Traditional Chinese Medicine Criminology
Psychiatry and physical and mental health

DuoSuccess.com

Traditional Chinese Medicine Criminology (Officially named by Dr. Wei Quan LONG on Jan 3, 2012) is a brand new discipline studying crime prevention. It mainly takes in-depth study on criminal problems as a disease, and focuses on solving it with the attitude and method of preventing and treating a disease. It aims at nipping the crime in the bud, preventing the crime before it happens, in a forward-looking, holistic, proactive and comprehensive perspective. Traditional Chinese Medicine crime prevention is a brand-new theory and branch of TCM Psychology and TCM Psychiatry. It is a whole new level of life science. It can prevent and resolve social conflicts effectively.

Criminal behaviour is a pathological manifestation of strong appetites and desires resulting from physical and mental imbalance. Profoundly negative emotions could occur if a person’s appetites and desires are not met for a long time. A long existing dissatisfaction may lead the person to commit crimes in order to compensate and satisfy their pathological needs. Therefore, the traditional Chinese medicine criminology is an inevitable discipline.

Crime is an illness or part of an illness showing the physical and mental imbalance. That being the case, it is within the scope of traditional Chinese medicine, meaning that it can surely be prevented and treated.

• Traditional Chinese medical intervention - when doubts, depression, anxiety, misanthropic, evil and delusional thoughts (once the thought is formed, the mind is already unbalanced) are formed before committing a crime – could help to prevent and stop illegal acts, forestall frenzies, and prevent the crime. The society should give them and their family support and assistance before they become criminals.
• Interventions after the crime are treatments, which are often called rehabilitation of criminals. It aims at treating those with criminal potentials, helping them avoid getting more illnesses, tragedies and disasters. As the criminal is ill, it is likely that he may have become wishful, unconscionable, unscrupulous, and wrongful. Disasters come with ill fortune.
• Desperadoes are often violent (with cruel and ferocious temperament). It is important to turn cruelty into harmony, as harmony brings good fortune, and disharmony causes faults (A peaceful and harmonious atmosphere brings good fortune while an unharmonious atmosphere causes disasters).

Murderers, rapists, robbers and other violent offenders mostly have serious physical imbalance, which reach the most serious level when they take the risk and commit the crime. Some criminals have a natural potential to commit violent crimes. This is a congenital disease. Many violent criminals embarked on a road of no return due to adverse environmental impact. This is acquired disease. In fact, some criminals started to have physical and mental abnormalities as early as when they were in kindergartens.

In his book "The Personality of Psychopathy" published in 1940, German psychiatrist K. Schneider made the detailed analysis on the ties between various abnormal personalities and criminal behaviours. He found out several abnormal personalities that cause crimes easily as follows: ⑴ The weak-willed: Such people lack resistance to the temptation of the outside world. They are vulnerable to others' temptations to commit crime. ⑵ The emotionally deficient: They lack shame, pity, compassion, sense of honour, conscience and other noble emotions. They are cold and shameless. ⑶ The exploder: They are easily affected by external stimuli to rage and assault others violently. ⑷ The excited: They are easily excited and agitated. They are careless and impatient. They are easy to dispute with others. ⑸ The self displayer: They are very vain. They want to show off all the time, disregard the occasion and the methods. ⑹ The paranoid: They stubbornly insist on the wrong opinions and beliefs against social norms, and they put their wrong believes into action. ⑺ The volatile: They are unpredictable. Their emotions change frequently in a day. They are difficult to understand. ⑻ The weak: They lack sense of dignity. They can't take the pressure from the outside world and often yield to other people against their own will and do things they know they shouldn't do. ⑼ The self-abased: They have extremely low self-esteem. They deny their own ability, knowledge and experience. They don't believe that they can live normally without depending on others or make a living through illegal means. ⑽ The depressed: They are always depressed and negative, seeing everything happening as something bad to themselves. Their actions are controlled thereby.

British scientists have found that the brain structure of psychopaths is significantly different from that of normal people, and the extent of brain abnormalities is clearly tied to the degree of psychopathy. Studies on psychopaths who have committed murders, massacres, multiple rapes, strangulation and illegal imprisonment showed that the connecting path between two important parts in their brain - the amygdala in control of their emotional memories and the orbitofrontal cortex in control of their impulses and decision making - is "bumpy", while the connecting path of normal people is in better condition. (It is found previously that the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex of psychopaths are different from those of the normal people in their structures and functions).

Consigned by German government, German scientist Gerhard Roth in Bremen studied violent criminals for years. He further found that the brain scans of offenders show a cluster of black blocks. He commented that the "evil block" is located in the brain lobe, appearing as a cluster of black blocks in the X-ray. He said, "We showed short video clips to these people and measured their brain waves. Subjects showed no mood swings when cruel and obscene scenes were shown. Their brain regions producing sympathy and sorrow have completely no activity." He also said, “When you saw the brain scans of these ruthless criminals, you would find that their front brain was almost inadequate seriously.” However, the brain has a compensation mechanism to compensate their violent tendency, of which the operation still remains a mystery. Roth added that young people with development obstacles at the bottom of their front brain are "66% likely to become criminals". Roth put criminals into three categories: ① Criminals who are psychologically well, but grew up in an environment in which "beating, stealing or killing are fine". ② Criminals who are mentally ill. They believe everything outside is threat. "Whenever something goes wrong, he explodes and becomes a murderer". ③ Pure psychopaths, such as extremists like Hitler.

American criminal psychologist Titus said: "The society should acknowledge that if we wish to establish an attitude towards criminal psycholology, an attitude based on both the social science and natural scientific methods, that is also combined with latest achievements in physiology, medical science and psychology, our criminal psychology will appear by end of 20th century in an unprecedented form.

