Chinese Medicine demystified

[Yasjua]

http://chriskresser.com/chinese-medicine-demystified-part-i-a-case-of-mistaken-identity

 

This article on acupuncture demystifies what might turn out to be profoundly wrong concepts of acupuncture as an esoteric "energy" medicine. It's also the most important and encouraging literature on this line of work that I've encountered. If the author is correct, this could herald the beginning of an actual Science of noninvasive, side-effect-free medicine for a future of healthier, happier patients (who can comprehend what the hell you're doing).

 

I for one think modern science is advancing far, far too quickly to ignore or dissociate from and it's important that this kind of language and insight be made mainstream.

 

I anticipate people disagreeing with the author's sentiments. I for one recognize him as an astute business personality and this kind of work is directly in alignment with his charisma as a relatable, health advocating personality. That's part of it. The other part is that he might be right, and I wanna talk about that.

 

I think what he says is true of needling in particular. Getting into the more esoteric and intuitive dimensions of healing does require shifting into the science of symbols that CM works with.

[henro]

This seems to come up on acupuncture, and martial arts boards every few months. Chris is a very good writer, and his main point is important - demystifying Chinese medicine so that it might find more acceptance in the medical community. But it seems from the essays linked above that he has never read the classics, has never attempted to learn the language, and has never bothered to study Chinese culture and history.

 

I emailed him just after those blogs were posted pointing out several inaccuracies, and he just replied that different people have different theories. I believe he actually does the Chinese medicine community a disservice with his approach in these essays, and seeks to further his own agenda - promoting functional medicine.

 

He suggests that Georges Soulie de Morant was not able to translate the Huang Di Nei Jing accurately, and borrowed from his knowledge of ayurveda in describing meridians. Yet, Morant spent 18 years in China learning the language, culture, history, and about Chinese medicine. Any choices he made in translation and the latter dissemination of Chinese medicine were informed, educated, and experiential. Are we to weigh Chris' theories, those of a TCM student who doesn't speak or read the language, doesn't know the history, and to my knowledge hasn't ever visited China, over Morant who lived their for 18 years and was completely immersed in the experience? Further, he then states that all modern textbooks are based on Morant's translations. This completely devalues the work of Unschuld, Wiseman, Flaws, Bensky, Scheid, and other amazing scholars who have taken great pains to examine the classics in their original language, and present them to a modern english speaking audience. When I emailed him suggesting that meridians are indeed described in the HDNJ, the Mawangdui scrolls, and other ancient sources he dismissed this as evidence that meridian theory did exist prior to Morant.

 

Here's a link to Morant's bio:

 

http://trueacu.com/morant

 

 

 

*note, I've pasted some of this response from other posts I written on the subject….

Edited March 2, 2015 by henro

[Yasjua]

I know he's making things up about CM to gain a foothold in the scientific community and with a broader virtual and clinical audience. I also think this is part of the Dao. And I agree with him... once you learn modern medicine, I don't see any possibility of sublimating your thought processes in pre-modern metaphysical presumptions. Maybe that's a weakness of the human mind - needing to fit in with the herd. Being a ccm practitioner today means ostracizing yourself, going against the stream, and being as unintelligible to the masses as a shaman or witch doctor. I know that level of perception is valid, but your consciousness has to enter the way of the primordial ancestors. Hieroglyphics are rational, but they're steeped in mythological presumptions and codes. I see CM in that light.

[Yasjua]

Looking back, he "demystifies" the medicine in leaps and bounds. It's definitely a ploy to distinguish himself from muddy thinking and to earn public respect. All of which I respect and encourage, as long as you're doing your homework and running your tcm processors in the background. It's actually kind of like running different OS's on one machine. In any case, I think he's making millions as a functional nutritionist. I don't see him playing up acupuncture on his brilliantly designed marketing platform. Dude's a trend setter, man. I gotta give him respect. His clinic is booked for years, and he's helping people.

