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APPROACHES TO TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE AND STEPPING INTO THE FUTURE - IN A BIOCOSMOLOGICAL VIEW
Runhu LI1
ПОДХОДЫ К ТРАДИЦИОННОЙ КИТАЙСКОЙ МЕДИЦИНЕ И ВСТУПЛЕНИЕ В БУДУЩЕЕ - В СВЕТЕ БИОКОСМОЛОГИИ
Жуньху ЛИ
Abstract. With the introduction and development of Western medicine in China and the continuous spread of the concept of integration of Chinese and Western medicine, after decades of collision and dialogue with Western medicine, Chinese medicine practitioners have studied their education model, medication ideas, diagnostic methods and medical principles. More and more have begun to favor Western medicine. The original exchange between Chinese medicine and Western medicine has become a unilateral invasion of Western medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine has moved toward an increasingly Westernized path. Nowadays, we can see that Traditional Chinese medicine treatment does not seek the principles of traditional Chinese medicine. The medicinal properties of traditional Chinese medicine have become a form, and the result is that its clinic effects are not significant. The patient's distrust has formed a situation in which Chinese medicine can't help. It is hard to believe that making Chinese Medicine into Western medicine and discard the principle of Traditional Chinese medicine but save the Chinese medicines alone have become the future of many Chinese medicine practitioners who specialize in studying Chinese medicine. This article believes that it is imperative to choose a better way to understand, spread and develop the knowledge of Chinese medicine, so that Chinese medicine is no longer as difficult as Chinese traditional culture, so that more people understand Chinese medicine, let more people approach Chinese medicine, and jump out of the Western medical model. Compared to Western medicine, only do we understand and develop Chinese medicine from the perspective of Bio-Cosmological view, we can give full play to the true strengths and advantages of Chinese medicine, and only guiding in this view, Chinese medicine can truly have a growing future.
Keywords: Traditional Chinese Medicine, Western Medicine, Biocosmological view, Development, future.
Contents
1 „ The situation of Chinese medicine - whether it can survive rather, and how to develop?
Approaches to Traditional Chinese Medicine in a Biocosmological View 3 „ Looking forward to the future of Chinese medicine Conclusion
1 The Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, CHINA.
Резюме. С внедрением и развитием западной медицины в Китае и постоянным распространением концепции о необходимости интегрировать китайскую и западную медицины, как и в результате десятилетий как диалога, так и коллизий с западной медициной - китайские специалисты-медики лучше изучили собственные модель образования, концепции лечения, методы диагностики и медицинские принципы. Но все более и более они стали отдавать предпочтение западной медицине. Первоначальный обмен между китайской медициной и западной медициной постепенно превратился в одностороннее вторжение западной медицины, и традиционная китайская медицина все более стала следовать западному пути развития. В настоящее время мы можем наблюдать, что лечебная практика традиционной китайской медицины (ТКМ) не всегда стала основывается на ТКМ-принципах. В результате, лекарственные формы ТКМ стали терять в своей клинической эффективности. Стало появляться и недоверие пациента, что сформировало ситуацию, в которой возникают случаи, когда китайская медицина не в состоянии помочь пациенту. Трудно поверить, но происходит трансформация китайской медицины в западную медицину, с отказом от принципов традиционной китайской медицины, за исключением сохранения китайских лекарств - что становится реальным будущим для многих китайских практиков медицины, специализирующихся на изучении ТКМ.
Эта статья полагает, что крайне важным моментом является определение лучшего способа - для понимания, распространения и развития знания о ТКМ; и чтобы китайская медицина перестала быть такой же сложной, как традиционная китайская Культура; значит, чтобы больше людей понимали китайскую медицину как наиболее подходящую в случае их заболевания; но, для всего этого, чтобы освободиться от доминирования западной медицинской модели. Как раз, используя Биокосмологический подход - для проведения сравнения с западной медициной, и для понимания и развития китайской медицины - мы имеем в перспективе возможность в полной мере оценить истинные сильные стороны и преимущества китайской медицины, и только руководствуясь этим знанием - ТКМ может действительно рассчитывать на будущее собственного развития и преуспеяния. Ключевые слова: традиционная китайская медицина, западная медицина, Биокосмология, развитие, будущее.
Содержание
1 . Ситуация с китайской медициной - сможет ли она выжить, и как ей развиваться?
2Т-Г V-» и и ТП у
. Подходы к традиционной китайской медицине с Биокосмологической точки зрения.
