As we know, famous scholars throughout the ages have admired this book, and experts in soup and medicine who have stood the test throughout the ages have studied typhoid fever intensively. The prescriptions in this book belong to the category of classics. Classic prescriptions refer to medical prescriptions in ancient books before Han Dynasty, and Zhang Zhongjing is the summary and development of classic prescriptions before Han Dynasty.
The so-called classic prescription, which has been used for thousands of years, can theoretically be traced back to the legendary Shennong era. Now, the classical prescriptions will naturally run counter to Yuan, Ming and Qing medicine. If you run counter to it, someone will come out and say that we have denied the medical achievements of hundreds of years. Hundreds of years is too short compared with the long history of Chinese medicine. China's culture matured early, and before the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, cultural concepts, bronzes and jades were all declining. What's more, the theory of traditional Chinese medicine in recent hundreds of years mainly comes from scholars' works, with more empty talk than evidence and more sophistry than avenue, and most of them are things that scholars deliberately seek other ways to gain fame. The effect of starting school has been achieved, but medicine has become chaotic.
Zhang Zhongjing is a medical sage because he first understood the essence of the classic prescriptions before the Han Dynasty, and then he established a six-meridian syndrome differentiation system that is most suitable for the study of decoction to guide the application of the classic prescriptions. Therefore, we are not talking about retro, not questioning the present, but promoting the real ancient Chinese medicine, but seeking truth.
As for the classic prescription, it has been said since ancient times that as long as it is used properly, it can play the role of "covering the cup to heal the wounds". The so-called "cover the cup to recover" means that you will get well after drinking the medicine, washing the cup and fastening it on the table. This sounds incredible, and from my personal clinical experience, this statement is correct. If the syndrome differentiation is accurate, only half a dose of medicine is needed for exogenous diseases. Eat in the morning and afternoon, and eat in the evening and morning. Reduce fever and diarrhea. A few doses of medicine will have obvious effects on chronic diseases, and even a few doses of medicine can cure a lot. It's definitely not as slow as Chinese medicine now. What is slow is the later Chinese medicine, not the real ancient Chinese medicine.
Few people in the past dynasties could understand this book, because Zhang Zhongjing did not systematically talk about his medical theory in this book. It's like a martial arts secret book, with only tricks and no detailed and systematic internal skills. In addition, it is a broken book, which has been passed down through the ages, with mistakes and slips, and some contradictory things added by later generations. So few people can really learn this book through the ages, and many people can only stop at the top of the mountain.
At present, the research on Treatise on Febrile Diseases mostly stays at the stage of painting. Clinically, as long as we can correspond to the prescriptions in the book, we can have excellent therapeutic effects. What is not mentioned in the book, or those specious proofs, will be difficult to analyze, the selection of the party is uncertain, and the effect of the prescription prescribed by oneself is not satisfactory. The writing of Treatise on Febrile Diseases is extremely concise, but there are only tens of thousands of words, and the reaction of diseases is ever-changing. How do they correspond to each other?
The well-known Mr. Hu Xishu is a famous classic prescription. He put forward that the highest level of syndrome differentiation and treatment is the correspondence between prescription and syndrome, and respected the original prescription and dosage. In fact, Zhang Zhongjing teaches addition and subtraction. For example, he changed twenty or thirty prescriptions with Guizhi decoction to treat various syndromes and diseases of human body flexibly. Hu Xishu certainly understands this. The reason why he disapproves of addition and subtraction is that we haven't figured out the principle behind the formula.
What is the guiding ideology of classical medicine inherited by Zhang Zhongjing? How to treat the human body? What is the principle of prescription medication? How do these drugs work in the human body? Only by understanding these problems, can we really learn the "Zhongjing's method", not just the "Zhongjing's prescription", and can we use dozens of simple drugs according to syndromes like Zhang Zhongjing, so as to achieve multiple goals and achieve good results. These are the problems I have come to solve this time.
There is no doubt that the Confucian classic philosophy belongs to the category of Taoist thought. As we know, China's culture was dominated by Taoism before the Han Dynasty, and it was only after the early Han Dynasty that it began to be dominated by Confucianism. Zhang Zhongjing was a master of Confucian classics before the Eastern Han Dynasty, and his connection with Taoism is self-evident.
To understand Treatise on Febrile Diseases with Taoist thought, we must first talk about two ontological problems.
The first question: Is there any medicine for the disease?
The answer is that there is no cure for human diseases. Why? For example, we invented a computer and made a washing machine. We can repair the computer today and the washing machine today. Where are we? Man is made by the creator, the most sophisticated instrument made by God, and also a creature. Philosophically, we can never repair ourselves unless we have the same wisdom as God, just as the washing machine can never repair itself.
