The widespread spread and long-term influence of traditional Chinese medicine are due to one reason that should be mentioned: Chinese culture has created, summarized, and inherited the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine, and in return, the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine has enriched Chinese culture. In history, some famous traditional Chinese medicine practitioners first studied the studies of scholars and then turned to studying traditional Chinese medicine, such as Huang Fu Mi, Zhu Danxi; there are also government officials who understand medicine, such as Wang Lei, Xu Dachun, and most of them have medical classics. This situation is not unrelated to the interweaving of Chinese traditional culture and Chinese traditional Chinese medicine in some works, and even at that time, there was a saying among literati and scholars that ‘a son should know medical theory’. Perhaps influenced by this environment, some literati and scholars usually took traditional Chinese medicine as a hobby to learn and appreciate.

In fact, besides describing the human body system, pathology, and disease treatment, the content of traditional Chinese medicine also includes ancient astronomy, natural geography, sociology, social psychology, ancient literature, and so on. We learn it, not only for self-health and disease prevention but also for the many classic Chinese national studies contained in it. Therefore, if one has the leisure, why not study it for fun?

Where to start learning traditional Chinese medicine? Sensory understanding of traditional Chinese medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine can be divided into at least three categories:

One type is Westernized traditional Chinese medicine, which treats diseases according to Western medical names and examination results, with no decoction in the medicine, and the ingredients are not skillfully arranged with the technique of monarch, minister, assistant, and guide, which not only often fails to treat but may also worsen the condition.

The second is the contemporary traditional Chinese medicine: This kind of traditional Chinese medicine is often taught by a master to a student or inherited from generation to generation, with decoction as the base, sometimes also using the prescription as the basic formula. The treatment effect is not bad, and there are many old patients. However, the problem with contemporary traditional Chinese medicine is that chronic diseases cannot be stopped, and if they are stopped, they will inevitably recur. Secondly, for serious diseases, especially tumors, the methods are limited, and it is very difficult to stabilize the condition, so the view of contemporary traditional Chinese medicine is to let tumor patients undergo surgery first and then use traditional Chinese medicine for adjustment. Colds cannot be treated with a single dose of medicine.

The third is the authentic traditional Chinese medicine: This kind of traditional Chinese medicine analyzes the patient’s condition according to the Six Channels辨证, with accurate diagnosis; often, after the patient drinks the first bowl of medicine, they can feel the wonderful efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine ingredients; even for terrifying tumors, if the diagnosis is accurate, the condition can be controlled immediately. For external diseases such as colds, it is generally one or two doses of medicine to take care of it. This kind of traditional Chinese medicine has already become very rare, such as teachers Ni Haixia in the UK, Dr. Wu Guozhong in Beijing, Professor Chen Ming, Professor Huang Huang in Nanjing, and so on. However, I have also seen that when the prescription medicine of traditional Chinese medicine interacts with medicine formulas or changes formulas, the patient’s condition will always recur.