Many
centuries ago in southern China, a farmer in Yunnan found a snake
crawling about near his hut. He beat it with a hoe and left it for
dead. A few days later he found the same snake in his garden, and
again he tried to beat it to death. When the snake reappeared a third
time, apparently no worse for the wear, the flustered farmer bashed
it once more, but this time he hid in the bushes and watched the
wounded, bleeding reptile limp into a clump of strange weeds, from
which it ate. By the next morning the snake's wounds were healed
and its vitality restored.
And
so the marvelous medicinal herb shan-chi (Gynura pinnatifida)
was discovered. The white powder extracted from this weed staunches
bleeding immediately, causes the edges of wounds to adhere (hence
the name, which means ''mountain varnish”), and heals tissue
quickly with minimal scarring. So reputed was this medicinal herb
among China's martial artists that they gave it another name – jin-bu-huan,
or ''Gold-no-trade.'' Grown only in Yunnan, China, the government
there supplied the overwhelming bulk of this herb to North Vietnam
during the Vietnam War, where it became part of every soldier's field
kit, allowing men on the battlefield to treat their own gunshot wounds
and continue fighting.
The
Legend of the Snake aptly illustrates the folk origins of Chinese
herbal medicine . We are all familiar with another obvious example
of this: anyone who has owned a dog has surely seen it eat wild weeds
to induce vomiting . While Westerners tend to regard such behavior
as a nuisance, the curious Chinese would instead experiment with
those weeds as possible emetic herbs for man. After 5000 years of
such continuous empirical observation and trial-and-error experimentation
with nature's flora and fauna, the Chinese have compiled the world's
most complete and effective pharmocopeia of medicinal herbs.
The
Chinese attribute the discovery of herbal medicine to the legendary
emperor Shen Nung, who taught the Chinese agriculture around 3500
B.C. “Shen Nung tasted the myriad herbs, and so the art of
medicine was born,” wrote the great Han Dynasty historian Ssu-ma
Chien. The characters Yao (“medicine”) and Yi (“doctor”)
first appeared on oracle bones about 3000 years ago, indicating that
herbal medicine had already become a serious profession in China
back when Westerners still lived like characters in the cartoon-strip “B.C.”
The
art of herbal medicine was pioneered by the reclusive Taoist adepts
who lived as hermits in China’s remote mountains since the
dawn of Chinese history. In their search for life-prolonging elixirs,
these Taoist “Immortals” gathered and tested all sorts
of rare mountain plants. Those which proved useful in curing disease
and sustaining health they took down to the markets of ancient China
to trade for food, wine, cloth and other basic necessities. The herbs
were then further tested by tribal shamans, and later by herbal physicians,
and their effects were recorded for posterity. Today, in the garish
herbal emporiums of Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore, Chinese herbalists
still do brisk business dispensing the same ancient remedies to contemporary
customers.
The
bible of Chinese herbal medicine is called “Ben Tsao Gang
Mu,” a voluminous tome compiled over a 27 year period
by the Ming Dynasty physician Lee Shi-chen during the late l6th century.
This book became popular in 19th century Western medical circles
under the title “Treasures of Chinese Medicine," and it
influenced Charles Darwin in the development of his own classification
of nature’s species. The Chinese pharmacopeia classifies and
analyzes close to 2,000 medicinal drugs, including items derived
from plant, animal, and mineral sources, and today it remains the
Chinese herbalist's most important reference tool.
Nurturing Life
The
comprehensive Chinese system for health and longevity of which herbal
medicine forms an integral part is called yang-sheng, literally “nurturing
life.” This ancient regimen for longevity includes proper diet,
correct breathing, regular exercise, regulated sex, and herbal remedies.
Unlike Western medicine, which has fragmented itself into highly
specialized and mutually exclusive branches, Chinese medicine is
a synthetic system which regards the human body as a whole integrated
organism, including both the physical body and the invisible energy
system which drives all its functions.
In
ancient China, families usually retained the services of an herbal
physician to be on call when needed to handle matters of family health,
much as modern corporations retain attorneys to deal with legal matters.
