Traditional Chinese Medicine

435 Pages·2014·3.18 MB·English

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Acupuncture Sans Frontières
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http://www.acupuncture-sfi.org
Dr Li Xin
Dr Claudine Mérer
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE
BACK TO THE SOURCES
FOR A MODERN APPROACH
© Arbre d’Or, Geneva, april 2013
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book would have never come out without the
contribution of many people, to whom we would like
to extend our profound gratitude !
I, Li Xin, will always be most grateful to my teach-
ers : Mr.Ren lin, who gave me my very first important
lesson about TCM ; Pr.Song zuo ming, from whom I
learned the traditional way of thinking and training ;
Pr.Gong shu sheng, who gave me a comprehensive
view of Chinese medicine ; Pr.Ge qi, who guided me
back to learning Chinese medicine, Pr.Li hui ji and
Pr.Wu cheng with whom I learned the basis of psy-
cho-somatic (Body-Mind) medicine. Without them,
my understanding and practice of TCM to day would
never have been the same.
I would like to thank Mr.Zhang Xiao Tong, and Miss
Liu Ming, director of Beijing Cui Yueli Chinese Medi-
cine Research Centre, for giving me a chance to prac-
tise in a traditional way, and to the Ping Xin Tang
Clinic, where I spent almost 4 years seeing patients,
and tasting materia medica. All the cases discussed in
this book come from my experience there.
Many thanks also to Mr.Qin Chao Ying, Miss Liang
Wei Na, Mr.He Xiao He, Mr.Duan Ke Sheng, and
Mr.Wang Shan, founders of the Yanhuang hospital
where I learned a lot.
I very much appreciated the offer of the St. John’s
Health Clinic in Shanghai to allow me a very flexible
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
time of practice. Without it I could not have finished
this book.
I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to many
friends for their contribution : Dr James Heinritz who
was the first to read the whole manuscript and gave
us encouragement and advices ; Dr Sylvie Hu who
shared with us her deep understanding of Acupunc-
ture and introduced us to the very enlightening work
of Dr Jacques Pialoux ; Dr Jacques Pialoux for giving
us permission to publish one of his figures ; Miss Zhai
Jing Hui, who helped me correct the prescription’s
dosages from the source of the original books ; Miss
Sun Hao, our designer of most of the figures and
illustrations ; Mr. Li Yue who helped me find precise
English words.
To Dr Xu Wen Bo, Dr Xu Wen Bing, Dr Liu Jie, Dr Lin
Yang who shared my experience : we worked and pro-
gressed together.
And I, Claudine Merer, would like to thank Michael
McIntyre and Mazin al-khafaji, my teachers of Chi-
nese Herbal Medicine. I extend my gratitude to my
dear friend, Mrs Susan de Talancé, whose help cor-
recting english for the manuscript was most valuable
and to Homeira Abrishami and Carine Desmonteix
whose very professional editing touch transformed
the manuscript into a real book. My great respect
and gratitude go to my mentor and friend Jacques
Pialoux.
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Many thanks to both our families
Sincere thanks to our patients
And best wishes to everyone
PREFACE
I met Li Xin in November 2002.
I had lived in Beijing only 6 months and everything
was still new.
Having a background of Doctor in Western medi-
cine and Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), I was
asked to give a conference on TCM for the expatri-
ate community of the Beijing International Society.
As a follow up to the conference, I wanted to give the
audience the opportunity to visit a TCM clinic in Bei-
jing. By chance, I met Li Xin who offered to guide us
around the private TCM clinic where he was working.
Although he was very young (32 years old) I could
sense a deep and personal understanding of TCM
and a particularly developed sensitivity. This is what
I was looking for, after a few disappointing experi-
ences in various TCM hospitals of Beijing. He kindly
offered me to sit in when he was treating patients,
and although I was thrilled, my very poor under-
standing of Chinese language drastically limited the
experience ! I decided that I should first learn some
Chinese !
During the following year, we met on several occa-
sions, discussed and compared our views on TCM.
He told me how he started studying at Beijing TCM Uni-
versity (北京中医药大学) in 1988, and was even nom-
inated “Huang Di Neijing (黄帝内经) representative of
the class” in 1989 ! At the time he didn’t really under-
TCM : BACK TO THE SOURCES FOR A MODERN APPROACH
stand the book’s contents and lost interest in TCM. In
1990 he tried a year of western medicine. Although he
was very interested in physiology, explained in a scien-
tific way, he realised that western therapy didn’t pro-
vide all the answers and was totally lacking in some
areas, and he went back to studying TCM.
