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17th September 2011
Discourse on the Similarities Between the Use of Herbal Medicine and Tactics in War
Discourse on the Similarities Between the Use of Herbal Medicine and Tactics in War
XU Dachun (1693-1771) / Translation: Aka
The Sages were able to sustain the lives of their people through the following: the five grains to nourish, the five fruits to assist, the five livestock to benefit, and the five vegetables to fill. As for toxic herbs, they were used to combat pathogens. Even with [herbs such as] Gancao, Renshen, improper use would lead to harm, [since they] still belong to toxic herbs. In antiquity, people who practiced consumption of pills(1) would inevitably have many ailments befall [them]. This was similar to people who were eager to engage and prove themselves in war, [they] inevitably would be met with many disasters. Therefore, the purpose of keeping an army is to eliminate those who are vile and cruel, and [it] should not be deployed unless absolutely necessary. The purpose of preparing herbs is to fight disease, also not to be used unless absolutely necessary. The way of both is the same.
The problem with disease is that a minor one will injure the essence, and a severe one can harm one’s life, as if it is a potential enemy state. By using the specific properties of plants to fight the specific excesses of the Zang Fu organs, [one] will then be able to become as familiar with one’s enemy as one does with oneself, use many methods to defeat it, as well as avert the danger of death. Therefore, with a pathogen that is being transmitted through the channels, one must first control where it has not yet reached, which would effectively cut off the enemy’s vital passageway. For diseases that are severe and acute, one must act quickly to protect that which has not taken ill; this is the same as safeguarding one’s defense fortresses. For those who are sick due to stagnant food, eliminate the food, which would be the same as destroying the enemy’s food storage. Those who become sick and already have a preexisting illness, it is vital to prevent them from becoming combined. This is the same as eliminating the undercover enemy agents in one’s own camps. To correctly identify the diseased channels and not use herbs haphazardly, this can be viewed as an army being led by a guide. Identifying heat and cold, then using contrary methods to treat [them], this is considered alienating the enemy troops against one another. To treat different parts of one disease separately, one can employ the method of using one to defeat many, and cause [the enemy] to be unable to connect between its own camps, which would weaken its momentum. When treating many diseases together, then one should combine one’s forces and attack the enemy’s control center, which would disperse the enemy and take away its leader, causing it to fall into shambles. When the disease is first entering [the body], avoid where it is the strongest, but instead secure one’s Yuanqi, and thereby leisurely wait for it to weaken. When the disease is starting to recede, then one must chase the retreating troops, gather and sharpen one’s weapons and head straight for the source.
If one is deficient and has a pathogen, then the attacking tactics cannot be overly aggressive. Use harmonizing herbs as a base and supplement them with harsher herbs. This is the same as when a country is in decline, do not further exhaust its resources to their entirety. If one has an excess pathogen, then the attacks must be quick and strong. Use harsh and powerful herbs, and harmonize them with milder herbs. This is the same as for a rich country, one can further strengthen its fighting power. However, the selection of herbs must be appropriate, the tools used must be in good condition, the timing must not be delayed, [and] the methods employed must have purpose. The ways are numerous and cannot be all included in here. In the thirteen Chapter’s of Sun Zi’s Art of War, the ways to treat diseases are fully explored.
(1) Refers to the practice of Daoist priests to consume pills made from a variety herbs, often including cinnabar, which the priests believed would provide benefits such as prolonging life and nourishing the essence.
T/N: Translated 8/31/11 for Dr. Baibing Zhu @ACTCM
Copyright 8/31/11 by Sze Kwan Chan.
