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Wen | Honghu

Editor | Alice Who Loves History

I strongly request the abolition of traditional Chinese medicine! Traditional Chinese medicine cannot be eradicated, and nature cannot tolerate it

Not long ago, Zhang Gongyao, a professor of Central South University, even launched a 10000 person signature campaign, advocating the abolition of traditional Chinese medicine, and in his opinion, traditional Chinese medicine is useless, or even not.

This event caused a lot of discussion among netizens. Due to everyone's different opinions, three schools have formed on the Internet. Some netizens agree with Professor Zhang Gongyao's view that TCM is the dross left over from feudal society, and is a typical representative of people who do not want to make progress and accept new things.

However, many netizens also believe that after thousands of years of sedimentation, traditional Chinese medicine has not only formed its own unique system, but also is more suitable for the physical condition of the Chinese people. It is the essence of traditional Chinese culture and should not only be abolished but also widely promoted; The remaining netizens are relatively objective, believing that traditional Chinese medicine is indeed not as scientific as Western medicine, but they cannot completely deny it.

Regarding whether traditional Chinese medicine should be abolished, different opinions have formed on the internet, and the stalemate will ultimately lead to no results. Is traditional Chinese medicine really so backward? Should it be cancelled or not?

Ten thousand signatures meeting to ban traditional Chinese medicine theory

Zhang Gongyao, who graduated from the Master of Philosophy of Zhejiang University in 1988, became a professor of philosophy of Central South University with the advantage of high education. Although the subject of philosophy is less practical, Zhang Gongyao is also a real top student in a famous university, and naturally he is respected by everyone.

When studying the philosophy of China for five thousand years, Zhang Gongyao inadvertently found that there was also a unique philosophy in traditional Chinese medicine, so he started his research on philosophy of Chinese medicine. However, after reading a large number of Chinese medicine books and consulting a large number of materials, he found that philosophy did not achieve much, but found "problems" in Traditional Chinese medicine.

In the Compendium of Materia Medica, there is a prescription that is puzzling, which is that if a child cries in the middle of the night, they can burn a rope used to tie pigs in the twelfth lunar month to ashes, and if the napkin is swollen, it can be given to the child to drink. However, this prescription has no scientific basis and many people are skeptical.

Similarly, it is possible to cut three fingers from the suicide rope, and then boil and drink the aged Puwei to cure the symptoms of epilepsy. There is also no basis to speak of, but they are all recorded in the Compendium of Materia Medica, which shocked Zhang Gongyao, but it is not a magic shock but a shock of doubt.

Although I don't know if these methods are really useful, when Zhang Gong wants to see these recorded methods, he always feels incredible. After all, if the ropes used for tying pigs and hanging can treat diseases, advanced drug research and surgical treatment are necessary.

Moreover, burning these ropes into ashes and mixing them with water is not only unhygienic but may even cause physiological discomfort. What is the difference between them and the "talisman water" that played tricks in feudal times? In his view, these methods are not only ineffective but also insulting to the intelligence of contemporary people.

In addition, when studying medical books, Zhang Gongyao also found a problem that there is no standard for the specific efficacy and use of various drugs as the quintessence of China. For example, there is no specific process and standard for where acupuncture and moxibustion should be stuck or how many times it should be stuck.

Or in the aspect of pulse diagnosis, we can only rely on words and deeds. There is no specific rules and strict standard treatment. It seems that as long as there is more diagnosis, we will have our own diagnosis and treatment plan. But beginners of traditional Chinese medicine are completely crossing the river by feeling the stones, so in Zhang Gongyao's view, traditional Chinese medicine is simply a set of tricks, without a visual standard process.

After studying the books of Traditional Chinese medicine, he chose to hold a signature event to see everyone's attitude towards traditional Chinese medicine, and also published an article on the Internet, which roughly means that he hopes the country can ban traditional Chinese medicine, otherwise it will be hard for heaven.

So this 10000 person signature activity has also attracted a large number of netizens to participate and discuss, and there has been a fierce debate on whether traditional Chinese medicine is useful and whether it should be cancelled, which has formed the three opinions at the beginning of the article. All parties have their own opinions and arguments, and ultimately there has been no unified viewpoint formed.

