20230222-My Understanding of Traditional Chinese Medicine

My Understanding of Traditional Chinese Medicine

My name is Zhixiong Lin. Some may call me Mr. Gushuo, but most of my followers call me Master Lin. Now I’ll tell my story with traditional Chinese medicine. I got nearsighted when I was twelve or thirteen, and got to know qigong and massage for the treatment of this condition. With an excellent comprehension ability for traditional Chinese medicine, I was able to, within 7 days, perceive the flow of qi, freely control the flow of qi around the meridians, and perceive the energy transfer among the people, heaven and earth, and plants. The door to the mysterious world was thus opened to me.

I began to read Huangdi’s Internal Classic (《黄帝内经》, Huang-di-nei-jing) during college in 2008. But back then, I thought the medical classic contained so much obscure and even contradictory and inexplicable content, which even medical professors couldn’t figure out.

It was after having made some small achievements in numerology that I stepped into the world of medicine. In 2017, a scroll fragment unearthed in Dunhuang with a short paragraph of old assertions of Feng Shui (geomancy) in it enlightened me. Following what the assertions hinted at, I introduced the technique of “Improving fortune by numbers”, which can help judge the good and bad of energy by numbers. So far, I have been the highest-paid person to improve fortune by selecting a cell-phone number. I also developed a brand-new method of numerological analysis which I named “digitalized eight characters” in place of the traditional eight characters about one’s birth with complex associations. Thanks to my improved levels in the studies of Changes, I involved myself in the study of “five movements and six qi” without difficulty, whereby I began the transition to the study of medicine from Changes. In March 2020, I posted a prediction on Sina Weibo that there would be another outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2022, which would end in the seventh month of the year in the Chinese lunar calendar. In fact, the COVID-19 epidemic had basically ended by the first half of 2022 worldwide. Everyone returned to a normal life. Now I predicted two more COVID-19 outbreaks of different nature in 2023. The first outbreak will begin in March and end in August, resulting from cold dampness in the exterior of the body. The second outbreak will last from August to October, resulting from cold dampness in the interior of the body. All the information can be obtained from “five movements and six qi”.

Later, my study transition from “five movements and six qi” to Three Causes Formulary (《三因方》, San-yin-fang) allowed me to discover the five element thinking behind formula combintion at that time. So I have posted my interpretations of Three Causes Formulary in the WeChat Public Account of “The secret to improving fortune by numbers”. Related articles are available by going to https://mp.weixin.qq.com/mp/appmsgalbum?__biz=MzU0OTY0MjU4NA==&action=getalbum&album_id=1575558338464038915&scene=126#wechat_redirect

I got to understand the five elements for traditional Chinese medicines instead of flavors, meridian affinity and indications as described in Compendium of Materia Medica (《本草纲目》, Ben-cao-gang-mu). I managed to comprehend the therapeutic effect of a Chinese medicine from its growth environment, form, taste, and texture rather than learn by rote. However, today’s tradtional Chinese medicine (TCM) universities and colleges hardly cultivate such five element thinking. After personally tasting more than two hundred traditional Chinese medicines prepared in ready-to-use forms and investigating their botanical forms and growth environments, I got to understand the thinking behind the combination of many classical formulas. For example, Four Ingredients Decoction (四物汤, Siwu Tang) basically functions to resolve blood stasis rather than tonify blood. With a different understanding of traditional Chinese medicines, I recognized why the folk and secret formulas that have been handed down can work well with only two or three ingredients. Herba Ephedrae, (麻黄, Mahuang), for instance, is known to be an exterior-releasing and sweating-inducing medicine. But do you know how it works in this way? In my opinion, as the medicinal plant of Ephedra has a light, floating nature and a hollow, needle-shaped form, qi can be elevated and pierce through the surface of the body, hence the action of releasing the exterior. According to records of medical books, the nodes of Ephedra must be removed. That’s because the nodes similar to bamboo joints may obstruct the ascending of the medicine, thus affecting its medicinal properties. But nowadays, the medicine in ready-to-use forms is randomly prepared without the removal of nodes. Nobody bothers to manually do the removal. Since few people understand how raw materials including plants, animals and minerals can be used as medicines, no wonder the production and processing hardly follow the time-honored methods. But in this way, how can the efficacy of Chinese medicines be guaranteed? Most TCM doctors use Radix Cyathulae (牛膝, Niuxi) for leg diseases as a supplementary ingredient to enhance the efficacy of a formula. However, I use it to transform blood stasis because I found that it may cause throat impediment and have a powder of resolving stasis after personally trying it. This medicine is also known as a throat impediment herb. Endothelium Corneum Gigeriae Galli (鸡内金, Jineijin), a common Chinese medicine, is often used to promote digestion. However, I cured my classmate with large kidney cysts and a group of lipomas using the medicine, Radix Cyathulae (牛膝, Niuxi) and cuttlefish bone (乌贼骨, Wuzeigu) in powdered preparations. Since the medicine pertains to mental in five elements, it can be used for menstrual induction. Let me give another example. Radix Aconiti Lateralis (生附子, Sheng-Fuzi) has been long considered an extremely yang medicine to resuscitate yang and prevent collapse, but I found it to be extremely cold. The deep inside of a cave is hot in the freezing winter and cold in midsummer. Yin and yang within the human body are analogous to those in nature. The medicinal plant grows in Jiangyou of Sichuan province, an extremely dry and hot place, but it has an extremely bitter taste. Bitterness is generally supposed to correspond to the heart and fire. In my view, bitterness, which corresponds to cold and water, acts to reduce fire, just like Radix Scutellariae (黄芩, Huangqin), Cortex Phellodendri (黄柏, Huangbai), Rhizoma Coptidis (黄连, Huanglian) and Plumula Nelumbinis (莲子心, Lianzixin). This medicine, extremely cold in property, can induce cold in the interior of the body. Therefore, the exterior of the body becomes hot and subsequently the warmth of the limbs occurs. That is why the medicine is thought to resuscitate yang and prevent collapse by medical practitioners through the ages. Today’s TCM doctors trained in medical universities and colleges all realize yin and yang are important and that the human body has exterior and interior levels. They can rattle off pattern differentiation by the eight principles. But few go deeper into what is yin and yang and what is exterior and interior. Let’s look at the formulas prescribed by traditional Chinese medicine clinics or hospitals. A formula containing 20 to 40 kinds of Chinese medicines is prescribed casually. It is just the simple accumulation of relevant medicines along with their effects in the mind of TCM doctors, who are not selective about which medicines to include in a formula. Hardly anyone prescribes a formula containing less than 10 kinds of medicines, let alone a single medicine to treat patients. Are formulas containing dozens of medicines are used to make a profit or save people? Personally, doctors who have the will to save the patient have the power to cure the patient.