In 1991, he met his first teacher, Mr.Ren.
Mr Ren was over 40 at the time, a Master of Martial
Arts, and visiting Li Xin’s university for a week. Li Xin
offered him his room and was very impressed to see
him meditate every night and look so much younger
than he was.
One day, following a generous gesture by Li Xin, Mr Ren
invited him to come to the medical school library.
At the entrance was a statue of Zhang Zhong Jing
(张仲景), author of Shang Han Za Bing Lun (伤寒杂
病论). Mr Ren asked Li Xin to bow to Zhang Zhong
Jing, and then bow to him, according to Chinese tradi-
tion. He then told him : “TCM is very simple : in front
of a patient just ask yourself : is this patient warm,
cold, in excess or in deficiency ?” On their way back,
he spoke again : “The secret of a formula lies in the
fact that only three to five ingredients are important.
If there are many ingredients, either it was meant
to confuse other doctors, or the author of the pre-
scription didn’t have a clear understanding himself !”
The two never met again, but these few words were
enough to make Li xin believe in TCM and set him in
a new direction.
Subsequently, he spent most of his time in the library,
and rarely went to TCM lectures. He studied Huang
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TCM : BACK TO THE SOURCES FOR A MODERN APPROACH
Di Neijing (黄帝内经), Shang Han Lun (伤寒论), and
the books of famous doctors of different dynasties
such as Li Dong Yuan (李东垣), Zhang Zi He (张子和),
Zhu Dan Xi (朱丹溪), Zhang Yuan Su (张元素),
Zhang Jing Yue (张景岳), Xue Ji (薛己) from Song
and Yuan Dynasties.
Learning from ancient books was a difficult task, not
only because of the use of old language, but mainly
because of the metaphoric way the ancients used to
express themselves. When an artist draws a picture,
you have to grasp the feelings behind it, beyond the
performance and style of the artist. Ancient doctors
had their own way to express their thoughts, and it is
essential to understand the meaning hidden behind
the words.
In Li Dong Yuan’s “Pi Wei Lun” (脾胃论), it is written
that the main principle of a prescription is : “Bu xie zai
wei, sui shi huan qi” (补泻在味, 随时换气) which
translates literally as “Tonify, sedate comes from the
taste, cold and warm depend on this moment”. This
means that when we treat a patient it is more impor-
tant to understand the taste of the herb used (sedat-
ing or tonifying), than its nature (warm or cold). We
find the same principle written in the Huang Di Nei-
jing (黄帝内经).
Li Xin graduated with honours in 1993.
During the following two years he wanted to stay
closer to home, and became a TCM teacher in a medi-
cal school in Jiang Su province. He started practicing
meditation and Tai Ji Chuan, teaching himself how to
purify the shen and open the channels.
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TCM : BACK TO THE SOURCES FOR A MODERN APPROACH
From 1995 to 1997, he came back to Beijing and
worked in health schools and a Medical Science
Development centre, practising and teaching TCM,
and giving lectures.
In 1997 he joined the Beijng Yan Huang hospital, the
best and largest private TCM club in Beijing where
he provided medical services for senior government
officials. He was the health manager and magazine
editor of the club and trained young therapists in
acupuncture, massage and meditation. More than
30 of the best specialists in TCM, with government’s
agreement, were practising in this club. With them,
Li Xin enlarged his experience and deepened his
understanding.
He met his second Teacher, Professor Song Zuo Min,
an expert in paediatrics and internal diseases. Pro-
fessor Song was over 80, he had been a student of
the most famous doctor in Beijing, Dr Kong Bo Hua,
from the Kong Zi family. With Pr Song, Li Xin learned
the principle of tonifying Jing and regulating Qi Ji by
using light dosage and light taste.
When we met in 2002 he was also working part time at
the Ping Xin Tang clinic and, a year later, sitting with
him, I was able to see how precise his method was,
how different from my own experience and under-
standing and how effective his treatments proved to
be, even in the most difficult cases.
Gradually, it became important to try to keep his per-
sonal approach alive and better known to those seek-
ing to reach the essence of TCM, in the simple way
described in ancient books. In September 2004 the
idea of this book was born !
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