How to treat Chinese medicine as philosophy rather than science?

This proposition should be: how to treat Chinese medicine as culture rather than science (no matter what others think, I think Chinese medicine is a science, a profound science. Only in some ways, the so-called science can't be explained now)

First, Chinese medicine is an empirical science, not a modern science.

Before the development of modern western medicine, all nationalities in the world produced their own medical methods more or less in the process of their survival and development. Han people have Chinese medicine, Tibet has Tibetan medicine, and India, Rome and India also have their own medical methods.

The characteristic of ancient medicine is to rely on experience, which nation has a long history of civilization and which nation has rich medical experience. Because China's classical civilization has lasted for 5,000 years, medical methods have been passed down from generation to generation, almost becoming the best medical system in the ancient world.

However, empirical science is only empirical science after all. The theoretical basis of TCM is Yin-Yang and Five Elements, and the basic medical method is only holistic treatment based on the simple materialism of Yin-Yang. From now on, the theoretical basis of TCM is problematic, and its basic theories are all from Huangdi Neijing, which is almost proved to be forged by later generations. Therefore, the so-called holistic treatment based on this yin-yang and five elements is simply not reliable. The cure belongs to the right, and the mistake belongs to the wrong.

The basic assumption of Yin-Yang and Five Elements is that the world consists of five elements, which is the early stage of human understanding of the world. With the development of human understanding of the world from a simple concept to modern materialism (or idealism), Yin-Yang and Five Elements, like the thoughts of three philosophers in early ancient Greece, have been abandoned.

Western medicine treats the headache and the foot pain, which is the choice under the premise that human beings have limited understanding of nature. I also think that holistic treatment is better than local treatment, but the problem is that the function of human system is very complicated. How to treat the whole? If one day, people's understanding of themselves reaches the level of holistic treatment, western medicine will naturally move towards holistic treatment. The local treatment now is much more reliable than the holistic treatment blindly carried out by Chinese medicine.

A medical system, if it is only a technical level such as drugs and treatments, is only an empirical science. Only when it rises to the theoretical level can it be called modern science. Traditional Chinese medicine has a history of 5,000 years, and can treat some diseases, but the theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements cannot judge and treat unheard-of diseases, which is the strength of western medicine.

Second, Chinese medicine is culture, not science.

Although people use the two concepts of science and culture together, which is called "scientific culture", science and culture are two different concepts. The concept of science is to observe, classify, induce, deduce, analyze, infer, calculate and experiment all kinds of facts and phenomena, so as to discover laws, verify and formulate knowledge systems of various quantitative laws. The task of science is to reveal the objective law of the development of things and seek truth as a guide for people to transform the world. The concept of culture is the sum of wealth created by human beings, especially spiritual wealth, such as literature, art, education, archaeology, etc. (the definitions of the above two concepts come from Encyclopedia of China and Advanced Chinese Dictionary). Their similarity lies in that science and culture are the fruits created in the process of human production and labor, but the difference lies in that science reveals the internal laws of things and is a knowledge system to verify and formulate various quantitative laws; Culture refers to spiritual wealth, such as literature, art, education and archaeology. Simply put, science is rational, culture is emotional, science has the only correct answer, and culture can be pluralistic. For example, water molecules are composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, not one hydrogen atom and two oxygen atoms. This is science. Except this answer, everything else is wrong; Culture, on the other hand, is pluralistic, with only differences and no right or wrong. For example, Mongolian dance and Tibetan dance, you can't say who is right or wrong, only have their own characteristics. Although the eastern cultural system and the western cultural system are completely different, there is no right or wrong, and each has its own advantages.

So, is Chinese medicine, which has been circulating in China for thousands of years, a cultural thing or a scientific thing? Let's start with the specific content of Chinese medicine. The basic theories of traditional Chinese medicine mainly include the theories of yin and yang, five elements, luck, viscera and meridians, as well as etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, syndrome differentiation, treatment principles, prevention and health preservation. Yin and Yang belong to the category of China's ancient philosophy. Traditional Chinese medicine uses the concept of the unity of opposites of Yin and Yang to explain the complex relationship between the external environment of the human body, such as up and down, inside and outside, nature and society. The relative balance of the unity of opposites of Yin and Yang is the basis for maintaining and ensuring normal human activities. If this balance is unbalanced and destroyed, it will lead to the occurrence and development of human diseases and affect the normal activities of life. The theory of five elements summarizes the attributes of different things in the objective world in five philosophical categories, such as wood, fire, earth, gold and water, and explains the law of mutual connection and transformation of things with the dynamic model of five elements. Traditional Chinese medicine mainly uses the theory of five elements to explain the functional relationship between the five zang-organs and the mechanism of disease occurrence and development when the zang-fu organs are out of balance, and also to guide the treatment of zang-fu organs diseases. Luck theory, also known as five movements and six qi, is to study and explore the influence of astronomical, meteorological and climate changes in nature on human health and diseases (Encyclopedia of China). It can be seen that the foundation of Chinese medicine is only something in the philosophical category, and philosophy is certainly not a natural science, but something in the cultural category. It is not difficult to see that Chinese medicine is also a culture belonging to the philosophical category. Western medicine is completely different. It is a natural science based on modern science and a natural science system completely determined by logical reasoning. Its basic science includes modern mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, anatomy, biochemistry, pharmacology, microbiology and a series of natural sciences. So western medicine is a natural science based on modern science.

