Foundations of Oriental Medicine | Acupuncture CEU Course

Taoist Medicine and Origins of TCM

A one hour CEU Video course. In this class, we will explore the fundamentals of Taoism and its influence on the practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The advent of disease prevention, the emphasis on longevity medicine, and the moral code of ethics governing a physician’s behavior are each found in the roots of Taoist teaching. We will also examine the origins of public health and immunization as it relates to early Taoist thought. The practitioner will gain functional insights in the areas of food therapy, healthy aging, and treatment of chronic illnesses from the study of Taoist Medicine.

The Taoist approach to treatment strategies that are easy, economical and efficient are still highly relevant for any practitioner as a guiding principle in the modern clinical setting.

With: Dr. Daoshing Ni
1 ½ PDA/Units
$15 Includes .pdf notes, online quiz and certificate of completion (free to watch this video) Access time: unlimited

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Taoist Medicine
Course Outline:

What is Taoism?
Taoist Medicine
Relationship of TCM and Taoist Medicine
Two Major Focuses for the Taoists
Historical Transformations: Death and Disease
Fang Shi
Dietary Understandings
The Influential Doctors
The influential Publications
Ge Hong
Bao Pu Zi Nei Pian
Zhou Hou Bei Ji Fang
Bao Pu Zi Nei Pian
Sun, Si Miao
Qian Jin Yao Fang, Qian Jin Yin Fang
The Chinese Hippocratic Oath
Ethics and Character Cultivation
Contributions to Shang Han Lun
Contributions to Collecting Formulations
Emphasis on Prevention and Yang Sheng
Summary

Acupuncture CEU Online Course notes: Taoist Medicine and Origins of TCM

Acupuncture CEU Course: What is Taoist Medicine

Thank you for being with me today, today we going to look at the very first doctrine of traditional Chinese medicine the Taoist medicine Doctrine. Ironically is not the medical Classics Doctrine would be considered to be the first Doctrine actually Taoist medicine Doctrine is the first. In some ways this relates to a lot to do with survival. You know we study history so that we can appreciate and understand the past. So that we can apply what we learn from the past to the present. And hopefully would help us to envision the future so we don’t make mistakes from the past.

Taoist medicine actually started on the premise the premise of learning about disease about health about how survival was very important at the very beginning. In the old days in any culture, almost all old ancient cultures in this world that we know on Earth started as tribal culture. This is no different in ancient China., around the Yellow River area where the tribal culture is very steeply ingrained in people’s life in more than five or six thousand years ago. During that time was very important to observe nature very important to understand and to hunt for game. And eventually learn to plant and domesticate live herds that can be held for survival so it was all about survival. And that survival really sharpens our instinct. That Survival help us to really become tuned with our environment to a great detail. We able to Figure things out even though I that time we don’t know why. So frequently we chalk that up to the work of God. To the work of a universal Spirit, ghost or whatever you might think and that is the origination of Medicine.

What is Taoism?

So to understand Taoist medicine we need to understand what is Taoism. Well it’s a very important branch in Chinese philosophy along with Confucianism and it’s a religion as well. It’s also a spiritual practices then is based on the foundation of Tao. It leads the way and it frequently refers to the way of how the universe work. It refers to the way how the Earth is formed created and how lives are formed and created In its essence, it’s about trying to find a unifying principle. In everything around us there must be an underlying principle that explains everything that we touch that we see. And that we come in contact with we call this in Taoism the universal truth.

Taoist Medicine

Taoist medicine is an important branch of TCM, that underneath the underneath of it having that the way the concept of the way. It’s an important field of study for Taoist Physicians in the old days. Taoism is a blending of religion and science. And religion obviously has a lot to do with that faith and beliefs the main focus of Taoism is about universal truth. Benevolence, balance, and not least “how long can I live”. And how well can I live and how much disease can I prevent. These are some of the fundamental principles of survival. And as we learn how to survive better, later on we learn how to thrive well. So from survival to thriving Taoism is a big part of the integrative study of TCM. So this includes the study of mysticism religion philosophy science and medicine. And the main concept is to learn to live with heaven and earth. Learn to understand and live together with the energetics of heaven and earth so that we can live as long as heaven and earth. And that we understand how the world works so we don’t violate the principles heaven an Earth because when we violate those principles we get sick. We get yin and yang imbalance so that’s Taoist Medicine.