The studies of psychological problems of criminals have long been recorded in ancient Chinese history books. In 11th century BC, Zhou Gongdan raised his own opinion regarding the psychological causes and criminal motives of offenders. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the philosophers' debate about good and evil is in fact an investigation of the causes forming criminal minds. Mencius believed that everyone had a heart of "compassion", "shame" and "justice". He believed that it was the influence of the environment that caused wrong doings of people. He said: "In a good year, people are mostly lazy. In a bad year, people are mostly violent." Xuncius believed that people were born with the nature of "loving benefits", "hating the evil" and "desiring lust". Only by legal education, that is to follow the education of social norms, regulations and laws, can people stop committing evil. In early Western Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu proposed the theory of "three grades of human nature". It believes that "saints" are naturally good“, "narrow-minded people" are naturally bad, while the ordinary people can do both good and evil. The key is to educate them and to threaten them with punishment.

Traditional Chinese medicine criminology (please note that there is no "psychology" included in the term) involves traditional Chinese medical treatment directly without involving psychological analysis. It is a straightforward, efficient and effective method tested by practices. All airy theories are boring and empty! The modern criminal psychology theory is perfect yet lack of actual effects. For almost a hundred years, the theoretical discussions are of great length, covering specific theories and general theories, yet they are all limited to discussions. Someone commits a crime, often because of the imbalance of his health. When lesions and injuries occur at a certain area, which can be detected with existing instruments, the illness is in fact too serious and too late to cure. The better chance lies in something that can’t be probed by current technology, as is meridians and acupuncture points. Not all mental illness can be diagnosed early, but in fact sometimes the illness or evil thoughts are already lurking or sprouting.

