Cognitive Scaffold

Preparing your thinking workspace

arrow_back_ios_new
MENTAL MODEL · M2011

Five Softnesses / Wu Ruan

Five Softnesses / Wu Ruan
BehaviorHigh supportOrganizational Behavior
Included
account_tree

Updated 2026-07-31

Loading revision record…

INTRODUCTION

English translation pending.

CORE DEFINITION

Wu ruan names five softnesses in children: a floppy head and neck, a weak mouth, weak hands, weak feet, and soft muscles. It is attributed to insufficient congenital essence from the kidney and spleen, so bone and flesh are not properly filled out. The qualifier is that this is a developmental shortfall in raw material, not weakness acquired later through illness or disuse. Treatment fills essence and supplements marrow while strengthening the spleen, combined with rehabilitation and early intervention.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

- Deficiency map: read five soft sites as one shared shortage of raw material, not five separate problems - Treatment logic: fill essence and supplement marrow so the soft structure hardens - Timing rule: intervene early, because unfinished material can still be fired hard

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

Kidney essence supplies the substrate for bone, marrow, and growth, while the spleen transforms food into blood and flesh. When both are insufficient, the structural material needed to firm up the head, limbs, and muscles never arrives, so the child stays soft. Supplementing essence and strengthening the spleen restores the supply, and rehabilitation trains the structure as it stiffens, which is why early combined treatment outperforms waiting.

MINIMUM ACTION

In progress 0/1

Practice this model in one real situation:

Check to track your progress (stored locally)
Learning progress0%
account_treeGenealogyexpand_more
menu_bookReferencesexpand_more

Source support: Explicit

  • link
    baike.baidu.comhttps://baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%BA%94%E8%BD%AFZH · Explicit
    verified

RELATED MODELS

Related model

Two-Factor Theory

The two-factor theory (also known as motivation–hygiene theory, motivator–hygiene theory, and dual-factor theory) states that there are certain factors in the workplace that cause job satisfaction while a separate set of factors cause dissatisfaction, all of which act independently of each other. It…

arrow_forwardRelated model

Glass Walls

Distinct from the 'glass ceiling' (vertical promotion barrier), it refers to women or minority groups being isolated in certain functional departments (e.g., HR, administration), making it difficult to move laterally to core business departments (e.g., sales, R&D), thereby lacking the key experience needed for promotion.

arrow_forwardRelated model

Inertia

Inertia is the natural tendency of objects in motion to stay in motion and objects at rest to stay at rest, unless a force causes its velocity to change. It is one of the fundamental principles in classical physics, and is described by Isaac Newton in his first law of motion (also known as The Principle of Inertia). It is one of the primary manifestations of mass, one of the core quantitative properties of physical systems.

arrow_forward