I Can Talk to the Internal Organs-Chapter 162 - 135: Thanatology and Biomedicine
Inside the conference hall.
Huang Fusheng still stood on the stage.
After stating the purpose of the trip, he seemed to relax somewhat.
"Everyone should know that I’ve been in the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) field for more than sixty years. I started learning TCM as a child, but there were no schools back then; it was basically learning from a master."
"At first, I couldn’t do anything. I just carried my master’s bag wherever he went to see patients, and during those years, I spent five years just copying prescriptions."
"In the beginning, I actually complained about my master, feeling that he just made me carry his bag and copy prescriptions every day. Even when he gave me books, he never helped answer any of my questions. Five years passed, and he never taught me a word of TCM."
"Until one day, I questioned my master. I asked if he just wanted to find a laborer and had no intention of teaching me. My master smiled, and then he started teaching me the most basic things in TCM. I don’t know if I have remarkable talent, but in just a week, I learned pulse reading, within a month, I could diagnose and prescribe medicine, and within half a year, I could independently see patients."
"At the time, I thought I was a prodigy, but it wasn’t until my master left that I realized that those five years of following diagnoses and copying prescriptions were the foundation that allowed me to learn the essence of TCM so quickly. Without those five years of accumulation, I wouldn’t have the achievements I have now."
"But even with the same five years, why are some kids graduating from university now unable to learn even the basics of pulse reading? It’s simple because these five years, they’ve never learned from patients, spending every day memorizing a lot of TCM knowledge. When facing patients for real, the knowledge in their heads becomes a burden, making it hard for them to distinguish what kind of illness the patient actually has."
"This is where the current teaching system lacks ’experiential’ teaching, resulting in a large group of armchair pseudo-TCM practitioners, which could be called the grave diggers of TCM."
Hiss~~
Once these words were spoken, the people below the stage were stunned!
Huang Fusheng’s words were too harsh. He was undoubtedly attacking the current TCM schools’ teaching methods.
Publicly challenging the authorities, isn’t this too bold?
The faces of several leaders sitting below also changed because there were journalists filming on-site in the conference hall. Even if they could keep journalists from publishing, there were still many people using phones to record.
This means that what Huang Fusheng said on stage will unexpectedly soon be spread online.
The commotion below didn’t stop Huang Fusheng from continuing his speech. His face consistently wore a composed, serene smile. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺
"Why do I call them the grave diggers of TCM? It’s simple because in many medical universities, even TCM universities, students must learn Western medicine’s anatomy, bacteriology, virology. I don’t deny the advancement of these theories, but for a TCM practitioner who hasn’t even mastered their own craft, what’s the point of learning Western medicine?"
"I’ve seen many graduates from joint TCM-Western medicine programs, every time they encounter me, their first question is why TCM can treat diabetes or why TCM can treat hypertension. Those learning TCM have a brain full of disease names, using anatomy as a theoretical foundation, adhering to evidence-based medicine as a classic, completely disbelieving in Yin Yang Five Elements, unity of heaven and man. What use is such TCM knowledge?"
"Hehe, when we’re gone, if the TCM field is full of these people, wouldn’t it be digging graves and excavating tombs? Won’t TCM just end up lying in a museum, allowing future generations to admire this once backward medicine?"
Huang Fusheng’s self-mocking tone made the TCM practitioners present smile bitterly.
Yes indeed.
If a TCM practitioner learns to be a doctor that only acknowledges disease names, then truly, they’ve lost the soul of TCM.
Yet ironically, these individuals have high academic degrees, can write papers, have unimpeded promotion channels, and in a few years, they hold high-ranking positions.
In this scenario, those who understand medicine treat patients, while those who don’t manage. What kind of situation will that be?
Wasn’t it such a situation that led to the abolition of TCM laws in the past?
However, while everyone was silent, a middle-aged man suddenly stood up and directly walked to the right side of the stage.
The crowd didn’t understand what he intended to do, and Huang Fusheng on stage also fixed his gaze on this person. After a while, he reached the small door on the right side, and from inside, requested a microphone from the staff.
"Sorry, Elder Huang, may I interrupt you for a moment?" The middle-aged man stood below the stage, looking up at Huang Fusheng.
Huang Fusheng smiled, "Of course, this isn’t a formal occasion; mutual exchanges among colleagues are more than welcome."
The middle-aged man said, "I think your words were somewhat biased. In today’s medical field, Western medicine holds the narrative power. We who learn TCM study some Western medicine to use common language from a TCM perspective to explain how various diseases come about. Only this way, allowing patients to compare, can the pros and cons be clear at a glance."
"Gradually, we can break free from the narrative system of Western medicine and no longer be constrained by their narrative system."
"So, I don’t believe these people are grave diggers of TCM; on the contrary, I believe they are the ones who can truly carry TCM forward."
Yes indeed.
The most awkward thing about traditional Chinese medicine nowadays is that patients often come with a disease name for you to see, but when you talk to them about symptoms, they don’t understand at all—it’s a complete disconnect.
