Traditional Chinese medicine is a kind of medicine based on different epistemology. At one time, people in China often liked to provide arguments for their views in the name of "quintessence and nation", but today, opponents often ridicule those who maintain traditional culture in the name of "quintessence and nation". Even if people have no national feelings, many people who are called "spitters" by netizens just cover their faces with a big hat. It seems that not digging their ancestral graves is not enough to show their nobility and openness.
Traditional Chinese medicine is not a science with scattered human knowledge, but a set of medicine with close internal relations and network system. Traditional Chinese medicine, like western medicine, is a complete set of medicine with the characteristics of "the foundation of philosophical epistemology-basic medical theory-medical theory of human diseases-guiding treatment practice and feedback improvement-theoretical development".
On the basis of epistemology, we can find the most fundamental difference between Chinese and western medicine.
Both Chinese and western medicine have basic medicine. Western medicine is a series of disciplines such as anatomy, physiology and biochemistry. Traditional Chinese medicine is Huangdi Neijing. Huangdi Neijing defines the human body and the basic terms and concepts of traditional Chinese medicine. Both Chinese and western medicine use basic clinical disciplines, western medicine is pathology, pathophysiology, diagnostics and other disciplines, and Chinese medicine is the theory of viscera and meridians, medication habits, qi and blood theory, and febrile diseases theory.
Both Chinese medicine and western medicine have pharmacology, and the difference is the understanding of drugs. One is the judgment of cold and heat properties derived from yin-yang theory, and the other is based on the constantly decomposing chemical monomers.
Traditional Chinese medicine and clinicians have the same division of labor as non-clinical medicine, and there is also a theory that health preservation is the front end and rehabilitation is the back end. Traditional Chinese medicine and various branches of modern medical system can correspond to each other one by one, and the relationship between traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine is parallel rather than subsidiary or branch, nor is it antagonistic.
The treatment of patients and the training of doctors in western medicine have obvious scientific characteristics of assembly line, while the training of Chinese medicine can only be a mentoring system. The interpersonal relationship between Chinese medicine doctors is also different from that between scientific doctors, and Chinese medicine will not have the problem of kickbacks from western medicine.
Patients have different methods to evaluate the level of traditional Chinese medicine.
Looking at western medicine, I think that "first-class hospitals, first-class hospitals" flock to third-class hospitals in big cities because big hospitals have the advantage of centralized resources. When patients see Chinese medicine, they will believe in the "secret recipe of Chinese medicine" and a Chinese medicine practitioner in a remote rural area.
It is difficult for Chinese medicine to have rigorous logical evidence.
Because the concept of yin and yang is vague, it can only be speculative, not accurate mathematical logic. An important feature of science is that all scientific propositions must have clear test standards, and when, where and what conditions must be clearly stated. The basis of traditional Chinese medicine, whether it is the theory of qi and blood, the theory of febrile diseases or the theory of meridians, is unclear, which can neither be confirmed nor falsified, nor can it be quantified, organized or logical. Therefore, it is impossible for Chinese medicine to be accurate. The amount of Chinese medicine is a few dollars, and the error is in the order of grams. Western medicine is often accurate to milligrams or micrograms.
The theory of traditional Chinese medicine can not form a strict mathematical logic system, and the consequences are as follows: first, it is difficult to integrate itself deeply and cannot be integrated with the current scientific system; Second, knowledge cannot be modularized. Therefore, Chinese medicine must return to the origin of Huangdi Neijing to differentiate syndromes, while western medicine will form a set of standardized treatment based on pathology, which is a scientific "building block" feature. For example, Pythagorean theorem is a "building block", and we directly use Pythagorean theorem to determine the length of a side without discussing why Pythagorean theorem is right. This is the characteristic of scientific medicine: direct use of conclusions, not returning to the original.
After western medicine makes a clear diagnosis of the disease, what medicine to use and the dosage are clear norms and do not need to be discussed. Therefore, with a "modular" way of understanding, it is possible for doctors to take up their posts quickly after short-term training, which is the rationality for a large number of barefoot doctors in China to undertake primary medical tasks.
