บท 34: 34 - Classical Chinese Medicine

"How can we learn face reading?" An Luchang asked. He wasn't interested in much, but face reading seemed like a useful skill.

"From watching and interacting with people," said Li Yun. "When you carefully examine a person's face, it reveals a lot of information about their habits. A person who worries a lot will naturally have wrinkles on their forehead. People like that will usually have some sort of stress related illness."

"So I can use face reading to assist with medical diagnosis rather than fortune-telling?"

"You can say that, but I think you have the wrong conception about face reading," said Li Yun. "Although I am expressing face reading in modern terms, to truly understand face reading, you will also need to understand the five elements and yin-yang."

"You sound like someone in TCM school," said Mi Xuan with a bit of cynicism.

"I don't study TCM, but I do know a bit about classical Chinese medicine, which is quite different from TCM," Li Yun replied.

"How is it different from TCM?" asked An Luchang, always ready to learn.

"TCM looks at Chinese medicine with a western lens. This is a flawed approach. When you are using someone else's glasses to read a book, it will obviously make reading more difficult. So this is why you can't measure the effectiveness of TCM. The holistic and individualized approach doesn't perform well when people try to scale it up for clinical studies."

"But even if classical Chinese medicine uses the correct lens, it's out of date," said Mi Xuan. "You can't read with an out-of-date prescription."

"That is where you are mistaken," said Li Yun. "Classical Chinese medicine doesn't need to use glasses at all. It has the ability to use the natural eye, ears, noses, and senses to see a person's underlying condition."

"Is that why you do pulse reading instead of using the stethoscope?" Asked Lui Jing.

"It's a pain to carry a stethoscope around," Li Yun replied, but he was also trying to understand the concept of meridian by pulse reading.

"If you're talking about pulse palpation and tongue diagnosis, it's not so much different from modern diagnosis," said Mi Xuan. "However, without proper tools, human senses are full of follies. To excel would require decades of training. Like the argument between human drivers and AI drivers."

"Sadly, you're right," said Li Yun. "Classical Chinese medicine requires years of training to master and relies heavily on the person's ability. Not too many people have the passion and dedication to become a truly good CCM practitioner. Modern medicine could be taught and applied more easily with the assistance of technology. However, the downside is that modern medicine has too many branches and even the most brilliant doctor could not grasp all the fundamentals of the body. That's why the key to Western medicine is teamwork. However, teamwork involves human interrelationships, which adds another layer of complexity. In contrast, a great master of Chinese medicine does have that ability to treat the entire body themselves."

"So which is better?"

"That is not to say one is better than the other. Both CCM and modern medicine are two distinct approaches that require lifelong training. It doesn't hurt to understand a bit of both."

"I'm still not convinced that even CCM has any merit," Mi Xuan remarked. "Five elements and yin-yang sounds like a lot of nonsense."

"Just as an example, let's look at the body as a series of vibrations. Every organ has its own natural vibration."

"Yes, I have heard about that, the human body is around 62-78 Mhz, heart is 67-70Mhz, liver is 55-60 Mhz, and pancreas is 60-80Mhz," An Luchang chimed in.

"Ah, yes... The ancients, under careful observations, have separated the organs into five different sets of organs based on an idea that is similar to vibrations. They named it fire, water, earth, metal, and wood. Bear in mind that these elements and organs are not the same as our modern interpretation of organs.

Earth may represent the mouth, stomach, and spleen, but it does not represent the digestive system. Other elements, like fire, have parts that include organs from the digestive system. This indicates that the ancients have a good grasp of how food affects each and every organ, and how to balance it out."

"And what about yin and yang?"

Li Yun felt like he needed a whiteboard to describe everything.

"Yin and yang could be equated to the changes in the body frequency according to the seasons, day & night cycle, and the environment. You can also equate this to the circadian cycle.

By observing and understanding these basics, ancient doctors have devised prescriptions to regulate and balance the body through the concepts of elements and yin-yang. It doesn't have anything to do with fire and air bending."

Li Yun could see something clicking in both An Luchang and Mi Xuan. They were both practical and data-driven people, and once they heard something had practical applications, they would become interested in them.

"I have seen a thesis on the integration of TCM and western medicine," An Luchang remarked as he was beginning to see some value in CCM. "Do you think it is possible to integrate CCM?"

"It is possible, but only if the researcher has a good grasp of how technology affects the body from a CCM point of view," said Li Yun.

"Why technology?"

"This is a new problem that the ancients have not encountered or observed. We already know from the western's perspective how radiation affects the body, but it has not been thoroughly analyzed from a Chinese medicine points of view, such as the effects of technology on the five elements and yin-yang. "

The three residents still had a blank faces as though they didn't understand.

"With the introduction of technology, especially radiation, can you imagine how these frequencies can interfere with the human body? Chemotherapy is the more drastic form, but radio waves from cell phones and electromagnetic waves from television are already disturbing our daily lives, but being much more insidious. How many times have we encounter people who seem more rejuvenated after shutting off all their electronics for a week?"

The residents nodded.

"This is beyond our realm of understanding, so focus on face reading. The key point is, there is observational science behind face reading, so don't dismiss it easily just because it has esoteric ideologies."

He wanted them to focus on face reading as it forces them to focus on another person's face, especially the eyes. When they look at another person long enough, hopefully, it will help them to develop a sense of empathy.

Li Yun then looked at Lui Jing, who seemed to have something entirely different on his mind.

"Ah! Boss, let's go to Macao on a national holiday!" Lui Jing chimed in.

Li Yun thought about it for a moment. He could usually win against his friends and family, but he wasn't sure how he would stack up against professional gamblers.

"That's not a bad plan," Li Yun replied.