The doctor would visit the family household on a regular basis to
check each individual's health, dispense herbal prescriptions, and
offer general medical advice to each person as required for his or
her individual condition. The doctor received a regular monthly fee
for as long as he kept the entire family in good health. However,
the moment someone in the family fell ill, all payments to the doctor
stopped until he restored the patient to health – at his own
expense! This custom served as a powerful deterrent to malpractice,
for it was always in the doctor's best financial interest to keep
his clients as healthy and happy as possible, not sick and dependent
on drugs. This custom also illustrates the most fundamental difference
between traditional Eastern and modern Western medical systems – the
preventive method of traditional medicine versus the ''quick-fix''
drug-and-surgery approach of modern allopathic medicine.
The
goal of Chinese yang-sheng therapy is to prevent disease
from occurring by keeping all of the body’s organs and their
vital functions in a healthy state, and by keeping the body's vital
energies strong and well balanced. In Western medicine, doctors wait
for disease to strike, then attempt to effect quick cures of the
symptoms with chemicals, scalpels, radiation, and modern technology.
But these therapies often take such a toll on the body, and cause
so many harmful side effects, that patients are left weak and vulnerable
to further attack by other conditions. By contrast, Chinese curative
therapies, which are applied only when prevention fails, are gentle,
natural, and free of undesirable side-effects. Chinese physicians
always take the “whole picture” into account by diagnosing
a patient’s climate, diet, geographical surroundings, sexual
habits, and other factors that Western specialists consider “unrelated.” Dr.
Chang Chen-kuo, director of a new hospital in Kaohsiung, Taiwan,
which is dedicated to blending traditional Chinese therapy with modern
Western medical technology, states the difference between East and
West succinctly:
"When a pot of water is boiling hot and
puffing steam, a Western doctor, to quiet it, might simply open
the lid, pour in a bit of cold water, and seal it up again. The
water stops bubbling and the boiling sound is gone. But after a
while, the pot is rocking again, because the fire underneath is
still there. A Chinese physician would work hard to remove the
fire."
In
a nutshell, Chinese medical theory boils down to one word – chi
(pronounced “chee”). Chi means “air” and “breath,” but
it also denotes “vital energy” and “life-force.” Chi
is what you feel fluttering deep in your lower abdomen when overly
excited or frightened, such as the “butterflies” of stage-fright.
The lower gut (called the “Sea of Chi” in Chinese) forms
the seat of the body's vital energies. The essential art of the Chinese
physician is to manipulate and balance the various types of vital
energy with herbal remedies, acupuncture, massage, and other traditional
techniques distilled from 3000 years of clinical experience. The
relevant medical terminology is self-explanatory: “clear away
energy obstructions, tonify energy deficiencies, warm up cold-energy
excess, cool down hot-energy excess, suppress rebellious energy,” and
so forth. Ginger, for example, helps “warm up” the external
organs in the cold of winter, thereby preventing chills, while fresh
mint helps keep the system cool in midsummer, reducing the chances
of heat-stroke and fatigue, while also assisting digestion. Fresh
oranges are “cooling,” but lychees cause an accumulation
of “fire excess.” The permutations and combinations are
endless.
The Tools of the Trade
Step
into any traditional Chinese herbal pharmacy in Taipei, Hong Kong,
or Singapore, and your senses are overwhelmed by exotic sights and
smells. You’ll see stacks of dried lizards and toads, bundles
of rigid centipedes and scorpion tails, vats of venomous snakes steeped
in wine, anteater scales and hornet nests, and some things that defy
description. Invoking the ancient Chinese medical principle “fight
poison with poison,” herbalists routinely prescribe such toxic
teas as Datura stramonium, arsenic, cinnabar, mercury, lead,
and the nasty creatures listed above to combat some of mankind’s
most virulent ailments . Toxins are especially effective in curing
nervous and respiratory disorders.
Some
of the nearly 2000 items listed in Lee Shih-chen's pharmocopeia are
downright weird. The urine of boys under twelve years old, for example,
is prescribed for pulminary tuberculosis, chronic coughs, and neurasthenia.