It is very important that TCM cannot be modularized. Non-modularity means that Chinese patent medicines are ineffective or have a narrow range of utility. In western medicine, it is possible to treat impotence and other diseases with chemical drugs such as Viagra, because a series of rigorous evidence can be made by scientific methods on the basis of clear pathology. However, it is impossible to make a scientific evidence chain by using a Chinese patent medicine or tiger bone to treat impotence, because there are too many chemical components in traditional Chinese medicine to carry out experiments at the cellular level. Similarly, there are many problems with traditional Chinese medicine injections. If it is a single chemical component, it can still be studied, and there are many chemical components, and the proportional concentration of chemical components is not constant, how to make statistical analysis?
The second is holism and reductionism. Western medicine's understanding of the human body is constantly decomposed. The naked eye divides the human body into various systems and organs, divides the organs into different tissues, then divides the tissues into cells with an optical microscope, and then divides the cells into molecules with an electronic microscope, and then studies the reactions between molecules and atoms in the human body with physical and chemical methods. At present, the theoretical basis and experimental basis of medical science are at the atomic and molecular level. The present physical theory has evolved into string theory, in which the "string" is similar to emptiness, and materialism emphasizes that matter is infinitely separable. There is no public opinion whether the world is spiritual or material. It's another huge topic, so I won't discuss it.
Listen to another voice: the most rigorous German scientists say that western medicine is pseudoscience and Chinese medicine is science.
Manfred Porkert is a German sinologist, western medicine scholar and Chinese medicine scholar. He is almost as famous as Joseph Needham, and he is proficient in eastern and western science. Needham said that the existing science is not the judgment seat of the past science, because its development is far from over! Man Xi refutes that western medicine is pseudoscience and Chinese medicine is true science.
Man Shimi vaguely realized the scientific nature of Chinese medicine, of course, from his own practice. For example, one year when I was outside in cold weather, my shoulders hurt so much that I couldn't lift my arms after I got off the plane. At first, it was treated with western medicine, but it didn't work after a long time. Later, I switched to moxibustion and recovered completely after three times. 1989, he suffered from knee arthritis again. Western medicine gave him cortisone first, but it didn't work. Later, someone suggested an operation to replace the metal joint. A Chinese doctor surnamed Zhou gave me massage, acupuncture and Chinese medicine. I was completely cured in less than six months. Two years ago, my eyes were blurred, and western medicine said it was central exudative retinitis. Without treatment, he may go blind. Blindness in study is the most terrible thing. He used Futudan and Liuwei Dihuang Pills in the traditional Chinese medicine prescription as the basis, and made them into powder to eat, and it would be fine in a few months. Now 73 years old, vision 1.5.
What Mansmi refutes is personal practice and years of research on the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, and promotes traditional Chinese medicine to the whole world. He used to be the director of the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of Munich, Germany, founded the International Society of Traditional Chinese Medicine, carried out special research, and held many study classes, reports and academic exchanges around the world. For decades, I have worked hard and tirelessly. His TCM works include: TCM clinical pharmacology, TCM prescription, TCM acupuncture, TCM judgment, TCM pharmacy and TCM basic theory. Among them, the book Basic Theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine is popular in Europe and America, which gives westerners a new understanding of traditional Chinese medicine. ?
Man Xi refutes the development of Chinese medicine in China. As the birthplace of Chinese medicine, people have not tried their best to promote the traditional culture of China. On the contrary, the mainstream scientific community is eager to get rid of it and then get rid of it quickly, which makes Chinese medicine continue to decline in China. Although Chinese medicine has been paid attention to by the relevant state departments in China, people do not know enough about the scientific principles of Chinese medicine, and even many Chinese medicine practitioners are skeptical about it, which is the main reason why Chinese medicine cannot develop.
In short, Chinese medicine, as a part of the practical experience of the Chinese nation, can be incorporated into the humanities field, study its historical and cultural significance, and expand the cultural connotation of the Chinese nation. But when it is used to treat diseases, it is still based on modern medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine are not geographically opposite words. Traditional Chinese medicine belongs to the product before modern medicine, and modern medicine (western medicine) is the product of science, which is completely of two natures. Before modern science studies the harm and function of herbs, use them with caution!