Chapter 11 Traditional Chinese Medicine and Health 1 Origins of Traditional Chinese Medicine
"Man is born of the Qi of Heaven and Earth, and the laws of the four seasons shape him. Calm and detached, embracing Qi while guarding the inner spirit, how could illness arise?"
— Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon (Huangdi Neijing)
1. Origins of Traditional Chinese Medicine
In "The Secret of Light", Walter Russell stated: Throughout the past few thousand years, the tiny bit of knowledge acquired by humanity has been given by a very small number of geniuses, prophets, mystics, and other messengers of light, who use this inspired knowledge to rejuvenate mankind.
Someone once asked Yang Zhenning: "Do you think the essence of mathematics is discovery or creation?" Yang Zhenning replied: "For humanity, mathematics is a new development, a creation. But on further reflection, the things we create in mathematics, from a logical structure standpoint, were already there; it's just that humanity hadn't recognized them before. The same is true for physics. Maxwell's Equations were a creation because no one knew of them before, but billions of years ago, the universe already had Maxwell's Equations. They inherently existed; they weren't something newly invented—it's just that they bear his name now."
Where do human science and technological civilization come from? In our current understanding, textbooks tell us that "knowledge" is formed by accumulating and statistically analyzing all practical experiences, sifting through them to extract the essence, discarding the false and preserving the true, and ultimately forming scientific thought. Every invention must undergo extensive factual verification before contributing even a tiny bit to technological progress. However, Maxwell, Tesla, Beethoven, Mozart, da Vinci, Li Shizhen, and most other scientists who have made significant contributions would likely disagree with this viewpoint.
Just as the universe is a vast system composed of numerous subsystems, each with its own functions and interrelations, where they coordinate and constrain one another, human life is also a complex system. The organs that make up this system must operate in a balanced manner. The ancient sages of China believed that the human body is a "microcosm" and that humans should follow the laws of nature and the universe. When our bodies reach a state of extreme tranquility and emptiness, higher-dimensional energy naturally flows into the body and is transmitted and recorded by a few individuals.
Traditional Chinese medicine（TCM）is about internal awareness; it is a method and tool for adjusting the balance within this vast biological system within the human body. It refers not only to "Chinese medicine" but to balanced medicine—where "中" (zhōng) signifies balance as well!
From this perspective, the wisdom of TCM can be seen as a projection of higher-dimensional energy, not merely confined to medical knowledge. Along with other ancient texts left by our ancestors, such as the I Ching, Huangdi Neijing, and Tao Te Ching, it collectively forms the Chinese civilization's understanding of the universe and life.
The vitality of the human body is generated by the interaction of yin and yang energies, giving rise to a living being with consciousness and spirit. Just as electrical energy powers devices, without either of the yin or yang poles, electricity ceases to exist. After birth, the energy of the Five Elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water) adheres to the human body under the influence of yin and yang, with each element having its own residence in the body. The five internal organs—the liver, heart, spleen, lungs, and kidneys—give rise to five types of consciousness: the soul (hun), spirit (shen), intention (yi), corporeal soul (po), and will (zhi). Specifically, the liver corresponds to wood (residence of the soul), the heart to fire (residence of the spirit), the spleen to earth (residence of the intention), the lungs to metal (residence of the corporeal soul), and the kidneys to water (residence of the will) (see Figure 11.1).
The treatment approach in TCM focuses on the overall balance of the Five Elements' energy. It systematically describes the balance of energy based on the relationship between these elements, with the goal of achieving holistic energy equilibrium.
The five internal organs of the body are energy aggregates characterized by the elements of metal, wood, water, fire and earth. Different distributions of these elements manifest in distinct physical characteristics: wood tends to be lean, metal round, water corpulent, and those of earth are sturdy with a back like a turtle, while those of metal often have a pale complexion. The distribution of the Five Elements' energy follows specific patterns, with changes occurring regularly over time. This understanding clarifies why TCM selects different points in time and space to treat various ailments, sometimes achieving significant results with minimal effort (Figure 11.1).
Figure 11.1: Relationship between TCM's five elements and five human organs
The human body's complex systems can be likened to a car. A car is a product of modern high technology and a perfect example of technological biomimicry. For a car to function, it needs gasoline as fuel (food), an engine to generate power (heartbeat), water to circulate and cool down (drinking water), lubricating oil to reduce friction among its components (the network of blood vessels throughout the body), air intake (breathing of the lungs), and finally, it expels exhaust (human metabolism). Although a car shares structural similarities with the human body, it lacks consciousness. The one who endows the car with consciousness is the driver. Only under the control of this driver (soul) can the car exhibit its perfect functions.
