Discussion on T.C.M.

Due to the cultural differences in the East and West, the difficulty in the interpretation of the Chinese traditional medical science (i.e. Traditional Chinese Medicine) has been mis-interpreted, questioned, and despised.

In fact, Traditional Chinese Medicine itself is also a science; it is a more scientific study than any other modern sciences. Moreover, it has been practised more than a few thousand years among a quarter of the world population. Its integral and extremely careful system, together with its fair efficacy in curing, is incomparable by contemporary medicine. When modern science cannot explain certain phenomenon, it could only demonstrate that it fails to find the explanation, and nothing else. It is important to have reference materials. However, a grade one student still finds it difficult in understanding and guessing what calculus is all about.

We agree that Nicholaus Copernicus, (1473 - 1543 A.D.) Heliocentric or sun-centered theory is very scientific. In China, Furshi, one of the Chinese legendary rulers (2852 - 2783 B.C.) arranged the baguah (the eight diagrams, consisting of arrangement of continuous and broken lines in three lines each, symbolizing changing balance of forces and used in divination) while observing the heavenly bodies in the galaxy. (After several thousand years later Furshi's theory matches quite a few of the modern scientific discoveries. Today's astronomy says the galaxy spins unceasingly like a whirlpool. Derived from the galaxy observation, the baguah diagram, in certain aspect, matches the whirlpool-like formation of the galaxy. Its usage could even be applicable to the whole galaxy.) Why could we not consider baguah being scientific?

According to Darwinism, if Traditional Chinese medicine is so ineffective, it should have been eliminated thousands of year ago. Its mere existence today has proven its value. (If someone disagrees, we could reason out two possibilities. First, he / she never agrees with Darwin; second, he / she does not understand Darwinism.) This explains why even an old illiterate rural woman in China could distinguish correctly between "true death" and "false death" - a problem that modern medicine has yet to resolve.

Therefore, what is Traditional Chinese Medicine? First of all let us trace back to the roots to see how the Traditional Chinese medical theory system was established and developed, and how clinical experience was accumulated. Only through knowing how the theoretical system and clinical experience were formed and developed could we be able to understand what Traditional Chinese Medicine is all about and how it is being applied today.

According to Huarngdih Materia Medica (this is the most ancient Chinese medical treatise. Huarngdih, Yellow Emperor, a legendary ruler, synonymous with the father of Chinese civilization, 2698 - 2598 B.C.), it is written "the beginning of symptom is the birth of the way". "Symptom" is all the different external signs and phenomena; whereas, "the way" is the rules and models. That is to say, based on all the external signs and phenomena, one can reach a conclusion about the usual rules and models of all things and matters. Basically in traditional Chinese medical science the knowledge of changes in nature, the human physiology, sickness and diseases is obtained through the conclusion deriving from the observation of all objective phenomena. Therefore, Tradition Chinese Medicine places strong emphasis on "symptoms" and "phenomena". Traditional Chinese Medicine considers "the way" is originated from "symptoms" and "symptoms" are the materialistic foundation formed by the traditional Chinese medical theory system.

Both Chinese medical research techniques and modern medical research techniques are scientific research methodologies. They are basically the same. They are separated and considered different only in the scope of research, depth, research technique and methodology. In Chinese medical research methodology, the scope is emphasized on the broad and overall view. It combines heaven, earth, and man closely together. It combines the climate, season of things, and illness symptoms closely together. It combines the natural environment, social environment, and individual condition closely together. Thus, it emphasizes the sickness and patient's individual differences, suggesting the diagnostic principles are to be based on individual, time, and environment. Modern medical research methodology employs mainly the current advanced technology, and naturally it develops its path along concrete, partial, and microscopic research methodology. It emphasizes the common characteristics between disease and patient. In comparison with Chinese traditional medical researching method, it has relatively lesser emphasis on the broad view, integration, and activities.

Another point that is worth mentioning is that the deeper modern medical theories dig into themselves the more they are approaching certain Chinese medical theories. For example, in the study of biological molecules numerous pairs of positive and negative molecules have been found. And, in the Huarngdih Materia Medica it has already recorded the yin-yang nature of matters. The fact that the lung and internal organs are capable of producing different hormones can very well illustrate what has been described in Traditional Chinese Medicine that the lung dominates the chi (vital energy) of the whole body. When the pituitary gland and adrenal gland hormones are not in balance, the yin-yang is upset, and problem will occur. The basics of The Five Elements Theory (representing five states of forces of expansion or condensation: the plus energy, or yang, expansion; the minus energy, or yin, condensation) has a lot of similarities as the "feed back system" stated in the "control theory" of the western medicine. It is highly possible that the metabolism process has a very close relationship with the "Chinese herbal counteraction and complementary properties concept" in the Chinese medicine prescription practice - something to do with the body immune system as a whole. The biological clock and rhythm in one's body do synchronize the "meridians flow of energy" theory in Traditional Chinese Medicine. All these common phenomena point back to the Traditional Chinese Medicine. So, how did the classical Chinese medical theories achieve such a high level standard? Not only has the development of the Traditional Chinese Medicine been capable of following the same origin all along after two thousand years, it has also been able to stay closely to it, consciously and sub-consciously. If we push aside the absurd saying that all that was taught by extra-terrestrial beings from out of space, then we would have only one explanation. That is, our ancestors, worldly outlook and methodology are really brilliant.

There are thousands of things happening under the sky. There are still a whole lot of things we have not completely learned. There are times that modern technologies have met their limits. There are still lots of problem being unsolved. So, owing to our needs in our day to day life, observation, analysis, and researches of the worldly phenomena have to go on, conclusions have to be drawn continuously. From the worldly observation one can conclude the existing laws, from learning "the beginning of symptoms" one can find "the birth of the way", such traditional methodology will still continue to put to its highly practical use.

Besides, the science of life is so complicated. To-date, the current scientific technology in modern medicine is in still catch-up mode, falling far behind of what is expected. There is still no definite explanation to a lot of phenomena in regard to our lives. On the contrary, Traditional Chinese Medicine has a certain advantage over its counter-part in resolving the clinical problem, and drawing conclusive resolution using its traditional researching methodology that is based on research carried out from a much broader view, and serious observation of the clinical results. That is why despite the fact that Traditional Chinese Medicine has been disregarded and discriminated for a long time, it still stands aloft with much vitality.

In 1980 the local legislative council of Texas in the United States passed an article on Chinese acupuncture as follows.

"Acupuncture has been put in practice for 2000 - 5000 years. Just like the Chinese language is a means of communicating information, acupuncture, as a means of curing, should no longer be regarded as experimental. What should be experimental is not acupuncture itself but the western people's comprehension on acupuncture and their ability to put it to practice in the correct manner."

E.L Way, the former chairman of the American Pharmacy Society, once pointed out in an international seminar: "The integral view of the medicine in Chinese Medical Science should be included as a compulsory subject within the course content of the modern science of medicine."