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Throughout the history of mankind, many different forms of technology have been developed. Each lead to another and gradually, society has advanced to what we have today. We have trains to take us to work, emails to communicate across the globe, machines to take over manual was washing, even planes that challenge the sound barrier.
On the medical front, penicillin was discovered, vaccinations provide pre-emptive protection, and computer intelligence has even enabled doctors to perform medical surgeries without the need to be physically present. These fruits of technological and science advancement were sowed since the first civilizations learned to survive the wraths of sickness and natural disasters. During this adaptation process, medical thought grew from understanding nature. One of the forms of medicine then was Chinese Medicine, which is called Traditional Chinese Medicine today. It came from understanding one’s environment, accepting man as a product of nature, and accepting man as inevitably mutually dependant with nature. Creatures around him, plants the river flow, the sun, the soil, or the air that he breathed and exhaled-man survived by living harmoniously with his surroundings.
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Every thing that provided insight into nature contributed to the ideas of TCM, no matter how small. The grocer recounts his wife’s recovery from flu by drinking chicken soup, passes it on to his customer, who then returns home to brew it for his/her child, who grows up and continues to prepare the nutritious soup her his/her children. According to legends and generations, the myriad concepts were organized and documented by the Yellow Emperor in the Nei Ching Su Wen.
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In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Qi (energy) flows through an intricate network of meridians like a river would to nourish the lands round. The various meridian points relate to their individual organs or systems. Their position in different individuals is also unique and determined by the Physician’s sense of touch.
The body, its organs, and system also have their own energies in Yin (light) and Yang (dark) state. The seed (Yin) lays dormant till the optimum weather conditions arrive and germinates into a young healthy seedling (Yang). When night slips away and day reaks, the moon (Yin) dims and is replaced by the sun (Yang). Similarly, our bodies go through periods of rest, regeneration and detoxification.
Our energies also described by the five elements. Wood burns to fuel the flames of a fire. The ashes become fertilizers that nourish the earth. Overtime, pressure and heat in the earth lead to the formation of minerals and metal, which melts flows and becomes water. When there is water, life can grow and into plants which can go on to reproduce.Hence qi of water supports the qi of wood, and the cycle of generation repeats. Conversely, the five elements also balance each other in the cycle of regulation. Water extinguishes fire, wood controls earth, fire controls metal and metal controls wood.
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Is one medicine superior to another? No. Different medical approaches simply originate from different perspectives of the human system. Mainstream methods treat and alleviate the symptoms directly. TCM identifies the set of syndromes and goes about to tune the body back into balance. Hence, rather than being contradicting, TCM and conventional medicine can complement each other. It is also possible to reason the methods of one from the perspective of the other. For example, recent advances in biochemistry have identified and classified beneficial nutrients in herbs and plants into a class called phyto-nutrients (phyto- meaning plant in Greek). Most meridian points correspond or can be found near nerve endings studied in Western science’s central nervous system. Hence, acupuncture may be explainable using medical physics theory. |
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