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Developments at home and abroad
Time flies. In this ever-changing contemporary society, Chinese medicine is ushering in the dawn of a comprehensive revival. According to the latest statistics, by 2019, the mainland had nearly 500,000 TCM practitioners.
This mighty army of traditional Chinese medicine is working silently to pass on the wisdom and essence of traditional Chinese medicine from generation to generation.
At the same time, traditional Chinese medicine product research and development companies have also sprung up everywhere. Countless new products and therapies of traditional Chinese medicine are constantly emerging, bringing about the vigorous development of traditional Chinese medicine.
This is not only the development situation in China, but on the international stage, the charm of traditional Chinese medicine is also shining, and the proud development momentum is obvious to all. For example, several ancient acupuncture apparatus on display in the Royal Museum of Art bear witness to the long history of Chinese medicine overseas.
What is even more proud is that many European countries have included Chinese herbal medicine in the list at the same level as food, which shows their high respect for traditional Chinese medicine.
In addition, acupuncture and moxibustion in traditional Chinese medicine have been recognized worldwide and have been legally registered. Especially in Asian countries, the transnational development momentum of traditional Chinese medicine is strong and full of vitality.
Theoretical foundations
However, in order to fully recognize and understand the unique charm of Chinese medicine, we must go back thousands of years and trace its long historical origins.
Although traditional Chinese medicine is in the ascendant in today's society, in fact, as early as the Xia Dynasty in 3000 BC, the ancestors of the mainland began to deeply explore various incurable diseases and strive to study the treatment methods.
The famous allusion to "Shennong tastes a hundred herbs" shows that in ancient times, the Chinese have discovered and recognized the miraculous curative effects of Chinese herbal medicine.
It is worth mentioning that more than 2,000 years ago, the advent of heavyweight works such as the classic masterpieces of ancient Chinese medical theory, "The Yellow Emperor's Neijing" and "Treatise on Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases", laid the cornerstone of Chinese medicine theory.
Among them, the "Yellow Emperor's Neijing" systematically expounds all the theoretical roots of traditional Chinese medicine, which has a far-reaching influence. And Zhang Zhongjing, the author of "Treatise on Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases", is also respected by later generations as the "ancestor of doctors".
In the core of TCM theory, the derivative application of the theory of yin and yang and the five elements occupies an important position. According to this theory, everything in the world can be divided into five categories: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, and the human organs correspond to them.
For example, the liver corresponds to wood, the heart corresponds to fire, and so on. As long as it is regulated according to this theory, TCM can make accurate diagnosis and treatment for various diseases.
This clinical concept of "looking, hearing, asking, and cutting" is known as the clinical guideline and foundation of traditional Chinese medicine. In practice, it embodies the uniqueness of the systematic concept and holistic analysis of TCM.
A vivid clinical example can witness the practical value of TCM theory in clinical practice: in 2019, in a TCM class at Southwest Medical University, the instructor discovered that a student had a benign tumor by taking the pulse, so as to prevent it in time, which can be called a successful case of turning danger into relief.
"The Uselessness of Traditional Chinese Medicine"
Just when Chinese medicine was booming at home and abroad, a surprising "episode" suddenly happened. In 2006, Zhang Gongyao, a senior professor of philosophy at Central South University, publicly published the "Theory of the Uselessness of Traditional Chinese Medicine", which severely criticized the theory and clinical efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine.
Zhang Gongyao was born in a scholarly family, and his ancestral home is Jiangsu. Since childhood, he has been bathed in the influence of traditional Chinese culture, and has a very deep attainment in Chinese classics. After becoming famous at a young age, he devoted himself to the study of philosophy, especially in the discussion of ancient Chinese classics and documents.
However, with the rapid development of modern Western medicine, Zhang Gongyao seems to have become obsessed with everything Western, questioning the theory and practice of Chinese medicine, and gradually dismissing it as "superstition" and "pseudoscience".
In 2006, Zhang Gongyao gave an impassioned speech at Nanjing University entitled "It is easier to say goodbye to traditional Chinese medicine than to break superstitions". In his speech, he mercilessly criticized Chinese medicine for being unscientific and a stopgap measure for the ancients to deal with diseases.
In contrast, he praised Western medicine, which is based entirely on scientific theories, and can accurately calculate the dosage of medication and give the best treatment plan.