• Crime Prevention: It is generally recognised that the cure of mental illness can reduce the number of criminal cases by 50% (this might be able to explain the relationships between crimes and health).
• The misbehaved and the mentally ill are critical to the prosperity and stability of our society. They are very important. (Schizophrenia is mental illness causing the collapse and disorder of minds and emotions. There are many theories deriving from analysis on the relationship between changes in brain function and schizophrenia, one of which is the often-mentioned dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia).
• Suicide: A U.S. study pointed out that people with migraine or severe headache are four to six times more likely to suicide than other people. Headaches are related to brain chemicals including serotonin. The dysfunctions of these chemicals are also related to suicide. Patients with severe headaches may become depressed, which is one of the reasons why headache patients are more inclined to suicide. Spring is a season of high suicide rate. This is related to endocrine, emotions, and environments. Depression is an important reason for suicide. The other reason is impulses (impulses are often related to poor psychological endurance. In fact, poor psychological endurance is also an illness. It is a psychological disorder). The psychological endurance of kids nowadays is becoming worse and worse, which calls for our attention. It is important to provide a good environment for the children for their psychological development, so as to foster healthy and optimistic minds and give them a happy life. It is also important to further promote the physical and mental health of women and children to create a happy family.
• Impulses, crimes and violence can be inhibited through enhancing self-control. (In a study starting from 1972 by tracking 1000 children in a village in New Zealand for a long time, it is shown in the self-control abilities of children at the age of 3, there were 20% of children with weak self-control, 43% of which committed crime after they grew up. Among 20% of the children with stronger self-control, only 13% committed crime when they grew up.).
• There are people who are weird or mental in every society. There are also all sorts of "loners" who are hostile to the society for various reasons and further attempt to revenge on the society in extreme ways. On 14 December 2012, a gun shooting incident occurred in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., USA, which caused 28 deaths, including deaths of 20 children (8 boys and 12 girls, aged 6 to 7). The autopsy results showed that all the victims died of gunshots wounds. All suffered from several shots. The gun-shooting suspect Adam Lanza of 20 years old had excellent academic performances. However, he suffered from severe autism and personality disorder.
• Serial murders are related to ASD and head trauma: In a pathological study of serial killers published by the University of Glasgow, scholars believed among Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), head injuries, and gregarious disorder such as being bullied in childhood and parental divorce, if people had two of the three factors mentioned above, the possibilities of them committing appalling crimes are greatly increased. The study found out that 28% of these appalling murderers had ASD. For comparison, for normal people, only 1 out of 100 would have ASD. Among these serial killers, 21% had suffered "clear or suspected" head injuries. Among those who had ASD and (or) head injuries, more than half had experienced gregarious disorder such as sexual assaults, physical abuse or parental divorce. The Glasgow study thus concluded that in general, probably over 10% of serial killers had ASD, as is head injuries. These two factors together might sow the seeds for a serial killer later on. The team led by Dr. Clare Allely wrote: "This study set a precedence to review known information about serial killers and mass murderers to identify a complex, interwoven by neuro-developmental problems and gregarious psychological factors, making someone more likely to commit such crimes." The whole paper was published in "The Journal of Violent and Aggressive Behaviour".
• Personality disorder (antisocial personality disorder, ASPD) is a type of psychopathic personality (a Category B second shaft development disorder / personality disorder in mental illness). Since psychological medicine discovered this psychopathic personality, there have been numerous different medical terms in the recent 100 years, roughly as follows: Guiltlessness, psychopathic inferiority, moral insanity, moral imbecility, etc. Such medical terminology as Sociopathy and Psychopathy are frequently used in the modern society. In layman’s term, they can be easily summarised by the word: conscienceless. The patient often gave people a first impression of being smart and friendly, yet in fact they will manipulate people around them ruthlessly to achieve their goals. Such a personality tends to be common among cunning politicians and leaders of gangs or criminal organisations. They are less sociable, lacking common identification and loyalty towards people, society and community. The main symptoms are lack of conscience, irresponsible and impulsive behaviours. They can't accept or understand the value of morality. They seriously lack conscious. Therefore, they don't feel anxious or guilty for immoral behaviours. They may even despise those whom they manipulated. When accused by people they manipulated, they don't feel guilty and uncomfortable. Instead, they may become angrier and argue with or scold their victims. They rarely consider the future benefits in the long term, and they tend to seek instant gratification in a short time. They are also less likely to tolerate routine or highly complicated things, though they can follow social norms temporarily if needed. We are still uncertain about the cause of this illness. Some believe that physical defects make it difficult for the patients to control their reactions. Some believe that those patients are just good at running away from uncomfortable feelings. Another point of view is that it is probably some reason during the patients’ childhood that caused them to lose trust to the society and further developed the abnormal minds. Japanese neurologist Toshiyuki Sawaguchi commented that ASPD has become a serious social problem in America. This illness is spreading in Japan too, damaging the brain of infants, leading to attention deficit and hyperactivity. According to statistics, over 60% of children in Japan have behavioral disorders to some extent, nearly sixty percent of which have ASPD. Social attribution is necessary. However, attributing everything to the society is in itself another form of bias. There is "antisocial personality" at any time in any society. Excessive social attribution will make more people to attribute problems of their own to the society.
• People with low blood sugar levels are more prone to violence. This study was published in PNAS. Its main author, psychologist Prof. Brad Bushman, explained that this study showed that starvation leads to decreased levels of glucose, which further becomes a factor causing tense relationships among couples, ensuing arguments or even domestic violence. The authors of the study emphasised that this phenomenon indicated that glucose is an important source of brain energy. Necessary self-control to regulate rage and aggressive impulses consumes more energy. As said by Prof. Bushman: "Although brain only accounts for about 2% of our body weight, it takes up 20% of our calorie consumption."
• A false step may cause a lifelong regret, and Rome wasn't built in one day. If a person has a healthy mind and calm thinking, how could it possible for him or her to impatiently fumble or take a false step?
• Laws are indeed very useful and important (though laws are often fragile), while good mental health are more likely to constrain people’s behavior and supplement the law. Without mental health, people will cross their bottom line.
• Crime prevention is first of all to preserve health of both body and mind. Physical and mental unhealthiness is difficult to correct or rectify (despite the criticism, education, self-examination, and in-depth inspection, or years in prison). When one is physically and mentally healthy, the heart is opened. When looking back, they could understand their faults and mend their ways. They would naturally sort out their problems and follow good advice.
• Rehabilitation of offenders: This is an issue facing the whole world (including prison management). Scholars across the world have explored the issue for a long time without finding a good solution. The United States had taken three different attitudes over the time on this issue:
1. In the early 20th century, the sociological perspective of the U.S. Democratic Party took the mainstream. They believed that crimes are caused by social environment factors such as poverty, racial discrimination and social oppression. Therefore, the rehabilitation of offenders was to re-socialise them. As a result, some new offender rehabilitation premises for re-socialisation were built. However, it didn't improve the effect of rehabilitation. Thereby, many scholars criticised that this view was nothing but means for the offenders to attribute their faults to the society.