TCM Doctor versus Taoist Doctor

Some people ask what is the difference from a regular TCM doctor versus a Taoist TCM doctor. What we know TCM doctor very good in focusing on diagnosis treatment and even prevention of diseases. He believes in long life but he doesn’t necessarily believe in immortality. He does not believe in ghosts or spiritual phenomena. He does not believe in astrological influences though he does believe in five Elemental principles. And he does not always believe in the concept of Feng shui. While the Taoist doctor, just like a TCM doctor focuses on diagnosis treatment but is a serious student of preventing illnesses from happening in the future. So he put a lot of focus on how you can nourish life and how you can really have a strong prevention of future illnesses His focus is on longevity and he believes immortality is possible. So it very much pinpoint focus, a strong focus on how to live longer. So in a sense is that we would say that Taoist Medicine is really a big part of that medicine that deal with geriatrics that deal with how to live healthy for a long period of time. Taoist Medicine those who believe in environmental influences he believes in ecology he believes the environment that surrounds us whether we created always there at a first-place affects us. Environment, where and when we were born affects us. The planets the Stars the moon that line up in a certain way the kind of of alignment it has. The astrological influences the energy that is Shines on Earth During the period when we were born determines our personality. Determines in some ways our qi. So Taoist Medicine believes in environmental influences. And that might be a little esoteric but maybe less esoteric is the environment you live in. If you live in a damp environment going to get sick very easily you live in a hot environment you can get sick easily so in some ways there is a lot of Truth to looking at feng shui we’re looking at how to prevent wind blowing directly at you. How to locate there is clean water someplace and how the water runs through your house and your relationship on on the direction of sunlight in and moonlight and all that is taken into consideration of Feng shui. The Taoist TCM doctor also believe in the phenomenon of ghost and spirit believes that when our physical body moves onward and forward that our spirit it’s frequently still there. All that the spirit exists and that we need to not just appreciate our physical being but we need to appreciate and be respectful to every individual spirit and that’s the Taoist medicine concept. They also believe in astrological inferences like what I should say earlier. Astrological influences can shape a certain distinct personality and shape a distinct life Trend throughout the entire life. So there’s quite a bit of difference between Taoist Medicine. And sometimes you could say some of these basically a faith-based belief system is true some is. Some is actually not Taoist medicine Taoist Physicians are very scientific. They do actually question now they’re skeptical with certain thing is not always a blind belief. So let’s move forward to look at some of the things that we could explore together.

Medicine and Religion

Number one all medicines and doesn’t matter where in the world begins as a religion. Because in the beginning we believe there’s a higher power. And sometimes the reason we believe in the higher power is because we don’t always understand what’s going on. Somebody gets sick with a fever – “this is the way of the gods” Somebody is sick with some kind of infection – “that’s the way of the god’s. ” That’s a punishment. Sometimes there’s a difficult labor “that’s the way of the god’s. ” so it doesn’t matter where you are in the world all medicine in the world begins as a religious Medicine. And at the same time all the students of Tao, The people who were interested to know the universal truth to really try to understand underlying principle we call this God. They always begin their study by studying Medicine because at the very beginning that’s what you want to do – you want to survive you want to get rid of sickness because in the old day when we don’t have much medicine, a simple sickness like a cold or flu especially flu can kill you. So is was very important to study and be able to combat and be able to conquer some of these illnesses.

Medicine and Taoism

So all students that study with Taoists and to understand the underlying principle always begin their study by studying medicine. Now there is a fundamentally a very strong intertwine relationship between traditional Chinese medicine and Taoist Medicine but in some ways also separate. One deals with religion and healing. And the other is the immortality believe in Taoist and that doesn’t meet or translate much into TCM. Now this is mutually absorbing and promoting because in the old days Taoist medicine is more than religious medicine this I say earlier that’s how the world started. So there’s a lot of preaching there’s a lot of religious spreading a missionary style kind of spreading. And the way a Taoist physician can spread the concept of Taoist religion at that time was to actually help healing. If I can help you to heal people will believe one in the Taoist in concept. And on the other side of the coin the TCM where people don’t really want to be religious will try to be skeptical and get away from that. They’re also borrowing the understanding of immortality and some of the techniques of the Taoist medicine can provide into the TCM Paradigm.

