Zhang Qicheng: Use literature to cure people's hearts

Dazhong Daily reporter Zhu Ziyu

His eyes were glowing, his hair was full of black hair, and he was dressed in a proper Tang costume, and his demeanor was transparent. Professor Zhang Qicheng, who has passed the age of ear shun, is still full of energy, and he has plunged into the major project of the National Social Science Foundation of China "Chinese Medicine Culture Boosts the Revival of Chinese Excellent Traditional Culture", and he is very busy.

The four contemporary leaders of major chinese studies, the thinkers of sinology of Yi Tong's various families, the pioneers of traditional Chinese medicine culturalists, and the first dean of the School of Chinese Studies of Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine... There are many well-known titles, and it seems that it is difficult to restore the unique life trajectory of this master of traditional Chinese studies.

Born in the medical family of the national intangible cultural heritage "Zhang Yiti", his family has been practicing medicine for generations in Dingtan, Shexian County, Anhui Province, and has been passed down for more than 460 years. As the eldest son in the family, Zhang Qifu should be a doctor who hangs the pot. However, after studying Traditional Chinese Medicine and Traditional Chinese Studies since he was a child, he had a special love for traditional culture and embarked on another avenue. "Healing is just healing one person at a time. I want to use literature to heal people's hearts. Abandoning the family clinical tradition, Zhang Qicheng wants to stand taller.

In the middle of winter, Wuhu, a riverside city, is rainy and cold. Zhang Qicheng, who has just returned to his hometown in Wuhu, was interviewed by reporters and told a story of his fate with traditional Chinese studies and traditional Chinese medicine culture.

Learn medicine from "Xiu Cai, catch chickens in cages"

to "'Mind Cultivation' is a Great Doctor"

The family style tradition and cultural roots of a chinese medical family are vividly displayed by Zhang Qicheng. His father, Li Jiren, was one of the first 30 masters of traditional Chinese medicine since the founding of New China, and his mother, Zhang Shunhua, was the fourteenth generation of "Zhang Yiti". In Wuhu, the story of this big family of "five sons, four doctoral supervisors, two generations of seven professors" has been passed down as a beautiful talk.

Speaking of the origin of the study of traditional Chinese studies, Zhang Qicheng benefited from the enlightenment of his father's words and deeds. When he was a child living in Huizhou, Zhang Qichengchang, who was supposed to inherit the clinical family business of traditional Chinese medicine, and his younger siblings went up the mountain with their mother to collect medicine, recited the "Medicinal Nature Endowment", returned home to grind medicine, study medicine, and live a simple and fulfilling life. At that time, however, he was most interested in the yellowed thread-bound ancient books on the shelves. "My father was my teacher of Sinology enlightenment, and he could recite the Analects almost in its entirety, explain it to me at the right time, inspire me anytime and anywhere, and encourage me to read more Chinese classics such as the Tao Te Ching." Zhang Qicheng said, "Xiucai studied medicine, catching chickens in cages" is a sentence that his father often told him in his ear. As long as you have laid a good foundation in the liberal arts, it will be easy to learn Chinese medicine again.

When he was in middle school, Zhang Qicheng saw the "I Ching" at home for the first time, he was full of curiosity, secretly took it to the second floor to read, feeling both exciting and fun. "At that time, there was a distant relative who was a Taoist monk, who would visit his home from time to time, and every time he met us, he talked about theories such as the I Ching, feng shui and numerology." Zhang Qicheng recalled that after his father saw it, he said that there were two books that must be read to learn Chinese medicine, the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic and the I Ching. As the medicine king Sun Simiao said: "I don't know how easy it is not enough to speak of a great doctor." My father reminded me that if you want to truly understand the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, you must first study the I Ching.