2. In mid-20th century, the "deterrence theory" of the Republican Party in the States gradually prevailed. They believed the best way to reduce crime is to lock all offenders up and use the prison to deter potential offenders. Thus, the United States built more prisons of high-level security, but crime rate in society remained unabated.
3. In the late 1970s, some scholars began to emphasise the "personality transformation" and "moral education" for offenders. In 1987, Richard Herrnstein and James Wilson of Harvard University pointed out in their book "Crime and Humanity" that the main reason for the offender to commit crimes was the failure of appropriate "moral training" in their adolescence when one's moral standards were formed. Therefore, the rehabilitation focused on moral education.
• However, the situation is the prisons in the States are always full. Although the government spent again billions on building prisons in the last thirty years of the 20th century, this “conflict between demand and supply” is still difficult to be resolved.
• We believe that crimes are caused by the imbalance of physical and mental health of offenders. This is what we Chinese called losing one’s heart in madness or losing one's conscience. An illness of the heart has to be treated with medicine of the heart. It is critical to untangle the knot in the heart. Only by solving the criminal psychopath, intentional misconduct, uncontrollable behaviour, vicious thoughts, narrow-mindedness, troubling issues and scourge, we can help the offenders to mend their ways with an honest heart, living in relaxation and kindness. This is all about heart. In other words, one with brightness heart is in heaven. One with darkness in heart is in hell!
• TCM prisoner transformation: Improve physical and mental health and transform the mind of offenders. Enlighten their heart spiritually and transform their view of the world from the depths of their soul. Help them to establish healthy and positive attitudes towards life. Change their behaviours gradually through subtle influences and teach them to study, read, think and improve. Enable them to understand how to respect others and themselves. Help them to reintegrate into the society and start a new life. This will update the society's traditional concept of prisons - the effect of prison on rehabilitating and educating the offenders. It is directly related to the harmony and stability of the society. TCM treatment can turn misery and despair to optimism and positivity. It is a necessary path to educate and rehabilitate offenders, with the ultimate goal of promoting the holistic enhancement of rehabilitation quality, increase the transformation rate of stubborn prisoners and the re-collapse rate of dangerous prisoners. The well-educated may be released ahead of time to serve the society, benefiting both the offenders' family and the society. (The function of the prison should be to reshape a person instead of punishing).
• Social problems:
• Family and marriage: Health families mean a healthy society with improved life quality.
• Families are basic units of the society. Issues related to family include: mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationships, marriage problems, puppy love and homosexual problem, family stifles and even domestic violence. TCM psychological consultancy can reduce divorce rate greatly and save numerous families. It is helpful to social stability. (Incomplete families are the primary causes of young people’s psychological problems. In fact, young people’s psychological problems are mostly hidden. However, we can see a lot of manifested psychological problems among young people around us. This means that it has become a very serious problem.)
• Village neighbourhood: Old-time grudges among different families, trivial conflicts among villages, daily trifles with the neighbours, these form the difficulties in handling village relationships.
• Juveniles: This is the manifestation of a slight imbalance of biological evolution and instinct in the real world, namely "impulse is the devil".
• Why does the crime rate of young people, especially of young men, is higher than that of adults? Studies have found that when teenagers successfully resisted their impulses in a regular impulse test, the area in their brain in charge of restraining and regulating became more active (this area is called vmPFC, which is involved in the top-to-bottom control of human behaviour). That means it requires more effort to recover from the response to the actions. Compared to adults and children, about 15% adolescents’ faces display impulsive expressions when threatened, and more among male than female. This is consistent with the disproportionately male and female juvenile delinquency. This could also help to explain why juveniles can't become habitual offenders. Neurologist Kristina Caudle of Weill Cornell Medical College who led this study said: "Whether it is racing on slippery roads or attempting drugs, young people took these risks mainly because they are immature and fail to consider thoroughly when making decisions. If immaturity or lack of judgment is the only reasons for the problem, people would believe that teenager's brain are growing. This makes them equally or prone to take risks."
• Healthcare: prevention and treatment is the key
• Medicines and treatments dominated by Western medicine are not sustainable. The model in which illness is only eliminated when getting serious will become more and more costly. Medical initiatives without effects are nothing but meaningless and unsustainable commercial behaviour that have failed to focus on the critical issues, the root causes and the essence of the problem.
• Traditional Chinese Medicine in itself is an outstanding medical system. Combining healthcare culture and information technology, it mainly focuses on prevention complemented by treatment for the intrinsic purpose of ensuring health. Its cost is low. It can easily take the responsibility to ensure the health of everyone. The operation of traditional Chinese medicine and the ethnics of doctors are the only solution to the tense relationship between doctors and patients. If patients are treated like meat on the table, how can we talk about relationships between doctors and patients? The medical problem in the countryside, the medical problem for the rich and the poor, the care house for old people…when people are healthy, they will surely become richer. After that we can see a strong country with rich people where everyone feels secure and content.
• A medical system should be operated with a remuneration system based on the effectiveness of the treatment instead of the amount of work or surgeries the doctor has done. The U.S. government is at the moment encouraging the establishment of reliable medical institutions, where instead of the quantity of services provide, the government pays the hospitals, doctors and insurance companies based on the effectiveness of the treatment (e.g. the reduction of re-hospitalisation rate).
• Environment pollution: Change to unleaded to lower the crime rate
• Many Western countries found that their domestic crime rates have been declining significantly in the recent years. Some scholars believe that this could be related to those countries stopping using unleaded petrol. The crime rate in UK had been rising since the 20th century. However it started to decline starting from 1990s. Scholars’ statistics showed that: If the content of lead in the environment increases at a point, the crime rate in the society twenty years later would also increase. When the content of lead in the environment decreases, the crime rate would decrease about twenty years later too. In 1921, scientist Midgley produced tetraethyl leads as antilock, making leaded petrol a cheaper and more widely used fuel than ethanol. However, lead is extremely poisonous. It can be absorbed by people’s bones, teeth and blood and it can damage one’s kidney and affect body growth. It may cause abdomen pain, anemia, and neural system damages. According to studies, exposure to lead by pregnant women will inhibit fetus growth. Children and adults poisoned by lead may have headaches, reduced intelligence, or even disordered or assaulting behaviour. In early 1990s, American economist Nevin examined the issue that whether the government should spend huge amount of money to eradicate the leaded painting in old houses in the city. Everybody knew that lead might damage brain and it took years for the body to evacuate the toxin. He further examined whether the lead in the environment accumulated with time would influence people’s behaviour and eventually cause crime? He calculated the level of lead content in the petrol and cross-referenced the data with the historical crime rates of the modern time. He found out that the level of lead content was positively related to the crime rate twenty years later. Another American economist observed the correlations between all states after they stopped using leaded petrol to the reduction of crimes in 1990s. Other possible factors causing crimes through statistical methods. The result of the study also supported the above-mentioned theory.
• Cigarettes, alcohol, gambling and drugs are bad for our health. This is something everyone knows clearly.