3 . Перспектива будущего развития китайской медицины
Заключение
1. The situation of Chinese medicine - whether it can survive rather, and how to develop?
We know that in China, even most of the hospitals of Traditional Chinese medicine that are set up independently, it seems that they have long been accustomed to using Western medicine theory to analyze and explain diseases, and even think that this is a more "scientific" and "superior" way, especially in the process of clinical diagnosis, due to the westernization of medical education itself, these Chinese medicine workers always use Western medical theory to guide their clinical diagnosis and medication. The reason for this phenomenon is various. For example, in 1929, Mr. Yu Yunxiu, who was highly regarded in the Chinese medical profession, actually launched a "Abolition of Chinese Medicine Act" and was approved by the government at that time. This crazy movement undoubtedly brought unparalleled weight to the development of Chinese medicine in the early part of the last century. The development of Traditional Chinese medicine was getting more and more difficult after that. And another example is that in the hearts of the Chinese people, the incomparably great and who is absolutely right - Lu Xun, the pioneer of the May Fourth Movement, always denounced Chinese medicine in his own article since his father did not receive reasonable Chinese medicine treatment. He wrote a famous sentence on Traditional Chinese medicine which maybe each Chinese people can recite it that "Traditional Chinese medicine is a kind of deliberate or unintentional liar"2, there are countless similar meaning sentences he wrote in his own book, we have to admit that Chinese medicine has been long time departed from the altar in the eyes of today's Chinese people. It is no longer the first choice for ordinary people to seek medical advice.
Another cause of stigma and misunderstanding of Chinese medicine is the large number of counterfeit Chinese medicine practitioners. Due to the disconnection of knowledge and culture in contemporary China, many ordinary people believe that doctors who use Chinese medicine to treat diseases are Chinese medicine practitioners. They do not care about if these doctors are true Chinese medicine practitioners. What kind of theoretical method is the theoretical method of Chinese medicine? Of course, people are even less able to judge whether the Chinese medicines they use are manufactured under the theoretical guidance of real Chinese medicine practitioners. In short, as long as the doctors prescribed Chinese medicine, they think that they are receiving Chinese medicine treatment. Therefore, most Chinese people do not know what a real Chinese medicine practitioner is, and they cannot distinguish doctors who truly understand Chinese medicine from many Chinese medicine practitioners. This greatly increases the number of Chinese medicine scammers and it has caused negative impact and reputation on Chinese medicine. There are too many scammers in the ancestral Chinese medicine practitioners. They can even publicize themselves in the media; dare to declare that they even can cure some terminal cancers. The reason for this is actually very simple, because most of the Chinese people themselves do not understand Chinese medicine, nor do they understand the very difficult concepts in Chinese medicine.
2 See: Lu Xun. Call to arms & wandering. Foreign Languages Press, 2014, Preface.
We must all admit that today, if a Chinese person is ill and wants to seek treatment, he will first think that Western medicine is fast, Chinese medicine is slow, Western medicine treats symptoms, and Chinese medicine treats diseases, that is, Chinese medicine can only Treating chronic diseases, while Western medicine can treat diseases quickly. What is the reason for this prejudice? If we really want to develop Chinese medicine, what should we do?
An utterance of the Chinese well-known medicine researcher Gann Zhuang is a noteworthy example:
Now even pinch the back muscles, scraping, shaking hands, irregular acupuncture, ancestral secret recipes and other folk remedies, even obvious scams, are posted the label of Chinese medicine to deceive people. What is even more ridiculous is that even some shops that are obviously deceptive like beauty and hairdressing are labeled with Chinese medicine. This kind of sewage is flooding into Chinese medicine in all directions, and Chinese medicine may be the most unlucky one. But what is even more unbelievable and strange is why no one has come to shout that it is fake and deceptive. 3
The master's words fully explain that Chinese medicine is not recognized and understood by everyone in China. If we do not know what the Chinese medicine is, then how can we know what is false?
