As I talk with my foreign friends, one of the most often asked questions is the difference between traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Modern medicine.
Some would say the difference is mostly in the medicine: TCM doctors use herbs, while Western medicine doctors apply chemical and synthesized medicine. Some would say they differ technically: TCM pierce with an acupuncture needle, but Western doctors cut with an operation knife.
But I think the biggest difference lie in the difference between ways of thinking and choice of value, which is a difference in philosophical thinking.
The same disease of the same person, if seen from different angels, would have seemed different to different doctors. This is just like several blind men feeling an elephant. Every one of them learn only part of the truth.
TCM originates from Taoism, an ancient Chinese philosophy which emphasizes on following the principle of the Nature and managing things in a simple and easy way.
The theories of TCM hold that the reason the human being exist on the Earth is not because we have doctors, hospitals or medicines, but that we are gifted with a nature capacity to prevent and recover from illnesses.
The doctors' responsibility is then to help exert this nature gift of people's.
Bian Que (407-310 BC), China's ancient medical scientist and founder of pulse diagnosis, was recorded to save a prince who had been believed to have died. When people were marveling about his ability to save the dead, he told seriously: ``I can not save dead people. I saved him because there was life in him and I could waken it.''
Bian's words reveals the basic principle of TCM, which is to help the patients recover their natural vitality and ability to cure themselves.
Based on that theory, TCM make detailed observation and collect experience of human beings illness prevention and curing system. As a result, they found the existence of {qi}, or vital energy. They discovered th channels of circulation of vital energy and the points where it is strong, or as is commonly known, the acupuncture points.
That discovery then became the basis of TCM, which is to cure diseases by regulating the circulation of {qi} in acupuncture, moxibustion and {tuina}, medical massage.
That basic theory decides that TCM will not isolate the part of body that is sick from the other parts of body. The human body is an inter-related whole instead of a combination of individual organs.
The study of TCM focus on researching relation between Man and the Nature, Man and the society, and the influence and function of different organs of the body on each other.
These relations are explained with the theory of {yin} and {yang}, and the five elements, which are still used by TCM doctors to direct their clinical practice.
While TCM focuses on the internal factor, Western medicine pay attention more to the external ones. The Chinese say a fly would not sting an egg without a crack, but Western doctors would have attributed all the fault to the fly.
A second difference between the two medicines is probably that TCM focuses on prevention more.
TCM maintains that the best doctor discovers an illness in its earliest stage and put it down then, instead of not saving someone until he is very sick.
Ancient Chinese has different terms for an illness in its different phases.
The difference of the two medicines can be shown in their ways of treating cancer.
Western medicine would not treat until malignant tumor appears. The treatment would be removal of the part that is sick and chemotherapy.
But TCM thinks the forming of cancer cells is a gradual process. A good doctor should wipe them off when they are still developing.
In treating cancer, TCM thinks the tumor is like several bad fruits on a malignant tree. To remove the fruits (removal operation) or to kill the fruits with pesticide (chemotherapy) will not help in the long run. The best thing to do is to chop the tree of illness from the root. Otherwise the bad fruits will keep growing. And because the operation and chemotherapy hurt the immune system, cancer cells will grow faster.
A more radical example might help explain how TCM look at the whole matter of fitness and treatment for people.
Maradonna the great soccer player broke through five of England's players on the 1986 World Cup and scored the winning goal for Argentina.
A TCM doctor would say Maradonna is good but the goal is impossible without the help of all other 10 players, the logistics people and even the support of fans.
A Western doctor would attribute the goal to Maradonna, and his left foot, then probably his left foot thumb, the cutin cell of the left foot, the DNA of the cell and a gene...
The same thing happens in the use of medicine. Chinese herbal recipes include different ingredients with different functions, which works on different aspects of the problem. But Western medicine would extract a certain herb that works on an illness. That is quite like using Maradonna's big toe to score a goal.
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发表于 2003-7-29 09:31:16
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发表于 2003-7-30 13:22:24