• It doesn’t make sense to have an alcoholic in charge of a company’s accounting, nor does it make sense to assign a gambler to take care of the ledger. For the same reason, a drug addict shouldn’t be a CEO! Smokers poison their own children (through second-hand smoking). How can you expect him to be responsible for anything? Strictly speaking, if one touches any one of them, his/her career has been ruined. One should be assigned with important tasks due to lack of will power. At least it is morbidity (being ill).
• Nearly forty percent of crimes are caused by alcohol consumption in South Korea. The drunkards not only get delirious and cause riots. They could even commit murders, rapes or other severe crimes. With the assistance of the police, “Korean Daily” analysed 296,3424 severe criminal cases from 2007 up to April 2012 in five categories, including murder, robbery, rape, theft and violence. Among them, 877808 cases (29.6%) were caused by alcohol. At the moment, on average, every day there are 1.38 murders after alcohol consumption, 2.25 robberies, 13.21 rapes, etc. Altogether that is 451 severe criminal cases every day. To look at it by types of the crimes, 37.9% of the murders (2682 out of 7171 cases) were happened when the offenders were drunk. On top of that, the proportions of rapes after drinking (66806 out of 25722 cases) and violence after drinking (808829 out of 2276897) are 38.5% and 35.5%. Addictions themselves are health problems, including unbalanced diet, additions to Internet or drugs, drug abuse or consumptions of various addictive beverages or food. Replacing severe drugs with minor drugs is in itself drug dealing. These “minor drugs” are even more toxic than the so-called major drugs. It is the same with hormones.
• Social integrity: Fair and just. Reducing unsettled feelings.
• Along with invention and expansion of “company limited (Ltd.)” as well as the changes in social structure, the degradation of social integrity is worrisome. This is a significant social problem. Irresponsibility, lose of integrity and trust, these will severely harm social development and progress, damage market and social order, infringe justice in the society and benefits of the public, inhibit relationships among all ethnic groups, enlarge social trading cost. Incidents such as false food safety and environment pollutions can show the severity of moral degradation.
• Solving basic social conflicts: When the public is healthy both in body and health, they are peaceful without unreasonable wanting. This is critical to the stability, peace and public society in the society. The growing dissatisfaction of the public to the gap between the rich and the poor depend on their mindset (including their hatred to the rich). We should solve the conflict in its bud, find a way to unleash the negative emotions, prevent group incidents, reduce and calm the public. This can help to improve social security and stability.
• Employee-employer relations: Solve strikes by change mindset of both parties. Employers and employees rely on each other like lips and teeth. Only peace can help to bring wealth for both sides. If the employees are healthy both in body and minds and work environment is pleasant, there will be less sick leaves. Their work attitude will improve, which will further improve their performance, the quality of their work and their efficiency. They will work better as a team to cooperate with each other and help one another. This will create a win-win situation for everyone.
• Anti-corruption and honest government：Preventing and solving corruption problems through improving politicians’ physical and mental health is a brand new way to fight corruptions and create an uncorrupted government.
• A complete system and self-discipline are equally important. A complete system can stop bad people from wrong doings, and system defects will tempt people to turn evil. However, if people can discipline themselves incorruptible, things will be different. This is the fundamental solution to stopping all types of corruptions and benefiting conflicts. Corrupted officials are venal, corrupted and vicious. It is unjustified to simply describe venal officials as being greedy for money. Anticorruption and avarice should focus on prevent avarice with punishment as a complimentary measure. Lust after power is a question about value and legacy. People with no wanting have better morality. One without desires becomes stronger and more just (Mediocrity is related to people’s talent other than one’s morality. On a population basis, there are many mediocre people. It is not rare to have some of them becoming government officials. However, this can also be improved). It is expected that once government officials become healthy in body and mind, they no longer have the will, need, capability and courage to commit corruption, which would make them feel ashamed of themselves. This will further reduce the corruption rate, solve government officials’ bad behaviour, and improve the officials governing capability.
• Traditional cultural heritage: Causes and effects. Things happened first cause the result later on (they are closely related to each other). Thus we build the bridges and maintain the roads. Thus we take care of orphans and widows. Thus we respect the old and pity the poor. The real fortune lies in one’s children and grandchildren.
• Govern for the people. The key for solving the corruption is to be honest and loyal, healthy in both mind and body. If our people have integrity, good attitude, ideals and ambitions, they will not be able to tolerate wrong doings and corruptions. They will not associate themselves with evil. There will be less illegal incidents happening. The culture of drinking alcohol caused liver damages to 70% of population. Unhealthy liver may cause imbalances in body and mind, which would further induce all sorts of problem.
• Power is as addictive as cocaine. According to researches, the impact of power on human brain is quite similar to that of cocaine. It increases the content of testosterone and its by-products 3-androstanediol in both male and female. This further increases the content of dopamine in nucleusaccumbens. Therefore, power is very addictive. The effect of power is almost the same as that of cocaine, producing excessive dopamine and causes a number of negative emotions, such as arrogance, impatience and other display of imbalanced body and mind. (According to experiment, among the baboons, one with lower status in its hierarchy usually has lower level of dopamine in its major brain areas. However, once its status becomes higher, its dopamine level also rises.)
• Relationships between government officials and the people: communicate to improve mutual trust. Increase public credibility. Reduce conflicts and dissatisfaction.
• The most basic and core relationships in the society is the relationships between government officials and the people. If the government officials lack compassions with the people and fail to serve the people whole-heartedly, the people will become biased and lose trust. They may start to attack the officials and worsen the relationships between the officials and the people, causing serious or very serious problems. The imbalanced relationship between government officials and the people is the source to turmoil. As we say, water can hold the boat, and water can also overthrow the boat.
• Increase the consciousness about troubles, service, public servants and practicality. Improve the governing capabilities and law enforcing. Improve and draw closer the relationship between government officials and the people. Improve mutual trust. Of course, this will also involve the physical and mental health between officials and the people.
• Emergency situation: Mental health balance intervention (balance the emotions).
• Sooth those who are emotionally unstable. This is applicable to public security and group incidents, such as the prevention and prohibition of riots, fights and destruction, as well as the prevention of damaging social orders and peace.
• Traditional Chinese medicine is able to promote people’s physical health and maintain physical and mental balance. This is beneficial for eliminating the anxious emotions of people involved before the incidents. This can also help the staffs to communicate with people involved and help them to open their heart and mind.
• Imbalanced attitudes: greed, hatred, imbecility, arrogance, suspicions, all of them are vicious attitudes and sources of disasters.
• The degradation of morality is related to physical and mental health. It is about ideals and ambitions, instead of money and power.
• UK Prime Minister Cameron gave a speech after the riot in London, admitting that the riot was an alarm. He swore to rebuild the degraded morality. He said: “We knew what went wrong. The question is … do we have the determination to face the worsened morality degradation accumulated by ourselves day by day for generations.” He attributed the cause of the riot to people being “irresponsible, selfish. Kids have no fathers. The school disciplines are nothing but a piece of paper. Those who make contributions get no rewards. Everyone talks about rights yet takes no responsibilities”. Cameron announced the movement to rebuild morality, enhance social discipline and responsibilities. He swore to do best to mend social collapses. He announced that he would make new policies and change the sluggish, irresponsible and selfish attitudes in the society. He indeed had good wishes, yet they might just be wishes (as all of these changes request techniques). People need some spirit. Otherwise, they would only eat everyday and walk like a zombie. What’s the meaning of life? What’s the value of existence? People must have some ideals and pursuits.
