Information on Traditional Chinese Medicine

In ancient Chinese civilization, astronomy, mathematics, agriculture and medicine were the four advanced sciences. Maybe it is improper to call them sciences, but they were really the four complete systems of knowledge and skills developed in ancient China. Among them, medicine is the only one that has never been replaced by Western sciences and still plays an important role in protecting the health of Chinese people.

Then there is a question. How traditional Chinese medicine, a classic system of medicine without any connection with modern sciences, can still exist in spite of the fact that modern medicine can basically meet the need of healthcare? Is traditional Chinese medicine a science or just a collection of experience? Does it still have the possibility and space to further develop itself along its own orbit? Is there any possibility that it may be replaced by modern medicine? These are the questions frequently being asked.

Recognition of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Among the Chinese people, few have never visited any traditional Chinese doctors or tried any traditional remedies in their life. Even those who are healthy and have no chance to try medicine know traditional Chinese medicine. Though having no experience themselves, they would advise their relatives and friends to use traditional Chinese medicine to solve their health problems. There are some people who believe that traditional Chinese medicine is not scientific. But when they are ill and cannot be helped by modern medicine, they would change their mind and turn to traditional Chinese medicine.

These phenomena are quite normal. Think about the films Beijing People in New York and Scraping. It will be helpful for you to understand these phenomena. In Beijing People in New York, A-chun was accused of maltreating child by her ex-husband when she asked traditional Chinese doctor to treat her child who suffered from arthralgia. The similar case was also shown in Scraping in which the father was deprived of the guardianship of his son because he used scraping therapy (a folk remedy performed by scrape the chest or back with a coin or a piece of china in order to include subcutaneous bleeding) to treat his son.

Now Western medicine is the basic method used to deal with medical problems. But why Chinese people still believe traditional Chinese medicine and take Chinese herbal preparations? Why Chinese people could not understand the attitude of the westerners toward Chinese medicine shown in these films? The reason is that in the mind of Chinese people, traditional Chinese medicine is a system of medicine and can cure diseases. The value of such recognition is significant. Without such recognition, traditional Chinese medicine cannot continue to exist under the condition that modern sciences has dominated over all the fields of knowledge and the thinking of common people. Then there pops up a question deserving further consideration. That is why Chinese people can recognize traditional Chinese medicine when all the people take modern sciences as the foundation of knowledge structure and worship "science" in their hearts.

The common explanation about why Chinese recognize Traditional Chinese Medicine is that China is large both in territory and population. When Western medicine was introduced into China, it, for a long time, could not meet the need of healthcare in vast rural areas and remote places. That is why Traditional Chinese Medicine is always resorted to as a supplementary remedy. Another reason about such a phenomenon commonly accepted is that Chinese people are conservative and are accustomed to traditional practice.

However the reality facing us today is that the price of Chinese medicine is in no way lower than that of Western medicine. Obviously economy cannot fully explain such a tendency. One important point has to be noted. That is people usually turn to Traditional Chinese Medicine at any cost when Western medicine has failed to solve their sufferings.

Undoubtedly the secret based on which Traditional Chinese Medicine continues its progress is not backwardness. Because the more advanced diagnostic instruments the modern medicine use, the more diseases it can not cure. The methods of physics, chemistry and operation are efficient enough to change the natural state of the human body, however, the diseases caused by them are becoming more and more complicated. Such shortcomings of modern medicine have further enlarged the space of Traditional Chinese Medicine to demonstrate its effect in restoring the natural state and functions of the human body.

The Thinking Style of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Early in the antiquity, there was definite division of labor and specialized knowledge and skills for different fields. However, in terms of the knowledge related to human beings themselves, the situation was different. Under the influence of the idea that things could be understood by means of making comparison according to their structures if they are near and according to their shapes if they are far away, the sages in ancient times believed that the heaven and the earth have formed a big universe while the human body itself has constructed a small universe. The big universe and the small universe communicate and interact with each other. The idea in the Daoism that all things must accord with the natural world was also based on the comparison between all things on the earth and the big universe in terms of their origination, development and death. In Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor's Canon on Medicine), the idea of cultivating health in the four seasons was undoubtedly influenced by the theory of Daoism. According to the idea of cultivating health in the four seasons, all things begin to sprout in spring, grow in summer, ripen in autumn and store un in winter.

Such an analogy was used quite often in the medical books compiled in different dynasties in Chinese history, especially in establishing the theory and developing the therapeutic methods of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Awareness of analogy used in Traditional Chinese Medicine is the key to understand Traditional Chinese Medicine.

