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2
“Bridging the Gap” – Classical and Traditional Chinese Medicine
A
1 Introduction
There exists a gap between the known classical texts
on Chinese Medicine and the variety of concepts
and styles that have been transmitted and are being
practiced today. In fact two major tendencies have
dominated Chinese Medicine in the past decades,
Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM), which has been
the primary approach in Europe, as opposed to Tra-
ditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) mainly practiced
in China and America. The rift seems to be borne
out of an attempt at making Chinese Medicine more
scientific and more “medicalised”, by removing any
references to the psyche the spirit and the shamanic
backgrounds of acupuncture.
The concept of Traditional Chinese Medicine/TCM,
a term coined during the early years of Communist
China, reflects this state of affairs to the point of re-
ducing acupuncture to a mere reflexotherapy. Ear-
lier, during the Qing dynasty acupuncture fell into
disfavour with the emperor (1822), which probably
has had a great influence on the fate of acupuncture
until now.
Historically Chinese Medicine is firmly rooted in the
Huang Di Nei Jing known as the Yellow Emperor’s
Classic of Internal Medicine. The legend has it that
the Nei Jing consisted of four books: the Su Wen
(Simple Questions) on general concepts of Chinese
Medicine, and the Ling Shu (Spiritual Axis), which
describes the primary and secondary channels of Ac-
upuncture. Two other books have been lost: the Tai
Shu, describing amongst other things, the Mu-accu-
mulation and Xi-cleft points, and the Ming Tang,
on the location of the acupuncture points. Later the
Nan Jing (3
rd
century) analyses and comments on
the Ling Shu and introduces the Five-Phase theory
in to medicine. The Song dynasty (11
th
century), Im-
perial school establishes the basic acupuncture theo-
ries mainly the channel theory, describes and final-
izes the Acupuncture Points, and indicates needling
techniques. With the advantage of the printing press,
these theories become the generally accepted and
official medical principles. Since this time, any new
point that was discovered has been classified under
Extra Points (C 15). Also many concepts that were
not included in the Imperial School publications
evolved in parallel, often in distant provinces, and
were mainly transmitted orally.
As Chinese Medicine spread to other neighbouring
cultures mainly Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean, it
further evolved, and was enriched by these influenc-
es. This explains why many acupuncture traditions,
methods and concepts, that are not to be found in
the Chinese Classics, have yet made their way down
to our times via these other cultures.
As P. Eckman points out in the “Footsteps of the Yel-
low Emperor”, tradition itself has three different lines:
the written, the oral and the historical. Obviously the
acupuncture that has reached Europe via France is
the result of all three lines, influenced and flavoured
strongly by the Vietnamese, Japanese and partially
Korean schools on one hand, and the European tradi-
tions of Hahneman’s Homeopathy and Steiner’s
Naturopathic Antroposophic influences, on the other.
What constitutes the uniqueness of Chinese Medi-
cine as opposed to other ancient holistic medical sys-
tems is the profound understanding of the energetic
structure of the body, and the detailed description of
the circulation of this energy in complex networks
termed channels or meridians. The Daoists even con-
sider this subtle network to reflect the Dao
Pathway
of our lives, based on our pre-determined Ming
Destiny.
Over the centuries, Chinese Medicine has evolved
along two main tendencies: Acupuncture and Herb-
alism. Both are deeply rooted in the same theoretical
principles of duality, Yin-Yang, the same world-view
and understanding of cyclic and seasonal evolutions,
natural life transformations and changes, the notion
of health and disease, and what causes any patholog-
ical process. Both rely on a sophisticated diagnostic
system, mostly developed to predict a dis-balance in
order to prevent a disease.
In the modern times, many of the fundamental
classical Chinese concepts, such as the idea that
every phenomena is a form of energy, and the law of
synchronicity of all phenomena, has finally found a
scientific explanation in the field of nuclear physics
with the relativity and the unicist theories.The unicist
theory, searching to explain one “phenomena” at the
root of all existence brings us back to the Chinese
notion of everything between Heaven and Earth
being a state of Qi
Energy.
This original energetic understanding of the body and
the pathways through which this energy-Qi flows, has
many ramifications and applications:
·
·
In medicine in the form of Acupuncture and Tuina
massage practice;
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