What is Chinese Medicine?

This article is an attempt to convey what the basis of Chinese Medicine is. It is a product  of personal reflection and interpretation and it is meant to be taken as such. 

 You are probably familiar with the term “holistic”. In the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine, a seminal book for CM, we read: 

“From ancient times it has been recognized that there is an intimate relationship between the activity of life and human beings and their natural environment. The root of all life is yin and yang; this includes everything in the universe, with heaven above and earth below, within the four directions and the nine continents.”

Connecting with the yin and yang, we connect with the root of all life. Losing connection with yin and yang brings illness. This is how Chinese medicine originally understands wholism. As the harmony between the human, their environment, as well as with the things that are above and beyond that. Yin and yang are a part of the same system as is obvious from the Taiji image above. Where Yang becomes full it, it becomes Yin and when Yin is full it becomes Yang. 

“The law of yin and yang is the natural order of the universe, the foundation of all things, mother of all changes, of life and death. In healing, one must grasp the root of the disharmony, which is always subject to the law of yin and yang” 

 Contrary to our way of thinking here in the west, to understand something, we don’t need to dissect it into a billion smaller pieces, understand the workings of each piece separately, and then put it back together and finally understand how it works. “The law of yin and yang is the mother of all changes” means that I can see how this law is manifested by what it produces.  

“If the yin and yang balance is disrupted, it is like going through a year with spring but no winter, or winter but no summer.” 

 For those living here in the Netherlands (or any other rainy, cloudy country for most of the year), imagine having a winter without a summer, and what this would do to everyone in terms of spirits and energy. The same would happen to our organisms if we neglect this balance, this universal law. So, whether you are looking at why you’re not able to sleep, or why you have ended up close to burnout, the reason is the same: ignoring the foundation of all things which is the law of yin and yang. This is something that you can observe for yourself, you don’t have to be an expert in Chinese medicine. 

 One thing that I heard from a professor in a seminar I attended just recently was: 

“A CM doctor treats life. We don’t treat illness” 

 That was a very profound statement for me. That means that the goal of Chinese medicine is not to treat a disease, with its symptoms. That’s why many disease names in Classical Chinese medicine like “reversal” or “exhaustion” or “rebellion” describe functional states, and not disease states.  "The aim of Chinese medicine is therefore to restore functionality, and not treat diseases. It aims to restore the connection between the person and the fundamental law of yin and yang." 

 But there is something else too.  If this law of Yin and Yang is governing the whole universe, that implies that we as individuals, share something with the rest of the universe, and in that way, we can know and recognize this. Therefore, if the ability to know and recognize this is active within us, then there we can preserve our lives, and there is possibly no need to a doctor. In that sense, the goal of Chinese medicine, is to make medicine (as we know perceive it), unnecessary, and change its role from treating disease to preserving life. The good thing about it, is that in its core its simple and contains no dogmas on how to do that. 

 In order to find out the universal law of yin and yang, you only need to observe its phenomena, which are everywhere. You understand what something is, by what it produces. This is what makes Chinese medicine accessible to all.