In the theory of zang xiang (visceral and their manifestations, i.e. the heart is a monarch-like organ, the spleen is an granary-like organ, the liver is a general-like organ, the gallbladder is a judge-like organ), for example, the functions of the viscera are compared to the system of court. In the composition of a formula, the herbs used are categorized into four groups, monarch, minister, assistant and guide. In the theory of Channels and Collaterals, the circulation of the blood and qi is compared to the flow of water in the rivers and lakes in the natural world. In pathology and diagnostics, it is believed that there must be an extra space inside the body when pathogenic factors invade the body. The way to remove pathogenic factors out of the body is to take measures to fill up this extra space. The therapeutic method for strengthening the healthy-qi and cultivating the primordial-qi and the therapeutic method for expelling pathogenic factors were just developed on the basis of such an idea. Diseases troubling human beings were compared to the flooding due to blockage of the rivers with silt. That was how the theory and methods for relieving stagnation and promoting digestion were developed. In pathology, chen xiang (ligmum aquilariae resinatum) was believed to be able to guide the blood and qi to flow downwards because it would not float when put into water. However flowers were thought to be able to direct the blood and qi to flow upwards because they grew on the top of the plants. In fact, many ideas in Traditional Chinese Medicine concerning the cause and effect can be explained by analogy.

In ancient times, doctors summarized their way to analogize different things in thinking in such a way that doctors perceived by intuition and sense. The mystery of Traditional Chinese Medicine theory, the flexibility of therapeutic methods and the perception of doctors all can be explained by analogy. In other words, the charm in Traditional Chinese Medicine is just conceived in such a perceivable but inexpressible sense. Liang Qichao, a great scholar in the period of modern times (1873-1929) said: "They mystery of perceivable but inexpressible sense can be found in all fields of Chinese studies. Such a mysterious sense obviously hinders the enlargement of knowledge." The example taken by Liang was Traditional Chinese Medicine. Compared with other studies and technologies in ancient Chinese science (such as astronomy and mathematics), Traditional Chinese Medicine, undoubtedly, demonstrates many more features of traditional Chinese culture.

Today, the concept of conceivable but inexpressible sense permeating through the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which incompatible with modern science, is naturally questioned again and again by those who tend to evaluate traditional Chinese science, including Traditional Chinese Medicine, according to the criteria and value of Western science.

Analogical thinking was frequently described in classic Chinese philosophy as interaction in the idea of "integration of the heavens and human beings". It is generally accepted in the academic fields as one of the basic ways of Chinese people's thinking, especially the idea of interaction between the heavens and human beings which is an important part in the framework of Chinese people's thinking. In the book entitled Lü Shi Chun Qiu (Lü's Analects of History) compiled in the Qin and Han Dynasties, it says: "Things of the same group contract each other, qi of the same kind merges into each other sounds of the same category respond to each other." In the Northern Song Dynasty, Zan Ning (919-1001), by reviewing the studies made by people before him, compiled a book entitled Wu Lei Xiang Gan Zhi (Compendium of Interaction Between Different Things), listing 500 kinds of responses between different things. Cheng Yi (1033-1107), an important philosopher in the Northern Song Dynasty, deduced these phenomena into a basic principle. That is "there is just one sense and one response in the universe." These analyses show that, apart from recognition of the empirical knowledge of Traditional Chinese Medicine, one has to be aware of the great importance of interaction (or analogical thinking) in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The thinking way based on interaction and response is of dual nature, leading to either sorcery or science. Take harelip for example. The idea that harelip is caused by seeing a hare or eating hare meat during pregnancy was obviously generalized from witch taboo. However, the knowledge about fetal education accumulated in ancient times based on such a sort of thinking is now found to contain much scientific content. Li Shizhen (1518-1593), a great doctor in the Ming Dynasty, also made use of such empirical knowledge of using herbs in his great book Ben Cao Gang Mu (Great Compendium of Materia Medica). For example, the weapon called tong qi, a firearm in ancient times, was used to deal with dystocia because it could shoot. Comb was used to deal with agalactia because it could comb hair. The former practice is certainly useless. But the latter one is certainly effective because to comb the breast around for hundreds of times means to massage the breast, quite similar to physical treatment.

Tranditional Chinese Medicine	Tranditional Chinese Pharmaceutiacls	Channels and Collaterals
Acupuncture and Moxibustion	Cupping	Medicinal Pillow