My View on the Direction of TCM Theoretical-System Research
I am 92 years old. Here let me speak briefly on the direction of TCM theoretical-system research. I welcome correction.
To revive TCM rests on TCM scholarship; to develop TCM rests on lifting that scholarship. Lifting TCM scholarship is closely tied to developing TCM theory. So the development of theory and the direction of its research is a weighty topic. In these years, there have been three approaches: inheriting; developing; inheriting-and-developing. The widely approved is the third — development on the basis of preserving TCM's strengths, development around the original theoretical system. Ancient TCM begins in the Way (Dao); the Yellow Emperor sought the Way from Guangchengzi and, having received guidance, edited Huangdi Neijing. Through practice, in the Spring-Autumn–Warring-States, with hundred schools contending, TCM theory was added to. By the Eastern Han, with Zhang Zhongjing, li-fa-fang-yao was completed and the system advanced. After, the schools developed it in practice. Since 1949, especially after the Eleventh Central Committee's Third Plenum, TCM has greatly advanced — visible to all. But in the developing TCM enterprise, I think no major breakthrough has come in scholarly theory; the old path is still walked; TCM's real strength is not fully shown.
In long practice, reading the Huangdi Neijing, Daodejing, Yijing, and other classics, I have gradually understood: medicine arises from the Way; medicine and Way are studied together, used for each other. On the development of TCM theory and its research direction, I have some humble views.
First, prevention should be the chief direction of TCM theoretical research. The Neijing is a brilliant gem of TCM, broad and deep. Its theory covers Heaven-Human, the integral view of human and nature; the rules and methods of yangsheng and aging-prevention; the natural law of human flourishing and lifespan; following nature, accumulating virtue, completing the Way to perfection. It is the representative work of TCM's system-formation phase — a fixed canon to release the bound and free the difficulty, restore the true and lead the qi, bring the people to longevity, and ease the weak. No-disease-first-prevent, with-disease-treat-early embodies preventive medicine. Suwen · Si Shi Tiao Shen Da Lun: "So the sage does not treat what is already disease..."; Suwen · Ba Zheng Shen Ming Lun: "The superior physician saves the bud ... the inferior saves the formed and the ruined." Some have called this concrete preventive thought the earliest in world medical literature, of great vitality today and tomorrow.
How to prevent? In clinical practice, whether prevention at the start or rescue at the bud, the key lies in the human body's true qi running (zhenqi yunxing). Suwen · Pingre Bing Lun: "Where the evil gathers, the qi must be empty." Lingshu · Baibing Shisheng Pian: "Even sudden wind and torrential rain do not bring illness — without emptiness, evil alone cannot injure." Suwen Yipian · Cifa Lun: "Right qi held within, evil cannot encroach." These say plainly the simple principle: under right and evil's relative state the body becomes ill or remains well; the Neijing is clearer than clear. My self-created True-Qi Running method has as its guiding thought the cultivation of true qi, uphold the right, expel the evil — treat illness if present, prevent illness if absent, retard aging — a practical method of the Neijing's preventive thought.
Second, the essence of channel activity should be a focus of TCM theoretical research. Channel doctrine is an important part of TCM theory — the study of body's physiology and pathology and their relation. Research on its essence over many years has not reached a conclusion. The Neijing in fact explains the essence early; only practical means of verification have been lacking. The Neijing summarized the practice of ancient sages, grasped the laws of human and nature, set yangsheng methods not contrary to nature. Suwen · Shanggu Tianzhen Lun: "Calm and empty: the true qi follows; the spirit kept within, whence comes illness?" That is: settle down, think of nothing — and true qi arises from that, runs vigorously; keep the spirit within, right qi within, evil cannot encroach. Lingshu · Cijie Zhenxie Lun: "True qi: received from Heaven, joined with grain-qi, fills the body." This is the body's life-energy of heaven-yin and earth-yin combined. How does true qi run? Suwen · Lihe Zhenxie Lun: "True qi: the channel qi." True qi is the channel qi running endlessly without break; true-qi running is the essence of channel activity. Li Shizhen: "Inner sceneries and passages — only those who turn the gaze inward can see them." Hold to the spirit by stillness; empty engenders qi; accumulate essence and complete spirit; circulate qi and yangsheng; calm and empty, the true qi follows; calm, doing-nothing — then one can move qi. Only in still-and-fixed state does one know that true qi flows abundantly through the channels — this is the highest yangsheng method. Thus I have put forth the True-Qi Running doctrine and a practical method. Through years of clinical verification, the essence of channel activity is clearly recognized and felt; effect beyond what drugs give. The method starts with concentrating spirit and regulating breath, cultivates true qi, opens renmai and dumai, balances yin and yang, strengthens the zàng-fu, brings life-activity into order, with marked effect on many chronic and intractable cases — verifying TCM's zàng-fu, channel, qi-transformation, and yin-yang and five-phase doctrines.
In sum: TCM theoretical research should hold to the central, key, organizing matter. From the angle of preventive medicine and channel doctrine, take up specialized research and treatment, fight for a breakthrough.
May 10, 2001.