• What people eat in the North are all covered in pesticides。Those people in Taipei are just too strong to be killed!” – Major of Xinbei, Taiwan talked about a story when an old countrywoman in the South was questioned by a guest from Taipei why she didn’t use those greener and better looking kales and cabbages in the garden to cook dinner.
• Do you want to eat vegetables, meat and vegetables with pesticides? Do you want to drink tea made by tealeaves with no pesticides? When will vegetable and fruit farmers stop having different sectors for growing their products (this one for themselves and that one for selling)? When will fake food and products disappear from the market? When can drainage oil disappear? Many things in the world are beyond good wishes. Things have causes and effects. Everything in the world is interconnected. Do not blame them. At least we don’t have the right to blame them! Think about what we can do. Think about what we can do for the society. Start from yourself and think more for others.
• Physical and mental health: it is the source and key for maintaining social justice and resolving social conflicts.
• When people are mentally and physically healthy, no one will take advantages of others. People will no longer need to lock their doors. People will not take other people’s belongings left on the road. It is said in “The Book of Rites – Fortune of Rites”: So all selfish cunningness and trivial intrigue never happen. All robberies and thefts, gangsters and mobs disappear for good. Thus people can go out or at night time without closing their doors. This is what we called “one world”.
• One’s appearance derives from one’s heart. One’s circumstances changes with one’s heart. One’s destiny is determined by one’s heart. One’s fortune was acquired by oneself. Fortunate people live in fortunate places. Fortunate places are always dwelled by fortunate people. In layman’s term, one reaps what one sows.
• Conflicts among different ethnic groups:
• The most unsolvable contradiction in the world is national hatred, only resolving is the only way out. Among each region, group of people, or ethnicity, there will be some common personality traits, or more or less has some similarities. In health science, their physical and mental health may have something in common. In epidemiological terms, that refers to some regional diseases (such as hypoxia or lack of certain trace elements or imbalance of cardiac function and physical health).
• Different geographical habits, such as taste preferences, whether people prefers sour or spicy, are also health issues, the same as migratory fish and animals, who have habits and needs of their own.
• For example, Myanmar is a multi-ethnic nation with 135 ethnic groups. The ethnic conflicts within the country are extremely acute and complicated. To achieve reconciliation and peace among different ethnic groups is like walking a tightrope at high altitude, when an small imbalanced move may cause one to fall into pieces. For President of Myanmar Ne Win said, "There are many minority ethnic groups in Myanmar, with as many anti-government armies supporting them." One can only help to improve their physical and mental health, to improve their view on the overall situation, so as to make them more consolidated, acceptable and tolerating. This can help all groups to work together co-dependently for mutual benefits and social conflicts to achieve prosperity.
• Interests, identity issues, ownership issues, cultural differences, disgruntled thoughts, rebellions and unrest, terrorism, etc., all of them are in fact related to mentality. We will see a society in which men farm and women weave. Everyone is happily living, working and settled naturally despite of poverty. All ethnic groups are consolidated. The society naturally becomes harmonious and peaceful (in contrary to the current anti-terrorism strategy which did nothing but making more troubles. One can never agree less).
• Religions extremism issue:
• Extremists are all individuals whose thoughts are self-radicalised or self-extremised. They may not directly affiliate with any organisations, yet being influenced by those organisations, they may generate extreme and perverted ideas and decide to carry them out. These threats are indeed very difficult to prevent. In general, religions were started mostly for make up for the inadequacy of laws, helping to restraining people's minds, guiding people to do good things, and being used by people needed. People with a peaceful mentality and strong will power will not need this type of consolation. With a pure mind, they could simply smile at everything and take things lightly.
• Where do terrorists come from? They come from countries where the majority of people are in poverty. They are mesmerized by fanatical extremist thoughts – In the annual Nobel Prize winner summit held in Chicago, the winners agreed to instill the concept of peace to young people. However, former South African President Clark pointed out that lack of education, poverty and unemployment have made young people more vulnerable to bad influences.
• What are devils, demon, evil, Satan, hatred? They are people’s heart. That’s why we say that one who lays down the arms can become a Buddha instantly. This is all about “heart”, including our emotions and desires. An unbalanced heart will bring illness. This is so-called illness caused by seven emotions (as said in Chinese traditional medical pathology).
• Issues about war and peace:
• Hatred is the root cause of wars (including religious wars). Hatred, also known as resentment or grudge, is an emotion of dissatisfaction with strong hostility and resentment. Hatred usually derives from feelings of fear, anger, detest, being hurt or being offended. It is a reaction generated when one's feeling and dignity are hurt. This is also psychology, as it is a psychological feeling. It is a heavy burden. Hatred and resent do not solve problems. When will the retribution end? One should balance one's mind and let go of hatred. One should turn hatred into forgiveness, turn war to peace, and lay down the weapons in front of the enemy. (It is said that in Later Han Dynasty, the brother of Xu Jing, Zi Shi killed someone for revenge. His enemy wanted to kill Shi with a sword. On the way, the enemy encountered Jing. Jing laid down his sword and kneeled in front of the enemy, offering to die for his brother Shi. The enemy saw Jing's wisdom and did not dare to kill Jing. He also laid down his sword and left. The story was recorded in History of Later Han Dynasty - Chapter Seventy-six - Biography of Officials - Biography of Xu Jing. This story is used to teach reconciliation. In Anthology - Ren Fang - Preface by Wang Wenxian, it was written: One didn't seek to educate with words, yet one can change the thoughts of others. That's why one can lay down the sword and kneel to the enemy. That's why one can stop the lawsuit and return to the farms). Stop the boiling water by removing the air. This can solve the problem and eliminate troubles fundamentally. Drugs are more harmful to our brain than hatred. If one can stop taking drugs, one can stop hating too.
• Across history, the war starters mostly have health issues. Human hearts are so powerful that we can build a beautiful world and also destroy a world. The greatest love of human being can not only surpass time, but also go beyond space.
• The communications among countries are based on the close relationship among their people, which further depend on closeness of hearts. Well-known diplomat Talleyrand in 19th century once told Napoleon: “Give me a good chef and I will give you a good treaty.” If politics create barriers among people, dining tables would bring them together. Health can also increase friendship and help to establish a good private relationship of mutual trust (international relations are in fact personal relations and benefits), increase understandings among countries and eliminate possible barriers. When the public and decision-makers of neighbouring countries become healthy, there will be less unreasonable vexations, wanting and arrogance.
• Although the country's will to live is to maximise its own power and regional benefits, the conflicts and confrontations are inevitable. Vicious competition or wars benefit no one. (Military wars can't solve the political problems, economic problems, sectarian conflicts and historical chaos). No international members can take geopolitics as a zero-sum game. As long as there are proper communications and understanding, we can live in harmony through cooperation to achieve win-win, common interests and common prosperity. In fact, this is also related to the qualities of mind or mentality.
• Traditional Chinese Medicine War Rescue - Turn war to peace. Transform hostility to harmony. Traditional Chinese Medicine intervention is a brand-new concept and milestone in medicine and war history.