We know that the true essence of Chinese medicine is its theory, and the so-called combination of Chinese and Western medicine is simply to let Chinese medicine learn Western medicine. Of course, we are not saying that Chinese medicine should not learn Western medicine, but that we believe that nowadays more and more Chinese medicine practitioners cultivated under Western medicine concept, those practitioners who do not understand Chinese medicine, they just use Western medicine theory to guide diagnosis and use Chinese medicine to make them known as Chinese medicine practitioners. Strictly speaking, they should be doctors using Chinese medicine, but not should be called a Chinese medicine practitioner. In the long run, in fact, there will be fewer and fewer people who truly understand Chinese medicine, and the right to speak of Chinese medicine will be less and less. No one cares about what real Chinese medicine is, so whether Chinese medicine still exists or not is no longer cared by people. It is precisely the reason why we believe that today's Chinese medicine is not faced with a question of how to develop, but a question of how to survive.
2. Approaches to Traditional Chinese Medicine in a Bio-cosmological View
We know that the existence and development of anything is inextricably linked to the value and role of its existence. The development of Chinese medicine cannot rely solely on the government. Finding the true value and significance of Chinese medicine is the key to the survival and development of Chinese medicine. Nowadays,
3 Taken from : Tang Yun. Understanding of Traditional Chinese Medicine - A Brand New way to Explore Health and Illness. Guangxi Normal University Press, 2004, p. 3.
under the rule of Western discourse power, Chinese medicine can be said to be lingering and unable to gain its true development momentum. People can't know and understand real Chinese medicine under this discourse system. Therefore, we must find new ones. The path is to understand Chinese medicine, and to reposition Chinese medicine in a new perspective. Only in this way can Chinese medicine be reborn and gain a more rational foundation for survival and development.
In recent years, Biocosmology has become a unique school of thought. It implements an organic, dynamic, integral and moderate position. From the origin, it can be viewed as a Neo-Aristotelism based on contemporary context; from the research perspectives, it not only offers a special view on traditional resources, but also deeply explores profound implication of the transform in modern science; from the attitude toward, it tries hard to abandon X-centrism and advocates dialogues among civilizations from global vision; from the future purport, it points to bottlenecks of our civilization and makes an attempt to put forward wisdom for new civilization. Bio-cosmology provides good opportunities for East Asian civilization, and then will also become an important platform for Chinese academe to participate in international academic interaction4.
We believe that the perspective of Biocosmological view is the best path we need to understand and know Chinese medicine. From the perspective of Biocosmological view, Chinese medicine could undergo the following changes. First of all, Chinese medicine practitioners will get a clearer positioning. It will make people complain about the means of diagnosis and treatment, and pay attention to the really valuable place in the theory of Chinese medicine at the same time. That is, Chinese medicine itself pays attention to the organic and holistic world, and it regards the human body as a complex organism. The quality of a single organ does not mean the overall good or bad of a person, we need to understand and treat the human body from an organic and holistic perspective, that is, the "whole-balance" view. From this perspective, compared to Western medicine, Chinese medicine can be said to be more scientific and more in line with the essence of life which is organic and natural.
Secondly, only by knowing the essence of human beings - an organic whole, can we better understand what true health is, and what real disease is. Here, I believe that if we use the perspective of Bio-cosmological view to understand health and disease, we will find that true health should be a kind of overall harmony and stability, and this overall harmony cannot rely on various checks and data from icy machine, it should be a relatively subjective feeling for humans with irrational elements. Only by paying attention to such subjective feelings can we find the real cause of the disease and obtain the most reasonable diagnosis and treatment plan. Blind pursuit of inspection methods and the results of the inspection as the nature of the disease, this is clearly a short-sighted approach. In doing so, it is impossible to ascertain the root cause of the disease, and it is even less clear what the disease means to the individual. In other words, if we do not look at the disease from the perspective of Biocosmological view, then we will always see something unreasonable. The
4 See: Huang Chuangen & Du, Jiang. Biocosmology: A Neo-Aristotelism Based on Contemporary Context. Studies in Dialectics of Nature. Vol. 32, No.3, March, 2016.
option is, for a sick patient - which concept of health and disease to choose? Therefore, from the perspective of Biocosmological view, we will also find that Chinese medicine is more comprehensive and careful in considering health and disease, and in fact is a more responsible medical concept.
Thirdly, understanding Chinese medicine from the perspective of Biocosmological view, we will find that if Chinese medicine is an important traditional resource of Chinese civilization, it can obviously develop and improve. Therefore, true Chinese medicine both does not refuse to progress and does not reject modern science. Different from Western medicine, Chinese medicine emphasizes an inherent organic balance and regards the internal balance of the human body as the basis for judging health and disease, rather than setting a reference value like Western medicine. Use a reference value to judge health and disease, at this point, you may even find that Western medicine is not only unreasonable, but even somewhat arbitrary.