Zhang Qicheng read tirelessly and was completely fascinated by these two books. The deeper he read, the more he gradually discovered the vastness of it, too wonderful! The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic is not simply about healing, it also talks about astronomy, geography, calendar, musical rhythm, philosophy, psychology, and the five fortunes and six qi. For example, the third article, "The Theory of Vitality through Heaven", says that man can communicate with heaven, and that man's nine tricks, internal organs, and twelve verses can all be connected with the qi of heaven and earth.

"My personality is so quiet and not moving." Zhang Qicheng admitted that his parents were famous doctors, and there were many people who came to see a doctor at home when they were young. He was even more intoxicated by the small world hiding on the second floor and reading quietly. "Mr. Lu Xun's abandonment of medicine and literature had a particularly great impact on me. Medical treatment can only be seen one by one, but cultural research emphasizes cultural people and governs people's hearts, and the scope of influence is more far-reaching. In fact, in a sense, 'cultivating the mind' is also a kind of doctor, called a doctor. He said that when he was a child, he decided to abandon medical practice.

In 1977, when the college entrance examination was resumed, Zhang Qicheng naturally chose the Chinese Department, and secretly decided to start with "laying a good foundation for traditional Chinese culture". In 1985, Zhang Qicheng was admitted to the Beijing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine as a graduate student majoring in medical and ancient Chinese literature, and under the guidance of Professor Qian Chaochen, he studied the language and writing of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic. Sinology is a traditional Chinese study, and to learn Sinology, you must understand ancient books. Zhang Qicheng's study of philology, exegesis, and phonology at the university level is actually only equivalent to the primary school stage in traditional Chinese learning.

At the age of 35, Zhang Qicheng decided to apply for a doctoral candidate in the Department of Philosophy of Peking University under the supervision of Zhu Bokun, a leading scholar of the I Ching. This study experience is quite a bit of a twist and turn. Mr. Zhu is very old and has not accepted disciples for many years. Zhang Qicheng wrote a long letter with earnest words, and after passing the examination, Zhang Qicheng became Mr. Zhu's "closed disciple". After graduating with a doctorate, he was admitted to the postdoctoral mobile station of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, becoming the first postdoctoral fellow of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classics in China, under the supervision of Professor Wang Hongtu.

From studying Chinese, Chinese medicine, and then to Chinese philosophy, such a disciplinary background is Zhang Qicheng's deliberate choice. "None of my three majors have left a 'Medium' word, and conquering them will involve more of the whole picture of Sinology." The core of culture is philosophy, and he chose to go to the philosophy department of Peking University because he wanted to learn the source of Chinese philosophy, Yi Xue.

"Mr. Zhu's teacher, Mr. Feng Youlan, has attached great importance to the I Ching all his life, and Mr. Feng's last words are: Chinese philosophy will shine in the 21st century, and we must pay attention to the Zhou Yi." Zhang Qicheng recalled that in May 1996, Zhu Bokun personally founded the Yixue and Scientific Committee of the Chinese Society for the Study of Natural Dialectics, and later Zhang Qicheng served as the chairman of the board, relaying the excellent tradition of Yixue culture and establishing a "new Yixue" with the spirit of the times.

Think of the I Ching as a book of fortune telling

It is an unjust, false and wrongly decided case

The culture of any nation should have a spiritual pillar. The establishment of the doctrine of "Yi Dao Trunk, Three Teachings and Easy" is a major academic contribution of Zhang Qicheng. Based on the research foundation of Yixue for many years, Zhang Qicheng believes that the Way of the Great Easy is the spiritual backbone of the Chinese nation, and the structure of Chinese culture is "one source, three streams, two branches and five classics". The "one source" is the I Ching, and Confucianism, Taoism and Chinese Buddhism are the three tributaries that are divided from the "Yi Dao". The two supporting points are traditional Chinese medicine and national art, and the "Five Classics" are the five classics that best represent Chinese culture, including the I Ching, the Analects, the Tao Te Ching, the Six Ancestral Tantras, and the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic.