So, what kind of things are people suffering from various diseases? If it is explained by Chinese medicine, it is something in the cultural category. What yin-yang imbalance, Jin Kemu, fire produces gold, excessive coldness, disharmony between spleen and stomach, deficiency of liver and kidney, etc. What is imbalance, surplus, disharmony, truth and falsehood? I'm afraid there is no quantifiable standard. Dr. Zhang said it was spleen-stomach disharmony, saying it was right and wrong. Under the guidance of the philosophical theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, the understanding of diseases is vague and illusory, and it can neither be seen nor touched, which is totally nonsense. For thousands of years, Chinese medicine can't even understand the basic anatomy and deconstruction of the human body. It only deconstructs the disease by imagining many things that cannot be proved, and there is neither logical reasoning nor experimental confirmation. Therefore, Chinese medicine is actually using cultural things to deal with the objective things of disease. But in fact, diseases are very objective natural science things, not cultural things. Tuberculosis is caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, not pneumococcus; SARS is caused by coronavirus, not by yin flourishing and yang declining. Lung cancer is a malignant tumor that grows in lung tissue and is not caused by deficiency of both qi and blood. Western medicine's understanding of diseases has reached the level of molecules, atoms, ions, genes and protein. In the eyes of traditional Chinese medicine, viruses, bacteria, protein, electrolytes, amino acids, macrolides, molds, X-rays, electrocardiogram, nuclear magnetism, CT, linear accelerator, Gu60…… ........................................................................................................... For Chinese medicine, these are sacred books and the ingenuity of westerners.

At this point, it is not difficult for us to understand that we must use scientific weapons instead of culture to deal with diseases. These are very objective natural sciences. Chinese medicine in our country is deeply involved in culture, and there is no sign of giving up the philosophy of Yin-Yang and Five Elements. Or three fingers and one pulse, a pile of herbs stewed in a pot. After thousands of chemical reactions at different temperatures, no one can tell, and I don't know what to cook. Drinking it in one gulp can only make the disease resigned.

Some people say that Chinese medicine has been combined with western medicine, the so-called combination of Chinese and western medicine. In fact, this is a copy of "learning from the middle school as the body and using western learning for the purpose", and it is an active matching behavior with people. This shows that Chinese medicine is forced to admit defeat to western medicine, which is actually a surrender without losing face. China people initially rejected western medicine and all western natural sciences, including Euclid geometry, but in the end they could not resist the power of natural sciences and turned to seek the combination of the two. The advantage of combining traditional Chinese and western medicine is that it helps to cure diseases. He even said, "Look, without Chinese medicine, Western medicine can't cure the disease, Western medicine can treat the symptoms, and Chinese medicine can cure the problem." If you can't cure the disease, say, "I can't do Chinese medicine, and your western medicine is not that good." Anyway, it will always be Chinese medicine that makes sense. In "Father's Disease", Mr. Lu Xun once satirized a Chinese medicine doctor's prescription that "crickets should be based on their original nature"-if crickets have an improper relationship between men and women, even their qualifications for medicine should be cancelled. This is really ridiculous. Under the guidance of the theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, TCM is developing towards metaphysics and argot. Traditional Chinese medicine is only a cultural thing, far from science. If left unchecked, it will inevitably become witchcraft that fools the people. Because of the different guiding theories, the combination of Chinese and western can only be skin-deep, not blood-deep.

Some people say that Chinese medicine has gone global. This is completely arrogant nonsense. When did Chinese medicine go to the world, except for a few countries in the eastern cultural circle, such as Japan and South Korea? Even South Korea and Japan have never regarded TCM as a science. As for Europe and America, which represent the development trend of modern human science, have they really seen Chinese medicine? Human logic threshold and molecular test threshold are enough to make Chinese medicine fail. As long as people ask you, "Can your theory of traditional Chinese medicine be repeatedly verified in the laboratory?" Can it be expressed by mathematical model? What are the main chemical components of your Niuhuang Jiedu pills? "These problems are enough to confuse Chinese medicine practitioners and roll in frustration. Things that can't pass the threshold of others are absolutely not allowed to stand in their own country. Therefore, it is completely arrogant for Chinese medicine to go global.

It is sheer nonsense to raise cultural things to the level of natural science and treat diseases belonging to natural science. With the development of the times, the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is all-round, and the medical cause of the Chinese nation should also be revived. What should we rely on? By science, not by culture. Since Chinese medicine belongs to the cultural category, it should be considered unscientific. Therefore, it is best for Chinese medicine practitioners not to fool patients with the yin-yang, five elements and a pot of "stew" (herbs), let alone Chinese medicine practitioners who want to go to the world and can't even tell what they are. Better stay in the museum and sleep! There is only one way for TCM to develop: abandoning Yin-Yang and Five Elements, starting with the most basic knowledge of mathematics and physics, and relying on the latest achievements of modern natural science. Otherwise, it will always be a dead end. Mr. Lu Xun put it better: Chinese medicine is just some intentional or unintentional liars. It is not a liar to take culture instead of science to see a doctor and take cultural things to solve natural science problems such as diseases. What is this?