Fourth, as mentioned above, Chinese medicine's understanding of health and disease always takes the internal dynamic balance of the human body as the starting point. Therefore, the way Chinese medicine understands the disease is more inclined to link the disease with the dynamic balance and nature of the human body, not like Western medicine, microscopically treats disease as a change in molecules or genes. Two different ways of understanding the disease determine the difference in their methodologies. Specifically, before understanding and diagnosing, Chinese medicine practitioners have achieved a purpose and result5 , that is, dynamic harmony. Therefore, it is to discover and understand diseases and complete treatment with known results, while Western medicine is followed, running behind different data, once you find incomprehensible data or phenomena, there is absolutely nothing to do. All those things show that the premise of Western medicine treatment is to set everything as unknown, and to obtain the diagnosis basis by discovering the data, this method is not useless, but used in super complex organic organisms such as humans, the treatment itself becomes blind6 , and eventually the treatment becomes the story that a blind person and an elephant.
Finally, we know that most of Chinese medicine comes from natural plants, animals and minerals, especially plants. From the perspective of Bio-cosmological view, we also believe that traditional Chinese medicine is an important traditional resource under the Chinese medical culture and cannot be ignored. The valuable experience, although it is not the root of Chinese medicine, but it has been widely abused in modern times, so that not only Chinese medicine is misunderstood by people, but even Chinese medicine is not understood by people, but the role of traditional Chinese medicine should be played. Being truly recognized by all mankind and benefiting all mankind is an unshakable responsibility of every Chinese medicine researcher. It is worth mentioning that after the birth of the Nobel Prize for
5 See : Warren Fischer and Yan Wu. Practical Therapeutics of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Paradigm Publications, 1997, p. 71.
6 See : Diana Barbara Dutton (1988), Worse than the Disease. Pitfalls of Medical Progress. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1992, p. 237.
the study of Chinese medicine - Tu Youyou, more and more people begin to re-understand and study Chinese medicine, a valuable resource of Chinese culture. I believe that putting Chinese medicine in a reasonable position should be scientific research and development of Chinese medicine, which is good for Chinese medicine and can be very good to eliminate people's misunderstanding of Chinese medicine. In turn, Chinese medicine will also get new development opportunities.
In short, a Biocosmological view exhibits an organic, dynamic, and holistic position. Based on Biocosmological view, we can find that the experience of traditional Chinese medicine in the Natural history has the characteristics of practice, sophistication, collective cognition and ethics. This is not only useful for the constructive future of Chinese medicine, but also is the fundamental premise of its existence and development.
3. Looking forward to the future of Chinese medicine
A truly responsible attitude towards the survival and development of Chinese medicine should be a serious study of what is Traditional Chinese medicine. Only by seeing the essence of Chinese medicine is its overall-harmonious treatment principle, can we truly have real development and revolution of Traditional Chinese medicine. Looking at and understanding Chinese medicine from the perspective of Biocosmological view, Chinese medicine will not become Western because of comparison with Western medicine, nor will it become a maid of science because of using scientific methods. Chinese medicine is Chinese medicine, and it is one of most important resources of Chinese culture. Its philosophy of treatment and ways of looking at health and disease are full of practical value that today's science can't match. Therefore, the future of Chinese medicine is based on the following changes:
First of all, this is the shift of mentality. As mentioned above, countless pseudoChinese doctors swindle and swindle under the name of traditional Chinese medicine. The reason for this is most people essentially do not understand Chinese medicine, so they have been misguided and formed various misunderstandings. Therefore, the first problem need to be solved in the development of Chinese medicine is to reshape the concept of Chinese medicine in people's minds.
Secondly, on the basis of understanding and knowing Chinese medicine, we adhere to the essence of TCM as a whole and harmonious7, and carry out the methodological changes of TCM diagnosis and treatment, so that TCM can perfect itself with the crystallization of the most advanced human wisdom, and better service for the health of all mankind.
Finally, train Chinese medicine professionals. The inheritance of culture needs to be cultivated from generation to generation. The two major problems facing the cultivation of TCM talents today are the Westernization of the training model, which itself cannot cultivate true Chinese medicine practitioners. The second is the scale and intensity of cultivation that is too small. Although the Chinese government has begun to vigorously support and invest funds to cultivate more and more Traditional
7 See: Henry C. Lu. Traditional Chinese Medicine: An Authoritative and Comprehensive Guide. Key Porter Books, 2006, p. 17.