But after the debate among the three parties, many people have also raised many questions about where traditional Chinese medicine should go in the future and whether it will really be cancelled? Is it really completely useless as the crystallization of ancient wisdom accumulated over thousands of years? How to correctly apply traditional Chinese medicine theory?

Although there is no definitive conclusion about the future of traditional Chinese medicine, this "useless theory of traditional Chinese medicine" has been around for a long time. Not only can contemporary people see its unreasonable aspects, but there have also been voices of doubt long ago, and even the statement that traditional Chinese medicine is a scammer.

The theory of useless traditional Chinese medicine has long been established

In fact, "the theory of the uselessness of traditional Chinese medicine" is not only concerned now. As early as more than a hundred years ago, someone began to discuss whether the role of traditional Chinese medicine is really effective. Mr. Lu Xun, a great writer and Revolutionary in the Republic of China, once questioned traditional Chinese medicine, and once said in his articles that traditional Chinese medicine is basically a group of cheats who intentionally or unintentionally cheat patients and their families.

The reason why Lu Xun had such thoughts and doubts is mainly related to his experiences when he was young. When Lu Xun was young, his father was seriously ill. In order to treat his father's illness, Lu Xun's family spent a lot of money every month hiring local doctors, so Lu Xun suffered from childhood.

But even though he spent a lot of his family's expenses on his father's medication and medical treatment, his condition still did not improve, and even worsened day by day. It was not until four years later that Lu Xun's father still passed away in the torment of illness. This experience made Lu Xun deeply suspicious of traditional Chinese medicine.

Not only did the expensive diagnosis cost but the condition was not cured, but the prescriptions prescribed by local doctors were also bizarre, such as the "original cricket" and so on. This somewhat absurd traditional Chinese medicine theory caused Lu Xun to have a distrust of traditional Chinese medicine from the beginning.

Coupled with the turbulent social situation in China at that time, many people began to rely on deception and deception to make a living in order to survive. As a result, quacks became the best choice to disguise their identity. Therefore, many people were deceived, but in reality, they did not have real talent and knowledge, so they naturally could not practice medicine to save people.

So over time, these quacks damaged the image of traditional Chinese medicine, causing many people to believe that traditional Chinese medicine's saviors were all quacks and had no substantive effect. Lu Xun, who was young and ignorant, naturally regarded these problems as the useless results of traditional Chinese medicine, so he went to Japan to study medicine, hoping to change the situation in China at that time.

But it was also in the process of studying that Lu Xun came into contact with many talented Chinese medicine scholars and witnessed the scene of real Chinese medicine doctors treating patients. That's why Lu Xun put down his prejudice against Chinese medicine and gradually made a difference. But it can also feel that the origin of the theory of "Chinese medicine is useless" is already early.

Not only did Lu Xun think that traditional Chinese medicine was a trick, but also Mr. Hu Shi, a famous figure in the Republic of China, was also the leader of anti traditional Chinese medicine in the early Republic of China. He thought that in 1920, he changed into diabetes and nephritis, and he had been treated in the Union Medical College Hospital for a long time but still showed no signs of improvement. Western medicine also directly gave up declaring that there was no medicine to cure.

Hu Shi, who had no way out, began to try Chinese medicine under the introduction of his friends. After being recuperated by Lu Zhong'an, a famous Chinese medicine teacher in Shanghai, he finally got better. However, he still believed that the theory of Chinese medicine was absurd and unscientific, but he also admitted that Chinese medicine was not completely useless, and Guo Moruo, a master of traditional Chinese medicine, had the same idea.

From this, it can be seen that many people have already proposed the "useless theory of traditional Chinese medicine" more than a hundred years ago, or that many of the treatment theories of traditional Chinese medicine do not have scientific basis or standard processes. However, flipping the theory of traditional Chinese medicine with a stick seems not rational enough, because how can the essence of Chinese medicine that has been left over for thousands of years be completely useless.

It is precisely because of this contradictory perspective that there have been completely different views on traditional Chinese medicine online. Of course, some scholars maintain an objective and neutral attitude, but the strange and bizarre prescriptions in traditional Chinese medicine are truly admirable.

The strange prescription is absurd, and traditional Chinese medicine can be used in the west

In traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions, formulas such as bundling pig grass, hanging ropes, and original crickets have also existed. However, a large part of these are not true traditional Chinese medicine, but rather the means used by deceiving quacks to deceive the public. If one fails to cure the disease with one's own prescription, the mistake is not on oneself, but on the person who takes the medicine.