"If Chinese culture is likened to a towering tree, then the root of the tree must be the I Ching." Zhang Qicheng's study of the I Ching and other classics of traditional Chinese studies has almost reached the realm of fascination. After graduating with a master's degree in 1988, Zhang Qicheng opened the "I Ching" class for the first time in the society, "I thought that everyone would feel obscure and difficult to understand, but I did not expect that the people who came to listen to the lecture crowded the classrooms and corridors." He recalled the scene at that time, and in order to talk about the I Ching well, he began to collect a large amount of information. At the same time, Zhang Qicheng found that foreign scientists were extremely fascinated by the book, such as the German mathematician Leibniz who saw binary from the I Ching gossip, and nobel laureate Bohr believed that the principle of opposites of taiji diagrams was the same as the principle of complementarity in quantum mechanics. These surprising discoveries further stimulated Zhang Qicheng's interest in in-depth research, and germinated the idea of compiling an easy-to-learn reference book.

Without a computer and completely relying on labor, he spent four or five years to finally edit and publish the first "Yixue Dictionary" on the mainland, filling the gap in the relevant research field. Two years later, he edited and completed the first mainland "Encyclopedia of the Application of the I Ching".

The mystery in the Yi Dao Tai Chi Diagram also attracted Zhang Qicheng's attention. When he was studying at Peking University, he spent two years to clearly examine the ins and outs of Tai Chi Tu, and specially wrote a book "Yi Tu Exploration". "The Tai Chi diagram we see now should be said to be mostly wrong. The real Tai Chi diagram actually represents the law of the change of the universe's cycle, and this law can be quantified. He believes that the core idea contained in Tai Chi Diagram is "rigid and soft neutralization", which is the most perfect, most vivid and most accurate expression of Chinese culture.

At the deepest point of study, Zhang Qicheng almost fell into the fire. "I have to do the math, I have to do the math first." He said bluntly that if this classic work, which was born more than three thousand years ago, is considered a book of divination and fortune telling, it must be an unjust, false and wrong case. "I think the I Ching is a book of 'change of life,' which tells people how to kill a murderer." Zhang Qicheng told reporters that we should "live out" from this book that contains the laws of the Heavenly Dao, which is originally talking about the Heavenly Dao, but it is not just talking about the Heavenly Dao, it is precisely through the Heavenly Dao that humanity is explained, including how people should behave according to the Heavenly Dao.

Zhang Qicheng advocated a new understanding of the I Ching. In a large human resources forum, after the course of the five elements and personality, an Internet executive made a request to him on the spot, "As a researcher of the I Ching, can you predict tonight's football game?" Zhang Qicheng had to respond, "I predict it, but you all don't take it seriously." I didn't know about football at all, I never watched it. ”

That night, China and Iran faced off, and Zhang Qicheng predicted that the two teams were similar. "There were a lot of eyes staring at me at the scene, and I couldn't stand those eyes, which meant that you were fooling us. I also said that the Chinese team can win a narrow victory, and the applause below is thunderous, I added, don't take it seriously. ”

After the event, Zhang Qicheng rushed home, turned on the TV, the first half 1:1, the second half 1:1, overtime is 1:1, "unexpectedly, the last penalty, thrilling, 2:1, the Chinese team narrowly won." ”

Soon there was a phone call to congratulate Zhang Qicheng on the success of the prediction, at this time he suppressed his smile and pretended to say two words calmly, "play". "It's not unpredictable, but it can't get caught up in the art. It is necessary to use the Tao to dominate the art, to transcend specific things, and to use it flexibly. "Zhang Qicheng revealed that the essence of the I Ching is actually the words before the Sixty-Four Gua, which expounds the profound philosophy and the truth of life, so that people understand that there must be a cause and effect, and what kind of thing you do will lead to what kind of consequences." This is the charm of the I Ching, which teaches you to speculate from this event to the next, to speculate about everything in the same way. ”