Relationship of Taoist Medicine and TCM

So let’s take a look at two characteristics of Taoist Medicine. Again in the old days when taoism was a religion you used this medicine as a missionary purpose. And it emphasizes the importance on life and deeds. Two things. One treasure your life Taoists believe that when you given a privilege of a life regardless whether or not it is a perfect life or handicapped or imperfect life that is not important. What’s important is that you treasure what you have been given. Because you’re blessed by you regardless of what that form might be that’s number 1 number 2 is that it’s not about what you bring to the world. Heaven and Earth gave you this existence of soul and body what are you going to do about it. That’s the deed that’s your behavior that’s what you do this maybe things that you do in the world maybe the productivity you apply until the World by healing by helping. By behaving helpfully to other human being that’s the deeds so Taoists really believe strongly in not just starting the universal truth. But at the same time act behave and implement the universal truth through what we do as a human being. They believe in self healing and cultivation and Social Services. It looks at science we also look at mysticism. They believe in science and at the same time believe that they are plenty of things that we still don’t understand. And when the things we don’t understand it’s important not to taboo it it’s important not to push it away but it’s important to say this is something we don’t understand instead of saying that this is the will of Gods. The Taoists say this is the way of having an Earth this is a universal truth that we trying to discover and trying to understand. So the characteristics of Taoist Medicine this really an amalgamation of physical healing psychological healing sociological healing Public Health in faith healing. So is a lot of entanglement of a lot of these characteristics. They are two major focus is for the daoists. one is gong as I said earlier gong has a lot to do with self-cultivation it’s about what you can do to treasure your life. Treasuring your life is not about just not abuse or create harm to your body. But it also asks you to see what you can do to cultivate your body to make your body to achieve its maximum potential. That is gong. And the other one is shi shi means behaviors actions and deeds to benefit the community around you to benefit your neighbors to benefit your family to benefit society when you have enough. And even when you don’t have enough you trying to find ways to help. Because you existence of being here is blessed so you must fundamentally give back to the world that created you so these are the two major focus of Taoism.

What does Taoist medicine contribute to TCM. What has Taoist medicine contribute a lot tremendous. One is formulations there’s a lot of formulations whether is herbal whether is meditative. That is an exercise that your qigong meditation that has been formed that has been created to slow down the aging process that’s a huge contribution to geriatric medicine that’s a huge contribution to the understanding of medicine itself. Second is the initiation of chemistry. I think the very first chemist is our ancient people in the tribes that’s where they come across different natural occurring chemicals and they use it for different purposes whether it is creating pain. Creating dye. Whether it is actually Cinnabar this is the Chinese herbal medicine that is basically Mercury sulfide which is used for calming the spirit for anxietyfor example. nowaday we know is quite toxic so we don’t use it anymore but never less it is an initiation of chemistry. Third is a very specific dietary understanding that came about for example you got to cook your meals mean this is something we already know. The existence of fire really helps to kill germs and cook our meals cook our Meats on at you help us not to get sick from them. That’s important but that’s not the only thing. We talking about specific diet or understanding about how the grains can nourish our spleen and stomach how the meats can go to different Zang Fu and builds our blood builds up tendons builds our bones for example these are sounded very beginning but also very sophisticated dietary understanding in Taoist medicine.

Number four. Spiritual healing the use of invocations the use of Talisman and this all spiritual healing is also the beginning of psychological healing. Okay it’s a big part of mental psychological healing and that’s a contribution in Taoist medicine number five Sexual Healing. There’s a whole book that is a whole area on how sex sexual activity can actually be a healing activity as well as can be a harmful activity all really depends how you go about it. So that’s also the contribution from the Taoist Medicine and then at least they understand sanitation the understanding of preventive medicine is very strong that integrates throughout all the Taoist healing Taoist Medicine the contributions.

Historical Transformations: Death and Disease
So if we look at in the Old Days the historical transformation between death and diseases you know and the old days these doctors or so-called doctor are what we call Medicine men. Or in the West we call a medicine man sometimes we called them witches. in China we call them basically Medicine Men and we call them witches as well like everybody else there’s in the ancient times. But on top of it with the Taoist understanding there’s also what we call a immortality guides these doctors that help you to achieve immortality. And also they are then the doctors that treat a disease later on so the transformation versus witches medicine Men and then the immortality guide than is the doctors for the treatment of diseases. And that’s a transformation in China now witches Medicine Man really teach you and I to help you in praying. Perform invocations perform objectifications predictions touch and even a little drama that help you to heal we call that the medicine man.

