Chen Weiping: The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor embodies five outstanding characteristics of Chinese civilization

The study of the classic ancient Chinese book "The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor" is of great significance to the construction of modern civilization of the Chinese nation. Because the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor prominently embodies the five outstanding characteristics of Chinese civilization, namely, continuity, innovation, unity, inclusiveness and peace.

"Continuity"

Traditional Chinese medicine has a long history, the Shang Dynasty invented soup, the Western Zhou Dynasty had a division of labor between food medicine, disease medicine, ulcer medicine, and veterinarians, and Bian Que proposed the diagnostic method of "looking, smelling, asking, and cutting" during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.

The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor, born more than 2,000 years ago, is a summary of previous medical practice. It is named after the "Yellow Emperor" and is divided into two parts: "Suwen" and "Lingshu". Each article is preceded by the Yellow Emperor's question, indicating that his ideas originated in ancient times.

In the history of world medicine, ancient Egypt has created brilliant medical achievements. This is evident from three medical manuscripts (Ebers Papyrus, Smith Papyrus, and Kahuhn Papyrus). But since Egypt was conquered by King Alexander the Great of Macedon, its traditional medicine has been obliterated.

Ancient Indian medicine has rich content, such as the "Atharva Veda" recorded 77 diseases, and prescribed symptomatic medicines, and there were medical masterpieces "Sheroka Ben Collection" and "Miao Ji Ben Collection", but later due to the invasion of the Aryans, ancient Indian medicine also gradually died out.

Medicine in ancient Greece and Rome was very prosperous, and many theories were proposed, such as Hippocrates' four-body humor theory, Galen's theory of the human body, Aristotle's theory of the vitality of Hindrahi, and the "Pharmacy" and "Medical Encyclopedia" came out. However, with the interruption of ancient Greek and Roman civilization, its traditional medicine was either abandoned or dispersed.

The Chinese nation regards the Yellow Emperor as the ancestor of civilization, and the classics named after the "Yellow Emperor" have survived to the present day, and still maintain their vitality, only this "Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon". It proves from one side that Chinese civilization is the only uninterrupted native civilization in the world, and has become a prominent symbol of the endless continuity of this civilization.

"Innovative"

Traditional Chinese medicine is the original medical system of the Chinese nation, and the Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon expresses this first and most intensively. This originality has originality that no other people of the world have.

In the first life of the ancestors, medicine and witchcraft were mixed. The ancient way of writing medicine is "敉", which reflects this situation. The Suwen Wuzang Treatise says: "Those who are bound to ghosts and gods must not be virtuous with words." There are two interpretations of "supreme virtue" here: supreme medical virtue or supreme medical theory. Either interpretation suggests that the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor distinguishes between medicine and witchcraft. Its advent was a major innovation in breaking through witchcraft, ghosts, and superstitions.

TCM diagnosis and treatment emphasizes individualization. "Looking, smelling, asking, and cutting" is to collect different individual information in order to adapt to people's conditions. The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor believes that different individuals have different responses to the same disease, and different treatment plans need to be formulated for different patients. Therefore, every typical medical case is innovative in some aspect.

In connection with the emphasis on the individuality of the patient, the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor also attaches great importance to the personal creation that the healer can comprehend alone. The Eightfold Theory of the Eight Truths of God says: "God is divine, ears are not heard, eyes are open and aspirations, wisdom is unique, mouth is able to speak, both see and see, are dull, and are clear." The so-called "unique understanding", "unique view" and "unique understanding" all emphasize the independent and unique innovation of the individual. This is achieved through long-term clinical practice and careful thinking, which transcends the knowledge perceived through oral words and becomes the wisdom of the heart.

This is actually the highest level of innovation, that is, the leap from knowledge to wisdom. TCM attaches great importance to the collation and research of famous medical prescriptions of previous generations, precisely because they bring together innovative wisdom.

"Unity"

Lu Deming's Classic Commentary in the Tang Dynasty explained the meaning of "jing": "Changye, Faya, Jingye." The "sutra" is the carrier of the common way (basic theory), the law (basic norm), and the gate path (basic method). The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor is such a TCM text, and is therefore regarded as the "Sect of Healers". It lays the foundation for the unified compliance of TCM.

After the Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon, although Chinese medicine works continued to emerge, academic generations developed, and schools of thought became increasingly diverse, their origins all came from the Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon. However, TCM does not turn unity into uniformity, and regards the Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon as a stereotypical dogma.

In fact, the unity given to Chinese medicine by the Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon is a combination of "following the talk" and "continuing to speak". The former starts from following basic theories, norms and methods; The latter is when each person interprets these basic theories, norms, and methods, adds new ideas from new practices, and new writings, doctrines, and schools emerge.

On the one hand, the unified basic theories, norms, and methods established by the Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon have been manifested in a variety of academic forms in history; On the other hand, multiple forms make the unified system richer in content, more complete in structure, and more accurate in expression.

The history of TCM proves this. Zhang Zhongjing of the Eastern Han Dynasty "wrote the Suwen and Nine Volumes" (the latter is the "Lingshu"), and did not "always follow the old", but enriched and improved the clinical medical system of the Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon with a complete set of principles of dialectical treatment.

In addition, the four Jin Yuan masters (Liu Wansu, Zhang Congzheng, Li Qi, and Zhu Zhenheng) all respected the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor, but each inherited and developed it from different aspects, raising the system they established to a new height.