Today, Zhang Qicheng is committed to the interpretation and dissemination of the classic culture of Sinology. After holding the I Ching seminar for the society, in 2004, he founded the Guoxue Academy to recruit disciples and independently taught the "Five Classics of Guoxue". Not only that, Zhang Qicheng also went to the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference cadre training class and China Petroleum to teach the classic culture of traditional Chinese studies. He is one of the most popular sinology lecturers, and his classical courses in sinology held at Himalaya FM are deeply loved by listeners, of which "Zhang Qicheng Lectures on the I Ching" has been played 35.014 million times, ranking first in the number of humanities and sinology for a long time. "Zhang Qicheng Speaks the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic" has been played to 14.473 million.

"If you only think of TCM as a kind of medicine,

It's a shame."

During his two years as a postdoctoral fellow, Zhang Qicheng focused on the Study of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic from the I Ching and the Five Elements of Life Concept of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic. After the postdoctoral departure, Zhang Qicheng stayed at Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and has been engaged in the teaching and research of Chinese medicine culture represented by the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic.

"It would be a shame to think of TCM as just a form of medicine. It is a kind of medicine without problems, but it is the cultural form that is closest to the lives of the people and perfectly integrates science and technology with humanities. Zhang Qicheng believes that Sinology is the foundation of Chinese medicine, and Chinese medicine culture is in the same vein as sinology research. The concept of "unity of nature and man, harmony of yin and yang" in Chinese medicine is the embodiment of the spirit of Chinese culture, and the concept of "harmony and peace" of Chinese medicine and its various medical techniques and health care methods have protected the Chinese nation for thousands of years.

It can be said that if you leave Sinology, there will be no "roots" in the development of Chinese medicine. In 2014, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine established the National College, with Zhang Qicheng as its dean. "At that time, the University of Chinese Medicine opened the National College, which was unprecedented. Some people say that the University of Chinese Medicine has no characteristics in opening a national college. Zhang Qicheng recalled that in order to demonstrate the feasibility, he asked Mr. Xu Jialu, former vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and then dean of the Institute of Advanced Study of Confucianism at Shandong University, and the other side expressed full support. Later, Zhang Qicheng also went to consult his teacher, the famous scholar Lou Yulie. Mr. Lou replied that the opening of the National College of Chinese Medicine by the University of Chinese Medicine is not a feature, but a true color.

Zhang Qicheng introduced that after the establishment of the National College, Mr. Lou Yulie, Chen Keji, Qian Chaochen and others were specially invited as honorary professors, based on the research of Chinese excellent traditional culture characterized by traditional Chinese medicine culture, focusing on the research of Confucianism and Traditional Chinese Medicine, Yixue and Chinese Medicine, Chinese Medicine Classics and Chinese Culture Research, Chinese Medicine Philosophy and Chinese Civilization Research. He firmly believes that strengthening the construction of Sinology will play an important role in promoting the development of Chinese medicine culture.

Unlike others, Zhang Qicheng's research on TCM culture is divided into two parts: TCM and traditional culture. One expands the research field of TCM and captures the "soul" of TCM; the other, bringing TCM into the scope of traditional culture broadens the path of traditional culture. "TCM culture and TCM clinical are organically linked, and to distinguish between them is the biggest difficulty I have encountered in studying TCM culture." Zhang Qicheng said that the concept and thinking behind the clinic are distilled into culture, and this work is extremely challenging.

However, Zhang Qicheng still crossed this mountain with solid academic research and practice, and the establishment of a related discipline system is one of the aspects. After two years, Zhang Qicheng edited "Culture of Traditional Chinese Medicine", which is the first national-level standard textbook named "Culture of Traditional Chinese Medicine" in mainland China, marking that Chinese medicine culture has been officially incorporated into the undergraduate teaching system of traditional Chinese medicine, which is of landmark significance for the discipline of traditional Chinese medicine culture. In order to clarify the source problem, he also edited the "Philosophical Foundations of Chinese Medicine", which expounded the cultural origin, philosophical concepts, ways of thinking and historical development of Chinese medicine.

