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| Sunday, 22 February 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Chinese medicine never grows old by K. W. A. JAYAWARDANE
The details were found in certain oracle-bone writings, the oldest form of chinese writing, carved on scapulae and tortoise shells, used for divination, which were unearthed from the ruins of Yin dynasty. Most of the early Chinese medical literature is found in Nei Ching - one of the earliest works believed to have written by Huang Ti - Yellow Emperor (died 2598 B.C.), which still regarded as an authority. Chinese traditional medicine continued to progress until about 960 AD. After a static period it degenerated. Lately, there was even a tendency to eliminate the system and replace by modern medicine or eliminate the practice and preserve its drugs and prescriptions. Because of the efficacy of the system and the confidence the people had in it, traditional Chine medicine has never been eliminated in spite of the persecution it suffered. After founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Chairman Mao said "Chinese medicine and pharmacology are a great treasure-house and efforts should be made to explore them and raise to a higher level". Since then the government has paid great attention to traditional Chinesese medicine and has laid down a series of relevant guiding principles, policies and measures aiming to develop it, integrate it with Western counterpart, and modernize it. The spread of Chinese medicine to neighbouring countries came early in the world history. The Silk Road, in existence at least since 1000 B.C., may have been used to transmit medical knowledge as far away as Europe and the Arab world as well. Yin and Yang
They were not opposed as 'good' and 'bad' but were complementary, and both were necessary for proper balance, so that pure yang and pure yin could not exist. There is always yin in yang and yang in yin. Everybody knows the visual symbol of this ancient scheme, made of two figures shaped as tadpoles inscribed in a circle. In linear representation, three continuous Yang lines and three broken Yin lines are diversely combined to produce eight (pa) trigrams (kua) each combination having a name, a special meaning, and a long list of associations. The number of lines could be doubled to form a hexagon. This gives to birth to a series of sixty four combinations, each one of the symbols again having a name and abstracted significance. The reader who needs advice performed certain manipulations with fifty little sticks, and obtained a series of six lines, whole or broken, that build up a hexagon. Against the name of the particular hexagram he would find the advice. The reader unconsciously guided to search for. The Swiss psychologist Carl C. Jung interpreted it as a subtle technique for exploring the unconscious. Yin and Yang represent all the coupled opposing properties of the nature and the human body. Health, character and success of all political and private ventures are determined by the preponderance at the time, of the Yin and Yang. The relationship between these forces is a universal law of the material world. These relationships are extensively used in traditional Chinese medicine to explain the physiology and pathology of the human body and serve as a guide to diagnosis and treatment. Five elements Another doctrine was that of five elements. It holds that wood, fire, water, earth, and metal are basic materials constituting the material world. There exists among them a relationship of interdependence and inter-restraint which determines their being in constant motion and change. This theory deals primarily with the inter-promoting, interacting, overacting and counteracting relationships among them. It is applied in traditional Chine medicine to classify natural phenomena, tissues and organs of the human body and human emotions into different categories and to interpret the relationship between human physiology and pathology and natural environment. The magical figure five was applied to the organs, to colours, climates, tones and heavenly bodies. The health is believed to consist in a harmonious balance between the various elements. Anatomy, physiology and pathology As religion forebaded the dissection of the human body, traditional anatomy rests on no sure scientific foundations, and was based on cosmic system. The body contains five organs - heart, lungs, liver, spleen and kidneys, which store up but do not eliminate; and five viscera - stomach, intestines, gall bladder, and bladder, which eliminate but do not store up. Each organ is associated with one of the planets, colours, tones, smells, and tastes. As regards physiology, the blood vessels are supposed to contain blood and air. The cosmic force Yin and Yang circulate in the fourteen channels and control the blood vessels, and hence, the pulse. The Nei Ching says "All the blood in the body is under the control of the heart. The Blood current flows continuously in a circle and never stops. It may be compared to a circle without beginning or end". This is believed to be the first known description of the circulation of the blood. It was about 4000 years prior to Harvey's discovery. Pathology is also dependent on Yin and Yang theory which has led to elaborate classification of diseases. Four diagnostic methods were applied - inspection, auscultation and olfaction, inquiry and palpitation. The patient was questioned in detail as to the history of the illness; the patient's taste, smell, dreams, quality of voice, colour of the face, and of the tongue, are observed. The tongue was especially important because, according to the Chinese, it has close connections with the internal organs, blood and body fluids. |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
China is the most populous country in the world, and also has the
longest continuous tradition of national identity. Although the
geologically oldest identified artifacts is estimated to date from about
500,000 B.C., and mention is made to a Hsia dynasty, a detailed discussion
of Chinese history usually begins with the Shang dynasty (1766-1122 B.C.).
The theme of the Chinese philosophy is the dualistic cosmic theory of
Yin and Yang. These two inseparable forces dominate everything in the
universe depended upon the adjustment of balance between the forces. Yang
is the bright, dry, masculine aspect. Yin, the dark, moist, feminine.