[kevin_wallbridge]

Just because the first person you lie to is yourself doesn't make it OK. His take on meridian theory 經絡學 would be laughable if he wasn't trying to educate. As someone who teaches a class every Fall on meridians by going character by character through the relevant sections of the Neijing and Nanjing I am baffled by his conclusions.

 

Further, he then states that all modern textbooks are based on Morant's translations.

 

Its not even in the category of alternate view, it just plain 100 kinds of wrong. It shows that he has NEVER had the classics open in front of him. In one minute I could prove him wrong in person.

[松永道]

I agree with this,

 

"Chinese medicine is not a metaphysical, energy medicine but instead a “flesh and bones” medicine concerned with the proper flow of oxygen and blood through the vascular system."

 

But that's not the whole picture by far. Honestly, biomedicine's grasp of how the body functions is still too immature to explain the mechanisms of Chinese medicine. Is it because biological science haven't discovered Qi energy? No. Because Qi doesn't exist.

 

I wrote an article on this a few years ago and summarized it here in an answer to a post a few months ago. I'll dig out some links if there is interest. But to even more briefly recap, Qi isn't a thing. It's an observation. Specifically, a human observation. We don't observe electromagnetic waves, we see colors. We don't measure vibration, we hear sounds. Etc. We observe and understand in wholes.

 

I've previously said Qi is a constellation. I still think it's a good metaphor. It is a group of things arising and reacting together in a functional state. The parts are discrete physical things. But the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

 

The power of Chinese medicine is thousands of years of observation. Clinical obsevation and personal observation. Qi is a qualitative unit of this observation. It is descriptive but imaginary.

 

I also agree that meridian is a poor translation. However, the author states that meridian is a translation of 脉 Mai. That's so incorrect a first year TCM student should know better. 脉 means blood vessel (among other things). Meridian is a translation of 经 Jing. According to China's oldest existent dictionary, 经 Jing means a knit or weave. It's a fabric. The meridian translation comes from the modern Chinese word for longitudinal lines on a map which uses the same character. But that's not how it was used classically. Longitudinal meridians weren't even a concept back then.

 

Jing 经 is a compound character from 丝 Si, silk, and 巠 Jing, an underground watercourse. Put together it specifically refers to the vertical threads of a textile. If you've ever seen how a loom is used, the vertical threads are set then the horizontal threads are weaved on. The process effectively submerges and obscures the vertical threads underneath the superficial horizontal weave. The horizontal threads are called 络 Luo. Together they are called 经络 Jingluo. In TCM terms Jing 经 points to deep structures. 经脉 Jingmai are arteries. 络脉 Luomai are superficial veins. 经筋 Jingjin are fascia-muscle-tendon chains.

 

Ultimately there is no easy one-to-one translation for any TCM terms because there is no one-to-one translation for TCM concepts because they have been arrived at via different methods of observation. But try explaining that to a new patient in a minute. I don't tell my patients acupuncture restores energy flow or whatever. But I don't begrudge early Chinese doctors who barely spoke English from doing so. Nevertheless, the idea Qi = energy is outdated, inaccurate and ready for retirement.

 

Overall, I'd say his work better than most I've read in English. Don't agree with everything but it's nonetheless a contribution to the field.

Edited March 3, 2015 by 松永道

[Spotless]

He makes some interesting points and certainly makes it more palatable in a sense for Secondary healing modes such as Western Medical.

He also takes the general bent of Western Medical and makes simplistic assumptions regarding such things as oxygen - pretty much moving it to a throne and glucose it's queen. While completely and incompetently sterilizing the wholistic associations with energies far more real yet completely foreign to the secondary medical practices of the West.

 

He is as you say - good at marketing - a bit like packaging Yoga in the denatured way we see it here in the West for the most part. Very popular now but not much Yoga going on at the local Yoga parlor.

[Spotless]

I agree with this,

"Chinese medicine is not a metaphysical, energy medicine but instead a “flesh and bones” medicine concerned with the proper flow of oxygen and blood through the vascular system."

But that's not the whole picture by far. Honestly, biomedicine's grasp of how the body functions is still too immature to explain the mechanisms of Chinese medicine. Is it because biological science haven't discovered Qi energy? No. Because Qi doesn't exist.