用药如用兵论
徐大椿（清）
圣人之所以全民生也，五谷为养，五果为助，五畜为益，五菜为充。而毒药则以之攻邪，故虽甘草、人参，误用致害，皆毒药之类也。古人好服食者，必生奇疾，犹之好战胜者，必有奇殃。是故兵之设也以除暴，不得已而后兴；药之设也以攻疾，亦不得已而后用，其道同也。
故病之为患也，小则耗精，大则伤命，隐然一敌国也。以草木偏性，攻脏腑之偏胜，必能知彼知己。多方以制之，而后无丧身殒命之忧。是故传经之邪，而先夺其未至，则所以断敌之耍道也；横暴之疾，而急保其未病，则所以守我之岩疆也。挟宿食而病者，先除其食，则敌之资粮已焚；合旧疾而发者，必防其并，则敌之内应既绝。办经络而无泛用之药，此之谓向导之师；因寒热而有反用之方，此之谓行间之术。一病而分治之，则用寡可以胜众，使前后不相救，而势自衰；数病而合治之，则并力捣其中坚，使离散无所统，而众悉溃。病方进，则不治其太甚，固守元气，所以老其师；病方衰，则必穷其所之，更益精锐，所以捣其穴。
若夫虚邪之体，攻不可过，本和平之药，而以峻药补之，衰敝之日不可穷民力也；实邪之伤，攻不可缓，用峻厉之药，而以常药和之，富强之国可以振威武也。然而选材必当，器械必良，克期不愆，布阵有方，此又不可更仆数也。孙武子十三篇，治病之法尽之矣。
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5th March 2011
Jay Chou TCM Ringtone... o_O
There *is* a very good reason for my being missing so long from this blog - school.Whenever finals time comes around (and that's four times a year) I go half insane. Then there are the endless tests in-between finals (midterms, quizzes, case studies)... so eventually something cracks, like my sanity.The mp3 attached is a an edited version of Jay Chou's song 本草綱目 (The Compedium of Materia Medica*) that I created when I was going crazy over my case study. So yes, this was a product of Obsession and Frustration. It's also ultimate dorkiness. Thank goodness for my obsession over Jay Chou though, otherwise I'd have nothing to run to when I need a study break. It's short enough for a ringtone (9s) so... guess what my ringtone is right now!Lyrics:馬錢子 決明子 蒼耳子 還有蓮子 (Ma qian zi, Jue ming zi, Cang er zi, and don't forget Lian zi)黃藥子 苦豆子 川楝子 我要面子 (Huang yao zi, Ku dou zi, Chuan lian zi, I want to save some face)山藥 當歸 枸杞go (Shan yao, Dang gui, Gou qi, GO)山藥 當歸 枸杞go (Shan yao, Dang gui, Gou qi, GO)看我抓一把中藥 服下一帖驕傲 (watch as I put together herbs and take a formula for pride)(The song is about having pride in Chinese culture and to stop trying to imitate other cultures.)Discussion: Interestingly, all of three herbs before "GO" (Shan yao, Dang gui, Gou qi) are herbs for Tonification. I wonder if Mr. Fang researched the herbs before he wrote the lyrics for this song. Because he needed the herbs to rhyme, it's no surprise that he put a lot of the seeds together (for the "zi"). Some of the ones listed, like "Ku dou zi", is no longer really used in modern practice (as far as I know) because of toxicity. Some are slightly toxic (like Chuan lian zi, Cang er zi, etc.), but are still used in smaller doses. Of course, if you take too much of anything you'll get some degree of discomfort. Think about swallowing down a bottle of tylenol, *that* will probably land you straight into the hospital. So the most important thing to remember is MODERATION and BALANCE.(I had to make this academic somehow...)*The most comprehensive encyclopedias on materia medica, written by Li Shizhen 李時珍 in the Ming dynasty.雖然可能性不大（因為他兩人應該找不到這裡），但倘若杰倫或方老師有感小女子此舉構成侵權，請務必告知。小女子定當速速將此貼刪除。（好久沒用這種文縐縐的詞句了！爽！）(download)
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4th July 2010
Fitting TCM into a “mold”
As a TCM student, we often have talks about why so many people think that the only reason TCM works is due to placebo effect. Even my own family, which is rather traditional Chinese, think that I am only raving about TCM because that's what I've chosen to study.One example my classmates/professors have to demonstrate the efficacy of TCM (acupuncture in this case) is performing acupuncture on pets. Animals do not know what a placebo effect is. They only react directly to whatever their bodies tell them. If they feel better, they act like they feel better, if they do not, well, they would still act sick. And animals LOVE acupuncture.Well, I think that as with many things in this world, if you do not know what you are looking for, you're not going to find what is actually there. This article in the Times is a great example of that. If people use the typical Western methods of double blind experiments to find evidence of how acupuncture works, it's really not going to be able to do acupuncture any justice. People have a tendency to like categorizing things so that it's all neat and orderly. Unfortunately, one type of organization may not fit everything that exists. So is it true then whatever doesn't actually fit the categorization is an "alien"? -
1st July 2010
ACTCM – Part II
Here's my perspective as a patient at the ACTCM clinic.