Chinese practitioners, it is still not enough. The strength of society also needs to be joined in order to exert a stronger force.
In short, there is a famous poem in China, "Of Mountain Lu we cannot make out
the true face, for we are lost in the heart of the very place (^iR^llKMS,
J^^^bl1^)" This is a very good expression of the Biocosmological view. Only by
using the overall and comprehensive approach to the problem of organic cosmology can we seeing the whole picture of the mountain and understanding the whole truth of the mountain, the only way to truly understand Chinese medicine is to discover the true value of Chinese medicine so that we can ultimately better develop Chinese medicine.
Conclusion
The essence of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is its overall-harmonious treatment concept. However, many fake Chinese medicine practitioners and nonChinese medicine treatment methods in China today use the label of Chinese medicine to deceive people, especially because people lack in-depth understanding of Chinese medicine, which leads to majority of people even think that doctors who use Chinese medicine are Chinese medicine practitioners. Due to people's incomprehension, long-term policies and misleading society, the real problem of Traditional Chinese medicine today is not how to develop but how to survive. How to solve this problem, we believe that the problems faced by Chinese medicine practitioners today are on the one hand their own problems misunderstood by the public, on the other hand they are affected by Western medical concepts, if there is no strong new hermeneutics, then Chinese medicine will not be able to solve the problem of how to be understood and accepted by the public, how to survive and develop in the collision with Western medicine.
We rely on the Biocosmology as the contemporary unique school of thought. It actually implements an organic, dynamic, naturalist and integral approach. In this perspective, Chinese medicine could gain the value for its survival and development. Relying on the Biocosmological advantages8, TCM becomes a promising Chinese and world medicine - human medicine with the right to life - the subject-matter for a successive rational efficient evolvement.
From the perspective of Biocosmology, we trust that Chinese medicine has its substantive great comprehensive (scholarly) foundation and its own concepts of health and disease (of what is lacking in the Western medicine). Based on this, we draw on the valuable wisdom of human development today and are aimed at the profound scholarly study and evolvement of the traditional Chinese medicine,
8 In detail, see: Bremer, Josef; Khroutski, Konstantin S.; Klimek, Rudolf and Tadeusiewicz Ryszard (2017). "Challenging integralism, Aristotelian entelechy, hyle and morphe (form), and contemporary concepts of information, touching upon the etiological issues of carcinogenesis (with reflecting feedbacks of Paul Beaulieu, Ana Bazac, Anna Makolkin, Leonardo Chiatti, Milan Tasic and Dariusz Szkutnik)," Biocosmology- Neo-Aristotelism Vol. 7, No. 1 (Winter 2017), pp. 8-111.
including the Biocosmological approach. In this course, our prospect is to realize the true survival and actual evolvement of Traditional Chinese medicine - through the academic elucidation of the true scholarly foundations of TCM and the vigorous developing of Chinese medicine talents, of all - for making Chinese medicine even better for the good of mankind.
References
Bremer, Josef; Khroutski, Konstantin S.; Klimek, Rudolf and Tadeusiewicz Ryszard (2017). "Challenging integralism, Aristotelian entelechy, hyle and morphe (form), and contemporary concepts of information, touching upon the etiological issues of carcinogenesis (with reflecting feedbacks of Paul Beaulieu, Ana Bazac, Anna Makolkin, Leonardo Chiatti, Milan Tasic and Dariusz Szkutnik)," Biocosmology-Neo-Aristotelism Vol. 7, No. 1 (Winter 2017), pp. 8-111.
Dutton, Diana Barbara (1988). Worse than the Disease. Pitfalls of Medical Progress. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Fischer, Warren & Wu, Yan (1997). Practical Therapeutics of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Paradigm Publications.
Huang, Chuangen &Du, Jiang (2016). "Biocosmology: A Neo-Aristotelism Based on Contemporary Context," Studies in Dialectics of Nature. Vol. 32, No.3, March, 2016.
Lu, Henry C. (2006). Traditional Chinese Medicine: An Authoritative and Comprehensive Guide. Key Porter Books.
Lu, Xun. (2014). Call to arms & wandering. Foreign Languages Press.
Tang Yun. (2004). Understanding of Traditional Chinese Medicine - A Brand New way to Explore Health and Illness. Guangxi Normal University Press.