And then the contributions of the early time Medicine Man Shennong might be a medicine man. Shen nong’s the one that you know attains 360 herb and he came out with some painting I don’t think he wrote that book really I mean. I mean in China you just put Shennong on the everybody would read a book it become too so very very good book but Shennong is known to have tasted 100 toxins a day because he was so into herbal medicine and he tested himself with his own body to make sure that’s not toxic. So when you found something toxic that he doesn’t use it on on his patients. Great contribution from this medicine man the contribution of herbology. Contribution about how to use Herbal substances and techniques for example to get rid of infections and fever song these can be very rudimentary such as bleeding to to get rid of fever and it’s real I don’t think anybody does anymore but at least it’s a starting point in on how to treat illnesses. Some of the other contributions of spiritual healing and cycle psycho psychological counseling for example. And the two chants are they doing invocations and those are kind of things. So in the next slide I have actually shown you some of the sample the Taoist talismans. These are the Talisman that you will see about the door. That’s in some rooms and this Talisman has significance we put a lot of energy and prayers into this talisman. And this type is Talisman to a certain type of function is to protect the spirit in the room. Some is to protect the health of this family as etcetera so these different purpose of Talisman but that’s one of the ways of a spiritual healing. Then as we transform from the witch doctor to feng shui actually started around the time of Qin dynasty.

And this is Qin Shi Huang the guy who act unify China at a time he became the most powerful Emperor on Earth. So when you become Paul for you have everything what do you wish for next thing. Obviously the next best thing is not the nintendo games the best things thing is can I live forever. Can I Drink All The alcohol I want so I can bed with all the woman that I want I mean that’s what emperor was in the old days so that’s what he’s thought is I want to live forever. So at that time as you know when you have a demand when you have a need then supply for where reason comes up from somewhere. So this created a whole phenomenon of the immortality guides is like travel guide. You know when you go travel to country of a travel guy well they have guides that teach you and they guide you to immortality. So and they are really into heavy metals cook some heavy metals and you would take them and obviously you’re euphoric. I mean you start to see things you seen colors you seen you know you seen things that you never seen before so when you come about and if you’re lucky to be alive come around you say oh my God this is cool I see another world this is great I’m living forever okay so that’s the immortality medicine. obviously this is ridiculous. There’s always the negative but there’s always the positive the contribution. Of function of the immortality guides that they actually passed down some of exercises use a very helpful so qigong we call it in the old people Daoyin Daoyin qigong chemistry. Concept of detoxification fasting okay that’s very helpful and is certain and dietary understanding.

Now the dietary understanding in the old days are so interesting me we trying to revert back every few years every couple years in the modern world the dietary understanding understanding from ancient times has always been Back To Nature. Eat more vegetables less quantity more fluid in fact sometimes you don’t need as much food. Sometimes you don’t need as much grain. Sometimes you do a no grain fast is almost like the gluten, gluten free diet for example reduce fat and protein. So in the old days already Taoists believe in not going excessive having a balanced lifestyle and balanced diet so that dietary understanding its thousands of years old and to this day is still works. The Taoist medicine talks about the three demons or we call it three ones There’s the upper demon there’s the middle demon and there’s the lower demon. And upper demon is the greed for materials greed to conquer Greed for wanting everything to possess its a sense of power. Is a sense of acquiring material. It’s normal for us to want to have possessions it’s normal but when you become demonic is when you want too much of it when you becomes imbalance you become obsessed by it. Number 2 is the middle demon that means the greed for food okay normally. You hungry you want to eat that’s a normal phenomenal. But there are many times where that after you eat you still want to eat because that tiramisu looks really good. That is what we call. want. It is no longer needs anymore you wanting something and that it becomes Greed eventually when you greedy in. Your stomach gets more bloated you start gain weight And eventually your body can’t handle it it gives up okay so that is the greed for food The third greed or demon is the greed for sex in some sense is pleasure you humans are pleasure-seeking animal. Pleasure-seeking but if you’re always seeking pleasure that all time 24/7 eventually what’s going to happen isYour body will become sick you’ll become depleted all the energy will be consumed. Then you’re no longer doing things that might be productive to helping other human being for example okay so that is in some ways counter of purpose of what a Taoist would like to do. It’s great to have sex but it’s got. So that’s the lower demon so those are the three demons the upper demon the middle demon and lower demon upper demon for materials middle demon for food and the lower demon for sex. The Taoists believe when we have less greed we have better health. When we have better health we would have better life we have better life we will have better world In some ways greed creates problems.