In 2016, Zhang Qicheng won the major project of the National Social Science Foundation "Research on the Revival of Chinese Excellent Traditional Culture Promoted by Traditional Chinese Culture", creatively proposing three levels and two dimensions of Chinese medicine culture. The three levels refer to the core values, practice methods, brand image, Zhang Qicheng is likened to "heart", "hand", "face", "heart" - the core value of Chinese medicine, that is, "yin and yang neutralization"; "hand" - the behavior mode of Chinese medicine, that is, the behavior culture of Chinese medicine, including dialectical treatment, health care methods, etc.; "face" - the material culture of Chinese medicine, that is, image culture, brand, etc. And the two dimensions refer to passing on and passing on.

As a member of the 12th and 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Zhang Qicheng's proposals are related to the inheritance and development of Traditional Chinese medicine culture, including "Gradually Realizing Free Medical Care for All", "Establishing a Lifelong Education System for Excellent Traditional Chinese Culture", and "Promoting Chinese Medicine Culture into Textbooks and Campuses". "Now, the biggest obstacle to TCM culture going out is the concept and scientificity, some acupuncture TCM, Westerners can accept, but they are very cautious about drugs." Zhang Qicheng said, but it is gratifying that the efficacy of Chinese medicine is gradually being recognized by the international community, and the concept of Chinese medicine is gradually being accepted. In fact, in international communication, Chinese medicine itself is a very important cultural symbol, because it is de-ideological, will not exclude foreign countries, and bring benefits to people's health.

In 2011, Zhang Qicheng initiated the establishment of the "Zhang Qicheng Sinology Fund", and in 2019, he was approved to establish the "Beijing Zhang Qicheng Traditional Chinese Medicine Development Foundation", he said that the scholarship was set up to support the development of Chinese medicine and promote the popularization of the entire Sinology, including Chinese medicine. In addition, Zhang Qicheng has also set up scholarships in Peking University, Shandong University, Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and other universities, and has donated more than 11 million yuan so far. "I hope to encourage more outstanding talents to join the inheritance and dissemination of Sinology culture, and I will expand the scope of scholarship funding in the future."

In October 2021, during the award ceremony of Zhang Qicheng Scholarship (Teaching) Of Shandong University, Zhang Qicheng personally attended the scene to present awards to 21 outstanding teachers, students and alumni. As the highest institution of Confucianism in the world and the peak of Chinese literature, history and philosophy, the Nishan Academy opened by the Institute of Advanced Study of Confucianism of Shandong University has cultivated a number of outstanding talents for the inheritance and development of China's excellent traditional culture, and he admires it very much. He told reporters that Shandong, as a province of cultural resources, is in the forefront of many fields, and he often communicates with Shandong scholars and consults.

Zhang Qicheng believes that the construction of China's excellent traditional culture needs to follow the concept of "standing on top of the sky". The so-called "top heaven" is to have the belief in the heavenly way, not to violate the heavenly way, and to condense the excellent traditional Chinese culture into cultural self-confidence. "Standing on the ground" means popularizing the study of Chinese culture to the broad masses of the people. "Construct a faith that makes people have faith in their hearts, internalize it in their hearts, and externalize it in their deeds." With faith, this nation is firm, tenacious, and 'standing tall against the heavens'. Zhang Qicheng said that his own study of Sinology and the dissemination of Sinology are towards this goal. In the frugal study, the pen and ink are fragrant, and in an instant Zhang Qicheng's thoughts return to Huizhou, which has green tiles and cornices, the night shines on the sleeping Dingtan River through the swaying wind lamp, the gray and dim light in the corner of the second floor reflects the face of the teenager, Zhang Qicheng is holding a line of ancient books and reading hard...