As soon as Zhang Gongyao's "wild words" spread, it instantly caused an uproar on the Internet. Supporters have expressed their agreement, and tens of thousands of people have joined forces to call for the complete abolition of traditional Chinese medicine.
Other netizens were indignant, denouncing Zhang Gongyao for betraying the Chinese ancestral teachings and treating the wisdom of the ancients for thousands of years as nothing. In the end, the authorities attached great importance to the situation, and Zhang Gongyao was not only expelled from teaching at Central South University, but even his mentor was involved and was seriously investigated.
Traditional Chinese medicine is a national treasure
As early as thousands of years ago, during the Xia and Shang periods, Chinese ancestors began to observe and study various diseases, and accumulated rich medical theoretical knowledge in long-term practice. In this process, Chinese medicine pioneered the theory of yin and yang and the five elements, linking the human organs with the origin of all natural things, and constructing a unique dialectical treatment system.
This theory is not an ethereal "superstitious" concept, but comes from the profound understanding of the laws of nature by the ancients, and has a solid scientific core. In fact, the development of modern medicine has also confirmed the importance of yin and yang balance for human health.
For thousands of years, under the guidance of the theory of yin and yang and the five elements, the theory of traditional Chinese medicine has been continuously developed and improved, and clinical experience has been accumulated. It gave birth to such rare books as "The Yellow Emperor's Neijing" and "Treatise on Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases".
Hua Tuo's diagnosis and treatment principle of "looking, hearing, asking, and cutting", and Zhang Zhongjing's gist of "clamping yang and supporting yin", are even more far-reaching and have been passed down to this day. Many traditional Chinese medicine formulas that have been inherited to this day are the crystallization of the wisdom of the sages.
Anatomy of a fallacy
However, what is puzzling is why Professor Zhang Gongyao, who has been an academic baptist for a long time, has such a great prejudice and misunderstanding of Chinese medicine?
First of all, Zhang Gongyao completely ignores the fact that Chinese and Western medicine have their own strengths, and they are not antagonistic relationships. Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes holistic conditioning and attaches great importance to disease prevention; Western medicine is more concerned with the clinical diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
In fact, the two are not incompatible, but should complement each other, organically combine and complement each other.
It is a pity that Zhang Gongyao did not realize this at all, and rushed to use the standards of Western medicine to deny and rebuke traditional Chinese medicine, which is a simple and crude "one-size-fits-all" approach that lacks comprehensiveness.
Secondly, Zhang Gongyao lacks a thorough understanding and grasp of the connotation of TCM theory and clinical methods. Although the theory of yin and yang and the five elements pursued by traditional Chinese medicine originated in ancient times, it is not a "superstitious" pseudo-science that has been shelved, but a scientific way of thinking of dialectical logic, which has been confirmed and supported by modern medicine.
Moreover, in the process of diagnosis of traditional Chinese medicine, the emphasis on "looking, hearing, asking, and cutting" is a combination of four diagnoses, which precisely reflects the concept of system, and this kind of clinical means of holistic analysis is beyond the reach of Western medicine.
Zhang Gongyao's blatant denial of traditional Chinese medicine precisely reflects the superficiality and one-sidedness of his understanding.
Again, Zhang Gongyao is actually just a "layman" of Chinese medicine, and he is not very knowledgeable about Chinese medicine. Due to the unsatisfactory progress of his own research, he developed a psychology of jealousy, hatred, rejection and rejection, and simply abandoned the entire research field, which is undoubtedly a serious immorality in the academic world.
This paranoid attitude of his has seriously hindered the inheritance and development of traditional Chinese medicine.
Last but not least, Zhang Gongyao's "theory of the uselessness of traditional Chinese medicine" seriously deviates from the traditional culture of the motherland, which is really difficult for a scholar who once boasted of being "well-versed in the past and the present" and has a profound study of Chinese culture.
Throughout history, traditional Chinese medicine has been repeatedly tested in practice and time by virtue of its unique theoretical system and clinical efficacy. We should abandon the prejudices and misunderstandings that have existed in the past, and objectively understand the scientific value of Chinese medicine with a more open and inclusive vision.
We should humbly learn the essence of the wisdom of Chinese medicine and inherit and carry it forward with a pious attitude. The theories of TCM are broad and profound, and the clinical application is flexible and changeable, which requires us to understand and grasp with an open and inclusive attitude.