All in all, we can put it into one sentence - physical and mental imbalance!

If one’s mentality is not balanced, there will be greed, jealousy, hatred, crime, war and slaughter, etc. (When a normal people is imbalanced, we see hatred and crimes. When a governor’s mentality is not balanced, we see wars and slaughters.)

In Chinese medical point of view, these imbalances can all be summarised as physical and mental health problems, including the deteriorating heart. People's thinking is related to health. Bad health will cause bad mentality. This is the same everywhere in the world. Now the world is mostly inflicted by sub-health and disease. People who are sick of course will have sick thoughts and thoughts of illness. Once our body becomes healthy, our mind will become healthy too. We will no longer see things with a fixed mind. We will be calmer and more peaceful. We will have happy family, harmonious society and a peaceful world!

Using Devil’s staircase to deduce actions of serial killers is one of the most typical cases (American researches found out that it was possible to predict the next step of serial killers. The research pointed out that the time sequence for serial killer to commit killing are very close to the mathematical formula of Devil’s staircase). The research result can help the police deduce the approximate time of the killer’s next crime and thus solve the case as early as possible. Mathematicians Mikhail Simkin and Vwani Roychowdhury studied Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo as an individual case. He killed at least 53 people from 1978 to 1990, mostly women and children. The research firstly displayed Chikatilo’s killings in 12 years in line chart to analyse his criminal behavior. The chart lacked regularity. For example, the shortest interval between two killings was three days while the longest was over two years. Thereby the line chart showed the shape of a staircase, which was then called as Devil’s staircase. They further analysed the time distribution of the killings with the line chart, and found out that the time distribution of the killings was close to the time distribution of seizure outbreaks. Both of them followed a mathematical equation. They then deduced that when the serial killer committed crime, it was similar to a seizure outbreak, when some neural units in his brain exploded together and stimulated the killer to kill.) If we can treat the seizure, we will never have serial killers and we will never need to hunt serial killers! Similarly, when people are healthy in body and mind, they will naturally become compassionate and loving …

Traditional Chinese medicine has recognized the close relations between people’s mental and spiritual activities and the functions of their organs for as long as several thousand years (people have seven emotions in the mental activity category, including emotional changes such as happiness, anger, thinking, worry, sorrow, fear and shock). The occurrence of mental illness can be caused by all sorts of reasons, but psychological factors still remain as one of main causes. Emotional activities are in its nature a mental reaction of human body to external environment. Normally, occasional emotional fluctuations will not cause illness. However, once the fluctuations exceed a certain level without restraint, or long-term negative emotions cause excessive stress, affecting body’s Yin, Yang, Qi and blood balance and flow, causing disordered Qi and blood functions, people’s health will be influenced. The disordered organ functions will cause illness and incur abnormal emotional and mental activities. This is what we called mental illness. If someone thinks and worries too much, the worrying thoughts will tangle Qi and damage heart and spleen. This will cause disordered Qi and blood and incur illness. Seven emotions are closely related to people’s five organs, especially the physical and pathological changes of five organs. Happiness is connected to heart. Anger is connected to liver. Thinking is connected to spleen. Worry and sorrow are connected to lung. Fear and shock are connected to kidney. Under normal circumstances, body’s Yin and Yang are balanced, ensuring the normal functions of the body. Just as “Plain Questions – Theory of Lifting Pains” pointed out: “All diseases are generated from Qi. Anger makes one’s Qi rise. Happiness slows one’s Qi down. Sorry diminishes Qi. Fear lower Qi…Shock messes up Qi…Thinking tangles Qi.” Seven emotions belong to five organs and are controlled by five organs. When one’s too emotional, five organs will be damaged. In turn, the strength and weakness of Qi in organs, or the imbalance in the flow of Qi and blood, will also cause blocked emotions. For example, people with insufficient blood supply in their liver are easy to get frustrated and angry. People with weak spleen and stomach are easy to become sad and worried. Therefore, although mental illness is mainly induced by psychological factors, the strength and weakness of five organs are the pathological basis of the illness.

1. Happiness: belongs to heart. Heart can express people’s happiness. Heart can control blood. When one is happy, the Qi and blood flow quicker. The complexion becomes healthier. The ability to resist coldness and illness improves. The chance of having cardiocerebral vascular diseases becomes lower.
• Heart controls clear mind. When one is happy, the mind works quicker. One becomes more imaginative and creative. One can outperform in examinations or break record in sport. A brilliant heart displays on one’s face. When one is happy, his/her face will wear excitement and smiles. He/her won’t be able to hide happiness. Couples in love become more beautiful or handsome. Heart improves one’s tongue. When one is happy, he/she can talk continuously and eloquently. His/her words will flow beautifully. As heart is connected to small bowel, when one’s happy, his/her appetite will improve too, which may cause our so-called “laugh and grow fat”.
• Happiness can damage heart. Excessive happiness can damage heart, which will often cause palpitation, apprehension, insomnia, dreaminess, forgetfulness, sweating, lightheadedness, dizziness, headache, chest pain, and even delirium, endless laughter, weeping sorrow, suspicion and paranoia, anxiety and other symptoms. This can further cause some cardiovascular diseases. When the symptoms are serious, it can endanger one’s life. For example, there are people who suddenly have strokes or die in extremely happiness. It is called as “overjoyed apoplectic disease” in traditional Chinese medicine.
2. Anger: belongs to liver. Liver can express people’s anger. Anger is an emotion expressed mainly in the form of stress when individual will and activities are frustrated or one fails to achieve certain goal. Anger can be positive, meaning that it can have positive impact on people and society. In prewar motivations, we need to encourage soldiers’ morale, including the stimulation of soldiers’ hatred and anger towards the enemy, which will turn into huge fighting power in the battle. Anger can also be negative, meaning that it can have negative impact on people and society. Temporary and light anger can help one to unleash suppressed emotions and relieve from stress and anxiety. It is helpful for channeling people’s Qi and maintaining the balance within our body.
• Anger can damage liver. Rage, excessive anger can damage liver, shown as liver failure, liver cholestasis, hepatic blood stasis, hyperactivity and other symptoms. One can have chest pain, irritability, dizziness, blurred vision, red face and red eyes, or sometimes even depression, happy signs, warm gas, diaphragm muscle spasm and other symptoms. Anger reduce the production of saliva, which may cause reduced appetite, stomach and intestine spasms, racing heart, short and quick breaths, higher blood pressure, increased amount of red cells in blood, increased blood viscosity and sympathetic nerve excitement. In the long run, it may cause high blood pressure and other cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. For cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases patients, it may worsen their illness, induce stroke and myocardial infarction，etc., which may further endanger life.
3. Thinking: belong to spleen. People’s thinking is mainly expressed through spleen. Thinking is highly concentrated thinking and scheming. When people are thinking or worrying, they usually lose taste and appetite when eating. Some women can have menstruation and menstrual disorders, etc., due to stressful work and highly concentrated thinking. This is consistent to the function of spleen to control blood.
• Thinking can damage spleen. Thinking belongs to spleen。Excessive thinking can damage spleen. Spleen damage can be shown as fatigue caused by insufficient Qi and blood. One can have symptoms such as dizziness, palpitation, anemia. Some may also have warm gas, Nausea, vomiting, bloating, diarrhea and a series of other symptoms for gastrointestinal disease.
• One’s psychological status is very important to people’s Yin and Yang, Qi and blood, organs. Vice versa. That’s the reason why people often talk about illness caused by depression or depression caused by illness. Replenishing is beneficial to health and longevity. It is important to nourishing the spirit in the process of replenishing. That is to adjust one’s spirit to the best condition through various effective methods.
4. Worry (sorrow): belongs to lung. After careful observation of patients, ancient doctors found that lung is the main organ expressing worry, sorrow and sadness. When someone cries for sorrow, he/she would burst into tears. This is mainly because lung opens a channel to nose. Lung controls Qi, and is the master of voice. Therefore, too much sad and sorrowful weeping would cause hoarse voice and short of breath, etc. Lung masters skin and hair. Therefore sorrow and worry may increase wrinkles.
• Worry and sorrow can damage lung. When people are grieving in sorrow, Qi in lungs is suppressed and Yin Qi is consumed and dissipated. This can cause cold, coughing and other symptoms. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that lung masters skin and hair. Therefore, when sorrow and worry damage lung, some skin disease may also be caused by some psychological factors. Depressed emotions, sorrow and worry can cause urticaria, alopecia areata, psoriasis, etc.
5. Fear (shock): belongs to kidney. Kidney is the major organ for people to express fear and shock. Fear and shock are people’s reactions in response to sudden stimulations from the external world. When people are severely scared or shocked, they may have incontinence。This is consistent with the fact that kidney controls both Yin at the front and back, the stool and the urine. Kidney contains essence, produces marrow and charges brain. When people are scared and shocked, he/she may pass out and lose conscious. This is related to the fact that kidney contains essence, produces marrow and charges brain. Fear and shock have certain benefits to our body under normal circumstances. It alarms us and helps us to avoid injuries.
• Fear and shock can damage kidney. Excessive fear and shock will consume and sink Qi in Kidney, causing incontinence, spermatorrhea and premature ejaculation. Severe fear and shock may also cause death. We don’t lack examples in this aspect.