As for the records in Compendium of Materia Medica, such as tying pigweed and lifting rope, it is not necessary to be too true, because it is related to the process of compiling this book by Li Shizhen, and Li Shizhen's medical skill is not very good, so he is not a "miracle doctor" at all.

At that time, when he was writing the Compendium of Materia Medica, he only felt that there were too many rare and peculiar medicinal herbs in the world. When diagnosing, treating, and prescribing medicines, he should consult multiple books, and the relevant records of the same medicinal herb vary greatly in different books. Therefore, he wrote the Compendium of Materia Medica and hoped that people with advanced medical skills could study the authenticity of prescriptions.

So the Compendium of Materia Medica is not strictly a book recording diagnosis and treatment methods, but a book about herbal medicine. The strange prescriptions on it are also collected from various places when Li Shizhen traveled around the country. It is not clear to Li Shizhen whether these prescriptions work.

However, since the introduction of Western medicine during the Republic of China period, the debate between Chinese and Western medicine has not stopped, and many people have even attributed the gradual elimination of traditional Chinese medicine to not earning money. The widespread promotion of the "useless theory of traditional Chinese medicine" is to encourage people to choose Western medicine, so that money can be included in their pockets.

But in fact, this idea is too extreme, just like those who believe that traditional Chinese medicine is completely useless, it also makes a fundamental mistake. The so-called Western medicine here should actually be called modern medicine, and modern medicine also incorporates the medical concepts of traditional Chinese medicine.

For example, the concept of traditional Chinese patent medicines and simple preparations in western medicine is to standardize the production of traditional Chinese medicine with modern medicine under the guidance of traditional Chinese medicine theory. Of course, in modern medicine, there are many chronic diseases that are helpless, and there are very few diseases that can be cured by medical means.

Moreover, whether it is traditional Chinese medicine or Western medicine, it is not just about how sophisticated drugs and medical methods are. Instead, doctors use their own medical skills to cooperate with the human immune system and self-healing ability to cure diseases. Therefore, the most useful thing is their own immune system and self-healing ability.

Traditional Chinese medicine has long discovered this, so traditional Chinese medicine is more gentle in its properties. Except for a few emergency situations, the vast majority of cases are treated while protecting the patient's own immune system to the greatest extent possible, which can help patients improve their immunity against diseases.

Of course, modern medicine once tried to completely separate itself from Traditional medicine, relying on its own ability to treat patients' diseases, but was finally defeated by reality. After discovering that modern medicine can not cure diseases, many medical scholars began to learn the concept of traditional Chinese medicine, and at the same time, the protection of patients themselves was put first.

So although Chinese medicine has many absurd or incomprehensible formulas and concepts, there are still many interesting aspects. For example, Japanese herbal medicine and rose massage and massage technology are also learned from Chinese medicine theory. Of course, the artemisinin discovered by Tu Youyou, who won the Nobel Prize in medicine, is also an inspiration from an ancient book of medicine.

So it is also because many people feel the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine, so this 10000 person signing meeting becomes more complicated, and there are many voices of opposition. However, after Professor Zhang Gongyao proposed to ban traditional Chinese medicine, a large number of professional medical professionals and many patients who have been cured by traditional Chinese medicine have expressed their opposition.

Some even accuse Zhang Gongyao, as a professor of philosophy, of not knowing what medicine to take when he has a cold. Why should he accuse "traditional Chinese medicine is useless" here, and even say such extreme remarks as "traditional Chinese medicine is indestructible, and heaven cannot tolerate it", and even hope to completely abolish traditional Chinese medicine.

Although we don't know whether Professor Zhang Gongyao's attitude towards traditional Chinese medicine has changed after this discussion, we know that this medicine, which has been passed down for thousands of years, not only has accumulated the essence of thousands of years of history, but also keeps developing with the times, abandoning its dross and taking its essence, and keeping pace with the development of medicine.

I don't know what opinions everyone holds on traditional Chinese medicine? Is it to support Zhang Gongyao's view that TCM should be banned completely, or that TCM has some uses and should not be abandoned altogether? Regardless of the viewpoint, what is more important is that it is best to be able to recover from illness through some means.

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