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- Herausgeber: anna ruggieri
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
This volume is meant to present acupuncture and Chinese Traditional Medicine to the non-experts, that is, to the many of our patients who want to delve deeper into the techniques of therapy they are being treated with and all those who wish to understand the fundamental aspects of this extremely ancient science which is becoming more and more widespread across the western world.
Covering the very long history of Chinese medical tradition from the dawn of civilization to the present day, the volume will disclose its core principles: the doctrines of yin-yang and the Five Movements, the theory of organs, viscera and meridians, and that of qi, blood and organic liquids, relating them to the period in which they appeared for the first time to later become an integral part of medical knowledge. By following this historical and temporal approach, the reader will be gradually introduced to the anatomical description of human organism and its functioning, the causes of disease and their mode of operation, the study of signs and symptoms and, eventually, a diagnostics system classifying pathologies according to very different criteria than those employed in biomedicine.
The last part of the volume is dedicated to the description of the numerous therapy techniques of Chinese medicine, which are divided into three groups: external techniques, internal techniques, and techniques that are neither internal nor external.
External techniques act from the outside and are based on the stimulation of the acupuncture points and their meridians. In addition to acupuncture, also moxibustion, cupping therapy, massage and physio-kinesiotherapy, electropuncture, laserpuncture, magnetopuncture and chimiopuncture will be presented.
Internal techniques act from the inside and presuppose the assumption of substances through food; they include dietetics and pharmacology. The latter takes advantage of the pharmacological action of a great many natural medicinal substances, thousands of which are listed in the recently published Pharmacopoea Sinica.
Techniques that are neither internal nor external include medical gymnastics such as Qigong and Tai Chi, the so-called psychophysical disciplines, which use movements based on the theory of meridians and harmonize them with breathing phases and mental focusing through a sort of autogenic training.
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Lucio Sotte
CHINESE MEDICINEFOR ALL
(First Edition)
From history to practice and benefits
Title
“CHINESE MEDICINE FOR ALL”
Author
Lucio Sotte
Published by
Blu Editore
ISBN
9788885691834
Website
www.blueditore.com
DISCLAIMER: this eBook contains encrypted data aimed at a recognition in case of piracy. All rights are reserved according to law. No part of this book can be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the Author and Publisher. It is strictly prohibited to pass on this book to others, either in print or electronic format, eitherfor money or for free. The concepts and techniques described in this bookare the result of years of study and specializations, so the same outcome is not guaranteed either in personal or professional growth. The reader assumes full responsability for his choices and he/she is aware of the risks associated with any form of exercise.This book is not meant to substitute for advice and help of an expert professional instructor in the field.
The author and publisher are not responsible for the misuse or any possible harm that may result from purposes contrary to the content of this eBook, whichhas merely educational purposes and is not meant to replace any medical or psychological treatment. If you suspect or are aware of any health problems or any physical or psychologicalproblem you will need to rely on an appropriate medical treatment.
Preface
This volume is meant to presentacupuncture and Chinese TraditionalMedicine to the non-experts, that is, to the many of our patients who want to delve deeper into the techniques of therapy they are being treated with and all those who wish to understand the fundamental aspects of this extremely ancient science which is becoming more and more widespread across the western world.
Covering the very long historyof Chinese medical tradition from the dawn of civilization to the present day, the volumewill disclose its core principles: the doctrines ofyin-yang andthe Five Movements, the theory of organs, viscera and meridians, andthat of qi, blood and organic liquids,relating them to the period in which they appearedfor the first time to later become an integral partof medical knowledge. By following this historical and temporalapproach, the reader will be gradually introduced to the anatomical description of human organism and its functioning, the causes ofdisease and their mode of operation, the study of signs and symptoms and, eventually, a diagnostics systemclassifying pathologies according to very different criteria than those employed in biomedicine.
The last part of the volume is dedicated to the description of the numerous therapy techniques of Chinese medicine, which are divided into three groups: external techniques, internal techniques, and techniques that are neither internal nor external.
External techniquesact from the outside and are based on the stimulation of the acupuncture points and their meridians. In addition to acupuncture, also moxibustion, cupping therapy, massage and physio-kinesiotherapy, electropuncture, laserpuncture, magnetopunctureand chimiopuncture will be presented.