After understanding the five element for Chinese medicines, I managed to master pulse diagnosis methods recorded in Classic of Difficulties (《难经》, Nan-jing). Today’s medical universities and colleges teach Binhu’s sphygmology from the Ming dynasty, whereby the pulse is taken at the surface, center, and depth (of each of the Cun, Guan and Chi pulsation). Such pulse diagnosis methods were not employed in the era when Classic of Difficulties (《难经》, Nan-jing) was compiled. This medical classic said in the section of The Fifth Difficult Issue, “If [one exerts a pressure] as heavy as three beans… as heavy as six beans… as heavy as nine beans… as heavy as twelve beans… If one presses down to the bones…” The statement indicates the pulse was taken at five levels in that era. Moreover, the pulse of each zang organ can manifest ten pathological conditions due to five endogenous pathogenic factors. The pulse condition may vary in time and sex. After reproducing the pulse diagnosis methods based on the five elements in the book, I combined pulse diagnosis and formula combination as a unity. Therefore, the dose of Chinese medicines can be controlled according to the disease location felt by pulse diagnosis. In today’s TCM hospitals, medicines should be prescribed in the doses stipulated by the pharmacopeia. Plus the poor quality of the stored raw materials, how is it possible to cure the illness and save the patient using such medicines? Owing to these restrictions, traditional Chinese medicine has been reduced to being “a slow coach”, which can only be used to treat chronic diseases. I once cured a patient with migraine within six days, who had received treatment from many famous doctors in Guangdong province. I took his pulse and accordingly prescribed medicines once a day based on my self-developed pulse diagnosis methods and formula combination theory. In January of this year, I even cured a patient with advanced cholangiocarcinoma in a short period of time, who was diagnosed by his western medicine physician as having only 6 months to live. One single dose brought a remarkable recovery. The patient, who had had masticatory weakness and brown urine, was able to get out of bed and went into the bathroom independently, and his urine turned dark yellow. After four-day treatment with a total of three formulas, severe jaundice on the surface of his body quickly subsided, and the burnt-yellow, greasy coating on the tongue visibly changed day by day and returned to normal quickly.

The patient was too weak to come for a face-to-face pulse diagnosis, so the treatment formulas were prescribed based on the tongue diagnosis and inquiry by communicating with his family members. Each formula was combined by myself with no more than ten medicines. The patient was also informed of the actions and outcomes of each formula, and he was recovering at the speed as expected. The patient’s family members were amazed by saying, “I suddenly thought of you in the terminal stage and felt intuitively only you are worth me taking a risk. I was afraid that you would not prescribe any medicine without pulse diagnosis and didn’t expect you to save our family from a crisis without any hesitation. We feel really grateful for what you’ve done.” Now how many TCM doctors can make it? So I felt traditional Chinese medicine in the era when Classic of Difficulties (《难经》, Nan-jing) was compiled has really been not handed down from the past generations, and today’s traditional Chinese medicine has been left behind so far. In my point of view, true traditional Chinese medicine is not subdivided into specialties. However, things are quite different today: TCM doctors advertise their own specialties to be expert at, such as gynecology and pediatrics.