Since it can't repair itself, what is medical care? Let's talk about western medicine first. The field of western medicine has been devoted to the study of drugs to treat diseases. Are there any drugs to treat diseases in the field of western medicine? Let's start with the cold. Now everyone knows that antibiotics are not a specific medicine for colds. In foreign clinics, doctors have no right to prescribe antibiotics at will, and if they do, they may face the punishment of revoking their licenses.
This is the problem. Since antibiotics are not the specific medicine for colds, where is the specific medicine for colds? The answer of western medicine isno. If there is no specific medicine for a cold, what about other diseases? Naturally, there is no specific medicine. For example, diabetes and hypertension, as we all know, take medicine for life. These drugs control blood pressure and blood sugar, but they cannot be cured. Not only can it not be cured, but it also hurts the liver and kidney, because there are many patients with liver and kidney failure who take these drugs now. If the condition is serious, it is surgery, removal or replacement of damaged organs. Then there is rejection, because what the human body does not accept is not the original organ. This treatment pursues a five-year survival period, and if it can survive for five years, it will be cured.
Is there any medicine that can cure diseases in the field of traditional Chinese medicine? I'm telling you, nothing.
Only the human body's own immunity can fight against diseases. Because our immune gene chain is enough to deal with all known diseases. For example, AIDS, human immunity in general, can resist AIDS for ten or twenty years without getting sick. Individuals with strong immunity will never get sick for life. This is especially true for self-healing such as cancer and SARS. Since human immunity can cope with diseases, why do you get sick? Because our immunity is suppressed. The real ancient Chinese medicine is opposed to treating diseases with drugs, but focuses on restoring the normal state of human order, opening the lock that inhibits immunity, and then letting immunity treat diseases by itself. It can also be understood that drugs help the human body to treat diseases, rather than treating diseases by themselves. The human body is the Dojo of heaven. If it conforms to the movements of the human body, it will drift with the tide. This is Taoist thought, which can only be the human body itself, not medicine.
The second question: What is the difference between ancient Chinese medicine and later Chinese medicine?
Ancient Chinese medicine helps people get rid of diseases, and evidence is not diseases. Evidence is evidence of how the body gets rid of disease. It passes by the water, pushing the boat, and dare not surpass the human body. Later generations of Chinese medicine mistakenly thought that medicine could cure diseases, and always used a prescription to treat one disease and another, ignoring the human body's own actions.
The distinction between ancient Chinese medicine and later Chinese medicine should be based on the Han Dynasty.
Let's talk about the later generations of Chinese medicine. Later generations of Chinese medicine treated diseases with medicine. Diseases are easy to understand. What is a disease? For example, the syndrome of spleen deficiency, kidney deficiency, phlegm and blood stasis is often said in later Chinese medicine.
Let me give a case to illustrate this problem. Male sexual diseases are mostly treated by kidney in later Chinese medicine, which can be divided into kidney yin deficiency and kidney yang deficiency. If it is kidney yin deficiency, use nourishing yin drugs such as Radix Rehmanniae Preparata; If it is kidney-yang deficiency, it is drugs such as Cistanche deserticola, Morinda officinalis and Eucommia ulmoides Oliv. I studied Chinese medicine for a long time in my early years, and I know that the effect of this medicine will not be very good, and it may be temporarily relieved, and it often drags on, and sometimes it will get angry if I take too much tonic. In Treatise on Febrile Diseases, there is a soup of cassia twig and gulong oyster, instead of tonifying kidney blindly. If the syndrome differentiation is accurate, the effect of treating this disease will be immediate, and several doses of medicine can be cured. Guizhi Gu Jialong Oyster Decoction can cure this disease because it does not directly take medicine to tonify the kidney, but focuses on the great circulation of human body. When the circulation of the human body is restored, body fluid and blood are transported to the kidney, and its kidney qi will naturally be enhanced. If the human body itself can't tonify the kidney, what medicine can directly tonify the kidney? Those who can beat cattle across the mountain can make up for it, but it doesn't play a fundamental role. This is why later doctors often prescribe drugs for patients for several months, but the effect is not obvious.
Another example is the treatment of tumor diseases. I don't think doctors can move a big prescription, dozens of drugs to promote blood circulation, remove blood stasis and attack depression. If human order is not restored, they will not disperse, and only using these drugs will not have a good effect.