Internal techniques act from the insideandpresuppose the assumption of substances through food; they include dietetics and pharmacology.The latter takes advantage of the pharmacological action of a great many natural medicinal substances, thousands of which are listed in the recently published Pharmacopoea Sinica.
Techniques that are neither internal nor externalinclude medical gymnastics such as Qigong and Tai Chi, the so-called psychophysical disciplines,which use movements based on the theory of meridiansand harmonize them with breathing phases and mental focusingthrough a sort ofautogenic training.
Origins
At the dawn of Chinese civilization.
The Neolithic Agein China
The earliest evidence of human presence in the regions corresponding to today’s Chinese territorydatesback to ancient times. The first documented deposits of human fossilscan be traced back to Paleolithic age. Peking Man is thought to have lived 700.000 years ago and Yuanmou Manas early as 1.700.000 years ago. From Neolithic times, the cultures of primitive Chinese populations underwent fast developmentleading to an uninterrupted historical process of civilizationwhich saw the shiftfrom a tribal subsistence economybased on hunting and wild plant gathering to a village’s economy.The start of this incredible developmentiswitnessed above all by the evolution of pottery, which provides documentary evidence of the art and talent of Neolithic Man in China. The ancestors of today’s Chinese populations began practicing the earliest forms of agriculture and animal farmingespecially in the Yellow River valley. Indeed, it was in the territories surrounding the basin of this huge river that the various Chinese culturesmet and mingled with each other, thus starting a process of gradual unification which gave birth to ancient Chinese civilization.
The Xia Dynasty
The first Chinese dynasty, the Xia dynasty, which lastedfor five centuries, is believed to have been established around the21stcentury B.C.. Despite the scarcity of historical evidence, some archaeological findings confirm that the Xia civilization made its first appearance in the area along the Yellow River’s middle course and, from there, spread out to the basins of the Fen, Yi and Luo Rivers. In addition to the fact that, at the time, bronze had already appeared,the discovery of some very large foundations dating back to that periodsuggests the existence of an actual building worthy of a capital city, which would testify that the Xia civilization was already organized according to a system of social classes. Although first evidence of writing was found in some pottery fragments from China’s ancient Yangshao culture, it was in the Neolithicage thatthere were introduced symbols that would be definitely considered by historians as real pictographs, carved into earthenware pottery from Dawenkou culture. Moreover, the discovery of some strange pointed stones known as bian stones, described in the dictionary written during the successive Han dynastyas tools used for medical purposes, suggests that acupuncture originated from some sort of primitive medical practice which originally used stone needles, then bone needles and, later, bamboo needles.
The Shang Dynasty
According to Chinese tradition, the tyrant and last ruler of the Xia dynasty King Jie was overthrown by his vassal Cheng Tang, who became the first emperor of the Shang or Yin dynasty,which lasted until the 11th century B.C.. The productive activities most practiced by the populations who lived in the Shang periodwereagriculture and animal farming. The remains of farm tools fabricated from wood or stone that have come to ustestify that people cultivated different kindsof cereals,although millet was their main crop. In today’s region of Henan province, archaeologists found the remains of manufacturing places of bronze items, especially ritual objects and weapons,made with rather complex techniques. Moreover, China was the first country in the worldto raise silkworm and in the Shang agesericolturewas already highlydeveloped, as witnessed in carved pictographs representing silkworms or mulberry plants. As regards Chinese writing, it had its origin in Shang culture. The languageused in the inscriptions on tortoise shells or animal bones seems to be rather enhanced. Being nothing but oracle’s responses, these inscriptions are proof that the populations who lived during the Shang dynasty used to practice divination, in a form that relied on their broad knowledge of astronomy. They had a somewhat precise calendar system which was both lunar and solar, where each year was already divided into twelve months, some of twenty-nine and others of thirty days.
