In Studying Medicine, Skillfully Grasp the Nature of Things
Our country's medicine most values drawing on objects to compare and class — seeking the principle of medicine from the imagery of things. Because one of TCM's important ideas is that human and nature correspond. Using natural reason to explain medical reason is often seen in our medicine.
For example, the common five-phase classifications used for medicinals and for diagnosis and treatment: the kidney governs water, its color black; so medicines black and juicy — xuanshen, buguzhi, etc. — are taken as kidney medicines, able to treat the kidney. If a patient's complexion is cyan, one may diagnose liver disease. And so on.
But to grasp medical reason from natural reason — this is something the student of medicine must constantly, in every matter, keep in mind.
The famed physicians of old paid careful attention to this, and it helped them advance their art. For example, Wu Jutong in Wenbing Tiaobian discussing mulberry leaf's regulation of the lung: from the fact that mulberry leaf is fragrant with fine hairs and richly crossed with horizontal veins, he perceived that it can travel to the lung and diffuse lung qi. From this he composed Sangju Yin, treating mild wind-warm pattern with cough alone, body not very hot, slight thirst — quite effective. This is the work of one who skillfully studies medicine from the nature of things. Such places deserve our careful summary.
In my late years, in treating illness I held that recognition of the illness lies in the work of treatment; medicine values centrality and uprightness; the method of using drugs should follow nature. This understanding came precisely from grasping the nature of things. As the way of weiqi (the board game) may be applied to the way of medicine —
I recall this story: in the Qing dynasty there was a man named Liang Weijin, a national master of weiqi. Shi Dingan placed himself under his teaching, learning the game from him, and after long study was only one move behind. One day they walked together at Xianshan, and seeing the springs flowing slowly and winding at the foot of the mountain, Liang was greatly delighted, and said to Shi: "Your art is fine. But have you considered the heart of this? To move when the move is due, to stop when the stop is due, to let it follow itself and not contend with things — that is the way of weiqi. Your sharp will seeks deep — too much is as bad as too little. So in three years you have not crossed that one-move gap." From this Shi awakened to the truth: the workings of change flow without trace; all crafts at their summit come of nature; the going of the game ends in centrality and uprightness, just as the going of the qin ends in plain elegance. From then on he probed yet deeper the source of advance and retreat before it took form, and the source of victory and defeat from the opening layout. His art greatly advanced; in the end he became a national master.
This story shows the principle of weiqi can be grasped from spring water. The way of weiqi is so; the way of medicine is the same. The layout comes before the game; if the pattern is not exhaustively investigated, even with marvelous prescription and skillful medicine there is nothing to apply. If the disease cannot be recognized, of what to speak in treatment? Furthermore, in weiqi the moves follow the position — go when it is due to go, stop when it is due to stop — like the spring water, one must follow its momentum and lead it well. Medicinal use is the same: the drug follows the pattern; over-doing or under-doing — neither is the proper treatment. Grasp this principle, and the art of medicine will surely advance. These are insights given by the nature of things, not found in books. So we see: one who would learn medicine well should also skillfully grasp the nature of things.