Now let’s take a look at some of the influential doctors there are many TCM Doctor who are Taoist Physicians starting from Dong Feng all the way down to Zhao Yi Zhen there many of them Ge Hong for example was a very important doctor. Bao Gu Tao Hong Yang Shang Shan some of these doctors actually have translated or elaborate on Shang Han given tremendous amount of contribution to TCM. Huang Di for example. And Sun Si Miao everybody knows the king of Chinese herbal medicine Chinese medicine Sun Si Miao who had taught us a lot about ethics. Taught us a lot about prevention illness sanitation’s taught us a lot about formularies especially through his thousand gold formulas we’ll talk about in the moment. Wang Huai Yin, and Ma Zhi which is a major initiator of a Doctrine in Yuan Dynasty. Quite a bit of people and we’re not going to be able to go through the stories of each one of them but I’m just going to take two people. To look at because they are amazing doctors. one is Ge Hong and the other one is Sun Si Miao also.

Let’s first look at some of the influential publications overall you will see Ge Hong has written Bao Pu Zi Nei Pian which is also formulary book and then while Sun Si has written Beiji Qian Jin Yao Fang which will talk a little bit about it later and not the least Dao Zang it’s a huge collection of all the Taoist texts in my in my office I actually have a book shelf that actually it’s a Taoist Canon and it goes on the top to the bottom. And if you are at Yo San University on the second second floor you will see a copy of the Taoist canon in the cafeteria. It originally published in 417 A. D.. And the are many iterations many additions and modifications later on throughout the centuries and the last compilation is in 1997. In this collection that include over 1500 volumes of different publication of Taoism. It’s an enormous compilation and collection. It’s a wonderful resource for any Taoist physician to study its enough enough books for one to study for a few lifetime over. So that is some of the influential publication.

Ge Hong, First Taoist Doctor

So let’s go to the first Taoist doctor I want to spend some time with is Ge Hong. Ge Hong was born in 283 A. D. and passed away is 364 A. D.. One thing that he is contributor to greatly is he is what we call that a people’s doctor. He goes to countryside he goes to farmers and the people who are very poor and he tried to help them. And the way he helped them is to come up with very. cheap and convenient easily accessible herbs and formulas for the people in the countryside for the working people. And he’s also known to be the initiator of chemistry in the world and he’s, funny thing as a Taoist doctor he was actually totally against which doctors. He does not believe in Witch Doctor he believed that the witch doctors are basically hype, you know it’s not true it’s not scientific enough he doesn’t use the worst scientific but you believe is the wrong it’s a wrong Taoist medicine so he is very much spoken out against doctors especially the witch doctors. He’s the first one in the world that identify tuberculosis smallpox jaundice and hepatitis he had a very clear description of these four diseases in their symptomology in their signs. He has written 60 + Publications ranging from medicine, cultivation, spiritual enlightenment, astrology or astronomy, Art of War etcetera. Unfortunately most of them are lost so some of them that he’s able to pass down is really only a few and most of them is in Medicine. Now Ge Hong is very much of a paradoxical thinker. While he’s against witches while he’s against medical quackery he believed in physical immortality. People leave that the body can live forever. Now come to think about it might just be actually true if we figure out that you’re genomic medicine. If we have the right DNA information we might be able to grow a tissue that can last forever so he might not be far away from that and thinking in that train of thought. He does believe the existence of spirit any ability for a human to achieve immortal spiritual status. And he also believe that as we are in the light in the physical being we are binded in this Physical Realm. And this is called The Binding of the life and death. And as a Taoist we must cultivate beyond that we must become light and get out of that physical space but go on to a spiritual realm. He also believed that religion is like what Karl Marx was saying that religion is the Opiate of people. At times religion creates Wars it creates falsified realities, int numbs it motivates people to kill each other it creates conflicts so he hates religion. In his guts He believe that in religion there is some good stuff there’s some spiritual things that we should learn.