Earliest Shamanic Practices
From the 20th-centuryarchaelogical discoveries in the Henan and Gansu regions it emerged that, along with the divinatory practices, shamanic practices of medical nature, which could not then be separated from the religious,were quite popular.Primitive medical treatment was administered by sorcerers or healers,indicated in ancient Chinese as wu, a character that would later be incorporated into certain variants of the healing characteryi.The book known as the Classic of Mountains and Seas recounts how ten shamans went on a long journey to climb the Mount Ling where theydiscovered the hundred kinds of drugs, relyingupon a broad knowledge of herbs and plantswhich theyused to cure the most common diseases of the time. This ancient form of medicine was based onconcepts of health and illness that were strictly related to healthy or harmful influences, which only the shaman could modify not just through dvination practices but also thanks to his ‘scientific’knowledge in the emerging field of pharmacology. Under the Shang dynasty, medicinal substances were administered in the form of decoctions or fermented drinks, andeven sexual, personal and food hygiene was very much appreciated by the population. Basic knowledge was developed of the use of poultices intended to be applied to the skin and of an earliest form of acupuncture, with therapy techniques in constant improvement.So, little by little, these medical practices began to play an increasingly original and autonomous role until they reached a complete separation from the more strictly divinatory practices of the shamans. A sketchy whole of medical theories was developed, which would become the core of future Chinese medical knowledge. The typical symbolism of shamanic practicesdefinitely influenced the emerging medical science, and thanks to its evocative power it would contribute to creating theories, hypotheses, and correlations within medical science and Chinese culture itself.
The Zhou dynasty
King Wu was the first monarch of the Zhou dynasty, which came after the Shang dynasty and is generally divided into two periods: from 1123 to 771 B.C. China was governed by the Western Zhou, from 771 to 256 B.C. by the Eastern Zhou. Moreover, in classicalhistoriographythe years from770 to 221 B.C. are distinguished into two different agesknown as the Spring and AutumnPeriod (770-476 B.C.) and the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.). The Zhou dynasty ruled over Chinain full feudal age; in the 3rd centuryB.C. the emperor Shi Huang consolidated this system of power, which on the one hand would eventually bring the empire to ruin, while on the other handwould give a great impetus to Chinese culture.
The development of medicine
Duringthe Western Zhou dynastymedicine started to stand alone as a science and to break free from the contents and methodologies of other sciences. Furthermore, it attempted to give itself for the first time an organized structure. The term yi, medicine,had a great number of acceptations and was also incorporated into other characters to indicate diverse functions of the medical ‘apparatus’ –let’s say, further distinctions within medicine itself: the word yishi was used to indicate physicians, who in turn specialized as shi yi or doctors of dietetics, yang yi or doctors of sores, that is, surgeons, ji yi ordoctors of diseases, that is, internists. There were also doctors who were responsible for taking care ofanimal health, the earliest Chinesevets. Even then, the category of physicians maintained thatmen had to adapt themselves to both the internal and external worlds and were prone to be influenced by seasons, and also idientified three main causes for all diseases:
· ‘celestial’ causes: so-called because coming from the heaven and the Emperor of Above. They could act either directly or through natural phenomena such as rain, wind, hail;
· causes due to the harmful influence of the dead: the gui;
· causes produced by insects and parasites.
There also existed a sort of primitive and sketchy form of etiopathogenesis – the investigation of the mechanisms of onset of the various diseases – which made a distinction between pathologies due to wind or fever and epidemic diseases. Each pathology began to be investigated taking into account the various body parts affected and all of them were distinguished according to an increasingly accurate knowledge of the human body ofthe male, female and child.
Huangdi Neijing: the Earliest Text of Chinese Medicine
Recent studiesascertain that the oldest text of Chinese medicine, the Huangdi Neijing, was conceived in theWarring States Period and definitely completed during theWestern Zhou dynasty,with the contribution of several authors. Although older medicaltexts, containing early references to the theory of meridians, were found in the Ma Wang Dui Tomb 3, the Huangdi Neijing was the first complete digest of Chinese medical knowledgeaccumulatedby that time. Although the importance of this book in Chinese medicineis comparable to thatofthe Corpus Hippocraticum in western medicine, it is still regarded asa fundamentalbookfor reference and study, sincethecriteria and concepts by which it is permeatedcontinue to be validandserve as a starting point for further study even today. Indeed, thisworkis composed of two parts (18 volumes), each of 9 chapters: the Suwen (Basic Questions) and theLingshu (Spiritual Pivot); they were originally made of independent blocks of texts, which were later put together and further reworked and corrected. The Suwen is presented as a collection of dialoguesbetween the mythical Yellow Emperor, Huangdi, and his ministers, among whom stands outQibo. Huangdi questions his counsellors about anatomy, physiology, medical pratice, but also philosophy, astronomy, biology and geography. The Lingshu, by contrast,is more narrowly focused on the theory and practice of acupuncture. The Huangdi Neijingalso discusses the circulation of qi energy in the body through a dense network of pathways calledjingmai (channels or meridians). The acupuncture points are situated along these meridians, compared in Chinese literatureto water streams;by acting on the acupuncture points, it is possible to reactivate or improve the energy flow. The concepts of yin-yang and the Five Movements are already introduced as well as the concept of disorderscaused by void (wu) or full (shi) and the technique employed to taking the pulse (hou) for disease diagnosis. Besides acupuncture,this ancient text also covers other therapy techniques such as moxibustion, drug administeringandmassaging.
