Chapter 522: Chapter 222: Those Who Study Traditional Chinese Medicine Don’t Understand Chinese Herbal Medicine, and Those Who Understand Chinese Herbal Medicine Don’t Understand Traditional Chinese Medicine

Lu Xuan smiled, this was something Ji Xiuwen often did.

However, he understood that traditional Chinese medicine is profound and extensive, covering so many areas that without exceptional memory, it’s impossible to remember everything just by relying on memory.

At this point, one can only rely on modern technology products for assistance.

Record it, and then slowly listen to it, study it carefully later.

This scene was something Lu Xuan found unsurprising.

He thought for a moment, then said, "What I just mentioned actually is about the kidneys governing growth and reproduction, continuing with kidney yin and kidney yang, this inevitably leads to the function of the kidneys governing the qi transformation of the viscera."

"Governing the qi transformation of the viscera..."

Zhang Guangli immediately sat up straight, muttering to himself.

"How should this be explained?"

Lu Xuan said, "Governing the qi transformation of the viscera, how should I say it..."

Lu Xuan pondered for a moment and said, "Kidney qi, along with its kidney yin and kidney yang, presides over the qi transformation process of the viscera.

Qi transformation refers to the movements and regulatory processes of the ascending, descending, exiting, and entering of the viscera’s qi, which then drives and regulates the functional activities of each organ, thereby promoting and regulating the metabolism of essence, qi, blood, and body fluids in the organism."

Zhang Guangli nodded and said, "This actually resembles Western medical theory to some extent, it’s just stated differently."

"That’s exactly the point, Western medical theory actually had similar ideas thousands of years ago, and upon further examination of modern Western medicine, one can indeed find that Western medicine is increasingly aligning with traditional Chinese medical theory, starting to intersect from parallel lines and even converge on the same line, with a high degree of overlap in their theories.

This undoubtedly demonstrates that the thousands-of-years-old traditional Chinese medical theory is indeed correct."

Lu Xuan continued, "In the past, we always said Western medicine treats symptoms like headaches or foot pain separately, but now Western medicine is also beginning to consider the interconnectedness between the human body and illnesses, which is completely in line with traditional Chinese medical theory."

Zhang Guangli nodded, being a staunch supporter of traditional Chinese medicine, he naturally understood these principles quite well.

Supporters of traditional Chinese medicine often use a saying to criticize Western medicine: "Treat headache for headache, treat foot pain for foot pain."

This statement infuriates followers of Western medicine, who then try to provide various examples to prove that Western medicine does not merely treat symptoms in isolation.

And to explore this issue, one must start from a concept within Western medicine:

In medical schools, there’s a somewhat awkwardly named discipline for Western medicine called clinical medicine.

This is quite similar to "applied chemistry" in chemistry-related fields or "applied physics" in physics, all created to solve practical problems.

At first glance, it may seem unproblematic, with physics having theoretical and applied branches, one dedicated to theoretical research and the other serving practical production, which is quite normal.

Both Western medicine and Eastern medicine study medical theory alongside medical practice, which poses no problems at all.

But in reality, a very important issue exists here.

It is universally known that the research goal of physics and chemistry is to enable humans to understand the mysteries within substances while serving production and living.

Thus, theoretical research and applied research are needed.

But medicine itself should be a field aimed at solving patient illnesses, and its appearance should serve patients comprehensively, why then does it split domains for practice research and theoretical research?

If the aim of medicine is to understand the mysteries within the human body, wouldn’t this goal fall under biological research? Why does Western medicine get involved in this research?

Thinking of this makes one laugh.

However, upon deeper thought, those who have the power to establish or not establish a discipline in this world certainly aren’t foolhardy. Therefore, the establishment of "clinical medicine" in Western medicine is not a whimsical decision or mere speculation.

Coincidentally, as early as the Tang Dynasty in China, Sun Simiao had similar descriptions in his work "Essential Formulas for Emergencies and the Great Doctor’s Sincerity." He critiqued some people learning medicine: "There are fools in the world who, after reading remedies for three years, believe there’s no illness they cannot cure. Yet after treating diseases for three years, they realize there are no remedies suitable for use."