I have been urging my friends to go to the clinic so I figured I should at least tell my story. I had not always been a believer of TCM. As recent as 4 years ago I would never have gone into the clinic of a Chinese doctor. However, like most students/patients at the school, a case that Western medicine could do nothing for changed my perspective forever. I had severe eczema that three Western doctors (Internal Med, Neurology, Dermatology) could not resolve and the cream (Elidel) helped when I apply it onto the problem spots but the effects are gone immediately if I didn’t keep on applying it. There was also a warning that I should not expose skin with Elidel applied to sunlight. That just seemed ridiculous. It was the middle of summer and the heat and stuffiness (from wearing long sleeves) actually intensified the eczema – so for me it was a situation of damned if you do damned if you don’t. Not to mention Elidel came with pages of warnings but all my doctors did was just keep on prescribing it. I was pulling my hair out when my mom offered “do you want to go see my herbalist?” Since I had no better idea, I figured I might as well. My doctor, a non-assuming kindly elderly man in a (yes, crammed room with tons of old cabinets behind him) took about 10 minutes to diagnose me and gave me 3 packs of herbal medicine to take. After the first dose of herbal medicine, the eczema got worse (I still had faith), and by the second one, I could see the rashes clearing up. By the final dose (yes, only THREE), I knew I was saying good bye to my skin condition. What I figured was that the herbs forced out whatever toxin was in my system and thus cured me from inside out instead of trying to control it from outside in like the Western doctors did. This converted me. It doesn't mean that I don't believe in Western medicine anymore. It simply means that there's a lot of wisdom in TCM that will work really well in the modern world and I don't see why we couldn't use the systems together, with equal weight and respect for both. Ok, here ends my tangent.I must say that I had not tried acupuncture until I got to this school. I grew up with herbal teas as part of my culture (yes, my mom's soups had medicinal purposes), but acupuncture always seemed scary (needles! And lots of them!). I was really nervous my first time at the clinic because it was not just slightly daunting to have 4 students plus a supervisor hover over you and stare at your tongue. But I got over and I have to say the experience was not as painful and much more relaxing that I had expected. What blew me away was that one time I had problem with insomnia (I kept on waking up at 7 no matter what time I went to sleep) and a complete lack of appetite (which is horrific to me since I love food) so I went to the clinic for a treatment. I didn’t expect to have everything cleared up, but I just wanted to see if it could at lease alleviate my problems a little. Right after the treatment (auricular acupuncture is SO awesome, insanely painful, but awesome!), I was able to consume as much food as I wanted (probably a little more than necessary but I was excited to have my appetite back) and the next day I was able to sleep until 8! (I had never been so happy to see 8 on my alarm clock. And from then on, just one treatment later, all my symptoms were cleared out. (for those of you curious, I was diagnosed as having Middle Jiao disharmony)This is an absolutely true story. No exaggeration and no personal flavoring due to my own course of career. By nature, I’ve always been a skeptic until I’ve tried something out, and this was enough to convince me that this WORKS. I’ve also gone to the clinic for a tightness (not enough to be called pain) in my mid-back (lower thoracic) – gone. And I’ve never been so “warm” in my life, thanks to my herbs (if you’re a girl with chronic cold hands and feet you know what I mean). You don’t have to believe me. I have started to accept things that I can’t “see” or “prove.” This reliance on physical “proof” actually hindered my studies in Tarot as well (which, interestingly, a lot of people in the school are also involved in). Perhaps if we had a little faith (religious or not), it would make life a bit more hopefully and cheerful. Don’t take my word for it, try it yourself! -
23rd June 2010
ACTCM - Part I
For those who follow me on Yelp, this is an expansion of my review with some details filled in.
American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine is the school where I am currently pursuing a MS degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which may likely become another regular topic in this blog going forward. It may seem like a strange divergent from my path as a translator, but in subsequent posts, I will demonstrate how dreams/fantasies do come true in the most unlikely ways.There are two parts to my experience at ACTCM, as a student and as a patient at the clinic. In part I I will go over my experiences as a student.I'd like to say it's fate that led me to this place but that would be slighting the massive efforts that my fellow classmates put into researching schools so I'll just say that I was really lucky to find this school almost accidentally. This blog is actually a great record of what was going on to me last Summer, when I was on a soul searching journey.I was in SF when the light bulb in my head lit up and I realized that I wanted to go to acupuncture school, and if possible, in SF. I did some research online and ACTCM is the only acupuncture school that's actually in SF (though there're a quite few in the Bay area). I called the school up for a visit/tour. The people at the admissions office were extremely helpful and nice. That actually was super surprising to me since I had worked in admissions and this is just not how schools typical are. I was lucky enough to sit in on one of the classes taught by a wonderful faculty member (Mark Frost – now that I actually am in his class all of us fawn over him) and I was blown away by his in-depth knowledge of TCM and more importantly, his genuine passion for the subject. It's easy for someone to say "I think alternative medicine has a good future (in $)" but what I was looking for was a place and people with "spirit" and "passion." Then I arranged to shadow an alum (Devin Wu, an awesome PT & TCM practitioner) at his clinic and that was a great experience too. It had all the elements of the “new style” of TCM (no longer the old long-bearded