China boasts numerous medical systems, including Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Western medicine, Tibetan medicine, Zhuang medicine, Miao medicine, and Mongolian medicine, each capable of treating countless patients. Traditional Chinese Medicine, also known as Han medicine, is the most widely popularized and is an integral part of Chinese civilization. It is believed to have existed since prehistoric times. Through the accumulation of wisdom and experience by ancient people, it has developed rapidly over thousands of years, incorporating elements of I Ching, the Five Elements, and other cultural elements. It has also given rise to a plethora of medical celebrities, medical works, medical schools, medical therapies, and medical technologies, making it one of the most widely known medical systems. There are some mysterious legends circulating among the people, such as acupuncture stopping pain, medicine curing diseases, healing with a bowl, diagnosing pulse with a hanging thread, and bringing the dead back to life. The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, written by the Chinese ancestor Huangdi, is known as the masterpiece of medicine in later generations. Many medical theories in it are still the treatment principles of TCM today. Among them, the meridian theory is so advanced that even the most advanced instruments cannot detect it, but it is indeed effective in clinical practice. It is so miraculous. During the Warring States period, the medical expert Bian Que could diagnose a person's illness just by looking at them, and he was later known as a miraculous doctor. The pulse-reading method he founded is still used today and has made great contributions to the development of TCM. The works that have been passed down include the Classic of Difficult Classic, the Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases written by Zhang Zhongjing, and the Shen Nong's Classic of Materia Medica, known as the four famous classics of TCM. We modern people cannot help but admire the wisdom of ancient people. With just a few herbs, needles, bowls of soup, jars, and hands, they could treat diseases. Over thousands of years, our ancestors' health problems have been well taken care of. Learning TCM well can not only help with health preservation, healthcare, and disease treatment but also contribute to family governance and world peace. Due to the influence of modern Western medicine, TCM has been greatly impacted. The Chinese nation has the ability and wisdom to make good use of these medical systems to serve the people. In recent years, more and more people have begun to make rational choices. Whether it is the popularity of TCM or the return to nature, it is an inevitable choice of historical development. The simplicity, effectiveness, and reliability of TCM are evident to all. Therefore, TCM can be seen in more than 190 countries around the world. TCM is going global and benefiting people worldwide. TCM is both ancient and modern, simple and practical, and is being accepted by more and more people. Let us promote TCM culture and benefit all mankind together.
Holistic Concept: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a comprehensive discipline centered on the theory and practical experience of Chinese medicine, focusing on the laws governing the transformation between health and disease in human life activities, as well as prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and health maintenance. The holistic concept is the core idea of TCM. In clinical practice, it is always necessary to consider the human body as an organic whole, with various organs, tissues, and systems interconnected, coordinating, utilizing, and influencing each other. Additionally, natural environment, social factors, and other factors that may affect the human body must also be fully taken into account.
Dialectical treatment: It is the process of collecting evidence before treating a disease. Through theories such as the four diagnostic methods, Yin-Yang theory, Five Elements theory, Zang-Fu theory, and meridian theory, physiological and pathological changes are discovered, thereby identifying the causes of the disease. Then, it is necessary to distinguish whether the disease is superficial or internal, cold or heat, deficiency or excess. After determining the type of disease, the next step is to choose a treatment method. Methods such as traditional Chinese medicine, moxibustion, acupuncture, acupoint pressing, tuina, gua sha, cupping, dietary therapy, and zhuyou (a traditional Chinese healing method involving chanting and prayer) are used. Those that are conducive to patient acceptance and recovery are employed first.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is life, and life is TCM. We can see the shadow of TCM in our daily actions and behaviors. At the dining table, in the factory, in the fields, on the mountains, in the five tastes, in the five colors, in the five elements, in the emotions, in the seasons, TCM culture is always around us, and it has long been integrated into our lives. Ordinary people think that only medicinal herbs are medicine, but in the eyes of a wise doctor, everything in the world is medicine. Knowing TCM means knowing how to live, and knowing how to live means being healthy.
Morality precedes art: Chinese people have always advocated the idea of morality being supreme, respecting morality above all else. They may not have knowledge, but they cannot do without morality. Sun Simiao, a famous ancient Chinese medical scientist, once said, "All great doctors must calm their nerves and have no desires or aspirations when treating patients. They must first show great compassion and empathy, and vow to save all living beings from suffering. Therefore, the way of medicine is also the fault of illness. The concept of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in treating illness is to address both the symptoms and the root causes, treating both the person and the disease equally. Diseases are only the result; if the causes of the disease are not resolved, the illness may recur tomorrow even if it is cured today. Doctors have an obligation to inform patients about the origins and development of the disease. Being virtuous and skilled is the standard for a qualified TCM practitioner.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is slow-acting: This viewpoint is not objective, as there are many instances where TCM is fast-acting. For example, if a patient presents with symptoms such as headache, nausea, fatigue, slurred speech, facial asymmetry, and blurred vision, these are typical precursors to stroke. By the time an ambulance arrives, some patients may already have lost vital signs. The optimal emergency treatment time is through TCM's blood-letting therapy, which can reduce the fatality and disability rates by over 80%. Some unnamed pains often disappear immediately after acupuncture. For some chronic diseases, although TCM is slow-acting, it can cure the disease. This is determined by the characteristics of the disease, and the responsibility does not lie with TCM. Other medical treatments, which are so-called fast-acting, only rapidly alleviate symptoms, rather than fundamentally curing the disease. For example, in hypertension and diabetes, mainstream medicine requires patients to take medication for life to maintain normal indicators, but it cannot achieve complete cure without the need to stop taking medication, as TCM can.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has no incurable diseases: Our predecessors once had such confidence. So why are there so many cancer patients nowadays? Of course, there are many reasons. While there are indeed TCM practitioners who can treat cancer, they are very rare and hard to come by. Such doctors may not necessarily be in the tallest medical buildings, but could be in inconspicuous alleys. It takes a discerning eye to identify them. In recent years, the inheritor of the Wang family's ancient TCM methods has cured many difficult and complex diseases, including tumors, rheumatoid arthritis, myasthenia gravis, postpartum wind, hypertension, kidney failure, infertility, atrophic gastritis, chronic enteritis, and nervous headaches. Some patients, who had spent hundreds of thousands of yuan and were desperate, were unexpectedly cured with just tens of thousands. Regardless of what disease you have, the first step is to seek rational treatment. The choice of treatment direction in the first step is crucial. Never seek medical advice blindly. Currently, the harm of medical illiteracy is far greater than that of literacy. It is very necessary to grasp some basic TCM knowledge. It can save lives in critical moments.
