Advantages and Disadvantages of Traditional Chinese Medicine
2 min readTraditional Chinese Medicine and Sunzi’s Art of War
Xu Dachun(1693-1771AD), an eminent physician of the Qing Dynasty, observed,”Applying medicinal remedies is similar to deploying troops.”He noted the parallels between TCM’s principles of diagnosisand treatment and the military tactics explicated in Sunzi’s Art of War, written by the great military strategist Sun Wuzi during the late Spring and Autumn Period(770-476 BC). According to Xu Dachun,”Sun Wuzi’s thirteen chapters on military tactics encompass every principle for the treatment of treating disease.”
“Subduing the Enemy without Fighting”: Promoting Health and Preventing Disease
According to Sunzi’s Art of War,”Walled cities should only be besieged as a last resort.”Sunzi especially emphasized the principle,”To fight and conquer in all battles is not supreme excellence; rather, supreme excellence consists of subduing the enemy without fighting.”The Art of War’s tactic of subduing the enemy without fighting corresponds in every regard to TCM’s principles of promoting health and preventing disease. According to the Neijing,”The superior physician treats disease before it occurs.”This concept is identical to The Art of War’s principle that the superior commander achieves victory without going to war.
“Troops are maintained to suppress rebellion; an assault should be made only when it is unavoidable.
Medicinal remedies are prepared to dispel illness; they should be applied only when there is no other choice. Military assault and the treatment of illness follow the same laws.”According to TCM,”When beneficial Qifills the interior, pathogenic Qi cannot act.”TCM emphasizes utilizing holistic, non-medicinal methods to strengthen the constitution(beneficial Qi), enabling the body to adapt to environmental changes and resist attack by external pathogenic factors.
Every medicinal substance is toxic to a certain degree. Applying medicinal remedies is similarto deploying troops, and should only be undertaken as a last resort. In cases of disease or disorder it is therefore advisable to utilize alternative therapies, such as diet or Daoyin exercises, whenever possible.
Diet and lifestyle should be adjusted according to season, in order to avoid problems brought on by changing weather. For instance, becoming chilled by being caught in the rain can cause wind-cold pattern. During the early stages, when this condition is relatively mild, TCM generally does not recommend the use of medicinal remedies. Rather, sliced raw ginger is boiled in water with brown sugar and the hot liquid given to the patient to drink. The patient is put to bed to rest and bundled up with quilts to induce sweating, thus achieving the therapeutic goal of expelling wind-cold. TCM’s emphasis on curing disease without applying medicinal remedies closely parallels The Art of War’s principle of vanquishing the enemy without deploying troops.
