Correctly understand the meaning of Chinese medicine

For a long time, the phenomenon of Western medicine is commonly seen in clinical practice. For example, heat-resolving medicines are considered to have anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory effects. In practice, regardless of the symptoms of cold or heat, they are only used as antibiotics. This is the best treatment plan? In the integration of Chinese and Western medicine, the same case, Chinese and Western medicine have their own perspectives and their respective diagnosis and treatment strategy, in the application should be the director, the advantages of complementary to the superior. If only Chinese medicine is used as the aforementioned method, it will not only be contraindicated by repeated use of antibiotics by Western medicine, but also lose the principle of TCM treatment based on syndrome differentiation. The reason is the conceptual confusion between China and the West and the unclear understanding of Chinese medicine.

 　 The "Chinese medicine" we now refer to does not mean that it only originated in China called Chinese medicine, but that it is a medicine that has been applied in medical theory in China. It refers to natural resources that can be used for medicinal purposes, including plants, animals, minerals, etc., as many as thousands. Most of these drugs have a long history of application. For thousands of years as the main weapon for disease prevention, it has provided sufficient and reliable protection for the health and reproduction of the Chinese nation. It is an important part of Chinese medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine has a unique theoretical system, so traditional Chinese medicine has a unique application principle. Research on these drugs has formed a special system in ancient times. Because of the majority of plant medicines, the use of it is most commonly referred to as "Materia Medica." Since the "Shen Nong's Herbology" came to an end, many books of herbal medicine such as "Tang Ben Cao" and "Certificate of Herbal Medicine" emerged in the later generations. By the Ming Dynasty, Li Shizhen wrote the "Compendium of Compendium of Materia Medica" and set it into Dacheng; in the late Qing Dynasty, Western medicine spread. Into China, naturally brings with the Western medicine treatment methods include drugs. As a result, the concept of "Chinese medicine" that is distinguished from "Western medicine" gradually emerged. It is still used as "Chinese medicine".
Then, can any natural, medicinal, animal, plant or mineral medicine be called Chinese medicine? To answer this question, further discussion is needed.
There is a paragraph in the "Golden Chamber" that tells the principles and methods of Chinese medical medicine very succinctly: "The disease of husband's liver, make up with acid, help with the bitter bitterness, use the medicine of sweet taste to adjust it. Acid into the liver, Jiao Ku Into the heart, willing to enter the spleen"; In addition, "Su asked to really talk about" also has: "Indulgence in the inside, rule to cool, with hardship, to ease the slow, in order to disperse it. The rule is cold and salty, and it is sweet and bitter, sour, and bitter." It can be found in the "cold, hot, warm, cool" and "acid, bitter, sweet, pungent, salty," and other different arguments, Chinese medicine theory called the medicinal "Four Gas" and "five flavor." This is because the philosophy of ancient China used the theory of yin and yang to describe the model of the world. It is believed that all things in the world contain the attributes of yin and yang, and they rely on the theory to understand and treat diseases. The theory of Chinese medicine believes that people suffer from diseases, and the cause is caused by internal and external causes. Diseases are cold, heat, imaginary, and real. Special attention is given to organs and meridians. Through a variety of drugs on the treatment of diseases summed up in the "four gas", "five flavors" as well as rising, falling, floating, Shen, and other classic medicine. Each medicine has its own special role, such as "acid into the liver, the hard bitter into the heart", "Shanneng Ruanjian", "cold energy", "Xin Kai bitter", "sweet acid" and other theories. In addition, the principles for the use of drugs such as "King, Minister, Sasuke, and Embassy" were further formulated, and various formulations were established based on the theory of "Tangtze Dang Ye" and "Pills are also slow", thus forming a complete set. The theory of drugs and prescriptions. This at least shows that since ancient times, Chinese medicine has been applied under the guidance of traditional Chinese medicine theory.
The use of natural substances for medicinal purposes is not limited to Chinese medicine, as well as Mongolian medicine, Tibetan medicine and many other foreign medical species. From modern pharmacology, it can be seen that the pattern of traditional Chinese medicine research: through observing the effect of drug components on the “target”, analyzes and summarizes one or more components that play a major role, and separates and purifies them. This is modern pharmacology. One of the commonly used modes of Chinese medicine research. It should be pointed out that this research method is a product of a typical Western medical thinking model. From the research process to the results are naturally consistent with the corresponding theory of Western medicine. Therefore, the prepared preparation should also be called "Western medicine" or "Western medicine." "Western medicine" is not exactly a good form of integration of traditional Chinese and Western medicine? Chinese medicine is mostly natural substances in nature, the proportion of each medicine is natural. Because of the limitations of science and technology at that time, it was impossible to make an in-depth analysis of the ingredients of drugs as they are now. Therefore, the medicinal properties conferred by TCM theory are based on the properties exhibited by the original or crude processed drugs in the state of natural ingredients. It can be assumed that these naturally occurring substances naturally possess the medicinal properties of Chinese medicine, that is, these "attributes" are possessed only if the proportion of the original ingredients is not destroyed. Although traditional Chinese medicines have also been processed, they are all conducted under the guidance of Chinese medicine's drug processing theory. They are in line with the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, and the changes in drug properties after processing are overall changes. The key is that the concocted Chinese medicine has been given new medicinal properties and can still be applied under the guidance of traditional Chinese medicine theory, such as rhubarb to make mature rhubarb, ginger cannon to make ginger, artichoke and so on. The research mode of modern pharmacology on traditional Chinese medicine is mostly separation and purification. The result is that the proportion of the original drug components is broken, and the attributes that can be found in the traditional Chinese medicine theory system are no longer there. The most important thing is that the preparations produced under this type of research have not been given new Chinese medicinal properties after losing their original attributes, which makes them lose the basic characteristics of “Chinese medicine” and therefore cannot “re-line the door wall”. That is to say, these traditional Chinese medicine extracts serve as the terminal for the study of pharmacology of modern Chinese medicine. From the description of drug characteristics, they do not “return” to traditional Chinese medicine theories, and they no longer have the attributes of “four gases” and “five flavors”. So that they become downright "non-Chinese medicine." These are the results of Western medicine's theory of drug research. Professor Tiao Yuan said: "In the process of the introduction of Western science and technology into China, the Chinese-style specialty of 'intuitively comprehending reasoning thinking' was stifled and denied, and Western medicine once conceived to deny it with its academic thought. The scientific nature of TCM theory is a historic mistake, and its serious consequences still affect the exchange of Chinese and Western cultures.[4] It is interesting to note that in today's medical community, this type of Western medicine after “rebirth” is still crowned with “Chinese medicine”, “natural medicine” and “no toxic and side effects”. This can easily be misleading, causing some doctors to mistakenly believe that they still have the original attributes or the original drug and have the effect of the pharmacological research. This point is clear from the following examples.