Sun Simiao in Tang Dynasty said: “The best doctor treats the country. The mediocre doctor treats people, and the bad doctor treats illness”. It means that a good practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine can make everyone in the country healthy in both body and mind (treat before the illness happens. The illness has been prevented in advance before it occurs, including infectious disease and epidemics. With good physical and mental health, people’s relationships and communications will surely become better. The whole country will naturally become more harmonious. The whole society will become peaceful, stable and happy). A normal mediocre practitioner in traditional Chinese medicine can treat people and educate people to discipline and take care of themselves to avoid illness (relatively limited number). The last level is doctor who treats illness, who can treat patients who are already ill (because they are not good enough to prevent the illness and can only diagnose the illness when patients are actually ill). That is to say, the best treats the not-yet-ill, the mediocre treats the about-to-ill, and the worse treat the already-ill. The principle of traditional Chinese medicine is to prevent people from getting sick. This is contradictory to the development of modern Western medicine.

Chinese traditions always emphasise the educational function of music to people’s mind and morality. “The Book of Rite – Record of Music” said that virtuous people have good personality. Musicians are the best of the virtuous. Confucius focused on teaching through music in particular: “The best way of change a culture is to use music. The best way of governing people is to use etiquette.” He thinks that the thinking and artistic essences in music are expressed in kindness and beauty.” Confucius believed that etiquettes and music that filled the heaven and the earth, mixed in Yin and Yang, flowing among ghosts and goads regulate everything in human society. It could make people more kind and purify our society, so as to ensure the long-term security and order of the society. From this point of view, we can see that music plays an important part in social morals and ethics.

Traditional Chinese medicine is the direction of global medical system reform and the way for human health. The medical problems we have now are not about money but about the effectiveness of treatment. The treatment and prevention of diseases are clearly beyond the indication of vitamins, vaccines, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgeries. It is ignorant to waste patients’ precious life and time on diagnosis, a greedy and pretty excuse for lacking treatment capabilities. The more treatments are given, the more patients there are. The data rocket up every year, making people confused and lost. Many things may not be solved by money or action. A healthy method should be: focus on prevention complemented by treatment. The combination of prevention and treatment makes a holistic medical system. If physical health is healthy, Yin and Yang are balanced, all organs are well, amd people’s mental health will also improve. This will naturally reduce the number of crimes. This way of removing fire from boiling water could achieve many objectives in one go and can solve all of these difficult problems in the world.

Chinese culture emphasises on utilising people’s full potential through combination of “the spirit” and “the body”, advocating on the idea of “heaven, body and mind, all in one”. This is one of the reasons why Chinese civilisation was able to develop to a high level without becoming imbalanced. Chinese culture is completely different from the scientific development model of the civilisation we are currently in, even including the understanding of materials. Chinese culture follows another path that is way beyond our modern civilisation. Modern people focus on intelligence and capabilities, education and communication of knowledge, while neglect spirits (inner consciousness or inner power). When the society is corrupted with love to wealth, lust, extravagance and power, people will become corrupted by greed and power. This is the sadness of our human nature. This is the imbalance in physical and mental health that we always try to emphasise.

We are no longer what we were. This doesn't seem serious on surface, yet it is the root of the problem with profound influence. We must stop growth of the problem in the bud so that they will not become a bit one (lack of heart to help people, love people and feel compassionate … this is common in this society. One shall not be too ashamed). However, this is also when we can see the value of Chinese culture and meaning of traditional Chinese medicine to people’s physical and mental health and social harmony. This is the great contribution of traditional Chinese medicine to the world.

Chinese Version