Who will save Chinese medicine?

Hello! First of all, I wish you good health! Let me talk to you about "saving" Chinese medicine.

To save Chinese medicine, we must first get rid of cultural "self-abuse". Looking back, it has been a hundred years since the abolition of TCM theory.

In those years when the west wind spread eastward more than 100 years ago, it was western medicine that moved China more than pointed ships, cannons and imported goods, which was the beginning of China people's understanding of western learning; Then the west wind spread to the east, which made China's sense of modernization grow wildly. At this time, Chinese medicine was among the first batch of "dross" that was spurned.

Understanding and attitude towards TCM means understanding the cultural tradition connected with the blood of TCM and understanding people themselves.

Not long ago, the Treasures of Oriental Medicine, which was compiled by North Korean doctors in Chinese 400 years ago, will be applied to UNESCO by the Korean government as one of the World Memory Projects. The misinformation that "Korean doctors" declared the intangible cultural heritage of the world does not seem to strongly stimulate those who are caught in the hustle and bustle of Chinese medicine.

Regarding the recent dispute over the retention or abolition of traditional Chinese medicine and the discussion of "chronic diseases" in traditional Chinese medicine, a report broadcast by Xinhua News Agency said: To save traditional Chinese medicine, we must first get rid of the "self-abuse" of culture.

This manuscript quoted Professor Boquet of Munich University in the 1980s: "Chinese medicine has not been treated by religious culture in China so far, and it has been treated with dogmatic contempt and cultural destruction without determining its scientific traditional status ..."

□ It's not just the pain of Chinese medicine.

1879, Yu Yue (Qu Yuan, Zhang Taiyan, Wu Changshuo), a master of Chinese studies, published a shocking theory of abolishing Chinese medicine, which clearly advocated "abolishing Chinese medicine".

Subsequently, a group of famous figures in modern history, including Sun Yat-sen, Hu Shi, Liang Qichao, Yan Fu and others, all advocated "abolishing medicine" and their words became more intense. After nearly a hundred years, their lethality is still there.

Yan Fu believes that TCM lacks practical observation and logical reasoning, and classifies TCM as a kind of magical methods such as geomantic omen and astrological fortune telling. Chen Duxiu said: "Chinese medicine does not understand the structure of the human body, nor does it deal with the analysis of medicinal properties. ..... only know the theory that the five elements will produce cold and heat yin and yang "; Liang Shuming believes that Chinese medicine is only a "craft" and "has no objective basis"; Lu Xun in "Scream? The irony of Chinese medicine in the preface has a far-reaching influence-"it is just a liar intentionally or unintentionally." Even Hu Shi, who once accepted Chinese medicine Hui Ze due to illness, said, "Looking back, what position can our family's' Chinese medicine' occupy in the history of science and medicine? "

During the Republic of China, there was a larger-scale struggle movement of traditional Chinese medicine. 1929, under the auspices of Ruiheng Liu, then vice minister of health, the first Central Health Committee of the Kuomintang put forward the case of "abolishing Chinese medicine", which eventually failed due to strong social resistance.

"The problems of prostitutes, drug abuse and Chinese medicine have all been solved." Shortly after the founding of New China, Yu Yunxiu, who advocated "abolishing Chinese medicine" in the Republic of China, compared Chinese medicine with prostitutes and drug addicts after becoming a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

These extreme theories, which still sound harsh today, were born out of a strong sense of crisis when "China Power" declined rapidly: China must "reinvent itself", advocate western learning and abandon old learning. During the May 4th Movement, the wave of criticizing China's traditional culture became more turbulent. It is in these voices that intend to build a "new world" and abandon the old culture categorically that national self-confidence based on cultural self-confidence is quietly lost.

Traditional culture, as the soil for the survival of Chinese medicine, has been weakened more and more, and the phenomenon that Chinese medicine is divorced from its own tradition has become more and more serious. Faced with the dilemma of preserving or abolishing Chinese medicine, many experts and scholars call for saving traditional culture first.

Qian Jia, an expert of the Ministry of Science and Technology who has long been concerned about the development strategy of traditional Chinese medicine, believes that it is the medical education that ignores the traditional culture of China that makes the quality of traditional Chinese medicine decline, and it is the almost complete acceptance of western culture in the past century that makes traditional Chinese medicine lose its vitality. Professor Liu Changhua, director of the Institute of Medical History and Literature of China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that the misunderstanding of Chinese medicine stems from the weakness of traditional culture all over the world, which is not only the pain of Chinese medicine under the strong impact of economic globalization.

-"A scholar studying medicine caught a chicken in a cage"

"It is difficult for people who don't understand the traditional culture of China to understand Chinese medicine."

