Traditional Chinese Medicine Forum (Professional forum)

This forum is a professional forum aimed to help those of acupuncturist (Chinese herbalists) who do not speak Chinese.

The ways introduced here to apply herbs in the clinic treatment, are not, almost most parts are not, from the current text books used[1] in the TCM schools in

China

. To separate the TCM system that are currently used in

China

from the TCM we believe the best, we call the former the textbook TCM.

Traditional Chinese Medicine, as the various types of food dishes in the world (such as French dish styles, Chinese dish styles, Italian dish style, Indian Dish style, or, USA styles as McDonalds), has also different styles[2]. This is unlike the conventional medicine, in which we cannot say that there are different conventional medicine styles. This does not mean that the principle of the TCM is different but that the clinic styles are different. Nearly all famous TCM doctors in the history of China claimed that they follow the same main principle of the TCM bible, though their clinic styles are different. The current TCM text book, however, builds up its own style, a style that never exists in the history, not developed during the clinic work, but by picked up small pieces from the clinic experiences of various TCM styles[3]. It breaks all the TCM styles and even makes wrong interpretation of some main principles in the TCM too!

The TCM text books, as well as the whole TCM education system in China, are not at all sufficient to train the students to learn “practical” skill[4]. It is quite common in China that the students feel very confidence in the school, but most of them lose confidence to the TCM after coming into clinic works for one or two years, so that they tend to use the conventional drugs in their clinic later, and use the TCM as an complementary manner. The TCM doctors are mostly not qualified to deal with emergency conditions, such as shock, stroke, heavy bleeding, extreme fever, circulation failure, etc.

Therefore, what you learned is a textbook TCM, not a practical TCM. The textbook TCM opened your view to the TCM castle, but you have not come in the castle yet. You have not experienced the mysterious and marvelous charm of the TCM yet[5]. How many times you can experience the marvelous effects of the herbal therapy after giving the herbs to a patient for only 10 min? How fast you can solve the running nose of a patient with chronic sinus infection? How confidence you feel when you meet an emergency situation and asked to deal with it with TCM remedies? How do you link the four seasons (spring, summer, fall and winter) into your herbal therapy?

Therefore, it can be said that you have just “heard of” the TCM, not to speak of you having already come into the TCM castle.

[1] We call it textbook TCM.

[2] The reason for the exist of various TCM clinic style is just as for the exist of various dish style, art style, human style….in the world. No matter you like it or not, it is just as it. The different styles are just as different tools for the TCM doctors to apply. It makes various diseases treated more effectually.

There are several reasons for this phenomenon. We are not going to discuss this here.

[3] For example, the text book introduces the types of the cough as Cold Wind, Fire, Lung difficiency, etc. It introduces one or two herbal formula for each type of the cough. You use it, but the patient does not get any better or only little better. What are you going to do? What the text book teaches you to do for next step? If a patient suffers heavy cough, but also has headache, bloating stomach, dry mouth, little pain in the side of the upper stomach, constipation, insomnia, no willingness to eat, little pain during urinate, what formula you are going to use? Therefore it is said that you, and all of the TCM students in China, have only learned the “spot” of the TCM, not the “line” or it, not at all a “cubic” of the TCM!

[4] The current TCM education system in China is under hot critics for its various big weaknesses.

[5] Such as you visit a museum, you have not come into it to enjoy the art show by yourself yet.