Things like Qi stagnation and blood stasis, phlegm blocking the lungs, etc., the patients have no concept. But once you mention a disease like diabetes, they immediately understand, "Oh, my blood sugar is high."
If you use the theory of traditional Chinese medicine to explain the names of Western diseases, it’s not entirely impossible either.
Huang Fusheng smiled and said, "How should I address you?"
The middle-aged man said, "Deng Haiming, from Yanshijie Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. I came to Jianghan specifically after hearing Elder Huang was coming."
Huang Fusheng smiled and asked, "Then do you think capability or publicity is more important in traditional Chinese medicine?"
Deng Haiming said, "I think both are important."
Huang Fusheng laughed, "But if you had to choose just one?"
Deng Haiming hesitated for a moment, "... Of course, capability is important, but if there is no publicity, traditional Chinese medicine will never gain traction."
Huang Fusheng smiled and said, "But if all practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine are eloquent but can’t actually treat anyone, what kind of traction do you think such publicity will gain?"
Deng Haiming’s face froze, he opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Huang Fusheng continued, "What is the way, what is the skill, what is the end, what is the origin—traditional Chinese medicine has survived to this day not because of eloquence. If you haven’t even mastered traditional Chinese medicine, do you really think you can explain pathology clearly? Saying something wrong is ten times more reprehensible than not saying it at all!"
"I do not oppose traditional Chinese medicine trying to seize discourse power, but the prerequisite must be solid medical skills; otherwise, it’s just empty talk without any value to the development of traditional Chinese medicine. The principle of needing to be strong oneself before striking iron—I trust I don’t need to explain it further."
Deng Haiming paused, lowered his head in contemplation for a few seconds, then spoke again, "But Elder Huang, who says that learning anatomy prevents one from learning traditional Chinese medicine well? The few TCM practitioners I know are now chief physicians in provincial top-tier hospitals, and their reputations are quite good."
Huang Fusheng shook his head, "You’re mistaken, I didn’t say that learning anatomy prevents one from learning TCM well, but that those who base themselves on anatomy and don’t believe in Yin Yang Five Elements can never learn TCM well."
Deng Haiming frowned, "Does learning traditional Chinese medicine necessarily mean believing in Yin Yang Five Elements?"
These words left many people in the audience stunned.
Among them was Lu Jiu.
Hearing this, he even doubted whether Deng Haiming was a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine at all.
A practitioner of TCM who doesn’t believe in Yin Yang Five Elements probably can’t even understand the classic ancient texts, so how can they grasp the essence of traditional Chinese medicine?
"Ha, this is just absurd. Is this guy an undercover from the Western medicine faction?" Li Wei couldn’t help but mock.
"What happened?" Tang Yi asked.
"A TCM practitioner who doesn’t believe in Yin Yang Five Elements—what’s the point of studying it then?" Li Wei said.
"But why can’t they be compatible? Anatomy can also help us understand Yin Yang Five Elements. Just believing in one doesn’t align with TCM’s inclusive and diverse philosophy, right?" Tang Yi said.
Li Wei turned his head to look at Tang Yi as if looking at a fool, but immediately realized that he was an academic and let it go, "Fine, whatever makes you happy. We can’t discuss this matter."
Tang Yi felt a bit slighted by Li Wei’s slightly contemptuous gaze and stopped talking to him. Instead, he turned to Lu Jiu, "Brother Lu, am I wrong?"
Lu Jiu smiled and said, "Right or wrong, you have to judge for yourself. I’ll just share my understanding: actually, dissection is not unique to Western medicine; ancient TCM also had it. But why didn’t TCM take anatomy as its fundamental theory? Because anatomy is a medicine built on the foundation of death; it belongs to the field of dead object medicine, whereas Yin Yang Five Elements illustrate natural phenomena—it’s alive, dynamic, constantly changing, and belongs to the field of biological medicine."
"Therefore, with Yin Yang Five Elements as the medical foundation, we have Qi and blood, meridians, and acupoints. If we rely solely on anatomy as the medical foundation, we wouldn’t see these things; life would stop at the moment of dissection, the organs remain those organs, the substances remain those substances, but their life state has already disappeared, so the gap between the two is very, very large."
"Anatomy can serve as a theory to correct TCM’s understanding of specific organs, but it indeed cannot help us understand Yin Yang Five Elements. How to put it—as long as you understand Yin Yang Five Elements, you can understand its meaning and forget its form. You can observe many reactions of the patient’s internal organs from the outside, which is ’observing the external to deduce the internal, achieving knowledge through the investigation of things.’ In other words, when you comprehend Yin Yang Five Elements, and thoroughly master the Eight Principles of Syndrome Differentiation, you can see all the internal conditions of a patient’s body without even opening their chest."
Beside him, Li Wei couldn’t help but take a second glance at Lu Jiu upon hearing these words.
This guy really seems to have some substance!
He easily distinguished the concepts of anatomy and Yin Yang as a medicine of death versus a biological medicine—without some skill, it’s impossible to see the essence.
Had he perhaps misjudged Lu Jiu’s abilities?
