To promote the industrialization and modernization of traditional Chinese medicine and bring it into the world, zhang qicheng, President of the school of Chinese medicine at Beijing university of traditional Chinese medicine, believes that this is not only the mission of The Times, but also the history examination papers in front of TCM practitioners

Zhang qicheng: sharing Chinese medicine culture with the world

Time: 2018-11-16

On October 22, general secretary xi jinping pointed out that traditional Chinese medicine is the gem of Chinese civilization during his visit to the guangdong-macau cooperative TCM technology industrial park in hengqin new district, zhuhai, guangdong. We need to explore the essence of traditional Chinese medicine, promote the integration of production, education and research, and promote the industrialization and modernization of traditional Chinese medicine, so that it will go global.

In an interview with reporters, zhang qicheng, dean of the school of Chinese medicine at Beijing university of traditional Chinese medicine, said that sticking to the right idea and knowing that "white" and "black" are the key, namely, fully applying modern science and technology to promote the industrialization and modernization of traditional Chinese medicine on the basis of sticking to the "soul" of traditional Chinese medicine.

Sticking to the "soul" of TCM

"The essence of the crisis of traditional Chinese medicine in the past 100 years is the cultural crisis. The future development of TCM also depends on the preservation and abolition of TCM cultural concepts. Zhang qicheng believes that the development of TCM career must be based on TCM culture.

He said that a series of unique philosophical concepts and ways of thinking in TCM, such as the unity of heaven and man, the holistic view, "qi" and "Yin and Yang", are the core values of TCM culture and are the "soul" of TCM that we should stick to.

But sticking to it doesn't mean standing still and learning from the past. The history of the formation and development of traditional Chinese medicine is a process of constantly absorbing advanced scientific and technological achievements. Traditional Chinese medicine culture also needs to make full use of modern scientific and technological means and achievements in the process of development and innovation.

Traditional Chinese medicine has been controversial and questioned in the process of modernization. Zhang qicheng summarized this dilemma as the paradox of TCM modernization. In his opinion, the origin of TCM is far earlier than modern science, and there are many concepts and ways of thinking that cannot be explained by modern scientific theories. However, the inability to explain does not mean unreasonable, but only reflects the communication barriers between the two systems.

"Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners think that modernization is not traditional Chinese medicine, and modern science researchers continue to raise doubts about TCM." Zhang qicheng thinks, in this kind of predicament, traditional Chinese medicine person should understand to know "white" defend "black". "Bai" refers to western medicine, because western medicine symbolizes a strong antagonistic "Yang" culture; The term "black" refers to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), because it regards human beings and all living things as a black box and is good at thinking from the whole. To know "white" and "black" means to apply modern technology to traditional Chinese medicine on the basis of understanding the thinking mode of traditional Chinese medicine.

To be the forerunner of the revival of excellent traditional culture

Traditional Chinese medicine culture is an important part of traditional Chinese culture and also an outstanding representative. Zhang qicheng thinks, in Chinese excellent traditional culture Renaissance, the position of culture of Chinese medicine is beyond doubt.

Zhang qicheng said that "one source and three streams" together constitute the "neutralization" thought in traditional Chinese culture. Among them, "one source" refers to the yijing, and "three flows" refers to three cultural schools of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. The book of changes stressed "Yin and Yang neutralization", the Confucian stressed "the mean" and "benevolence and harmony", Buddhism spread to China to stress "the middle" and "round sum", the Taoist stressed "the middle" and "the soft". In the third stream, Confucian positive, encouraging positive initiative; Taoism slanting Yin, encouraging natural inaction, buddhist emphasis on space. As a part of the traditional culture, the "harmony" of Chinese medicine is the most important part of the traditional culture.

Zhang qicheng USES tai chi as a metaphor: Confucianism is like the white part, Taoism is like the black part, Buddhism is the outer circle, and TCM is the curve between Yin and Yang.