Bao Pu Zi Nei Pian

But when its out of balance it becomes toxic that’s a toxin so in one of his books Baopuzi Nei Pian, which is actually quite difficult for even for any Taoist Medicine modern-day try to study. Because the language is written very much in the old language. iit’s 20 chapters and it ranges from mysticism the Tao, enlightenment Medicine, Nature’s love philosophy of Life difficulties how to handle difficulties Universal subtleties diligent search identifying the truth facing uncertainty. It goes anywhere from philosophy to Medicine. But it is it’s a very important historical document that describe Taoism before 200 A. D. Now his more medical book it’s called “behind elbow prepare acute formulary” it basically means this is all the formula you really need just right behind your elbow. So that you can pull it out and use it for the people so it’s basically when we call common accessible formularies commonly known as Zhou Hou Bei Ji Fang. 8 sections divided into 73 chapters in this book there’s about 1060 formulas. 714 of them is for internal conditions 346 of them is for external condition. Again these formulas are cheap, accessible,simple to formulate and truly effective even some of them today for example. The white radish seed the white radish is daikon Daikon radish the seed can be use for chronic cough for asthma food to chronic cough for asthma with thick sputum and even pus blood. And that is still true today that we use them that seed for the condition. Other things such as bamboo shaving can be used for children’s asthma cough and sinus congestion that that is still used quite a bit today in fact some of the cough syrup. Have some of these concentrate of these bamboo shaving for that kind of condition. So this is a wonderful medicine book.

Now let’s go back to Baopuzi Nei Pian. So in Baopuzi Nei Pian there are a few concepts I want to share with you. The first concept is that qi is the source of all life. So this is kind of around the Huang Di Nei Jing time and this further fortifies the concept that qi is a very important concept in TCM. And he believes that for any life to exist there must be a tangible and intangible. the tangible is the form the intangible is the spirit or sometimes we call that visible and invisible. And there is the requirement for life to exist you must have this coexistence of both okay and that both have to be balanced. If we overstrain our body we can cause the scattering of our spirit. If we exhaust our spirit we will exhaust our body and the final consumption of Qi is the ending of life. The other concept is the changes of matter. Since he’s a chemist since he is a scientist he believes change by men can actually replace nature we can make clouds. He believed we can make rain we can make Frost we can make lightning we can even make snow well it’s really true. We are making snow in ski resorts right we are in China they are making more rain by dumping some silver nitrate I believe or some silver particles into the cloud layer so you can enhance the rain so it’s interesting in that he is that understanding of the concept that we can change nature. And because of that we need be careful what we do with. As much as we want to change nature we also don’t want to violate the naturist principle okay. We want to do this more of a temporary major not necessary a long term. And he believed that organic matter can be formed from inorganic matter. And so Baopuzi Nei Pian also discuss about chemistry. It lists the discovery and identification of about 22 or more minerals and compounds ranging from lead, Sulfur, calcium, Mercury. silicone to metals and bronze. And he talked about even gives you a formula how to make the basic Cinnabar Mercury sulfide. And this and also making of ferric sulfide copper sulfide cupric sulfide, lead sulfide. Carbon disulfide and this is the beginning of what we call the smelting process. And that’s probably the most the oldest smelting process you’ll ever see and especially in the Chinese culture. In the Baopuzi Nei Pian it also described tides the phenomenon of tides. He also described the spiral Force of a helicopter being able to fly the gears it described the gears because if you remember being Huang Di’s time the Chinese have actually develop a compass. The compass always can you know turn and always can point to true north. So he figured out all the gears and so in some ways science was really robust during this time. And he’s also given us the understanding the sick people blame the wind cold and Summer damp. Wind cold summer heat cannot injure the strong one only when your body is weak and the qi is deficient than you get sick. This is probably the very first statement that deals with the importance of your immune system okay so this is quite old okay this is quite whole of a thought.