Though the words differ, the underlying truth is the same.

When the graduates from medical colleges begin their internships, if they treat patients by relying solely on textbooks, the likelihood of not being scolded is zero, with a hundred percent chance of being criticized.

In traditional Chinese medicine, this underscores the distinction between novices and veterans, an experiential issue, a necessary journey for every professional from beginner to expert.

But in Western medicine, this becomes a problem at the disciplinary professional level, leading to an awkward situation: someone who eloquently talks without a hitch becoming panic-stricken when confronted with patients.

This fleeing isn’t due to a lack of experience but fear caused by inter-disciplinary ignorance.

If the disconnection between theory and practice has reached the point of needing separate disciplines, then the problem is serious.

This is quite distinct from disciplines like applied physics or applied chemistry, where the specific research content doesn’t differ much from the theoretical study of the discipline itself, with theoretical physics/chemistry primarily responsible for studying the core theories of the discipline, focusing on how theories are generated, reasoned, and validated. Applied physics/chemistry focuses on the operational level, studying the knowledge related to the discipline in production and life.

It is widely recognized that theory comes from practice and then guides practice. In other words, the relationship between theoretical physics and applied physics is that of theory guiding practice, complementing and guiding each other.

Yet Western medicine? Clinical medicine, though outwardly claiming to be the application of basic medical theories in practical scenarios, in actual behavior, cannot be deemed a practical manifestation of basic medical theory. Additionally, the theory source of basic medicine is not clinical medicine but comes from biology and chemistry.

From this level, the theoretical system of Western medicine no longer adheres to the basic principles of dialectical materialism.

Furthermore, the issues with Western medicine are not limited to this, the fragmentation among departments is secondary, while affecting patient treatment remains the biggest issue.

However, there are numerous individuals with self-awareness within Western medicine, acknowledging that basic medicine cannot solve practical problems. Hence, based on practical experience, they designed a clinically meaningful discipline called clinical medicine.

Thus, clinical medicine came into existence.

Its emergence was unavoidable.

Relying solely on medical books cannot save lives, without practice, where does true knowledge come from?

Nonetheless, this approach implies that if a new, comprehensive nature illness arises, clinical medicine may again be unable to handle it. It requires summarizing experience through practice, then based on such experiences, adding the treatment content of the new illness to the discipline of clinical medicine.

Consequently, generation after generation, the textbooks for clinical medicine grow thicker, the contents requiring memorization becomes more, until students can no longer memorize everything, thus——another new medical discipline arises...

This is the drawback of Western medicine, unavoidable, and insolvable in the short term.

Hence, traditional Chinese medicine’s frequent taunts of Western medicine treating symptoms in isolation are not without foundation.

Of course, Western medicine is also changing, it just might take some time, and this change comes at a cost bore by the patients.

Nonetheless, traditional Chinese medicine has undergone similar processes.

Except, earlier in traditional Chinese medicine, differentiation and drug testing were conducted by the physicians themselves, whereas now, having transitioned to Western medicine, it became the patients testing, with significant differences therein.

This is the drawback of Western medicine, yet traditional Chinese medicine has its own drawbacks too.

Being someone who has been exposed to traditional Chinese medicine from a young age, Zhang Guangli knew not only Western medicine has these problems, traditional Chinese medicine has them too, this notion was very clear to him.

Thus, upon hearing this, Zhang Guangli looked at Lu Xuan and said seriously, "Actually, the drawbacks of traditional Chinese medicine are equally significant, and it’s already become an issue too big to resolve."

Hearing this, Lu Xuan was slightly stunned, then composed himself, with a serious expression: "Dean Zhang is talking about the separation between medicine and pharmacology, right?"

Zhang Guangli nodded, "Presently, the greatest drawback of traditional Chinese medicine is that those who study it don’t understand traditional Chinese pharmacology, and those who understand traditional Chinese pharmacology don’t comprehend traditional Chinese medicine!"