I Can Talk to the Internal Organs-Chapter 45 - 40: Abolishing Medicine, Retaining Drugs
Lu’s Clinic.
Zhang Yu and Qiao Ling both came for a follow-up consultation.
Both of them are recovering quite well, especially Zhang Yu. Since he started going to bed early and getting up early, along with some daily exercise, his vitality has completely transformed.
As for Qiao Ling, after changing her diet and increasing her rice intake, when she came with a bare face, her skin looked extraordinarily radiant, as if she had light makeup on.
This is exactly the sign that her qi and blood are beginning to recover slowly.
By noon, Gong Huo came for a follow-up consultation and also brought along some books on various medical subjects.
After receiving them, Lu Jiu had lunch at noon and during his free time in the afternoon, he helped Gong Huo by highlighting key learning points in the books.
Today was better than yesterday, with two patients coming in the afternoon.
One had a cold, and the other had some discomfort in the neck.
Neither of them had particularly severe symptoms, so Lu Jiu handled them swiftly.
As the days of Lu Jiu’s consultations grew longer, many familiar neighborhood folks stopped looking for Lu Mountain when visiting.
Everyone knows that it’s now Lu Jiu who is overseeing the clinic; the old man has already retired.
And despite Lu Jiu’s young appearance, many neighbors’ minor ailments can be treated by him.
In just over a week, Lu Jiu has gained a lot of recognition from people.
During this period, he also acquired a lot of basic knowledge in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Especially in acupuncture basics, almost half of the rewards were related to that. Now, Lu Jiu can insert needles blindly and still hit the right acupoints, and with his skill in Qi Introduction, he can resolve many minor ailments instantly.
Unfortunately, despite having treated several patients on the spot, Lu Jiu has yet to activate the Ultimate Skill reward, leaving him with just the Mountain Burning Fire technique so far.
Nowadays, Lu Mountain typically doesn’t supervise Lu Jiu anymore; he drops by the clinic in the morning and then goes for a stroll in the park for the afternoon.
An old age life indeed enjoyable.
Lu Jiu, on the other hand, remains steadfast at his post, attending to any patients that come in, and checking online for anyone who needs help when there’s no one around.
When bored, he practices acupuncture and reads medical books, leading a rather fulfilling life each day.
"Meow~~"
Xiao Tu made two little jumps, using Lu Jiu’s leg to leap directly onto the table.
After more than a week of nourishment, this little guy has recovered quite well. Not only has the ringworm vanished, but its constitution has improved, with new fur sprouting all over.
Seeing it jump up, Lu Jiu reached out to gently rub its head before continuing to browse the Chinese Medicine Home forum.
Recently, a hot topic has been the Han Medicine Picture Album released in Fusang. The content isn’t complex, but it presents the knowledge from the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor in a pictorial way, undeniably lowering the barrier to learning TCM. Even some elementary students can easily grasp some TCM knowledge.
This has made many forum users indignant.
Just on the Jianghu Medical Homepage, there are no fewer than twenty posts related to it.
"Ridiculous, while we’re here debating whether TCM is scientific or not, they’ve already started popularizing TCM knowledge in their elementary schools."
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"Friendly reminder, this Han Medicine Picture Album has been out for three or four years, only recently brought online here."
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"Thieves!! Those folks from the land of the rising sun only know how to steal, disgusting like those from the peninsula."
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"In the future, will we have to go to Fusang to study TCM?"
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"Even those outsiders know TCM is a treasure."
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"Whispering to all of you, a century-old TCM company was recently acquired by Fusang. Tsk tsk tsk, terrifying if you think about it!"
...
In fact, it’s not new that Fusang values TCM; during the Anti-Japanese War, they plundered TCM books extensively.
Many ancient acupuncture books of the Lu Family were lost during that time!
Of course, they didn’t just snatch these!
But no matter how much this nation plundered, they seem unable to grasp the essence of Huaxia culture.
They stole TCM and renamed it Han Medicine, stole prescriptions and renamed them Han Prescriptions, but they don’t truly understand what the core of TCM is.
Decades ago, Fusang implemented a policy of "abolishing doctors and preserving medicine."
It’s correct; many in Huaxia also want TCM to proceed this way now.
The reason Fusang enforced the abolishing doctors and preserving medicine was that they believed the most important aspect of TCM was the medicine itself; knowing what each medicine does and what diseases it treats was deemed sufficient, making the underlying theory seemingly irrelevant.