The Shijing (Book of Odes) is also traced back to the Warring States Period. Despite being a collection of Chinese poetry, it contains numerous references to pharmacology and mentions a total of 50 drugs derived from plants.
Bian Que: the EarliestKnown Chinese Physicianand the Hundred Schools of Thought
Also thefirst recorded Chinese physicianis said to have lived in the 4th century B.C.: Qiu Yue Ren, better known as Bian Que, was renownednot only as an acupuncturist, but also as a pediatrician, a gynecologistand a gerontologist.
As reported by many historical sources, among which the Han Shu (History of the Former Han)stands out, he is said to have been much loved by the population because he had devoted his entire lifeto treat disease with the utmost dedication. Bian Que is also credited with having instilled into the people a brand newawareness that medicineshould not be confused with superstition or sorcery.This deep conviction permeates all his works, especially the nine-bookBian Que’s Treaty of Medicine,which contains extremely accurate descriptions of his medical acquisitions.
The numerous and original cultural innovations dating back to the Zhou dynastycorroborated the Chinese saying: ‘let a hundred flowers bloom, and a hundred schools of thought contend’.Indeed,the Spring and AutumnPeriod and, even more, the Warring States Period, despite being troubled and turbulent due to profound social and political changes, produced great thinkers, like Confucius, Laozi, Mencius, Mozi, Xunzi, Li Si and Han Feizi, and also saw the flourishing of the so-called Hundred Schools of Thought, the major of which were: the Schoolof Yin-Yang and the School of Five Movements,which gave great impetus to the development of medicine;the Legist School of Fa-chia, which, compared to the Daoist and Confucian Schools, insisted upon the necessity of harsher laws to guarantee the respect of popular traditions and rites; the Juo or Confucian School;the DaoSchool of Daoism.
The teachings of the Confucian, Naturalist (or of Yin-Yang) and Daoist Schools undoubtedly exerted a major impacton medical thinking, which was gaining more and more autonomy in those years. It should be remembered that, thanks to the influence of thinkers such as Confucius and Laozi, the already existing close connections between medicine and philosophy got further consolidated and were destined to lastover time, unlike what occurred, for example, in western post-Renaissance or post-Cartesian eras.
The Hundred Schools of Thought and the Cosmic Balance
Despite differing from each otherfrom a theoretical, didactic and practical point of view, all the schoolsshared the same idea of universe as a single unit and aimed at the achievement of a new age of Taiping, the Great Peace, envisioned as a complete cosmic harmony. The intellectual debates and disputes among them had therefore an impact on each theoretical process and came to provide Chinese culture with its first philosophical-medical-scientific systematization.It should be remembered thatthe role played by philosophy in China could be compared with the religious in the western world and that it has always pursued the goal of leading man to wisdom. Given the assumption that the wise man is he who is in tune with the universe, wisdom is nothing but a state of balance and harmony between man and the universe, a conditionachievable by following a path of spiritual educationin accordance with the teachings ofone’s school of thought. Within this philosophy, which underlies a kind of religiousness, the existence of one omniscient, supernatural deity would be impossible to envision,as according to Chinese mentality even the most outstandingindividualsare conceivable onlythrough of their human nature, and their ability to access the highest positions of the hierarchical scaleis not due to divine attributes but to deepspiritual exercise. This philosophy assumed different characteristics among the various schools – Daoists’ ethical ideal, for example,was non-action, since they believed that the natural flow of life could not be influenced by human actions;by contrast, Confucians attributed crucial importance to active intervention.