The thought of treating diseases in Treatise on Febrile Diseases belongs to Taoism and Taoism. The so-called "doing nothing without doing anything" means not doing anything, not interfering with heaven, and not treating diseases on behalf of the human body, but first figuring out how the human body excretes diseases, so why not? Then we are committed to balancing the energy of the human body, restoring human order, helping the human body so that people can heal themselves. What is more powerful than human immunity? Drugs will be invincible if they drift with the tide, and it will be difficult to go their own way.
Since drugs can't cure diseases, how to understand the pharmacology of tonifying lung, strengthening spleen, sweating and relaxing bowels? In fact, these statements are not reliable. For example, we often say that Guizhi perspires, and everyone who has studied Treatise on Febrile Diseases knows that Guizhi can also be used to stop sweating. Atractylodes macrocephala is a medicine, and later it was said to strengthen the spleen and stop diarrhea. A doctor in Beijing specializes in treating constipation with Atractylodes macrocephala, which has become his unique skill. Is cassia twig sweating or stopping sweating? Is Atractylodes macrocephala relaxing or stopping diarrhea? In fact, this is what the later doctor said. How does medicine stop diarrhea and relieve constipation? This is the instruction formed by the coordination of countless nerves in the human body, and the drug itself cannot replace the human body to exercise this instruction. Drugs are nothing more than balancing the yin and yang of the human body, helping the human body to drive away evil spirits, and then the human body will issue this instruction itself. For example, cassia twig only sends yang to muscle tissue, and the yang on the surface is enough. It should sweat and stop sweating. Atractylodes macrocephala is gasified with medium coke, medium coke gasification and body fluid operation. Antidiarrheal drugs will stop diarrhea, and laxatives will relieve constipation.
Anyone who has studied classical prescriptions knows that there are only thirty or forty kinds of drugs coming and going, and only a few main prescriptions in typhoid fever can cure all diseases of human body. There are more than ten million diseases in the human body. Why can the classics change constantly? Explain that the classic prescription is not used to treat diseases, but to treat the human body. There are only a few ways for the human body to get rid of diseases, and drugs only help the human body get rid of diseases. This is the so-called simplicity. Besides, if the human body is restored to order, it can cure itself. Why use drugs instead?
The theoretical system of Treatise on Febrile Diseases originated from the theory of Huang Lao, or from the orthodox Taoist thought at that time, and was deeply influenced by the Book of Changes. In fact, the theoretical basis of China's traditional culture comes from "Tao", and a hundred schools of thought contend with it. What is Tao, the avenue of heaven and earth, the natural law of the universe. A hundred schools of thought contend is nothing more than a branch of Taoism and science and technology. Later, when the avenue declined, Taoism became specialized and called Taoism. Another important feature of Treatise on Febrile Diseases is that although it is Taoist medicine, it is different from Taoism in that there is no content of witch doctors wishing to curse, but the concept of taking the Tao directly is closer to Laozi and Zhuangzi. The Book of Changes in Treatise on Febrile Diseases has been studied by people, but the Taoist thought in it is rarely discussed. To talk about Taoist medicine, we must talk about inaction and conform to nature. Doctors should not act rashly, otherwise nothing can be achieved. Since Zhongjing, the overall trend of medicine has become more and more optimistic, and more and more people like to abuse drugs to fight diseases. As a result, as you can see, the theory of Chinese medicine decoction has declined too much compared with Zhongjing's era. In the past two thousand years, instead of making Chinese medicine progress, it has made Chinese medicine treat diseases from one cup to another, and it has fallen into a situation where Chinese medicine does not treat diseases, Chinese medicine treats diseases slowly and Chinese medicine can only regulate them.
There is another difference between Zhongjing's technique and later medicine. Although it originated from the Tao, it did not talk about the avenue, and even avoided talking about it. Instead, it has turned it into a specific clinical thinking and prescription method, and simplified it, which is the most difficult and valuable in medicine Later generations of doctors often like to talk about metaphysics, or stop at Tao, or after careful consideration, there may not be a real Tao in it, and clinical medication even deviates from Tao, and complex differences emerge one after another. So, this time, I also take Zhongjing's method as the method. The main purpose is not to talk about medical Tao, not to say that he is easy to show off by doctors, but to apply Tao to solve Zhang Zhongjing's method of understanding the human body and the law of prescription and medication, so as to save lives in clinic. Although it is not enough for Xi Zhi to talk only about Yi Li and metaphysics, he can return to tradition and become a Chinese doctor who can really treat diseases with "Tao thinking". If we can't return to the true tradition again, the prospect of Chinese medicine may not be as simple as taking another detour for two thousand years.