"" ancient agronomy, calendars, astronomy have been mentioned very little to this day, and only traditional Chinese medicine is still very active." " Zhang qicheng believes that the important reason why traditional Chinese medicine culture has been able to spread so far is that traditional Chinese medicine is closely related to People's Daily life. Because of this, traditional Chinese medicine culture can stand out and become the forerunner of the Renaissance of Chinese excellent traditional culture.

In July 2017, a major project of the national social science foundation under the leadership of zhang qicheng titled "research on traditional Chinese medicine culture promoting the rejuvenation of Chinese excellent traditional culture". The main content of the project is to explore the ways to boost the Renaissance of Chinese excellent traditional culture from the three aspects of "heart", "hand" and "face" of Chinese traditional culture and the two dimensions of "pass on" and "pass on".

Zhang qicheng explained that the so-called "heart" of TCM culture is the core value and thinking mode of TCM, which is the soul of TCM. The so-called "hand" refers to the medical treatment method of traditional Chinese medicine since ancient times, which includes not only observing, listening, asking and cutting four times, but also guiding, needle, moxibustion, stone needle, medicine and other medical methods. The so-called "face" is the brand image of TCM.

Share Chinese medicine on the world stage

Chinese medicine is both Chinese and international. To promote the industrialization and modernization of traditional Chinese medicine to the world is not only the mission of all TCM practitioners, but also the historical examination papers in front of contemporary TCM practitioners.

Zhang qicheng thinks, let Chinese medicine go to the world, need to dig the essence of Chinese medicine treasure house deeply. According to the national catalogue of traditional Chinese medicine books, there were 12124 kinds of traditional Chinese medicine books left in the world from the warring states period to 1949. With the discovery of ancient Chinese medicine unearthed documents of bamboo and silks, as well as the isolated and secret books handed down from generation to generation, the number of ancient Chinese medicine books is quite considerable, and there is much to be done in digging deeper.

At the same time, we should dig out the precious resources related to medicine and health in traditional literature, history, philosophy and scientific and technological classics, especially daozang. These are the resources of things.

In addition, attention should be paid to human resources. We should pay attention to the living masters of Chinese medicine and the experts of traditional Chinese medicine at all levels, and do a good job in oral history research and anthropological fieldwork.

"" to make TCM go global, it is also necessary to innovate and develop on the basis of not deviating from the core values, so as to realize the 'creative transformation and innovative development' of TCM culture." " Zhang qicheng pointed out that the creative transformation is to endow traditional Chinese medicine with new contents and attributes, promote the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine, and enable it to be updated with the historical process and the change of times. The innovative development is to develop the existing contents of traditional culture, develop new application scenarios and application methods, and give new vitality to traditional Chinese medicine culture. Both the creative transformation and the innovative development require the hybridization and integration of traditional Chinese medicine with other disciplines and specialties to create new sparks. "" influential scientific research achievements such as artemisinin are of great significance for the promotion and dissemination of traditional Chinese medicine." " Zhang qicheng said.

"We should be clear to see that, despite the great achievements made in the internationalization of TCM in recent years, only some countries still recognize the legal status of TCM, and most only recognize acupuncture but not TCM." Zhang qicheng says, traditional Chinese medicine goes to the world, still need to realize industrialization and modernization. Therefore, it is necessary to reform the system of traditional Chinese medicine, promote the integration of production, education and research, and speed up the industrialization process of traditional Chinese medicine. Let the scientific research go out first, let the data speak, let more foreigners understand the mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine. Only by developing products that conform to the theory and mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine, can foreigners be convinced from a doubt.

The process of Chinese medicine going global is a process of exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, joint construction and sharing. In zhang's opinion, it is not enough for traditional Chinese medicine to stand on its own, but also to respect cultural diversity and bridge the gap between cultural differences and language transformation. This requires understanding the cultural characteristics of different countries and regions, understanding the needs of the audience, and showing the development results of traditional Chinese medicine in a way that the audience can understand and accept. We should make good use of overseas platforms such as Confucius institutes and TCM centers, strengthen the integration with overseas platforms of various TCM groups, and constantly improve the cultural recognition of international TCM communication with the help of new media.