Then how to treat illness? First of all, we have to distinguish whether a disease is caused by innate factors, known as a congenital disease in layman’s terms. Innate factors are so powerful that no radical cure is yet available for congenital diseases. Secondly, to determine the type and location of pathogenic factors within the body by pulse diagnosis requires a combination of various treatment methods. It usually takes me more than twenty minutes to take a patient’s pulse, and another twenty minutes to think about how to prescribe. Therefore, please make an appointment for my consultation in advance to avoid a long waiting time. Pathogenic factors on the surface of the body can be removed by moxibustion, acupuncture, guasha and tuina or massage, whereas those invading the five zang and six fu organs can only be eliminated with medicines and daoyin (guiding and stretching) exercises.

Medication should take account into the dosage form, followed by the thinking behind formula combination, and finally specific medicines. Nowadays, pill and powder preparations are rarely seen, not to mention complex medicated paste. Decoction, pill and powder preparations are suitable for different diseases. Few traditional Chinese medicine clinics provide self-made medicines. Chinese patent medicines manufactured by large pharmaceutical factories are made from sulfured low-quality raw materials, which are less than one-sixth the cost of the wild raw materials. What’s worse, the addition of plenty of starch significantly reduces the effect of Chinese patent medicines.

I don’t suppose it’s enough for a TCM doctor to know how to make medicine and choose the appropriate dosage form according to the patient’s condition. In the absence of raw materials around, when pathogenic factors have not yet entered the five zang and six fu organs on the body surface and in the meridians, acupuncture, moxibustion and stone needling should be applied. Despite the variety of needling methods at present, few of them follow what are described in Spiritual Pivot (《灵枢》, Ling-shu) and Classic of Difficulties (《难经》, Nan-jing). Classic of Difficulties (《难经》, Nan-jing) places great emphasis on the five-Shu points while famous TCM doctors and professors are always simply giving a few words of explanations for them. Some even suggest the five-Shu points are a separate system from the regular meridians. What nonsense! Classic of Difficulties (《难经》, Nan-jing) said “It is appropriate to needle Jing-well points in spring”, whereas Spiritual Pivot (《灵枢》, Ling-shu) stated “It is appropriate to needle Jing-well points in winter.” Those people are not endowed with an excellent comprehension ability to understand the true meaning of the ancients behind these seemingly confusing but simple statements, not to mention the considerations of the needling depth and manipulations. Classic of Difficulties (《难经》, Nan-jing) said in the section of The Seventy-Eighth Difficult Issue, “Those who know how to apply the needle rely on their left hand; those who do not know how to apply the needle rely on their right hand.” At present, most individuals engaged in acupuncture and moxibustion just practice applying needling manipulations with their right hand. It looks as if one is transplanting rice seedlings. They’re not aware of waiting the arrival of qi below their left hand and exerting the pressure with full vigor through their fingernail. Personally, today’s needling methods are waning. Based on accurate pattern differentiation by pulse diagnosis, the number of acupoints I select often does not exceed three. In some cases, one single acupoint is possibly enough to bring a quick recovery. However, it is very common that patients are always subject to the insertion of needles all over the body due to inappropriate needling manipulations by TCM doctors.

In present TCM education system, any graduate with a bachelor’s degree in medicine can apply for sitting the National Qualification Examination for Doctors. However, those who are short of independent clinical experience are not qualified to treat patients at all. In the TCM education system for undergraduates, such medical classics as Classic of Difficulties (《难经》, Nan-jing) and Huangdi’s Internal Classic (《黄帝内经》, Huang-di-nei-jing) are only explained in a few words by lecturers and students simply flip through the introduction. The original texts are no longer studied and read intensively since medical professors even can not figure out what they talk about. What a pity that one can’t become a qualified TCM doctor for clinical treatment through five years of TCM education! The philosophy at the highest level can be described with the simplest words. Under the guidance of “the five elements and traditional Chinese medicine” theory that I comprehended through the transition to the study of medicine from Changes, a person with zero foundation in traditional Chinese medicine can be trained to independently diagnose and prescribe in two weeks. Students are expected to build a good foundation for traditional Chinese medicine after completing the study of six video courses titled “Learn Classic of Difficulties With Me” on the Udemy platform within one week by paying $1200. Subsequently, if you want to go deeper and inherit my medical skills, you should pay 14,000 Euro (100,000 RMB) to complete another two days of face-to-face instruction titled “A crash course on the five elements and traditional Chinese medicine” provided by me. I believe this will be a giant step in the history of traditional Chinese medicine.