Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Philosophical Sense

By Mu Shan

Trans. by Lin Wei

Medicine is regarded as a special type of physical science since understanding the life process and the progression of disease, requires much more than just knowledge of health and pathology. Meanwhile, a multitude of psychological, social and cultural factors are also involved, which necessitates that medicine must be an interdisciplinary practice.

Fundamentally, both Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western Medicine (WM) aim at preventing and curing diseases, protecting and improving people’s health. Philosophically, however, the two medical systems are quite different. While WM is defined as “evidence-based” one supported and mediated by scientific technology, TCM can be called the “reason-based” oriented by traditional Chinese philosophy.

As the well-known scholar of TCM Ren Xu points out, “Relying heavily on philosophy in terms of thought and methodology, TCM explains physiological and pathological phenomena of the human body in philosophical language and conceptualization. Its theory has been developed independently of the confines of anatomical morphology”.

We can posit that culture embodies philosophy, which is in fact part of any culture and constitutes one of its essential components.

For example, TCM classics states that “Obedience to the principle of Yin-yang cultivates life and resistance to it speeds up demise. Patients acting in compliance with the principle can be cured while those who prefer the other way might end up as a worsening case. Resistance, instead of obedience, to the principle of Yin-yang means killing oneself from within. That shows the reason why wise people give priority to the prevention rather than curing of diseases. They take precautions to nip the first signs of illness in the bud rather than sit on them until illness has become a reality. Medication after the contraction of illness, comparable to drilling a well after feeling thirsty and forging weapons after the break-out of war, is therefore too late”. What this paragraph expounds is actually not so much medicine as philosophy or a way of governing a state.

Similarly, many other terms or phrases, such as “taking away firewood from under the cauldron”, “saving a boat in an adverse current”, “loss of mind, unconsciousness, restlessness, delirium and so on caused by excessive internal heat”, “interaction of yin and yang”, “mutual rooting of yin and yang”, “solitary yang failing to grow, solitary yin failing to increase”, “extreme yin turning into yang, extreme yang turning into yin” and so on, if these were not read in the context of TCM, they could be well elaborated as philosophical or literary glossary terms or aphorisms.

Concerning the five internal organs, although there are terms for the heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys in both TCM and WM, they are not mutually translatable between the two medical systems. In TCM, the viscera are not only anatomical concepts but also various functions of the entire human bodily system, reflecting in the meaning of xiang – the manifestation of the viscera.

Taking “xin” (heart) as an example, in WM it is defined as “a hollow muscular cone-shaped organ, lying between the lungs, with the pointed end (apex) directed downwards, forwards, and to the left. The heart is about the size of a closed fist. Its wall consists largely of cardiac muscle (myocardium), lined and surrounded by membranes.” It is an accurate description of this physical organ. In TCM, however, apart from its physical nature, the heart also functions as a “monarch”, controlling blood vessels and housing spirit. Sweat is considered as the fluid of the heart which opens in the tongue, and, as the sprout of the heart, the tongue reflects any pathological change in the heart.

There are also many TCM terms that do not exist in WM, such as ming men, which may be understood as “the place where congenital essence is stored, with the functions of grounding and storing primordial qi, as well as acting as the primary motivating force for the activities of life. It stores essence and houses the spirit, being closely related to reproductive functions. Classically, it is the abode of water and fire, harboring true fire within, which can be understood as the root of yang qi”. This is but one typical example of philosophical concepts in Chinese medicine.

President Xi Jinping has recently stated that “TCM is one of the jewels within ancient Chinese science, and it is also the key to opening the treasure house of Chinese civilization”. In this regard, its philosophical ideas are surely included in TCM.