesis, liver failing to convey and disperse marks the beginning of qi binding, impaired spleen transportation and transformation provides the source of phlegm binding, unsmooth blood circulation serves as the pivot of stasis binding, and kidney essence deficiency with insufficiency of healthy qi constitutes the root of deficiency binding. Morphologically, binding syndrome can be classified into invisible binding and visible binding, with disease locations involving the zang-fu organs, meridians and collaterals, body, and orifices. The theory of binding syndrome helps to integrate functional disorder, the generation of pathological products, the formation of visible lesions, and prolonged disease with difficult recovery owing to healthy qi deficiency. It provides a theoretical basis for staged identification, judgment of disease nature, and therapeutic strategies aimed at dispersing binding and removing stagnation in complex disorders.

Hepatolenticular degeneration is an autosomal recessive hereditary disease characterized by copper metabolism disorder, which affects the liver, kidneys, and brain. In traditional Chinese medicine, this disease is closely associated with dysfunction of the "liver-kidney-brain" axis. The liver, kidney, and brain form a physiological whole through the mutual transformation and distribution of essence and blood, the coordination of qi transformation, and the connection of meridians and collaterals. This article explores the pathogenesis of hepatolenticular degeneration based on the "liver-kidney-brain" axis. The deficiency of liver and kidney essence leads to the malnutrition of brain marrow, which is the fundamental cause of the disease. The internal accumulation of copper toxins generates dampness-heat and phlegm-stasis, which are the key factors causing the disease. In view of the characteristics of this disease with deficiency in nature and excess in superficiality, the principle of dynamic treating both manifestation and root cause of disease is established: treating the manifestation starts with eliminating copper and detoxifying, combined with clearing heat and dampness, and removing phlegm and stasis; treating the root cause follows the concept of the same origin of yi and gui, emphasizing the simultaneous treatment of liver and kidney to nourish the brain marrow. Throughout the treatment process, copper elimination (treating the symptoms) should be taken into account, and stratified measures should be applied based on the primary focus of the lesion: either treating the liver as the main focus and supplemented by tonifying the kidney and filling the marrow; or treating the kidney as the main focus and assisted by regulating the liver and nourishing the brain; or co-regulating the three zang-organs of liver, kidney, and brain, to achieve the therapeutic goal of eliminating pathogenic factors and restoring normal functions, and combining tonification and purgation.