A Plain Reading of the Causes of TCM's Present Situation
Chengdu Longtan Hospital · Deng Wanfa
The slogan TCM modernization is raised chiefly because TCM's present condition does not fit the needs of the time. This not-fitting has the following root causes:
1. The relation of the new and the old
In common view, the new equals truth. The currents of human society are formed on this leaning. But the world holds no absolute. A truth once denied can rise to glory again. Call this, in epistemology, the negation of the negation.
TCM was nurtured in ancient China. Western gunboats then forced China's gate open; Western medicine entered. As a new thing, it quickly took root, grew, blossomed, fruited, multiplied — and covered the whole land of China. That Western medicine could so soon rise to dominance in our country is closely tied to the weakness of our national spirit. Because of the inherent weaknesses of Chinese national culture, the Chinese nation was conquered by Western force. This sense of national inferiority extended into medicine — Western medicine seemed better than Chinese — and the greatness of TCM was no longer seen. From accepting to worshipping Western civilization, TCM, as one part of Chinese culture, was naturally treated as the backward refuse of an outdated time. Nothing surprising. That TCM could not be cut off, could not be killed, is because TCM does truly cure illness, and can cure many an illness Western medicine cannot.
2. The political factor in TCM's development
Politics is the social consciousness that has risen to the seat of rule, executed by state machinery through policies and statutes. This force can decide the rise or fall of things. When the worship of the modern science and technology of Western culture rose to the leading position in our country's social consciousness, the fate of TCM may be imagined.
Our country is the home of TCM. Yet in many medical activities — disaster relief, anti-poverty, Red Cross work, popular science — Western medicine appeared in the guise of science; TCM had no share. In medical evaluation, diagnosis-certificates, expense reimbursement — Western medicine had the say; TCM had no place to argue. In acute and grave cases, TCM dared not lay hands, fearful that should a death occur there was no place to plead — and prison would follow. After long stretches of this, the people were left with the impression: TCM is unscientific; the state does not recognize TCM's legal place. Going on like that, how many would dare seek TCM treatment? TCM outpatient volume falls — beyond TCM's own development problems, is there not also a necessary tie to our country's health policy?
3. Economic constraints on TCM's development
On state investment in development I do not know the ratio between Chinese and Western medicine. Numbers are not needed — a single glance shows that in scale, TCM is a small dot. Western medicine needs to put up buildings, import equipment, import talent, open new departments — better than TCM at asking for money. TCM holds its not-yet-extinguished life in poverty.
The market economy's largest feature: in competition, survive and grow. But competition needs strength. TCM, half-alive, with what is it to compete? Another move of competition: when a thing is for sale, raise it in the marketplace. Western medicine, with the identity of science, has taken every corner of the market; TCM cannot sell itself through public discourse.
4. TCM theory cut loose from modern culture
Since Westerners forced China's gate, what they took from us by force was a small thing — the graver thing is, they took our soul. Pull out modern history; pull out our present principles, policies, and the words and deeds of our people: see how much of our traditional culture is left. At the word tradition, people habitually link it with going backward. Yet TCM is nurtured by Chinese traditional culture; cut off from it, TCM loses the conditions of its life. What today's people learn and use is almost entirely the modern science and technology tied to math-and-physics. Under such an environment, how many can grasp TCM's Heaven and the human as one and yin-yang five-phases philosophy? When TCM theory cannot be accepted, what market is there for TCM practice?
These four points are the root causes of TCM's not fitting the needs of the age.
Though Chinese national culture fell to its lowest in the last century, with the rising wish to safeguard humanity's living environment and return to nature, Chinese national culture is bound, this century, to leap to the top of world culture. So to push forward TCM theory is to push forward the new tide.