doctor in his crammed room with hundreds of herbal cabinets behind him). It was fresh, new, and very positive. All in all, everything was wonderful, which is why I decided to come to this school.Deciding on the school was just step one. After getting to ACTCM, I truly got an appreciation for how lucky I was. The school is wonderful and actually takes their students' satisfaction seriously. The faculty is knowledgeable and very willing to help students achieve their goals, but what impressed me the most were the students. There's such a great communal atmosphere at the school. There are communal kitchens at both campuses and people are mostly pretty conscientious about cleaning up after themselves. We all try to help each other survive school and contribute our own efforts to the group voluntarily. I think that's hard to come by anywhere. None of that cutthroat-ness med schools are known for, we all know that we are here because we believe in what we do and we’re not just doing it for the money (the annual income of an acupuncturist really doesn’t have much “wow” factor). The alumni and upperclassmen are also very helpful and some go out of their way to help new students settle in. I once wrote a post to the school mailing list asking about Tuina vs. Shiatsu and more than 7-8 people responded with enthusiastic comments on their own perspective way down the line, which really helped clear up what the courses would help me achieve my goals. That also impressed and in many ways, touched me very much.The coursework is very vigorous but lots of fun and very interesting. The curriculum is pretty all-inclusive (the Taichi and Qigong courses were pretty awesome) so you come out a very well rounded practitioner. Right now I’m still trying to wrap my head around this 4000 year old system that pervades everything in Chinese culture, but I look forward to the day when everything just comes together and I can have another light bulb that says “I got it!” -
24th May 2010
My Five Thousand Years
Many times I would hear Chinese people invoke the phrase "China has 5000 years of history" spew to supplement their point in whatever random argument they have decided to take up. I'm a huge fan of Chinese history... duh... but whenever I hear someone stressing this fact I can't help but ask in my head "what do you have to do with the 5000 years of Chinese history?"Being Chinese doesn't automatically mean you inherit all of Chinese history. I have met many people in China who do not value or realize what treasure they have (except in situations described above), and many people abroad (ABC's, 1+ generations, Westerners) who have a much deeper respect for Chinese history, especially now that I'm studying in a school where 70% of the student population is not Chinese.So every time I hear someone invoke their ancestors from ages past, it gets me a little peeved. I would like to question them how many of the classics they have read, how many dynasties we have had since the Xia and what they are, what are some of the names of the most famous women in Chinese history... just to name a few.It's out of love for my culture that I am writing this rant today. Perhaps it is trivial, but I am extremely proud to be Chinese, not only because of the traditions that were passed down, but also because the system that I am learning right now naturally fits into my ideology... especially as I grow older. For those who use the name of Chinese history, yet do not attempt to understand, I can only say you are missing out on an incredible part of your own roots as well as that of the world.[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Tradition is a privilege, not a tool."][/caption]
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7th May 2010
Search for Destiny III: Goodbye is not Forever
Before we knew it, it was 2010.The New Year was dreaded in some ways by my parents and I because it marked the start of a new life, for them and for me. However sad and scared I was, this was a decision I made for myself and something in my heart told me this was something I had to do and it was the right thing to do. And also, after having come to peace with my decision, I know that I will be back in NYC, to visit or to stay, uncertain, but there is always hope in the future. We cannot stop doing what we want to do today because of our fear for the future.Many people have asked me why/how I decided to go back to school for TCM. Well, frankly, my decision process will probably cause people to spew blood. A random idea came to me during my travels last summer (6/09) that I wanted to do acupuncture. This was right before I picked up a piece of spare rib so I like to call it the spare rib dream. Then I found ACTCM, went to visit, and decided that I was going to apply and attend school. It was as… effortless as that. Someone told me that the path of least resistance is the best way to go - Yep.Going back to school was a challenge for me. I’m used to the circular and relational processing mode, but albeit TCM is very much relational, first year of school is all about memorization. 361 points, ~400 herbs, human body anatomy, medical terminology… there’s just no way to get around it. But the realization that one of these days all of this will become part of me, and I will become part of it… it gives me the strength to keep on going.[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Everything's a cycle."][/caption]My school turned out to be amazing, the people, teachers, coursework, everything combined makes everyday a wonderful day. I could not have known this when I started, because I didn’t even know what I was doing. But I trusted my instincts and heart for almost the first time in my life and… well… everything started to just happen, the right way. Although I'm crazy busy... I'm also very happy.But this all happened because, tracing my life back to that Justice card, and my initial leap of faith. Through it all, I realize that faith is only the first step, but the first step is always the most difficult. Follow your heart. It knows where to go.
And most importantly, when you’re about to make that leap, remember that NOTHING is permanent. If you make a mistake, know that you can always make amends… and if you can’t, it will come to pass. Whatever the hardship, it too shall pass.
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Sze K. Aka Chan's Posterous
歸去，也無風雨也無晴。
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