The unity of traditional Chinese medicine, which unfolds into many and boils down to one, embodies "keeping the right but not the old, respecting the ancient but not the retro".

"Inclusiveness"

The name "Yellow Emperor" in the Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon clearly shows that it has the strong inclusive ideological character of Huang Lao's learning. Huang Lao's learning originated from Lao Tzu and Zhuang Zi, and Lao Zhuang advocated a tolerant attitude towards different ideas.

"Lao Tzu" believes that there is absence, difficulty, length, shortness, superiority, before and after, etc., and different things have their reasons for existence; "Zhuangzi" advocates that the theory of things can be united, and all kinds of ideas are like a hundred schools of thought, all of which have their own strengths. Song Yu and Yin Wen of the Huanglao School further proposed "don't be constrained", that is, do not be limited by certain ideas.

The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor inherits such ideological character and contains many doctrines. For example, absorbing Huang Lao's idea that essence qi is the origin of all things in heaven and earth, and taking the theory of essence qi as the theoretical cornerstone for expounding human life activities; The two different systems of yin and yang theory and the five elements theory are organically linked to build a basic academic framework.

The "Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor" also inherits the value principle of Kong Meng's Confucian benevolence and love for people, taking human life as the highest value of all things in heaven and earth, emphasizing that "heaven and earth, all things are complete, and nothing is more valuable than people", and taking "different comparisons" and "aid comparisons" as important thinking methods. This is obviously the application and development of the "Mo Debate" "take by analogy, give by class".

The inclusiveness of the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor is also manifested in the cross-integration of multiple disciplines. "Suwen Qi Alternating Theory" bluntly said: "Those who know astronomy from above, geography from below, and personnel in the middle can be long-lasting." "An important reason for the long-term vitality of the medical path of the Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon is the use of scientific knowledge of astronomy and geography and knowledge of human society.

The inclusiveness of Chinese medicine given by the Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon has been maintained and promoted after the introduction of Western medicine. Therefore, the combination of Chinese and Western medicine has naturally become the consensus of the Chinese medicine community.

"Peace"

The peace of Chinese civilization is concentrated in the "Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor" by emphasizing that "peace" and "harmony" are ideal states of human health.

The Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon believes that human health lies in the harmonious coordination of internal organs, moderate emotional expression, and ability to adapt to changes in different environments, which is fundamentally to achieve the dynamic balance of yin and yang. The occurrence of the disease is due to the imbalance of yin and yang under the action of internal and external factors, so the treatment of disease is to restore the overall function of losing the balance of yin and yang to a state of harmony and harmony.

Before the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor, there were mainly "Zhou Yi" and "Laozi" about yin and yang. The former is the Lord Heaven and the Earth, that is, Guiyang and Yin; "Lao Tzu" is the main guirou guarding the female, that is, heavy yin and light yang. The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor further emphasizes the balance of yin and yang, "carefully observing where yin and yang are and adjusting it, so as to level the period". It can be said that this idea of yin and yang balance can better represent the peace of Chinese civilization than "Zhou Yi" and "Laozi".

Of course, the "Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor" discusses "peace" and "peace" more from a medical perspective. The "Theory of Suwen and Vitality Reaching the Heavens" says: "Internal and external harmony, evil cannot be harmed", that is, the adaptation of the human body to the external environment can prevent evil qi from harming health. The "Suwen Zhizhen Zhi Da" says: "Loosen its flesh, let it be adjusted, and bring peace", that is, to cure diseases, it is necessary to make the flesh and qi, which is the internal driving force of human life, achieve a peaceful state.

On the basis of the harmony between man and the external environment and the harmony of the flesh and qi inside the human body, "Lingshu Honzo" further puts forward a relatively comprehensive standard of "human peace" (health and no disease) with "harmony" as the core, that is, "blood harmony will prevail in the meridians, and yin and yang will be restored", "health qi and harmony will divide the flesh and relieve benefits, and the skin will be soft", "the will and the will and the spirit will be direct, and the soul will not be dispersed", and "the cold and mild will turn the valley into the valley, and the wind will not be paralyzed", which boils down to heaven and man, form and god, and qi and blood.

The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor fully reflects the five outstanding characteristics of Chinese civilization, which should be regarded as the proper meaning of the title of promoting the "second combination".

Marx concluded his doctoral dissertation "Dedication" by writing: "Spirit and nature are the divine doctors you trust. The "you" here refers to Yanni's father. This doctoral dissertation opposes the pittation of man against the natural environment and emphasizes freedom from the spiritual shackles of religion. Therefore, this sentence can be broadly understood to mean that nature and spirit are the "great divine doctors" of mankind.

This is highly consistent with the concept advocated by the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon. The "Lingshu Camp Health Association" emphasizes that "man and heaven and earth are in the same discipline", and requires that human physiological activities be consistent with natural laws to protect life and health. "Suwen Ancient Innocence" said: "Spiritual inwardness, illness is never?" "Here, mental health is further used as a barrier against disease.

"Only when they fit each other can they be organically combined." Inheriting and carrying forward the ideological essence of the "Yellow Emperor's Internal Canon" is a useful starting point for doing a good job in the "second combination" of learning, physics and scholarship.

(Author: Chen Weiping, Institute of Oriental Philosophy and Institute of Modern Chinese Thought and Culture, East China Normal University. This article is an excerpt from the author's speech at the inauguration ceremony of the Institute of Oriental Philosophy of East China Normal University)