The System and Distinctive Features of TCM Preventive Medicine
In Chinese medicine, the content of preventive medicine is exceedingly rich. It stresses not only forestalling disease before it arises, but also prompt handling of an illness already present, nipping it in the bud, and the convalescent regulation that follows recovery.
I. The system of TCM preventive medicine
1. Forestalling disease before it arises. Chinese medicine sets great store by yangsheng (life-cultivation). The Suwen · Treatise on the Innate Truth of High Antiquity says: "Avoid in due season the empty thieving winds; in calm, empty stillness, the true qi follows; the spirit guards within — whence then can illness come?"
2. Once ill, prevent its development.
1) Treat early. The Suwen · Treatise on the Eight Cardinal Spirit-Brightness says: "The superior physician saves at the bud."
2) Halt its transmission. The Suwen · Treatise on the Jade-Mechanism True Storehouses says: "When wind-evil arrives, swift as wind and rain — the good physician treats the skin and hair first, then the muscles, then the sinews and channels, then the six bowels, then the five storehouses. To treat at the five storehouses — half live, half die."
3) Prevent disability.
3. Prevent recurrence after illness.
After treatment, recurrence must be actively prevented. Chinese medicine has set out specific measures: utterly expel the evil; guard against relapse from exhaustion, from food, and from sexual activity.
II. Distinctive features of TCM preventive medicine:
1. Prevention by the Heaven-and-person correspondence. The Lüshi Chunqiu says: "The transformations of the four seasons and the changes of the ten-thousand things — none is without benefit, none without harm. The sage examines the proper of yin and yang, distinguishes the benefits of the ten-thousand things to ease life; thus the spirit rests in the form, and longevity may be attained." Chinese medicine holds that the changes of sun and moon, the turning of the four seasons, and the cycle of dawn-dusk-day-night all greatly affect the running of qi, blood, yin, and yang in the human body.
2. Prevention by the union of form and spirit. The unity of form and spirit is the key to fulfilling one's allotted years. Jing (essence), qi, and shen (spirit) are the three treasures of the body. So one must cultivate the heart-spirit, and one must regulate jing, qi, and shen.
3. Prevention by dynamic balance. TCM preventive medicine sets great store by regulating yin-yang balance, qi-and-blood balance, and storehouse-and-bowel balance.
As the current surge of return-to-nature feeling grows, the holistic, natural character of TCM preventive methods will show powerful life.
Excerpted from China Traditional Chinese Medicine News, February 12, 2001