Sun Si Miao

The next doctor I’m going to share with you is Sun Simiao. Sun Simiao is what we called the king of Medicine and he was born in 581 A. D. and he passed away 682 A. D. Lived to be about a hundred and one years old. Considered to be a genius. He studied hard since he was 7 years old great memory passed the main exams to become a scholar with great depth and breadth of knowledge in so many areas including philosophy, medicine, and he actually even refused three Emperor’s invitation to become a high-level court official. But he’d rather he went to become the barefoot doctor. To serve the working public this is this thing Taoist medicine concept is to share your knowledge with the most poorest people the poorest population he has helped thousands. And temples were built even today and still exist today to commemorate his contribution to the community to the medicine and so he is now known to be the king of Medicine. And in this slide I actually have shown some picture of someone’s temples. Now he has two seminal works. One is Beiji Qian Jin Yao Fang and the other one is the supplement to that book and this book is translated as the essential formulas for emergencies that’s worth a thousand pieces of gold. Basically these are wonderful formulary books. So if we say that the medical Classics such as Bei Qian Jin Yao Fang and Sun Si Miao has given us a very nice fundamental few hundred formulas while Sun Si Miao expanded them. He collected he’s the first one that collected so many formulas. This main text listed about 4500 herbal formulas. The enormity is amazing and the supplement another 2,000 Add these both together you’re talking about 6,500 formula collection this is the biggest collection of formulas since the classics. Is a milestone. aAnd he summarized really what happened in the pre Tang Dynasty medicine in China. And he talked about how there are other besides an opal block is not readable book it’s really kind of like the therapeutic book. And he actually talked about the 13 measures to keep good health which is he claims the action of touching hair, rolling eyes, walking, shaking head. Doing some of these actually warm up exercise we do at Yo San University that we shake and we you know touch your body and we massage your body and he really laid a very strong foundation on qigong practices. So it’s a milestone not only in herbal medicine but also in the understanding of prevention of illness and not the least.

The Chinese Hippocratic Oath

He really is the one that actually gave us the Chinese Hippocratic Oath. From the first chapter of the main text he says “a great physician should not pay attention to status wealth or age neither should he question whether the particular person it’s attractive or unattractive. Whether he’s the enemy or friend whether he’s uneducated or educated he should meet everyone on equal ground he should always act as if he were thinking of his close relatives. Hard to do but that’s what he requires his students that’s what he believes. All the Taoist medicine physicians all the TCM physicians must adhere to this very high standard. And that created the first Hippocratic Oath of TCM.

Shang Han Lun

Now he’s given us five major contributions if you look through his works. One the emphasis on ethics as we just talked about and cultivation of character not just the body but the character. And he has and he actually elaborated on the new understanding new understanding of Shang Han Lun. And he expended on the whole area miscellaneous disease well which we know in the old days we’ve got really two types: either you have infectious disease or you have non infectious disease. So the Infectious Disease was classified under Shang Han. Non-infectious disease classify under Jin Yi so he spend a lot. To a huge way we’re because later on not every disease is caused by infection. So we spent a lot of time collecting formulas and expend it on the theories and understanding of miscellaneous disease. And his fourth contributions is it is his collection of these herbal formulas I mean 6400 herbal formulas huge enormous he provided such a treasure trove. To all the doctors later have been able to use the formulas on the condition that they may know now know what to do with he was able to provide that and not the least that he emphasized on prevention and the whole concept of Yang Shen.

Emphasis on Prevention and Yang Shen

Yang Shen literal translation means nourishing life. Okay treasuring life nourishing life. History of potential prevent illnesses and strengthen your body so you can live long the whole concept is something that he believed in. Even this is a time where there’s still a lot of diseases but he believed besides disease we have to look at that. In ethics and character cultivation he believed that the patient’s care is important that we must follow the physician’s oath. We must calm Spirit we must anchor subjectivity we must be objective we must be compassionate give equal treatment to all patients. With our colleagues we should never boast of self and never damage other people’s reputations and not the least always learn from other people there’s always something you can learn from others. And in your work behavior you must be cautious careful but decisive you must be flexible but focused. You must have deep thoughts but the thoughts must be also broad. sweet Sun Si Miao once said that when I study teaching for 3 years I realize I have formulas for every disease when I’m a student. But when I really start seeing patients for 3 years I realize I have no perfect formula for each disease. So he is wonderful in the sense that he’s telling us. Disease can be complicated and we must always be cautious and we must always spend time to study and really deepen ourselves so we can have a better understanding of what we can do to help patients more.

The second contribution is a contribution to Shang Han. His contribution he revitalized of someone it’s a big deal. Because later on you know some of this time in that time Shang Han Lun was lost and when you comes back. It was very difficult we to difficulty some loss or chapters so he was able to put them together pull together. And he actually translated and focused on three main category of formulas. Gui Zhi Tang Ma Huang Tang, and Gui Shi Gao Cao which really helps are the later physician to study. The other contributions is to miscellaneous diseases he begin to categorize disease into classification into Five Zang Six Fu Organ differentiation. This is when he is stoppage the foundation for the Zang Fu differentiation school for the doctrine of I’s a Doctrine later so we’ll talk about that later. He also elaborated discussion on cholera jaundice. Xiao Ke which is diabetes Lin syndrome which is urinary tract infections and kidney problems edema emphysema, stroke and chronic fatigue conditions.