Dried human placenta is recommended as a tonic for impotence and
infertility, while powdered human hair is given for rectifying menstrual
disorders. Any further examples from this section of the Ben
Tsao Gang Mu would cast doubt on this author’s veracity,
so curious readers are advised to delve further on their own. Lee’s Ben-Tsao pharmocopeia
has been translated into English as “Chinese Materia Medica” by
Bernard E. Read and G. A. Stuart (Southern Materials Center, Taipei,
l976).
Herbal
prescriptions take several forms, and many of the most commonly used
ingredients are familiar items on the spice shelves of western kitchens.
Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, licorice, orange peel, and other aromatic
herbs appear in some amounts in almost all prescriptions. The most
popular method of ingestion is to boil the dried herbs in water until
the decoction is reduced by half, then strain it and take the concentrate
in two doses. Another method is to grind the ingredients to a very
fine powder, then form little pellets with a binder of honey. These
are taken by the dozen several times a day for a steady “time-release” effect.
Herbs which tonify the vital organs and stimulate the libido are
steeped for up to a year in strong Chinese spirits to make "Spring
Wine," and a shot of this is taken once or twice daily. Serums
are made from herbs by mixing them with flour and water and letting
them ferment. Refined concentrates which may be ingested orally or
injected are extracted from dried and fresh herbs using the latest
modern technology. The latter method is used to produce a wide range
of patent medicines which may be conveniently carried in places where
there are no Chinese herbalists.
At
the Chinese University in Hong Kong, herbal physicians are employing
Western technology to isolate, extract, and refine a safe and highly
effective birth-control element from a common weed that grows wild
throughout the world. Free of side-effects and practically “fail-safe” the
herb can be grown in window-boxes and gardens by poor peasants who
have no access to the refined form. All they have to do is steep
it in hot water and take it as tea. Until this product is perfected
and fully patented, the identity of this population control herb
remain a closely guarded secret, for the Chinese do not wish to see
it co-opted and chemically corrupted by Western pharmaceutical conglomerates.
Try It, You’ll Like It
Intrepid
travelers in Taipei, Hong Kong, and Singapore will have no trouble
finding qualified Chinese herbalists to treat their ailments. Whether
it be a sore back, pulled muscles, constipation, fatigue, sluggish
circulation or any other chronic condition, next time you should
try the Chinese way. Simply follow your nose to the nearest pharmacy,
leave your cultural biases at the door, and explain your problems
to the herbalist . In most cases, you'll find that the man smiling
at you from across the wooden counter has healthy, happy appearance,
which should encourage you to try his formulas. His bright eyes and
clear complexion, sturdy body and alert mind, and his obvious vitality
attest to the efficacy of his trade.
In
Taipei, you can get expert herbal advice and top-notch therapy by
visiting any of the scores of herbal pharmacies which line the streets
of downtown Taipei. In Singapore, traditional Chinese herbalists
can still be found dispensing their remedies in the ever dwindling
enclave of Chinatown. Hong Kong, with direct access to mainland China’s
vast herbal cornucopia, has the most flourishing herbal medicine
trade in the Far East. Unless you speak or write Chinese, you should
always visit Chinese herbal emporiums with someone who knows the
language. In the West, Chinese herbalists can often be found practicing
their ancient arts in the Chinatowns of major capitals.
A
few basic herbal prescriptions are provided below. They are uniformly
safe and quite effective when properly applied to the relevant ailments.
They do not work instantly, but when taken regularly over a period
of time, they usually produce positive results. However, all patients,
East and West, would be well advised to bear in mind the following
advice recorded by the Tang Dynasty physician Sun Ssu-mo in his book “Precious
Recipes”. Dr Sun, who lived to be l0l, correctly diagnosed
the vitamin-deficiency disease beri-beri a thousand years before
European doctors figured it out in 1642. Sun prescribed wheat-germ,
liver, seaweed, almonds, wild peppers, and other vitamin-rich foods
for this and many other ailments. His words are the most fitting
conclusion to any discussion of Chinese herbal medicine:
"A truly good physician first finds
out the cause of the illness, and having found that, he first
tries to cure it with food. Only when food fails does he prescribe
medication."