So, what was the result?
The medical practice was abandoned, and the medicine was ineffective.
Because when Chinese medicine was handed to those who didn’t understand TCM, they discovered that despite the books stating a prescription could treat a particular illness, patients didn’t recover after taking the medicine. In fact, some conditions worsened, and others even died from it.
When a new illness appeared, and they scoured through textbooks, they found no prescriptions for it.
This kind of case, which deviated from textbook illnesses, left them completely bewildered.
After this cycle, many leaders in Fusang realized that this approach wasn’t working; abolishing doctors and preserving medicine seemed futile.
So, more than a decade ago, Fusang finally renewed their appreciation for TCM’s diagnostic and treatment differentiation.
Up to this day, the Huaxia medical community still talks about the abolishing doctors and preserving medicine approach, essentially treading the old path of Fusang, committing a fundamental mistake.
That mistake is naively believing that Chinese medicine is the core of TCM.
In fact, the diagnostic and treatment differentiation of TCM is what matters most.
Four diagnostics of observation, listening, questioning, and pulse-taking, the eight diagnostic principles, the six-syndrome differentiation, and so on—these are the soul of TCM.
Many believe that it’s the medicine that cures the disease, and as long as the drug components are effective, it doesn’t matter who administers the medicine.
But is that truly the case?
The components of a whole piece of danggui are the same, but depending on the part, its effect can vary, and the combination can alter the efficacy. How can one prescribe without understanding differentiation?
Take blighted wheat, for example; it doesn’t have any components capable of curing diseases, yet TCM uses it for its uplift and floating qi. So tell me, how can one prescribe without understanding differentiation?
To heal and save lives, if you don’t even understand people, how can you prescribe? How can you save lives?
Regrettably, many don’t comprehend these basics and continue to spout nonsense online. Even some modern medical masters publicly state, "If TCM clings to the old four diagnostic methods and eight principles without evolving, it will always face skepticism."
Admittedly, this master has made significant contributions in the modern medical field, but their understanding of TCM is somewhat superficial.
What are the four diagnostic methods and eight principles?
They represent TCM’s most core theoretical system, a system that has stood the test of thousands of years without being discarded.
What does it mean to discard this?
Remember during the Cold War, when Emperor Ying whispered to Ermao?
Hey, Ermao, my buddy, as long as you discard your nuclear weapons, I’ll let you join our big family!
Then, Ermao did discard them, and then he got beaten up and never caught his breath again!
Afterward, there was never another chance to breathe.
If Chinese medicine were lost, TCM still has acupuncture; if acupuncture were gone, TCM still has Gua Sha, cupping, and even massage and bone setting.
But if diagnostic and treatment differentiation were gone, TCM would truly enter the National Museum, becoming a thoroughly sealed piece of history.
Lu Jiu looked at the forum posts, speechless for a long time. Fusang has already awakened; they realize what the soul of TCM is and have outpaced Huaxia in the field of TCM education. As a descendant of Yan and Huang and a torchbearer of TCM, he feels a heavy sense of duty.
Our ancestors’ legacy, which was ahead of the world for millennia, if snatched by those folks, would be a humiliation for their generation.
Even in death, they’d have no face to meet their ancestors.
Learn!
Darn it, I have to learn and set an example!
With a snap, Lu Jiu closed the notebook and picked up a copy of the Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Warm Pathogenic Diseases, starting to study it carefully.
Xiao Tu tilted its head, looking at Lu Jiu’s puffed-up expression, full of puzzlement and incomprehension. In the next moment, its head suddenly turned toward the outside of the clinic, as if it had discovered something.
Soon, a figure rushed through the clinic doors at high speed.
"Dr. Lu, Dr. Lu..." The visitor, a man, stepped into the clinic, panting and looked at Lu Jiu, "Dr. Lu, please help my mom."
Lu Jiu looked up at the man, seemingly not recalling his face, "What’s wrong with your mom?"
Yang Chun spoke rapidly, "My mom has been diagnosed with gallstones and is currently hospitalized under observation."
Gallstones?
Oh!
Lu Jiu remembered.
The aunt who came for treatment a week ago.
He found it strange that she never came for a follow-up after three or four days of medication, and the system didn’t notify him either.
"Didn’t I prescribe medicine? Was it ineffective?"