Add these contribution to collecting formulas with us again this book 4500 formulas 2000 in the supplement book mostly his own clinical experience. Also he talked about the importance of combining food and Herb together. For example lamb soup while we call Du Zhong soup for the treatment of postpartum back pain. So you would take the lamb and you will cook with du zhong zhi yuan wu wei zu xi xin ren sheng ho puo chuan xiong earth when you combine together. What to use what deficiency after labor for cold. And lower back pain in wind attack also lung pain with as mine cop so he talks about how you know this when you combine the food and the herb together can give a very unique strategic. Necklace indigestion. He also create a some new formula was very useful even to today such as to 14 Sandtown this is 214 san tong as you know is commonly used for kidney deficiency back pain. This formula has Duke wall Son season 2. Yoshi Sushi Ginger and food in Rockaway. And Cindy Brunson dancehall tank Way by song. And this is a very frequently used B syndrome formulation. He also emphasized on prevention in Yang Xin. in Yang Xin people leave in a cultivation of care. We need to learn how to calm the emotions and learn to be positive they are 10 essential areas of correlational talk about controlling your spirit. Controlling your Chi balance your body Dao yin understand your conversations. Your food and drink look at balance in your food and drinks sex customs medicine understand your contradictions. Contra understand your contraindications and look at forbidden items for the now they make sense he also talked about 12 less. Less thinking less scheming less Desiring less conflicting. Less excitation less talking less worrying last happy. Less Joy less anger less good less bad then your life is going to be. So soundly you talk about a balance of emotions and that’s actually very important for mental health so he already started that time on teaching the later doctors on how to have that. He believed very strongly of regular exercise self massage. And the five animal dao yin exercise later on this part of a qi gong.

He also believes strongly in nutritional healing. Less meat less fat more cooked vegetables. And they talk about avoiding raw vegetables and spoiled foods. To avoid binging he encourages less food and more meals. Eat only when you’re hungry and drink only when you’re thirsty. Use food to treat first. For herbs, don’t automatically herbs. See if they’re showing thing food can take care of. Use animal thyroid glands to treat goiter problems, he is a genius because animal thyroid has some thyroxine and that can be used to treat thyroid thyroxine deficiency conditions in human. Use animal liver for night blindness that’s a vitamin A treatment use soy azuki beans and black beans for gout for example. So he’s got some very useful things in food and both herbal medicine for diseases. And then he talked about quote of any mid life so again mid life is 50 and above. And of course this is something that wonderful because this is when you are able to cultivate and strengthen and do things in your midlife that’s. You can live a longer. Often and you can prevent illnesses first thing is to make sure that you don’t over consume your yang energy. Second you should prevent the consumption of yang energy by making sure you don’t get sick often by the 6 pathogen and 7 emotions. Do not force things by this point you understand there’s anything you can force but there certain thing you just have to let it be. And careful with excessive tastes don’t always go for strong taste go for more balanced taste not too salty not too sweet not too sour for example. Maintain not cold Not warm and not full so what I means is always give yourself a little room when you eat a meal make sure you have a little room. When you have certain warmth make sure you add you have a little cold so that you are not always too warm so it motivates your yang energy motive in your energy okay. Encourage the use of cow milk he actually is not against dairy he believed dairy product can actually be nourishing if you use properly don’t overdo it he encouraged food treatment first before Medicine usage. And he believed in monitoring emotions for depression is probably the first place besides the Huang di Nei Jing discuss about the importance. Watching emotions especially.

Summary of Taoist Medicine

So in summary Taoist Medicine evolved from religious healing to Medicine focused on the disease prevention nutrition and cultivation of character. The contribution to TCM is enormous and especially in the area of food therapy healthy aging and chronic illnesses. So what does the modern-day Taoist physician look like. Well this is someone who practices TCM with a strong focus on prevention and longevity. Who is an avid practitioner of Tai Chi Chuan martial arts Qi Gong or other exercise and meditate. Who has an interest and understanding in the practice of aging feng shui and astrology and Taoist philosophy. He or she understands the ecology of a person’s life and so that he understands how each environment whether its a physical environment or emotional environment. Or a human relationship environment. That’s the ecology of the environment. But in fact for a person’s health and life and soul you must practice medicine according to that and ecology take that into consideration. And not the least a Taoist physician believes and practices self cultivation. He asks the question what can I contribute to the world. Thank you very much for listening.