I wrote an article on this a few years ago and summarized it here in an answer to a post a few months ago. I'll dig out some links if there is interest. But to even more briefly recap, Qi isn't a thing. It's an observation. Specifically, a human observation. We don't observe electromagnetic waves, we see colors. We don't measure vibration, we hear sounds. Etc. We observe and understand in wholes.

I've previously said Qi is a constellation. I still think it's a good metaphor. It is a group of things arising and reacting together in a functional state. The parts are discrete physical things. But the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

The power of Chinese medicine is thousands of years of observation. Clinical obsevation and personal observation. Qi is a qualitative unit of this observation. It is descriptive but imaginary.

I also agree that meridian is a poor translation. However, the author states that meridian is a translation of 脉 Mai. That's so incorrect a first year TCM student should know better. 脉 means blood vessel (among other things). Meridian is a translation of 经 Jing. According to China's oldest existent dictionary, 经 Jing means a knit or weave. It's a fabric. The meridian translation comes from the modern Chinese word for longitudinal lines on a map which uses the same character. But that's not how it was used classically. Longitudinal meridians weren't even a concept back then.

Jing 经 is a compound character from 丝 Si, silk, and 巠 Jing, an underground watercourse. Put together it specifically refers to the vertical threads of a textile. If you've ever seen how a loom is used, the vertical threads are set then the horizontal threads are weaved on. The process effectively submerges and obscures the vertical threads underneath the superficial horizontal weave. The horizontal threads are called 络 Luo. Together they are called 经络 Jingluo. In TCM terms Jing 经 points to deep structures. 经脉 Jingmai are arteries. 络脉 Luomai are superficial veins. 经筋 Jingjin are fascia-muscle-tendon chains.

Ultimately there is no easy one-to-one translation for any TCM terms because there is no one-to-one translation for TCM concepts because they have been arrived at via different methods of observation. But try explaining that to a new patient in a minute. I don't tell my patients acupuncture restores energy flow or whatever. But I don't begrudge early Chinese doctors who barely spoke English from doing so. Nevertheless, the idea Qi = energy is outdated, inaccurate and ready for retirement.

Overall, I'd say his work better than most I've read in English. Don't agree with everything but it's nonetheless a contribution to the field.

 

" But to even more briefly recap, Qi isn't a thing. It's an observation. Specifically, a human observation. We don't observe electromagnetic waves, we see colors. We don't measure vibration, we hear sounds. Etc. We observe and understand in wholes."

 

Speak for yourself, this may be true for you and for many - but this is not true - we can observe electromagnetic waves, one can measure vibration.

This "observation" idea we have in the west is a dead sort of video view of observation - it is secondary medical kids play by comparison to inner observation - extraordinarily vivid inner sight observation and communication with life on a level that takes far more effort and study that mere medical school.

[松永道]

Perhaps I didn't explain my point clearly enough.

 

You think seeing and observing EM waves are the same? Seeing requires a visual system to receive EM waves and transform it into neural transmission and then a brain to receive and interpret said data. There is nothing inherently green about cross section of the EM spectrum we call green. Our brains make it green. But to the ancient Chinese the observer and the observed are one Qi. This is what the Chinese character 观 Guan means. Daoist temples are called 道观 Daoguan, Dao observatories. Not to watch the Dao like a video but to observe and become one with the Dao.

 

Qi is a constellation. Constellations made of physical things, stars, but they are not physical things. Orion and the Big Dipper aren't real. The stars are real but the symbols are not. We made them. But the fact that constellations are not real makes them no less useful. Constellations are products of our amazing ability to recognize patterns, give them names, and apply them to our lives (in the case of actual constellations, we used them to track time and navigate).

 

Qi is a constellation because it is also not real. It's made of real things but the symbols that we call hot Qi, cold Qi, blocked Qi, etc are not real. They are representations of a complex, dynamic group of physical phenomenon that our minds elegantly parse into one observation. The human body is fantastically complex. But pain, pleasure, hot, cold, color, sound, etc are simple.