TCM surpasses modern scientific understanding and empirical abilities on many levels. To this day, medicine cannot explain how our ancestors, without dissection or anesthesia, accurately mapped out the human body's meridians and acupuncture points thousands of years ago (as shown in Figure 11.2). Some acupuncture points are almost adjacent to each other yet serve completely different functions. Despite the advancements in modern anatomy, we still cannot visually identify any acupuncture points through human dissection.
Figure 11.2: Ancient Chinese acupuncture points from the hand-copied manuscript "The Secret Book of Acupuncture Points."
Many people wonder how this was achieved. In fact, some top-tier practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine, those with abilities like "clairvoyance" or "remote viewing", can still see the body's meridians and acupuncture points. Some can even detect areas of illness or heal using energy. They can directly observe how diet and herbal medicine are processed within the body's organs, how they store essence and transform into vital energy, and how this energy generates fluids and blood, follows meridians, and circulates through the body. They can also observe how cosmic radiation influences the body's energy and functions. The ancients recorded these observations, which have been passed down through the ages with remarkable accuracy.
In his book "The Eight Extraordinary Vessels" (《奇经八脉考》), the famous physician Li Shizhen wrote: "The internal landscape and meridian pathways can only be observed by those who look inward." This means that through cultivation, one can gain the ability to introspectively perceive and understand the internal organs and meridian channels. Yang Ning recounts in her book "Water Blooming Flowers"(《水流花开》) that, initially unfamiliar with medicine, she became a disciple of Li Shizhen through meditation. Li's teaching method regarding the efficacy of herbs was mystical; with each herb he discussed, its appearance would manifest, its taste would appear in her mouth, and corresponding sensations would arise in her stomach (thus, "Doctor Shennong tasting hundreds of herbs" was not literally "testing medicines on himself"), enabling her to quickly grasp the principles of Chinese herbal medicine, including mutual generation and restraint.
There's another fascinating case. Anesthetics are a modern invention, yet both Chinese and Western histories have unearthed ancient surgical tools. How could ordinary people endure the pain of surgery in the past? The "Winged Pharaoh" records a cranial surgery in ancient Egypt: the royal anesthetist would perform a ritual to make the patient's soul leave their body, allowing them to monitor the patient's life state in real-time. The surgery was conducted without the patient feeling any physical pain, and after the operation, the soul was summoned back to the body, thus achieving cranial surgery without anesthesia. The four diagnostic methods of TCM (looking, listening, questioning, and feeling the pulse) originated with Bian Que, and the first recorded cranial surgery in history was performed by him. Imagine how Bian Que and Hua Tuo might have "anesthetized" their patients before performing cranial surgery?
Ancient people discovered the principles of "Unity of Man and Nature" very early on. Every point on the human body corresponds to a point in the universe. Through introspection and inner observation, all galaxies can be found to correspond to specific locations within the human body. For example, the human spine has 24 vertebrae, and with the body's cycles, each vertebra undergoes a corresponding resonance. The ancients experienced these subtle changes at key points and divided the Chinese lunar year into 24 solar terms. Another example is that the five organs correspond to the true energies of the 28 lunar mansions (Figure 11.3). Although the 28 lunar mansions are tens to hundreds of light-years away from Earth, they still have an intricate influence on the human body.
Figure 11.3: Organs of human body correspond to 28 constellations
Naturally, the human body, like the universe, not only contains stars but also black holes. TCM believes that black holes in the human body often occur in the organs, possessing a much stronger force than acupuncture points, with both suction and expulsion movements. Sometimes, even a small dose of herbal medicine can create a powerful black hole within the organs of the human body.
The "Internal Observation Notes" document real cases where celestial bodies were believed to aid in healing. In one case, on the third day after a patient began taking medication, it was observed that during the patient's rest, the influence of the Stomach Star and Saturn shone on the stomach and ulcer area. The Qi from these two stars intersected at about 20 centimeters above the patient's body, forming a Qi-ring of a deep earthy color. This Qi then descended from the ring, shining on the patient's stomach, and the process lasted for quite some time. The physician exclaimed: "This time is not typically when the Stomach Star of the Western Seven Mansions is at its peak. Could it be that healing people is also the duty of the stars?"
Another case describes a patient who fell in the snow, resulting in a dislocated left shoulder, treated with traditional Chinese medical techniques to reset it. "While the patient rested, the light from the Void Mansion Star was observed to split in the air, directly shining on both shoulders, particularly on the injured left shoulder, where it formed a curved state before descending onto it (as if it knew the left shoulder was injured, showing remarkable attentiveness). Subsequently, a curved structure appeared between the two shoulders, resembling a ladder-like passage of true Qi transmission, causing the Tai-Chi organs of both shoulders to rotate." Several days later, previously blocked meridians that had accumulated black stagnation were cleared.