Professor Kong Hongling, a professor of philosophy at Zhejiang University and director of China Cultural Thought Research Center, said this.

There is a saying in China: "A scholar learns medicine and catches a chicken in a cage." In ancient times, scholars often turned to study medicine, which made it easier to get started, because Chinese medicine was inextricably linked with Confucianism, Taoism, the Book of Changes, the five elements of Yin and Yang, and even martial arts tea ceremony, piano, chess and calligraphy. It was relatively easy for people with traditional cultural knowledge background to learn Chinese medicine.

China's traditional culture is a long-term integration of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, which has had a far-reaching impact on the formation and development of Chinese medicine. In particular, the concept of "harmony between man and nature", which emphasizes the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, is not only one of the essences of China traditional culture, but also directly creates the basic framework of TCM and finds the starting point and destination of TCM development. The holistic view of the correspondence between man and nature, the theory of Tibetan images with the intersection of five elements, and the therapeutic principle of mutual root of yin and yang in traditional Chinese medicine are all branded with China's ancient philosophy.

Professor Zhang Qicheng, a doctoral supervisor in the discipline of medical history and literature in Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, also believes that Chinese medicine, which was born in ancient China, is a part of China traditional culture and has the same roots as other cultures in ancient China.

However, no matter how lush the tree is, when the soil under its foundation has no nutrition, it will slowly decline and wither.

Zhang Qicheng said that in the century after the abolition of the imperial examination system, traditional culture suffered one after another, such as the abolition of Confucius and classics, the replacement of classical Chinese by vernacular Chinese, the simplification of Chinese characters, and the "scientific explanation" of China's ancient thoughts by western philosophy for more than a century. Coupled with the impact of modern science, the traditional culture of China was interrupted to some extent, which also had a fatal impact on the development of Chinese medicine.

China's ancient traditional philosophy has become increasingly marginalized, and astronomy, geography, agronomy and mathematics have gradually faded out of the stage of the times and become historical relics. He is my younger brother. There are only a handful of Chinese paintings and Peking Opera, and he is in the same boat as Chinese medicine. Together, he is called "the quintessence of the country", and today he is also experiencing the "baptism" of modern science and technology.

Ancient Chinese medicine books are written in classical Chinese and traditional Chinese characters. People who study Chinese medicine today must have a good knowledge of ancient Chinese, or they will use modern people to transform and explain ancient books. Chinese ancient books translated in vernacular will inevitably be misinterpreted by many people, and many people who proofread Chinese ancient books have poor knowledge of ancient Chinese. Under such circumstances, it is not difficult to imagine that the ancient books of Chinese medicine are disordered and uneven today, so it is inevitable to guide the clinical practice.

China people who have grown up in the background of modern society are gradually unfamiliar with their traditional culture, especially the original written language-classical Chinese. In the eyes of most people, Chinese medicine books written in classical Chinese are tantamount to "heavenly books". These thoughts of traditional Chinese medicine recorded in classical Chinese have become a difficult problem for modern people. "Traditional culture is getting farther and farther away from Chinese medicine, and Chinese medicine is getting farther and farther away from traditional culture." Zhang Qicheng is not without sorrow.

-Saving the declining civilization.

In order to protect Chinese medicine, China began to declare the world intangible cultural heritage in recent years, and decided to "package" eight contents of Chinese medicine theory, diagnosis, therapy, prescription and Chinese medicine, and declare the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list to the United Nations.

Kong believes that Chinese medicine is vulnerable in modern scientific civilization. Modern science and technology is dominated by the west, and the origin background of China's traditional culture is different from the western paradigm. Today, when traditional culture is relegated to a secondary position, Chinese medicine will inevitably collide with modern science and technology.

The biggest criticism of most people who oppose Chinese medicine is unscientific. Kong believes that scientific standards are diverse and cannot be based only on repeatability and testability. Western medicine will also face some problems raised by Chinese medicine, such as the side effects of drugs. One-sided exaggeration of the harm of traditional Chinese medicine is purely a psychological problem of worshipping foreign things and obsessing foreign things.

Zhang Qicheng believes that traditional Chinese medicine is the original medicine in China, and it is also the oldest medical technology that is most likely to have a positive impact on human health and lead China's medical technology to the world level. China people should cherish it and sum it up effectively from the perspective of theoretical thinking, instead of blindly using western logical analysis tools to deny it and destroy it.

"Traditional culture and modern science and technology should go hand in hand, like the wings of birds, and together become the driving force for the development of contemporary Chinese medicine."

If you are satisfied with the above answer, please don't disappoint my kindness and adopt it as an answer in time.