 

A Daoist saying comes to mind, 大道至简, the greatest Dao approaches simplicity. It seems counterintuitive to our modern cultural upbringing but the greatest doctors of Chinese medicine see illness more simply than their less capable peers.

 

@Spotless, now if you mean to say that you can observe discrete EM waves without aid of your ocular organs or your brain then I think you're deluding yourself. Even in mystical revery every experience of the mind has some physical correlate in the body. To have some fun with Einstein's famous equation, energy is twice illuminated matter, E=MC^2. There is no energy without a physical counterpart and the light of conscious observation.

Edited March 3, 2015 by 松永道

[Spotless]

Mind and awareness are not one and the same. In fact the body is not required - though I am a big fan of keeping what I teach and like to work upon in the context of a body.

One can be completely out of the body and not in trance nor in mind.

 

Most perception is from a very slow speed so much cannot be seen - less than 30,000 cycles and generally less than 15,000.

 

One can see electromagnetic waves - with eyes open and with eyes closed.

 

One can hear sound in wave form, it is possible to hear the different sounds of the different races, of male and female, night and day.

 

One can feel the movement of energy in wave form within the meridians also as intermittent impulses and as flow.

 

Apparently few reach this level but it certainly does exist and it has been recorded more than once in the histories. I do not consider myself special - I simply put in the time and effort and just when I was about to give up a great many abilities began to function - this was many years ago now.

Edited March 4, 2015 by Spotless

[Yasjua]

That's really cool, Spotless. I see you're in the Bay Area... Wanna get together this week?

[松永道]

That's quite a claim.

 

Also not difficult to verify scientifically. A fundamental practice in Daoist cultivation is 分真假, distinguishing real from illusion. Fortunately for you, living in the Bay Area means you're literally surrounded with geeks who have the equipment and would love to examine your experience.

 

Have you done anything like this?

Edited March 4, 2015 by 松永道

[Spotless]

lots of prove it stuff years ago - the point is - do not close your awareness to assumptions that are not relevant in the first place.

 

Take great care in concluding what we can and cannot do. And perhaps a far greater claim is to speak as though you know of the limits that you espouse.

 

What is the productive nature of determining a limit?

 

Understand you know nothing.

 

How many times have you already transcended a "truth"?

Edited March 5, 2015 by Spotless

[松永道]

I would love to see the results. I trust you'll forgive that I maintain skepticism towards your claims since, to me, you're just a random dude on the Internet. Delusion is real and common, especially in the wild and wooly world of contemporary cultivation. Nonetheless, I maintain a open mind. If you have proofs I'd love to hear them.

 

Now I would like to re-emphasize my original point. I'm not reducing Qi to physical phenomenon. Though I believe it always has some measurable basis, however small, I don't presume that that's all it is. Similarly I don't think an emotion is just biochemistry. The whole takes on s life greater than it's components. I also don't presume we can measure every physical phenomenon out there. There's still a whole lot we don't know about how the body works without needing to bring mystical energy into the picture.

 

To bring this topic back around to Chinese medicine, the notion of Qi as a mystical, unmeasurable energy is destructive to medical practice. The channels are physical things. But like Qi, that's not all they are. The Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic likens the channels to rivers and I think that's a great metaphor. Rivers are more than water in a river bed. They are functional environments. They ebb and flow with the seasons. They direct currents of wind, earth and water. They create habitats and are maintained by those habitats. Rivers are fantastically complex. Nevertheless they have a physical location and a plethora of measurable physical properties. And still they are more than the sum of their parts.

 

You ask, "what's the productive nature of determining a limit?" Daodejing chapter one has your answer. Limits are also part of the Dao. 此两者同出而异名同谓之玄, "the two [boundaries and wonders] arise together but we give them different names, both are mysterious". I'll add that the character 玄 Xuan, translated here as mysterious, depicts a tiny thread or ray of light leading back to the reality above form (形而上). I love that character.

Edited March 5, 2015 by 松永道