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Chinese Medicine: What Can Westerners Learn?
Chinese Herbs
When Z’s lover falls ill in A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, she shares a bit of ancient Chinese wisdom with him: “…Your illness is brought from your thoughts. You hate this society so much, and you feel so fed up with this place. You don’t have any disease. You are just like your old van…used to be so energetic…” (227). The 2,000+ year old tradition of Chinese medicine is based largely on the flow of energy, or Qi (pronounced chee) along the body’s meridians, or energy pathways. Discomfort, illness, or pain is a result of imbalanced, stagnant, or stuck Qi.
While Western medicine traces illness linearly through cause and effect, Chinese medicine takes a more relational approach: the body is very sensitive to all aspects of its environment. Internal stimuli and emotions affect the body as much as, if not more than, external stimuli such as viruses and germs. As Z explains to her sick lover,
You Westerners always want to precisely name illness. But in China, we don’t name all these kind of diseases. Because we think all the illness actually causes from very simple reason. If you want to solve your illness then you must start to calm your whole body, not just taking pills every time… (227)
Z continues on to describe the three basic causes of illness in Chinese medicine: Internal Pathogenic Qi (organ problems), External Pathogenic Qi (pronounced chee) (virus that enters the body), and Trauma (emotional or physical). Once one has identified the place of the ailment’s origination, he takes the necessary measures to rebalance the Qi. Chinese healing methods include acupuncture, herbal medicines, cupping, shiatsu and other types of massage, Qigong, martial arts, and even more subtle methods such as feng shui.
In addition to viewing the human body more holistically, Chinese medicine focuses more on prevention than treatment of symptoms. In fact, in most Asian countries, citizens incorporate herbs, acupuncture and massage into their daily health regimen, similar to the way Westerners exercise and eat healthily in order to prevent illness.
According to Chinese medical traditions, a healthy body’s many systems function harmoniously. In a healthy, vital individual, the opposing energies of yin (cool, female, receptive, substantial) and yang (hot, male, initiating, movement/growth-oriented) are balanced (though females naturally have a bit more yin energy and vice versa.) Chinese continue to practice the ancient traditions of holistic remedying to balance out one’s Qi; in fact, Chinese medicine has become popular in the West. In Concise, Z’s lover expresses wonder at her knowledge of medicine: “You mean all Chinese people know about this?” (228) Unfortunately, our society has largely lost a curiosity about the body’s many systems and functions as well as a kinesthetic awareness. We Westerners can take an important lesson from the Chinese culture – before merely treating our symptoms with chemicals and drugs, we may want to explore the relationships between our various symptoms as well as the natural alternatives our bodies may be seeking.
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Medicine as language
I was so happy to see this post. Chinese medicine is like a language itself: a way of communicating with our own body and soul.
Fix it anyway
I prefer the idea of a preventative approach to medicine rather than the more Western philosophy of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". If we could prevent illness from occurring in the first place, we wouldn't need to fix it. We westerners (Americans in particular) obsess over our health, but do nothing to prevent illness. We eat greasy food, which, although delicious, will kill us in the end, if we don't incorporate fruits and vegetables into our diets, too. In our goal driven, all-or-nothing society, we have a hard time balancing health and fitness with the demands of our jobs. Some Americans even subconsciously make a choice between their health and their job when they spend too much time eating unhealthy food and sitting at a desk all day, whereas in many parts of the Eastern world, offices require daily exercise breaks.
I also find the Eastern
I also find the Eastern approach to medicine interesting. As you mentioned, Americans generally want an easy pill for their problems, rather than trying to look at illness in the context of the whole body. Though Western medicine has its place, I think most Westerners can learn a lot from the Eastern ideas of medicine. Simply being in touch with one's body, understanding how to maintain a balance of the Qi, is beneficial. It teaches you to understand yourself better.